Hammer Head Shark

Hammer Head Shark is a four-piece alternative pop-rock band that has perfected the emotional adrenaline rush—sublime, soothing melodies building toward and nailing the transition to an intense, soul-shattering crescendo of noise and emotion. Formed in 2018, they cite Bjork, Ride, Big Thief, Uminote and Oasis as influences but the most prominent impact is from an NMFT band that came to Canada twice. Hammer Head Shark is the spiritual successor to Kinoko Teikoku.

Hiyu Nagai is the chief songwriter and as a solo artist her focus is primarily acoustic folk very similar to Kinoko Teikoku’s Chiaki Sato when she performed under the moniker クガツハズカム (Kugatsu has come). As Chiaki Sato took her solo efforts and transformed them into songs for Kinoko Teikoku, Hiyu Nagai also converts many of her solo works into material for Hammer Head Shark. Nagai says her songwriting can be heavily influenced by novels, scenes from movies or even an attraction to a particular word. But more than anything music has literally saved her life from depression and Nagai writes songs aiming to provide a safe retreat for listeners at a critical time.

Hammer Head Shark’s music is shoegaze influenced pop sweeping and cascading with emotion and often building to a thunderous crescendo. Their studio recordings and music videos are well produced but they lack the raw intensity and aggression of Hammer Head’s live performances—on stage is where they really shine. Kinoko Teikoku who broke up in 2019 put on some of the best performances in NMFT history and Hammer Head Shark are ready to provide a similar awe-inspiring experience.

Peep Hammer Head Shark’s full list of official videos here

Trivia:

Currently HHS has three official members. Support guitarist Eita Fujimoto normally plays in the band Glasgow.
Both Hiyu Nagai and Chiaki Sato (Kinoko Teikoku) are big fans of Sasaguchi So-on and his band Uminote and both cover his song “Words Kill People”
Hiyu Nagai draws all of the artwork for album/ep covers, T-shirts, merch etc
The official English translations for Japanese song titles on Spotify/Apple Music/Youtube etc are very inaccurate:
「声」(ko-e) means ‘voice’ but is translated as 「Landscape」
「りんごの駅」means ‘Apple Station’ but is translated as 「Apple’s」
「月とおばけ」means ‘Moon and Ghost’ but is translated as 「Ghost Like a Moon」
「たからもの」means ‘Treasure’ but is translated as 「Embrace」
and the award for WORST example of Engrish is:
「綺麗な骨」means ‘Beautiful Bones’ but is translated as 「Fruits Bone」