One hardCORE drummer.
Nyango Star (にゃんごすたー), an unofficial apple themed mascot character (yurukyara) for the city of Kuroishi in Aomori Prefecture, has been getting a lot of attention lately for possessing some truly impressive drumming skills.
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| Heavy metal apple |
Most recently, the hard rocking apple got people talking after he appeared in a music video for a new song by the Japanese rock band, wrong city.
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| I can’t believe I ate 5 apple pies yesterday |
The music video, which was released last month, is for a song called “Dark is Out.” The video starts out in a rather typical fashion, a bunch of guys rocking out in a dark music venue type setting. However, the video suddenly gets a lot more interesting after someone places an apple on top of the drummer’s seat.
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| Be careful where you put your apples |
Within moments of the apple getting placed on the seat, Nyango Starr makes his appearance and teaches everyone that you don’t need to be human to know how to rock.
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| Oh my god, he’s come to kill me for eating all those pies |
Check out the full music video below. And make sure to watch all the way to the end because it has a very interesting ending.
Nyango Star’s impressive performance certainly makes you wonder who this mysterious apple drummer is? Well, as I mentioned above he’s one of the many unofficial mascots that exist in Japan. His name is a pun on one of the world’s most famous drummer’s names, Ringo Starr. Aomori is famous for apples and the Japanese word for apple is ringo, so Ringo Starr seems like it would be the perfect name for an apple drummer. However, since it just isn’t proper to steal someone’s name like that the “ri” portion of ringo got replaced by the way cuter sounding “nya.,” which is the sound cats make in Japanese (meow) so yeah, that’s also why Nyango has those feline facial features.
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| Apple Starr |
As for Nyango’s backstory, it’s amusing to say the least. On his online profile he reveals a lot of interesting details about himself. For example, he explains that he was born with his eyebrows like that so you shouldn’t worry about them. Also he reveals the origin of that impressive scar on his cheek. Nyango states that he got the scar when he hit the ground after falling from the apple tree that produced him. Nyango also has something to say about the leaf on his head. He warns people that even though his leaf smells good and you might be tempted to pull on it, you shouldn’t because it hurts him when you do. However, perhaps the most important thing he says in his profile is that he is a “heavy metal drummer.” So let’s find out exactly how much of a drummer Nyango really is by watching a few videos.
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| Official website: nyangostar.jp |
First up, we have Nyango performing “Kurenai,” a song by the legendary Japanese heavy metal band X Japan. Definitely not an easy song but he pulls it off with no problem at all.
Oh, you want something harder? And in English? Then don’t worry because Nyango also knows western music. Check him out drumming to Slipknot’s “Before I Forget.”
How about some Linkin Park?
Oh now you’re feeling like some surf music? No problem because Nyango can also do songs by the famous surf music band, The Ventures.
Who knew an apple could be so good at drumming? Now if only Nyango can find a banana with crazy guitar skills and an orange to play bass he could start the world’s first (probably?) all fruit band.
If you’d like to see even more Nyango Star videos then check out his official YouTube channel here.
Sources: It’s Sho-Time, Qetic
