X Japan Signs With EMI

X Japan has signed a three-year manufacturing and distribution contract with EMI Music. EMI will distribute “Jade” as the group’s first American single release on March 15. The band is in studio now working on an album now tentatively scheduled for release this summer. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with X Japan. They have cultivated a strong following in the U.S. and we look forward to working with them, helping to reach even more fans,” said EMI Music Services North America Executive Vice President Dominic Pandiscia. X Japan band leader Yoshiki explained, “X Japan’s music is everything from fast, super-heavy rock to ballads with classical piano – all of those elements are what makes X Japan’s music. We don’t play just one kind of music – we want to take people on a journey.”

Half of the songs on the forthcoming album will be culled from the band’s Gold and Platinum Japanese singles; the other half are brand-new songs, and an estimated 95% of the lyrics are being sung in English. “Some of the songs on this new album were originally written with Japanese lyrics,” Yoshiki explained, “So translating them into English has been challenging. For some reason, English needs more words, so I ended up re-writing many of the lyrics but kept the same message.”