J-pop superstars Arashi talk about working with Bruno Mars

Japanese pop band ARASHI is hoping to break the international market with their new track, “Whenever You Call,” written and produced by no less than American musician Bruno Mars.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, the super popular J-pop band said the multi-Grammy Award-winning musician delved into their back catalog in order to understand their unique sound.

“He took into consideration that we are going on hiatus,” said band member Jun Matsumoto, adding that he feels the new single will appeal to both their hardcore fans and “those who do not know about us.”

Formed in September 1999, the group consists of Matsumoto, Satoshi Ohno, Masaki Aiba, Kazunari Ninomiya and Sho Sakurai.

In 2019, ARASHI released the greatest hits album “5×20 All the BEST!! 1999-2019,” which sold 3.3 million copies—making it the best-selling album of the year worldwide, surpassing Taylor Swift and BTS. However, the group hasn’t really made a commercial impact in the US. Their first song on the World Digital Song Sales chart was the 2019 single “Turning Up,” which peaked at No.10.

“We have been releasing music only in Japanese,” Sakurai explained. “In that sense, foreign audiences who can understand Japanese could recognize us. But this time we sang the song in English. Bruno provided us the opportunity to reach out to a foreign audience.”

“We have been doing this for 20 years during which time we’ve made a countless number of songs,” Ohno, who is also the band’s leader, said. “Through listening to the new track, we would be grateful if they could listen to our other songs.”

“Whenever You Call” is out now.[ac]