Despre Wat

WaT (Wentz and Teppei) is a Japanese pop duo, composed of singers/songwriters Eiji Wentz and Teppei Koike. They met each other in 2002 and formed WaT, playing street lives with their guitars. Their debut single Boku no Kimochi came out in 2005. Wentz, who is half German-American and half Japanese, is also known as an entertainer and comedian. Koike is also known as an actor and can play the harmonica. Boku no Kimochi reached the second place on Oricon chart.

Both of them play vocals and guitar. Wentz also plays the bass guitar, piano, tambourine, and maracas. Teppei can play the blues harp.


Eiji Wentz (ウエンツ瑛士, Wentsu Eiji?, born October 8, 1985) is a singer, entertainer, and actor from Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan. He is well-known as a member of the singer-songwriter duo WaT, and belongs to the production company "Burning Productions."

Eiji Wentz was the youngest and the second son born to a German-American father and a Japanese mother. Due to the family's American background, his father and his brother are fluent in English; however, he is monolingual, only fluent in Japanese, and rightfully considers himself Japanese. Because both of his parents worked to support the family, Eiji lived with his grandmother as a child. As a teenager, he graduated from Nihon University Sakuragaoka High School.

He became involved in the entertainment industry at a very young age. Wentz initially started as a model at age 4, and made his acting debut as the role of Chip in the Four Seasons Musical Troupe Production of Beauty and the Beast. He became famous as a child actor as a regular on the NHK television show Tensai Terebi-kun (天才テレビくん, Tensai Terebi-kun?) where he played bass guitar and piano at age 10. During live performances, he played the acoustic bass as well as the keyboard. He started learning the guitar from age 17.

After departing from Tensai Terebi-kun, Wentz was scouted by Johnny's Entertainment but he rejected the company's offer, because he "doesn't like dancing" and "likes comedy." He later entered Burning Productions after the recommendation of Hiromi Gō.

Comedy career

He doesn't like to use his looks to achieve success as a comedian, but if it's for the sake of comedy, Eiji will show off his backside. Because of his spirited attitude many consider him to be one of the best upcoming young comedians. Eiji says he absolutely loves Housei Yamazaki, a famous comedian, because of the times they starred together on Tensai Terebi-kun. In fact, on the November 21, 2005 episode of Fuji Television's HEY!HEY!HEY! MUSIC CHAMP, Yamasaki told one of hosts "He was the first guy to ever respect me." Though Yamazaki is his "god of comedy," he also draws influence from Kouji Imada, Hiroyuki Miyasako, and Hiroshi Shinagawa among others.

Musical career

After Tensai Terebikun ended, Eiji continued to play music, and started a band WaT with Teppei Koike. They started in 2002 with street performances. In February of 2004 they released an indies CD. In August of 2005 they were signed to Universal Music and had their major debut in November 2005. While he had once remained awkward relationship with Teppei Koike, they are now very close. Eiji has spent at least the last four Christmas holidays with Teppei. (The first year they took purikura together in Shinjuku, the second year they ran a marathon for the shooting of their first music video, the third year they ate together at a salisbury steak restaurant, the forth year they had a WaT event as well as shooting for Love Com.) Eiji's musical influence comes from Mr. Children and The Yellow Monkey. In particular, he admires the lead singer of The Yellow Monkey, Kazuya Yoshii who happens to share his birthday (October 8). On the radio, Yoshii told Eiji, "Some day I want to write you an erotic song to sing."



Teppei Koike (小池 徹平, Koike Teppei?, born January 5, 1986) is an actor and singer from Japan. His nicknames are Teppei-chan, Teppei-kun, and Te-chan. He was born in Osakasayama, Osaka Prefecture. His blood type is B. He belongs to the production company Burning Productions and is a member of the singer-songwriter duo WaT with his partner, Eiji Wentz.

History

2001

* Attended Osaka Furitsu Nagano High School.
* Was the grand prix winner of the 14th Junon Super Boy Contest.

2002

* Moved to Tokyo in the spring. Changed schools to Horikoshi High (also attended at the same time by NEWS' Tomohisa Yamashita, D-BOYS' Yuu Shirota, Japanese actor and singer Toma Ikuta and KAT-TUN's Koki Tanaka)
* Met Eiji Wentz while working and formed WaT. Started doing street lives.
* Debuted as an actor in the drama Tentai Kazoku.

2004

* WaT released debut indies CD Sotsugyō Time in June.

2005

* Acted in the drama Gokusen 2, which was part of the reason for his increasing popularity.
* WaT signs with Universal Music in August, releases first major single Boku no Kimochi in November, reaching 2nd place on the Oricon chart. They are the band with the shortest time gap between debut and appearing on NHK's Kōhaku Uta Gassen.
* Released his first photobook, First Letter From Teppei.

2006

* Presented with the Newcomer's 43rd Golden Arrow Award (WaT).
* Presented with the 20th Gold Disc Award for "Best New Artist".
* First leading role in the movie Lovely Complex as Atsushi Otani.
* Official supporter in 2006's International Volleyball Tournament (WaT).
* Nominated for the Best Supporting Actor in the 49th Drama Academy Award, for his performance in Iryu.
* Released his second photobook, Kiss me, Kiss me.
* On New Year's Eve, WaT performed for the second time in NHK's Kōhaku.
* Acted in the drama Iryu, as Ijyuuin.

2007

* First music solo project was announced on January 10.
* His story of leaving his family and hometown to pursue his dream to be a performer was turned into a 52 pages one shot manga entitled Bokura no Ibasho by Nakahara Aya, the author of the manga Lovely Complex.
* Solo single, Kimi ni Okuru Uta, was released on February 14, Valentine's Day, with Wentz's solo song Lucky de Happy as the B-side song.
* Solo album, Pieces was released on the 27th of June.

Personal Profile

Family

* His immediate family consists of his father, mother, and a little brother.
* The name "Teppei" came from his father's favourite manga, Ore wa Teppei

Eiji Wentz

* He is really good friends with Eiji Wentz. They often visit each others houses, watch movies and go out to eat together. When they were doing street lives, they often borrowed each others clothes.

* Teppei calls Wentz "Ei-chan".

* They have spent Christmas together ever since they met. (The first year, they took purikura in Shinjuku; the second year, they ran a marathon for their indies debut PV; the third year, they ate at a hamburger shop; the fourth year was a WaT event and love*com photoshoot)

* For Wentz's 20th birthday, Teppei bought him a lot of underwear. (Wentz has showed up on variety TV wearing just underwear a lot of times)

* In "Bokura no Ibasho" (a manga based on Teppei's life story), Teppei said the only thing he had in common with Wentz was their love of music. Other than that, they are complete opposite. ("If we were in the same class or something, I definitely think we wouldn't be friends" - quote from "Bokura no Ibasho")