Farewell No.6

 The other day, I received a text from Uno informing me that No.6, aka Nira, the vocalist of CHAOS CHANNEL, had sadly passed away.

CHAOS CHANNEL at Shinjuku Antiknock.

I was probably around 14 or 15 when I first heard CHAOS CHANNEL. Although I can’t remember my initial impression, they quickly became a band I grew to love. I have vivid memories of messaging Nira on MySpace, pestering him about when the CHAOS CHANNEL album would be released—it seemed to have been “coming soon” for about three years!

Nira was an incredibly creative mind. Mr. Wanky perfectly summed it up by describing No.6 as “dedicated, inspired, and willing to spend the time and effort to find like-minded people to help realise his vision.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Nira’s constant evolution as an artist is well-documented and shows how he was always thinking outside the box. From the early chaotic noisecore of the first CHAOS C.H. 7”, to the pop-tinged punk rock of KICK THE BOLLOCKS, to what is undoubtedly his magnum opus, the legendary CHAOS CHANNEL album “HOW YOU’D BEEN SO HIGH…”

I was fortunate enough to see CHAOS CHANNEL live a few times and even had the privilege of booking them once. Nira and I became friends, and we had been working on an ongoing collaboration for the past two years. We aimed to reissue old releases and put out new ones. Nira would call me up, and I always looked forward to hearing the ideas he’d come up with—the most recent being the reformation of KICK THE BOLLOCKS under the name DWP! We also discussed releasing a two-part split 7” series, with the first volume being released on Private Scandal and the second on Nira’s label, Unpleasant Pops.

Working with Nira and being a fan of his since my teenage years taught me patience and the value of waiting for good things. The creative process, especially Nira’s, took time, but the results were always worth it. I’m proud to have worked with him, to have called him a friend, and I’ll remember our conversations fondly.

Cheers, Nira—you’ll be missed.