ICE MOUNTAIN

ICE MOUNTAIN (アイスマウンテン) is the band that VOCALOID2 Hiyama Kiyoteru joins as "Ice Mountain Teru".^[1]^[2]

History[]

Concept[]

The starting point of ICE MOUNTAIN was when Akito, a junior high school student who had awaken to the power of music, invited his friend Kiyoteru to join him. They started to make music with Akito on the acoustic guitar and Kiyoteru on the vocals. It wasn’t a band just yet, but they spent all their time practicing and performing street concerts during the six years of junior high and high school.

They then went to the same college. Kiyoteru asked Hokaze Natsuki, whom he had met in college, to become a member of the band. Natsuki started to practice to become ICE MOUNTAIN’s drummer. With his admission, ICE MOUNTAIN started to look, little by little, like a full-fledged band.

The three-man band was doing well, but they temporarily stopped their activities in the spring of their fourth college year. Akito’s father had health issues, so the young man had to help in his family’s green-grocery. The band faced troubles. After their graduation, Kiyoteru became a teacher in a primary school, Akito took on his father’s green-grocery, and Natsuki became a baker.

The band came back into activity one year after they had stopped, in spring. It was Akito, who had gotten used to his work at the greengrocery, who suggested to the members that they restart the band. Kiyoteru asked two of his colleagues over at the primary school, Tohma (bass) and Haruto (keyboard) to join the band, and ICE MOUNTAIN scaled-up to a five-member band.

Main article: ICE MOUNTAIN/Characters

Illustration contest[]

In October 2011 the "Ice Mountain illustrations Contest 2011" was announced via website.^[3] Contestants were informed that the entered worked needed to be an original work that had at least one member present, this was an attempt to encourage the growth of ICE MOUNTAIN on the internet.

A screening of entries would be published in the December 2011 issue of ボカロplus Vol.2 with the resulting winners published in the February 2012 issue ボカロplus Vol.3. The winners would have also been announced on the official website.^[4]^[5]

Marketing[]

Website[]

Kiyoteru tokuma — kiyoteruhiyama.com site button

Vocalopluscover550 — Vocaloplus Vol.0 cover

During Kiyoteru's promotion time an official website was created about ICE MOUNTAIN. However, it has since been defunct.^[6]^[7]

Literature[]

An official guidebook on ICE MOUNTAIN was released on August 25, 2011, giving more information about Kiyoteru and his four bandmates.^[8]^[9] Referred to as Vocaloplus Vol. 0, it contains profiles and short stories. According to AHS, the purpose of the guidebook was to give Kiyoteru and his band a richer background from which fans could work on and “have more fun” with them. Vocaloplus Vol. 0 was available on the AHS Store for 500 yen (~4.5 USD).