X Japan halt Twitter’s rebrand in Japan, as band return with first music in eight years

nme.com:

Elon Musk’s recent Twitter rebrand has been brought to a halt in Japan, following clashes with the trademarked name of hit rock band, X Japan.This month social media users were left surprised after Twitter owner Elon Musk rolled out a surprise rebrand for the platform – renaming it as X and scrapping the original bird logo.

Now, the site is simply going by X in the United States, and each location that has a dedicated Twitter page has been updated to ‘X’, followed by the name of the country.However, this is proving to be an issue in Japan, as the brand name has already been trademarked by hit J-rock band, X Japan.Formed by members Toshi and Yoshiki in 1982, the four-piece have recorded together on and off for decades, and remain one of the highest-selling bands in the country.

Now, the band have kept Twitter (X) from infringing on their name, and also released their first new single in eight years.The track – titled ‘Angel’ – is their first new song since 2015’s ‘Born To Be Free’, and was written by the band’s leader, composer, drummer and pianist Yoshiki.

Featuring vocals sung in English, it contains emotive lyrics including “Where do we go, I asked myself, I asked my shadow/ Twilight’s still throwing the silhouette ahead/ The edge of the night drapes the shade in New York City/ If I could fly from skyscrapers I’d be flying to you/ Like an angel.”‘Angel’ also arrives five years after Japan X played live, with their final shows taking place at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan in September 2018 – the same year that they also appeared at Coachella and released the documentary We Are X.Speaking with Consequence in a new interview, Yoshiki explains the motivation behind the song, and confirms that it took so long as he was.