Face 2 fAKE

Face 2 fAKE was formed in 1994 by Achilles Damigos and Oh!Be.From a start of 1995 at the present during until a solstice, While R & B is basic, they carry through the borderless style that is not seized with a music genre. Including J-Pop, sound track, various artists and collaboration they work widely.

Their sense and the ability, as for the R&B, Rock, Pops, Jazz, Classical music, Dance music, as Composer,/Arranger/Producer, they handle the music-style that is a riot. By their skill, the many songs are ranked Top of Music Chart. They are known to many people as Hit Song Maker.

Achilles Damigos

Born in Athens, Greece to a Greek father and Japanese mother. At the age of 13, he began teaching himself the piano after one was put in his room for his younger sister to learn on. He started to play the keyboard during his junior high school years and bought his first “KORG-Polysix” synthesizer when he entered senior high school. During his high school years, he composed original music and played live both with his own band and in a number of his friends’ groups.

He took his music study to the next level by enrolling with the composition department at “Shobi University of Music”. “DJ Gomi”, now an active DJ in New York, was a classmate at ent at “Shobi University of Music”. Around this time, he formed “Brand New Color” with bassist “Michael McLin”, a friend with whom Achilles had previously played at high school.

His break-through with “Brand New Color” came quite quickly (he had already attracted attention from the industry with a demo tape made at high school) At age 19, he signed a contract with “CBS Sony” as a vocalist and core member, with responsibility for composition and arrangement.

At this point, he left university to focus full-time on a professional career in music. “Brand New Color” first album featured top-rated Japanese session musicians “Masanori Sasaji” and “Akihiko Matsumoto”.

After “Brand New Color” disbanded, he shifted more towards composing, arrangement and playing the keyboard. His first work was composing music for “Marlene”. He went on to write a lot of music for hit singers such as “Seiko Matsuda” and “Hikari Ishida”, and his career rapidly flourished.

In 1990, in London, he managed “Masumi Arichika”, one of Virgin Japan’s first artists, and undertook many arrangements for “Kazuo Zaitsu” and “George Yanagi”. In the autumn of 1991, he collaborated with “Sly & Lobby” to release the Christmas Album under the “Taxi Label” in New York. His talents caught the attention of “Makoto Yano” and “Shigeru Suzuki” of “Happy End”, resulting in studio work with them. In 1994, he produced guitarist “Kenta Harada’s” first album in LA. He formed total production unit “Face 2 fAKE” with “Oh! Be” in 1995 and scored music for actor “John Lone’s” stage act. He produced leading jazz saxophonist “Toshiyuki Honda” and joined his concert tour. As well as his “Face 2 fAKE” activities, he participated in the arrangement and remixing of “Favorite Blue”, joining their live concert tour as a principal band member in 1997. He also oversaw the production of soundtracks for TV dramas such as NTV “Food Fight” (2000) and “Face” (2001).

In spite of his success arranging and remixing for “Keizo Nakanishi”, trf, “move” and “Shunsuke Nakamura”, he has gradually shifted his focus more towards producing as “Face 2 fAKE”.

Well versed in all music genres - R&B, hip hop, jazz, funk and soul, also classical and contemporary ‒ he displays a wide range of skills and a flexible, unique musicianship. His musical sense and precise, dynamic style lend themselves to many types of music from all over the world but particularly to beat arrangement and track making in black contemporary and R&B. He is highly knowledgeable about many musical instruments, and consequently can handle entire orchestrations, scoring and in addition conducting.

The influences and experiences of the high quality studio and session work of his early career continue to show themselves in his academic, primitive, almost physical production.

Oh!Be

Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1966. His mother was a chanson singer in the vocal department at “Toho Gakuen” and his uncle, “Ugo Nakada”, composed hymns. He was therefore surrounded by music during his childhood.

He started playing in a number of bands and composing music while at junior high school. Originally he played guitar and bass guitar but then he became interested in the synthesizer and started to play analogue models such as the “KORG MS20”.

From age 15, he devoted himself principally to composing music. At that time, he was influenced by techno pop, especially “Ultravox” and “Depeche Mode”, but he created his own style.

In 1982, he was first introduced to “Kyohei Tsutsumi”, a leading composer in the Japanese Pop music industry. This meeting fuelled the decision to pursue his career as a composer.

He became involved in “Kyohei Tsutsumi’s” demo work but still actively promoted his own music to the “Tanabe Agency”. His experiences at this time gave him a good understanding of the ways of the music industry, knowledge that he has used very effectively subsequently in his career. In 1985, he went for a year to New York to study commercial music production.

“Tsuyoshi Yamazato”, who produced “Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi” and “CHEGE&ASUKA”, liked his demo tape; as a result, Oh!Be was asked to work with the late “Katsuhiko Nakagawa” (of Warner Pioneer at that time) on his demo tapes. At 20 years old, this was his first work as a professional composer.

In 1986, “Ken Yoshida”, producer and bassist, asked him to compose music for “Kenji Sawada”. In the same year, he also wrote for “Hanako Asada” and other artists from “Watanabe Production”. He also met the late Mr. “Murakami” of “Nichion” and was asked to co-produce “Mitsuyoshi Kurosawa’s” album with arranger “Nittoku Inoue”.

In 1987, he composed the song ”Try Again” for TV Drama “Oretachi no Jidai” (TBS) and itbecame a smash hit. By now, he was firmly establishing his credentials as a composer, writing many songs for popular singers such as “Yoko Oginome”, “Haruko Sahara” and “Toru Suzuki”. He established his own management company, “CUE Limited”, and expanded his range to include music for commercials and corporate media. He managed the music for TV Gunma’s 25 year anniversary” commemorative Japanese period drama. He formed an A&R team with Mr. “Nakahira” of “Nichion”, later discovering “Noriko Kato”.

The following year, he became a member of “Silicon Groove”a composing unit established by “Kyohei Tsutsumi”. He wrote a song for “JAJA”(VAP) and gradually developed an interest in black music.

In 1990, to recharge himself, he decided to take a rest from composing and moved to Australia. There he formed an amateur band and enjoyed playing sessions at small clubs. He wrote songs for television programs and commercials for Prime TV and NRTV, staying in Australia for 4 years. He returned to Japan in 1994 and met music producer “Achilles Damigos”; they formed “Face 2 fAKE” the following year.

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