"When I'm walking beside her, people tell me I'm a lucky guy," sang John Lennon on the 1964 Beatles track "Every Little Thing." Sitting comfortably next to iconic lead singer Kaori Mochida of the band of the same name, guitarist Ichiro Ito has had 12 years to get used to such a feeling. However, he admits that though the elder one of the duo, he was the more intimidated when they first met back in 1996.
"She was wearing a pair of thick platform boots in the gyaru ("gal") fashion of Shibuya and was much younger than I," he tells The Japan Times, in the duo's first ever interview for an English-language publication. "I didn't know what to say to her!"
Since then the former trio — founder Mitsuru Igarashi left in 2000 — have gone on to achieve astounding success with their blend of keyboard-led pop and soft rock, shifting 3.5 million copies of their second album, 1998's "Time to Destination," and maintaining a chart presence ever since.