In 2011, Dir.F and Kenmochi first met at Design Festa Tokyo. As a label manager at Tsubasa Records, Dir.F wanted to launch a new music project with provisional female members, while Kenmochi wanted to produce new music differing from his instrumental music under Nujabes's Hydeout Productions label after the 3.11 Disaster in Japan. The two decided to form a group and named the project ‘’Suiyōbi no Campanella’’. In 2012, Dir.F met KOM_I at their videographer friend’s house party and invited her to join the group. KOM_I had no prior music experience until she joined the group and joined while in high school. Originally, Kenmochi and Dir.F sought a trio of girls for the group, but the idea quickly was abandoned. For their initial debut, another female singer appears on the cover and sings but there are no credits within the liner notes. Eventually, KOM_I became the only vocalist. She was chosen as a vocalist originally because Kenmochi liked the mismatch between her voice and the rap music he was producing.
Career
The group uploaded its first songs, "Oz" and "Kūkai", on YouTube in July 2012. Their first CD Suiyōbi no Campanella Demo 1 was sold at Design Festa Tokyo Autumn in November of the same year. On 11 March 2013, KOM_I held her first live performances alone representing the group. It took place at Shimokitazawa ERA, a nightclub in Tokyo. Their first mini album entitled Crawl to Sakaagari was released in May 2013. It was exclusively sold at Village Vanguard Shimokitazawa. In September 2013, the group won a right to join in the Ringo Ongakusai Festival, to which many Japanese music groups went. KOM_I performed in several shows with “Ringo-ame Man," an apple-candy-headed character. The following month, their second mini album Rashomon was released and sold exclusively at Tower Records. In March 2014, the group's third mini album, Cinema Jack, was released. The group conducted serial web interviews with online music store OTOTOY to promote the release of the album. On 5 August 2014, the group launched an outstanding single, "Momotarō", on J-WAVE, for their fourth mini album, Watashi wo Onigashima ni Tsuretette, which was released on 5 November 2014 in die-cut CD edition. In 2015, Wednesday Campanella released their first EP, Triathlon. Unlike its previous works, all three songs on the EP were produced by a different producers: Kenmochi, OORUTAICHI and OBKR from N.O.R.K. Later that year, the full album Zipangu was released continuing with a gradual shift to a J-pop sound with elements of Electronic dance music. In March 2016, KOM_I announced that their next album would be released around June at their first American show at SXSW. The mini-album entitled UMA, conceptually based upon unknown mythical animals, was released on 22 June 2016 under Warner Music Japan, their major label debut. The single, SUPERKID, was released as a teaser for their first proper album with Warner, SUPERMAN in 2017. KOM_I performed at the Nippon Budokan in March 2017, her largest show and highest budget production with a Blu-Ray released in July 2017. KOM_I also collaborated with the Japanese Derby for the digital single "Melos" and a live streaming concert on their Youtube channel entitled "Time to Play". They later wrote a theme song, entitled "Ei sei", for a real-life adventure game, based upon the Kingdom manga, taking place across multiple prefectures simultaneously. The song received a widespread digital release in June 2017. KOM_I and Kenmochi were part of a regular Wednesday night broadcasting for J-Wave's Spark Radio program with frequent guests and discussion. In 2018, the group began collaborating more with Western musicians. They released two songs with the French band Moodoïd, "Langage" which appears on Moodoïd's Cité Champagne album and "Matryoshka" which appeared on the Galapagos EP. Later in the year, they were featured on Scottish band Chvrches's single, "Out Of My Head".
Members
KOM_I - performer, singer - born July 22, 1992 in Kanagawa.
Kenmochi Hidefumi - music, lyrics - born August 2, 1981 in Shinagawa.
Dir.F. - director, utility man
Name
The name Suiyōbi no Campanella is in reference to their usual rehearsal meeting day of Suiyōbi. Its mixing of Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana was primarily to appeal to the group's collective ego. For their international debut at the SXSW festival in Austin, they adopted the English moniker online, "Wednesday Campanella", which they continued to use in San Francisco for their 2016 J-Pop Summit show and in 2017, at Le Magnifique Society Festival show in Reims, France. KOM_I's name is taken from a shortening of her first and last name.
Live performances
KOM_I appears alone on stage, at events and at promotional occasions. She took karaoke-style live. The live performances are known for KOM_I's high energy performances which makes extensive use of the audience, props, and the entire venue space. She often goes into the crowd, climbs ladders and platforms, and crowdsurfs in a zorb ball for the song "Momotarō". The zorb is meant to represent the peach in which Momotarō was found in according to the Japanese folklore. During the large performance at the Nippon Budokan in March 2017, both Kenmochi and Dir.F joined KOM_I for a final encore to sing "Dracula".
Music
Kenmochi is mainly in charge of music production, composing, arranging, and songwriting. The names of songs are ones of famous people such as Napoleon, Ryoma Sakamoto and the Wright Brothers. 2017's SUPERMAN expounded on this concept with the idea of larger-than-life people such as Genghis Khan, Aladdin, Kamehameha, and more. In addition, each song refers to historical events, great people, or moments in popular culture. Furthermore, Kenmochi's lyrics seem to sound meaningless, but the soundtrack maker intentionally writes the lyrics in that way. Many songs feature puns or play on words confusing to non-Japanese speakers. KOM_I said that she wants her listeners to enjoy her comical lyrics without thinking of "meaning" of the lyrics. Previously KOM_I only acted as the group's vocalist, but she began to participate in the production process with Rashomon. KOM_I began to write lyrics for the 2016 release, UMA. However, Kenmochi returned to writing all lyrics and arrangements for 2017's SUPERMAN.
