Monoral

Monoral
Monoral in concert
Background information
Origin	Japan
Genres	Alternative rock, indie rock, shoegazing, dream pop
Years active	1999–present
Labels	Vamprose
Website	Official website
Members	Anis Shimada Ali Morizumi

Monoral is a Japanese alternative rock band signed to Sony Music Japan. The band consists of Anis Shimada on lead vocals and guitar and Ali Morizumi on bass and guitar.

Anis, the band's lead singer, born on February 23, 1975, is a British musician who speaks Japanese, English, French, and Arabic. Born in London, England to a Japanese father and a Moroccan-French mother, and raised in France. Anis was first discovered by Tetsuya Komuro, with whom he released a debut single in 1994 under the name of Aniss. He used to be a fashion model, as well as a MTV show host. He also used to support some famous musicians performing on TV as a guitarist. He is often involved with the creation of TV commercial songs, singing backup for other famous musicians, writing English lyrics and helping other artists as an English supervisor.

Ali, born in 1973, is a Japanese-American who grew up in Tokyo. He can speak both Japanese and English fluently. He was a VJ on MTV Japan, where he eventually met Anis. Ali is also a professional radio DJ and hosts a show on InterFM as well.

Their debut was in July 2001. Only 2 days after the release of their first mini album in stereo, they performed at the Fuji Rock Festival 2001. The band's second minor debut album ammonite, which rose as high as No. 3 on the Tower Records Indie Charts in Japan, remained in the Top 50 for 7 months. In 2005 they released their first major debut with the single Visions In My Head, under the label Haunted Records (a subsidiary of Sony Music Japan), which was created by the Japanese rock musician, HYDE, lead vocalist of L'Arc-en-Ciel. They are now signed on HYDE's label VAMPROSE.