An Introduction to INTERSECTION | Group of the Month January 2019

Hey there, idol fans and welcome to our first Group of the Month post of 2019! Since a large part of what this blog's about is bridging the gap between the Japanese entertainment industry and international fans, I thought INTERSECTION would be a great group to start off this new year with. I'm planning for the whole of January to be a bit of a foreign idol-themed month actually, but we'll see how that goes. I'm very excited for this coming year as I have a lot of ideas about how I want to expand Dansei Idol Girl so I hope you'll all stick around for the ride. But anyway, let's start getting to know our featured group for this month, INTERSECTION!

INTERSECTION is a 4-member boy group that was formed in 2015 but made their major debut in 2018 with the single "Heart of Gold". All of the members are of Japanese-American descent and they primarly sing in English. They are the first and currently only group under a subsidiary of Avex called The Whole Earth Connection, and the group's aim seems to be the encouragement of diversity in Japan.

Starting Over, the frst music video that the group released.

Members

 

Mika Hashizume

Date of Birth: 1998.12.21

Place of Birth: Hawaii 

• The leader and oldest member.
• He was born in Hawaii and lived there until the age of 16. 
• Has a background in both sports and music. He initially dreamed of becoming a professional soccer player.

Kazuma Mitchell

Date of Birth: 2000.05.15

Place of Birth: New York

• He's a model for the men's fashion magazine MEN'S NON-NO.
• He's currently attending Harvard University.
• He moved from New York to Japan when he was 8-years-old.

 William Aoyama

Date of Birth: 2000.05.19

Place of Birth: California

• He is a song composer for the group as well as vocalist.
• He has a background in swimming and was previously training with the junior Olympics swim team.
• He moved to Japan at the age of 2.

 Caelan Moriarty 

Date of Birth: 2001.04.12

Place of Birth: Cuba

• The baby of the group and is very energtic and likes to make the other members laugh.
• His father is of Irish descent and is in the military. 
• He has lived in Virginia Beach, Hawaii, and Japan.

Check out the music video for INTERSECTION's most recent single "Body Language" (released 2018.12.07) below!

Official Links:

Website
YouTube 
Twitter
Instagram
Facebook


There seems to be a bit of a surge in Jpop boy groups with a foreign concept recently. Could COLORFUUUL have something to do with it maybe? Either way, bringing more diversity to the Japanese entertainment industry is always a good thing and I'd love to see more groups with even more diverse backgrounds in the future. Of course being an Avex group, INTERSECTION's performance is already to quite a high standard and I can't wait to see more from them. Their songs are super catchy and the members all seem very lovable. What do you think of INTERSECTION so far? Let me know in the comments!

Sources:
INTERSECTION's official website
Jpop Amino