SPYAIR

SPYAIR is a Japanese rock band formed in Nagoya on 9 June 2005, working in a melodic punk idiom with the wide, anthemic scale that made it a fixture of anime theme music. The name is a play on "spyware", settled on by the members in a single sitting. The group built its first following playing street shows in Nagoya's Sakae Park. SPYAIR wrote, recorded and released its own material for four years before signing to the indie label U-Project in 2009, where it issued the singles "Japanication" and "Kanjo Discord". A major deal with Sony Music followed in 2010. Across most of the catalogue Momiken writes the lyrics and UZ composes the music, an arrangement the band set aside for the 2021 album UNITE, on which every member contributed to the songwriting. The line-up has changed twice. Founding vocalist IKE fronted the band through its breakthrough decade; diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in the summer of 2019, he left on 31 March 2022 after a relapse. SPYAIR continued as a three-piece — Yuji "UZ" Nakai on guitar and programming, bandleader Kenji "Momiken" Momiyama on bass and Kenta Sasabe on drums — until April 2023, when Yosuke, a singer from Fukuoka chosen from more than a thousand applicants, was announced as the new vocalist. DJ ENZEL was a fifth member between 2009 and 2012. The band's reputation outside Japan was built almost entirely on anime, beginning with "Samurai Heart (Some Like It Hot!!)" as an ending theme for Gintama and running through Bleach, Haikyu!!, Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans and Samurai Flamenco. Recent work includes "Awake" for The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System and "Kill the Noise" for Sentenced to Be a Hero. Its 2024 single "Orange", written for the film Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle, passed 200 million streams in 2025.