Japan’s BACK-ON continues its 20th anniversary celebrations with the release of new single ‘1994 featuring TOTALFAT’. The release is the second within as many months to feature a band of similar age, style and history as BACK-ON. As with last month’s single with FLOW, both bands have experienced millions of streams, had songs featured in well-known anime’s franchises, and have fans all over the globe. The single is available to download and stream now.

TOTALFAT, whose vibe METAL HAMMER describes as containing “the best parts of 90’s skate punk”, are of the same generation as BACK-ON. Members of both bands hold fond memories of 1994 and bonded over the music and street culture of the time. The results found their way into the song’s music and lyrics.

The single is coupled with ‘WAVES (TEEDA’s BEAT JACK)’ and sees BACK-ON’s MC TEEDA rework the entire lyrical structure of the song. The original version of ‘WAVES’, found on latest album Still B/O was picked by official editors at Spotify for the platform’s Pop Punk’s Not Dead playlist, which has over half-a-million likes.

BACK-ON guitarist KENJI03 comments, “1994 was the year of Green Day’s ‘Basket Case’, Oasis’ ‘Supersonic’ and countless other tracks that would shape a generation. Times may have changed, but I’m glad we could share our timeless connection to this era alongside TOTALFAT.”

BACK-ON MC TEEDA comments, “It was a ton of fun to make a song with TOTALFAT, especially in the same year as our 20th anniversary. We could record while reminiscing about all the bands and fashion of when our bands first started. It felt like we were back in those days again! I think the end result is packed with references to our roots, while also full of playfulness.”

On the single’s coupling track ‘WAVES (TEEDA’s BEAT JACK)’, TEEDA also comments, “there was a lot of skate culture mixed with other cultures in the early 2000s, so I thought it would be interesting to mix that sound with contemporary rap. I also played around with the song’s hook, and worked it to have a West Coast vibe. Both tracks on this single are perfect for summer, I hope they’re the soundtrack to yours!”

Shun from TOTALFAT says, “The longer we go on, the more we look back and realise how important our roots are. Creating ‘1994’ helped to remind me that BACK-ON and TOTALFAT have been able to keep going strong because our foundation never fades. Above all, the joy of celebrating the 20th anniversary of BACK-ON by collaborating with our dear friends of the same generation is something special. BO and TF never die! Happy 20th anniversary, from the bottom of my heart!”

Jose from TOTALFAT adds, “I really enjoyed singing with BACK-ON because the sounds and words they create are filled with many elements that resonate with me because of being the same generation and having similar roots. I think this song is truly a song filled with the stuff us 1994 kids can connect with. I hope you enjoy this song this summer!”