The Shamisenists

The Shamisenists are a Japanese instrumental three-piece band comprising two shamisen (lead and bass) and drums. The band play brash, heavy, punk, and progressive music created with traditional Japanese musical instruments.

The band was founded in 2015 by lead shamisen player Jack, bass shamisen player Yuji and drummer Kyohei. Jack is a traditionally trained shamisen player who has taken producing unique music using electric shamisen. Yuji is also a traditional style shamisen player but in the band is the one and only bass shamisen player in the world. Kyohei is a technical drummer hammering out powerful beats.

Once the lights go up, with four counts, all hell breaks loose as the band releases a raw energy that can’t be matched. The Shamisenists move from psychedelic rock to jazz and funk to fuzzy heavy metal inspired riffing to Indian scale and Japanese tunes with ease. They hope to spread their exciting cutting edge music out of Tokyo to the world.

In 2018 the band toured twice in Taiwan.
In 2020 the band toured in the Britain
In 2021 the band participated in the 'COLOR RED CHALLENGE world debut audition' in Japan, winning top spot and now their world debut is confirmed. The event was organized by the music label COLOR RED from Denver, U.S.A.
In 2022 the band appeared at the Motocultor Festival in Brittany France on Aug 19th.