Name	Sugizo
Background	solo_singer
Birth name
Alias	Sugizo, スギゾー
Born	July 08, 1969 Hadano, Kanagawa, Japan
Ethnicity	Japanese_Chinese_German
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, bass guitar, violin, cello, sitar, kokyū, flute, trumpet, piano, turntable
Genre	Rock, metal, avant-garde, electronica, psychedelic, jazz, ambient, trance, bossa nova, world, classical, traditional
Occupation	Musician, singer-songwriter, composer, record producer, actor, dancer, author
Alma mater	神奈川県立伊勢原高等学校 卒業
Years active	1989–present
Label	Cross/Polydor 1997- Embryo 1998- Nippon Crown 2001-2003 Sephirot 2007- Universal 2008-
Associated acts	Luna Sea, X Japan, Juno Reactor, S.K.I.N., Stop Rokkasho, The Flare, S.T.K., Shag
Url	sugizo.com
Notable instruments	ESP Eclipse S-VIII Brilliant -MixedMedia-

, is a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. Referred to by his stage name , he became famous in the 1990s with Japanese rock band Luna Sea. In addition to being known to experiment with many musical genres, Sugizo is known for his political ideas and views, as well being an anti-war, environmental and spiritual activist.

Currently is involved in both X Japan and the Luna Sea reunion.

Biography

Early life

Sugizo, as Yūne Sugihara was born on July 8, 1969, as the only child to a musical family, in Hadano, Kanagawa, in Japan. His father, who is Japanese-Chinese, played trumpet in the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and his mother, who is Japanese-German played cello in the same orchestra. From a young age, he was brought up on classical music and had to study classical music theory. At the age of three, he was forced by his father to learn to play the violin. An that time it was quite a difficult period for him, his father forced him to practice violin for 3 hours per day, and being unable to find the right type of music or composer, he would usually cry while continuing to play. During this period he began to hate music, and coercion from his parents aggravated such feeling of repulsion. The situation persisted until the age of ten, when he was again able to enjoy music; his early favorite composers included Ludwig van Beethoven, Béla Bartók, and J.S. Bach.

When Sugizo was eleven or twelve years old, around the beginning of junior high school, he began to play the trumpet. As he became a more rebellious and delinquent child, he preferred the trumpet's "dirty" image more, as it was during the 1950s and through to the 1970s, in comparison with the violin, which was seen as something for higher-profiled people or class. Upon their first album release, the band changed their name from Lunacy to Luna Sea. After signing with Sweet Child label, Luna Sea held bigger live performances throughout the year with their first tour. Throughout the course of time, Luna Sea became one of the most popular bands in Japan, as well as China and Taiwan, they also gained many Western fans.

The first solo activity Sugizo had was in 1993, when he wrote his first solo song "Revive", for the album Dance 2 Noise 004 featuring many musicians, including the group M*A*S*S, which consisted of Hideto "Hide" Matsumoto, J and Inoran. The coming three years held a variety of less known musical collaborations for him. Then in 1996, Sugizo hosted the radio show "Ελευθερία" (, , meaning "freedom"), the program introduced high-quality music for all ages. Sugizo, including Ryuichi Kawamura, also participated in a compilation album Life in the Tokyo - A Tribute to Japan, featuring tribute cover versions of the 80s British band Japan.

1997–1999: Solo

After Luna Sea went on break in 1997, Sugizo started his own solo project and opened the independent label "Cross" to produce other artists, as well as releasing his own records. He points out that the opening of his record label was one of his very important projects at the time, but not anymore. On June 26, 1997, his first book "A Prayer Ⅰ" was released and on July 8, a second titled "A Prayer ⅠⅠ" was released. His debut single "Lucifer" was released the next day, followed by his first solo tour "Abstract Day" which lasted until the final performance in August at Akasaka BLITZ, where he was joined by DJ Krush, Masami Tsuchiya and members of Japan respectively. It was November 19, when his first solo album Truth? was released, and carved Sugizo out to be far more than just another guitarist in a famous rock band. A variety of artists participated in the album, from Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Mick Karn, to Lou Rhodes and Valerie Etienne. Soon after, out came two remixed editions of his maxi singles, and on December 21, a remix edition of his album, named Replicant Truth?. In 1998, as Luna Sea resumed activities, he published another book "Can I Fly?", and participated in the recording of Glay's album Pure Soul, as well as others.

In 1999, Sugizo produced songs for actresses: Miki Nakatani and Tomoe Shinohara, as well as for singer Miu Sakamoto, and many others. In June he participated in two compilation albums, on August 11, a compilation album "Grand Cross 1999" which was sponsored by Sugizo's record label "Cross" was released, featuring many musicians with whom he had worked with and many for the first time. By the end of the year he recorded a song for the remix album YMO Remixes Technopolis 2000-00 released the following year, and Videoarts Music released six Frank Zappa compilation albums, on the theme of letting various Japanese rock stars put together their own compilations of Zappa'a music, one of them being Sugizo meets Frank Zappa.

2000–2003

In 2000, Sugizo produced several songs for Taiwanese singer Vivian Hsu's album Jiaban de Tianshi. That same year Luna Sea made the announcement that they were "dropping the curtains" at the end of the year to pursue solo careers. Since then, Sugizo has had a wide range of collaborations.

The following year, he worked with Ken Nikai, as musical director and had a starring role in his film Soundtrack. Later on Sugizo would release Parallel Side of Soundtrack, a compilation album inspired by the film and a theme song "Rest in Peace & Fly Away". He was again musical director for a soundtrack of the popular contemporary dance company, H. Art Chaos, On June 29, S.K.I.N performed their debut live at the 2007 Anime Expo convention in Long Beach, California. On July, Sugizo also played with Juno Reactor as the White Stage's main act on the final day of the Fuji Rock Festival. He then released the remix album, Spirituarise in December 2007, in which artists both in Japan and overseas remixed his original tracks.

2008–2009: Joining X Japan

On March 28 and 29, Sugizo played at X Japan's two reunion concerts as a stand-in for the deceased Hideto "hide" Matsumoto. In April, he took part in Juno Reactor's European tour. On May 2, Luna Sea reunited again to play at the "Hide Memorial Summit", a two-day concert in memory of Hide, at the Tokyo Stadium. On July 23, Sugizo released a solo greatest hits compilation album Cosmoscape. The album shows off his various types of music genres, such as rock, trance, jazz, classic, bossa nova, among others, spanning his ten years of solo work. On December 24 and 25, he held a "Next Phase of Cosmic Dance" solo concert in Taipei, Taiwan. The videos shot were for, "Rusty Nail", "Jade", "Endless Rain" and "I.V.". A video for "Kurenai" was also shot on January 14 in a secret location, while additional filming continued until February. Upon returning to Japan, on January 27, Sugizo released two more new singles, "Fatima" and "Do-Funk Dance", and on February 24, another entitled "Prana", all available only via iTunes.

In February, it was announced that Sugizo will be the music director for the soundtrack (with both traditional Japanese music instruments and modern ones) of "Nemuri X Gackt Project", the jidaigeki “Nemuri Kyoshiro Buraihikae“ beginning with live stage theater production on June.

May 29 was the 21st anniversary of Luna Sea's formation, which was also the day of a full moon. Besides their official website renewal, an official Twitter and Facebook were launched, as well as a YouTube channel. Also there was a statement about something to happen on August 25, 2010.

On July 1, Sugizo with X Japan appeared at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, where they performed an acoustic version of "I.V." and recorded a music video of the new song, "Born to be Free". He stayed in Los Angeles for over a month and a half for recording, shooting photographs and videos, and making progress on all sorts of important matters. Upon returning to Japan, he said because of the hard schedule, it did affect his physical fitness.

On July 8, Sugizo announced that to help his friend Mick Karn, who was diagnosed with cancer, he has taken his first solo song "Missing" and has remade and re-recorded it. The song is now called "Missing Link" and is available for download in return for a donation on Mick's official website. All proceeds will go to Mick to help fund the expensive medical treatment. On July 31, Yoshiki and Sugizo performed at Otakon 2010 in Baltimore, Maryland.

On August 8, X Japan performed at Lollapalooza 2010 in Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois, and their first ever North American tour was announced with dates scheduled for Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Vancouver, Toronto, and New York City. On August 14 and 15, X Japan's two-day show took place at Nissan Stadium, the largest stadium in all of Japan. It was reported that over 100,000 fans attended the two shows with some estimates as high as 140,000 in attendance.

On August 29, Sugizo held a fan club only event called "Soul's Mate Day IV". The show featured an acoustic set which has been given the name "Soul's Mate Quintet", as well as a performance of sounds, music, and voices what he wanted to share with them at this event exclusively.

On August 31, Sugizo and the rest of Luna Sea attended a press conference in Hong Kong, where they announced that they would be touring worldwide after 10 years of inactivity, the tour includes locations such as Germany, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Taiwan and will end in Japan. The press conference was streamed live at ustream.

From September 25th to October 10th, Sugizo and X Japan went on their first ever North American tour.

From November 5th to 8th, Sugizo teamed up with Budgie, drummers Leonard Eto and Mabi and multi-instrumentalist Knox Chandler in Hong Kong, to participate in a project called "The Butterfly Effect: East-West Percussive Parade", as part of the "New Vision Arts Festival". It was advertised as a "drumming extravaganza, featuring Western kit, Japanese taiko and African drums, that will launch the musicians into a new sonic galaxy!". The performance included improvised solos and ensemble works, as well as new pieces and arrangements specially created for the festival, inspired by the pace, rhythm and character of Hong Kong.

Personal life

Sugizo is divorced, and has a daughter, Luna Artemis Sugihara, who was born on April 27, 1996. He says that her birth has transformed him the most. And "when you love your daughter, you begin to love all children. Although this might sound grandiose, nothing will make me happier than seeing all children around the world lead joyous lives. I'll be more than satisfied if I can become a tool towards that goal".

Sugizo finds all religions very interesting, and loves to read lots of books about them. Since his father was a Buddhist, while his mother was a Protestant, from the young age he has often been in contact with things related to Church and Protestantism. Currently he's more into Buddhism, or more specifically, Buddha himself. |- |ESP |Eclipse S-II |The Eclipse S-II feature is the heavy & thick bass sounds of Hambacker and ample mid- range. When it first time appeared in public, the constitution was of through-neck, EMG-81 for its rear pick-up, and EMG-SA for its front pick-up, made its debut in Luna Sea's 1996 Un Ending Style tour. Later remodeled edition was introduced in song "Inside You" for 2000 Brand New Chaos tour. |- |ESP |(Electric Violin) Kranz EV-75 |The violin Sugizo plays on his performances. |}

Concerts

1997: "Sugizo Abstract Day"

2001: "Sugizo & The Spank Your Juice Abstract Day 2001"

2008–2009: "Sugizo Gig 2008 〜Rise To Cosmic Dance〜"

2009–2010: "Sugizo Gig 2009 〜Next Phase of Cosmic Dance〜"

Own Discography

Studio albums

Truth? (November 19, 1997)

C:Lear (October 1, 2003)

Compilation albums

Sugizo meets Frank Zappa (December 22, 1999)

Cosmoscape (July 23, 2008)

Remix albums

Replicant Lucifer (August 27, 1997)

Replicant Prayer (November 6, 1997)

Replicant Truth？ (December 21, 1997)

Spirituarise (December 5, 2007)

Soundtracks

Parallel Side of Soundtrack (November 14, 2001)

H・Art・Chaos ～垂直の夢～ (December 31, 2001)

Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (February 27, 2002)

Silent Voice ～Acoustic Songs of Soundtrack～ (May 9, 2002)

Nemuri Kyoshiro Burai-hikae (TBA)

Singles, Digital Singles

"Lucifer" (July 9, 1997)

"A Prayer" (September 10, 1997)

"Rest in Peace & Fly Away" (April 10, 2002)

*Sugizo feat. bice

"Super Love" (August 21, 2002)

*Sugizo & the Spank Your Juice

"Dear Life" (November 20, 2002)

*Sugizo & the Spank Your Juice

"No More Machine Guns Play the Guitar" (January 24, 2003)

*Sugizo & the Spank Your Juice

"Tell Me Why You Hide The Truth?" (December 16, 2009)

"Messiah" (December 16, 2009)

"Do-Funk Dance" (January 27, 2010)

"Fatima" (January 27, 2010)

"Prana" (February 24, 2010)

"Dear Spiritual Life" (March 31, 2010)

Various Artists Albums

Dance 2 Noise 004 (January 21, 1993)

Q:Are we Anarchist? (June 23, 1999)

Grand Cross (August 11, 1999)

Mother Earth I (March 27, 2002)

Sugizo compiles Global Music I (October 23, 2002)

Remix Albums

Atom Kids Remix~21century boys and girls (February 24, 1999)

Yellow Magic Orchestra; YMO Remixes Technopolis 2000-00 (November 3, 2000)

Tribute Albums

Japan; Life in Tokyo - A Tribute to Japan (September 4, 1996)

Yellow Magic Orchestra; Tribute To YMO (September 8, 2004) - (Sugizo remix of "1000 Knives")

Insutrumental Cover Albums

Gundam Unplugged ～acogi De Gundam A.c.2009～ (December 9, 2009)

Other Session Discography

Issay; Flowers (1994)

Auto-Mod Lunatic Ensemble; Tribute To Auto-Mod ~Flower In The Dark~ (1994)

Media Youth; Spirit (1995)

Glay; Pure Soul (1998) - (guest guitarist)

D.I.E.; Progressive (1999)

Miki Nakatani; "Chronic Love", "Frontier" (1999)

Tomoe Shinohara; Deep Sound Channel (1999)

Miu Sakamoto; Dawn Pink (1999)

Coldfeet; Flavors (1999)

honeydip; Another Sunny Day (2000)

Vivian Hsu; Jiaban de Tianshi (2000) - (3 tracks composed by Sugizo)

Paul Wong;" Paul Wong " (2000) - (guitarist on 3 tracks)

N.M.L. (No More Landmine); Zero Landmine (2001) - (guitarist)

Nicholas Tse; Jade Butterly (2001)

Red; "Saga" (2001) - (produced by Sugizo)

Miu Sakamoto; "Sleep Away" (2002) - (composed and arranged by Sugizo)

Kiyoharu; Poetry (2004) - (guest guitarist)

D'espairsRay; Born (2004) - (violin by Sugizo)

Miu Sakamoto; Oboro no Kanata, Akari no Kehai (2007) - (produced by Sugizo)

Acid Black Cherry; Black List (2008) - (guest guitarist)

Juno Reactor; Gods & Monsters (2008) - (guitarist)

Videography

A.D.2001 Final (November 27, 2002)

Brilliant Days (January 11, 2005)

Rise To Cosmic Dance (March 25, 2009)

Bibliography

"A Prayer Ⅰ" (June 26, 1997)

"A Prayer Ⅱ" (July 8, 1997)

"Can I Fly?" (February 13, 1998)

"Piano Solo Instruments ~Truth? Sugizo~" (June 30, 1998)

"Ecton x Sugizo Rise to Heaven on Earth" (March 25, 2009)

References

External links

Official website

Official MySpace

Official Facebook

Official Twitter

Category:Living people Category:People from Kanagawa Prefecture Category:1969 births Category:Japanese rock guitarists Category:Luna Sea members Category:X Japan members

Name	Vivian Hsu
Caption	Vivian Hsu at an autograph session in Taiwan on April 16, 2005
Chinesename	徐若瑄
Pinyinchinesename	Xú Ruòxuān
Birthname	徐淑娟 ()
Origin
Birthdate	March 19, 1975
Birthplace	Taichung, Taiwan, Republic of China
Occupation	Singer, actress, model
Genre	Mandopop, J-pop
Label	Toshiba EMI (1995–1996)BMG (1999–2001)Avex Trax (2003–2007)Warner Music (2007–2010)Universal Music (2010-present)
Yearsactive	1990–present
Associatedact	Shao Nü Dui (1990–1992)Black Biscuits (1997–1999)The d.e.p. (2001)Vivian or Kazuma (2003)
Website	www.avex.com.tw/vivian

Vivian Hsu (; ; born March 19, 1975 in Taichung, Taiwan) is a Taiwanese singer, actress, and model who has gained remarkable popularity in East Asia, mainly in Taiwan and Japan.

Hsu rose to prominence in Japan, where she made her first appearance in 1995 and has become a highly-recognized celebrity with her countless appearances in media during the late 1990s.

She was also the main vocalist for the Japanese dance band Black Biscuits. Black Biscuits released four singles, Stamina, Timing, Relax, Bye-Bye, and one album Life. All of these four singles reached the top 5 spots of the Oricon singles chart, and Life reached #6 in the album chart.

Early career

The second of three children, Hsu was born to a Taiwanese father and Tayal-Taiwanese mother as Hsu Su-chuan (), and used this name until she began her modeling career. Her parents divorced when she was a young child. She attended Taipei Jianxing Elementary School and Taipei Shulinguo Junior High School.

Hsu's career in entertainment industry started after winning first place in a "Talented Beautiful Girl" contest held by Taiwan's CTS in 1990. At that point, she was working by delivering food on her bicycle, and her customers began to recognise her from her television appearances. The same year she joined a musical trio named "Girls' Team" (少女隊). They released two albums, in 1991 and 1992, then broke up. Following this, Hsu started modeling.

Modelling

As a model, she posed in two photobooks titled Angel (天使心) and Venus.

Angel, published in 1995, was shot in Capri and Sicily.

Venus, published on July 7, 1996, was shot in Mexico and had separate runs in Taiwan and Japan.

Hsu's success in modeling achieved its zenith in July 1996 when she was featured on the cover of two Asian-edition Penthouse magazines (the Japanese edition, and the comparatively low-distribution Hong Kong edition). Like the photobooks, both these items have become very sought after by collectors and fans.

Hsu has continued to model for designers such as Hang Ten, Gucci and Mode Marie, and has modelled in all three of her brief, autobiographical books: Earth Onigiri (2001), Privacy (2001, ISBN 4-88745-060-5), and Wo Ai Taiwan (2002). In addition, most of her musical albums contain substantial inserts featuring new modelling work.

Acting

Hsu has appeared in a number of films and television programs both in Taiwan and Japan. She appeared in the ambitious 2006 mainland China-Taiwan-Hong Kong collaboration The Knot, a romance film that takes place between the CCP's takeover of mainland China and the present. Her debut film is Shaolin Popey (1994), a comedy film which became a box office hit in Taiwan and Hong Kong. She also has some experience as a seiyu (voice actress), having voiced Aisha in Gundam SEED for three episodes.

Hsu also starred in three Hong Kong Category III films, "Hunting List", Devil Angel and Angel Heart. She played the role of Chao Jiale in Love Storm (2003), alongside Vic Chou and Ken Chu. She also composed and sang the opening theme for this series, Decide to Love You (決定愛你), which was released as a single in 2003. As with many actors and actresses, she appears from time to time in commercials and as spokesperson for various causes. In 2006, Hsu played a role in the film The Shoe Fairy of Do Do, a modern fairy tale.

Music

Hsu released her first solo single in 1995. She released her first full-length album, Tianshi Xiang (天使想) in 1996. Shortly thereafter, she took a speed course in Korean, and released a Korean version of the album titled Cheonsa Misonyeo (天使美少女). Unusually, neither of Hsu's first two albums was sung in her native language.

In 1997, with two Japanese comedians—Kyoya Nanami and Amazan—and later with a second female vocalist known as 'Keddy', she was included in a musical act known as the Black Biscuits. The group was formed primarily as a "rival band" for the Japanese music group Pocket Biscuits, which was the creation of the Japanese variety show Utchan Nanchan no UriNari. Between 1997 and 1999, they released four hit singles and a full-length album, Life. Their single CD "Timing" recorded 1.5 million sales in 1998. And, they participated in Kōhaku Uta Gassen in 1998.

Towards the end of the group's run, they failed to accomplish one of the challenges set forth by the variety show and the resulting punishment was the disbanding of Black Biscuits.

During this period, Hsu also released two more solo albums: Da Mafan (大麻煩) in 1998, and Bubai de Lianren (不敗の戀人) in 1999. She followed Bubai de Lianren with a Japanese translation, Fuhai no Koibito, in 2000.

Later that same year she released another new album, Jiaban de Tianshi (假扮的天使).

In 2001, she formed The d.e.p with Masahide Sakuma, Gota Yashiki, Masami Tsuchiya and Mick Karn. The band was short-lived: by the end of the year they had released all the music they ever would. This amounted to two singles and a full-length album, 地球的病気 -We Are the d.e.p-.

Over the next two years, she released a few more singles, including, alongside Kazuma Endo, Moment, the second opening theme to Gundam SEED, followed in 2003 by her next solo album, The Secret to Happiness Is Love. Her last album is Hen Hen Ai (狠狠愛), released in April 2005. Her most recent album is Vivi and..., released in September 2006. For this album, Hsu collaborated with many artists and people including Jay Chou, Wang Leehom, Gary Cao, Nicky Lee and even her little brother and uncle.

Hsu's music, especially in her later work, covers a great range of genres. Included are slow love songs, R&B;, hard rock, and of course J-pop. She has even dabbled in rap. This, combined with the fact that she is fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese makes her a very versatile artist.

Hsu is also an accomplished lyricist. Her lyric-writing talent first gained serious notice when she completed several songs for Taiwan's R&B; singer/songwriter Jay Chou. By proving that she is not just another pretty idol, but a very capable artist, Hsu surprised both her critics and adorned fans. She continued to collaborate with Jay on his second and third albums after his triumphant self-titled debut, and co-wrote songs for other pop performers, such as Vanness Wu, Show Luo and Gigi Leung. Her lyric work is much praised for its clever and straightforward simplicity.

Some Jay Chou songs that she wrote lyrics for are as follows:

Adorable Woman (可愛女人)

Can't Say (開不了口)

Istanbul (伊斯坦堡)

Love's Cliff (愛情懸崖)

Simple Love (簡單愛)

Tornado (龍捲風)

Return to Japan

Hsu returned to Japan after a seven-year absence to release her new single Beautiful Day on March 3, 2010. Since 2010 she has appeared in two NTV television shows, and two television commercials for the aesthetic salon Slim Beauty House, and Kao's Essential hair care brand line as one of its three newfaces along with Yuriko Yoshitaka and Nozomi Sasaki.

References

External links

Official Vivian Hsu website Vivian Hsu at Universal Music Japan Vivian Hsu at Ameba Vivian Hsu at Avex Taiwan

Category:1975 births Category:Living people Category:Expatriate television personalities in Japan Category:Japanese-language singers Category:Taiwanese aborigines Category:Taiwanese actors Category:Taiwanese female models Category:Taiwanese female singers Category:Taiwanese Mandopop singer-songwriters Category:Voice actors

Name	Inoran
Background	solo_singer
Birth name
Alias	Inoran,
Born	September 29, 1970 Hadano, Kanagawa, Japan
Instrument	Vocals, backing vocals, guitar
Genre	Alternative rock, shoegazing, ambient music, trip hop
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, composer, record producer
Years active	1989–present
Label	King Records
Associated acts	Luna Sea, Tourbillon, Fake?, M*A*S*S
Url	inoran.org
Notable instruments	ESP ILP-00 Black Dragon

, sometimes also referred to as , as both names in kanji are the same, but better known by his stage name Inoran, is a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He is best known as co-founder and rhythm guitarist of the Japanese rock band Luna Sea. He started his solo career in 1997 and when Luna Sea disbanded in 2000, he formed Fake? with Oblivion Dust vocalist Ken Lloyd a year later. Then in 2005 when leaving Fake? he founded Tourbillon with Luna Sea vocalist Ryuichi Kawamura and Hiroaki Hayama. He has recently rejoined Luna Sea, as they reunited in August 2010.

Music career

Inoran was born in Hadano, Kanagawa, Japan. During middle school through high school, he became good friends with J, and they formed a band called Lunacy, which would later change their name to Luna Sea.

In 1993, Inoran teamed up with J and X Japan guitarist hide to form the group M*A*S*S. Their only material released was the song "Frozen Bug" on the sampler Dance 2 Noise 004 (the song would later be remixed by hide and put on his debut solo album Hide Your Face).

On September 25, 1997, Inoran released his first solo material, the single "Sou". The following month his debut album, also titled Sou, was released on October 22.

When Luna Sea "drew the curtain" in 2000, Inoran started Fake? in late 2001 with former Oblivion Dust vocalist Ken Lloyd. When he left Fake? in October 2005, citing musical differences with Ken Lloyd, he founded Tourbillon, with former Luna Sea vocalist Ryuichi Kawamura and Hiroaki Hayama.

In the summer of 2006, he began his solo career again and released a new album Photograph. After releasing the album Nirai Kanai in July 2007, he has performed many live concerts in Japan and released a new live concert "Tour 2007 Determine" DVD along with "The Best" album, which covers his favorite music selected by himself and his fan-club. The album also features the new song, "I swear". On December 24, 2007, Inoran reunited with Luna Sea to play a one-night concert in front of an audience of around 45,000 people at the Tokyo Dome. One more reunion would happen again at the "hide memorial summit" on May 4, 2008.

In March 2008, Inoran released his first official book, "Monophonic". Inoran performed overseas for the first time in July in Taiwan and South Korea (for the Formoz Festival 2008 and Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival 2008, respectively). On September 21, Inoran performed at D'erlanger's "Abstinence's Door #002" event, along with Merry and Heidi. His 5th original album, Apocalypse, was released on September 24. His tour for the album, entitled "Butterly Effect", incorporated an international extension to perform overseas again, this time in Hong Kong in November, before the tour finale back in Japan. He released his first instrumental album, Shadow on December 24, the album includes the title track for the movie, A Symmetry.

Inoran performed on October 25 as part of the two-day "V-Rock Festival '09".

In August 2010, he appeared with the other members of Luna Sea at a press conference in Hong Kong, where they officially announced their reunion and their "20th Anniversary World Tour Reboot -to the New Moon-".

On September 19, Inoran joined British rock band Feeder on stage at the Tokyo Unit for a cover version performance of the Nirvana track "Breed". Feeder's touring guitarist Dean Tidey and bass player Taka Hirose will be working with Inoran in the future.

Personal life

Inoran has two younger brothers. He loved playing baseball when he was in school. The nickname Inoran came into existence when he was playing a baseball game; he hit the ball and a fan kept shouting "Ino! Run!!", which sounded like "Inoran". He was also said to be popular among girls in his school. Because of his good manner and looks, Tokyo Pop contacted him to be an idol but Inoran refused. He has been good friends with J since junior high school. He is also close friends with Ryuichi Kawamura, Ken Lloyd and Aikawa Nanase.

At age 16, Inoran became a big fan of Cipher, the guitarist and co-founder of the band D'erlanger, when he went to see one of their live concerts. Inoran said in an interview that Cipher is a person who has changed his life. Though Inoran is left-handed, he said he's more comfortable playing guitar with his right hand.

In an interview, Inoran admitted to being a heavy smoker, but less of a drinker. He's a sensitive person to the point that he always cries when watching sad movies. Inoran is claustrophobic, which inspired him to compose the song "Claustrophobia", the B-side of Luna Sea's first single, entitled "Believe".

Inoran owns a Ferrari and is a big fan of F-1 racing.

Equipment

Inoran endorses the guitar brand ESP and has around 8 signature models.

Inoran also uses a selection of different Fender Guitars, such as Stratocasters and Jazzmasters, and has been known to occasionally use Jaguars as well. In addition to Fenders and his own signature ESP models, he uses Gibson Les Pauls and ES-335s and an assortment of other ESP Standard and Custom models.

Discography

Studio albums

Sou (October 22, 1997)

Fragment (July 25, 2001)

Photograph (September 26, 2006)

Niraikanai (July 11, 2007)

Apocalypse (September 24, 2008)

Water Color (March 10, 2010)

Compilation

The Best (January 23, 2008)

Remix

Landscape of Fragment (November 21, 2001)

Instrumental

Shadow (December 24, 2008)

Singles

"Sou" (September 25, 1997)

"Won't Leave My Mind" (June 13, 2001)

"Waves/Felicidad" (January 1, 2004, fan-club limited release)

"Shike/Elements of Foundation" (時化 - Elements of Foundation, September 17, 2009)

*Inoran×Roen collaboration, limited release available at "Inoran Live Tour 2009".

DVDs

Won't Leave My Mind (August 8, 2001)

The Last Night (June 25, 2003)

Another Room (April 26, 2005)

Tour 2006 photograph (March 7, 2007)

Live Tour 2007 Determine (January 23, 2008)

2008 Butterfly Effect+ (June 10, 2009)

Tour 2010 Watercolor (September 22, 2010)

Books

"Monophonic" (March 2008)

See also

Luna Sea

References

External links

Official website

Official blog

Official MySpace

Official YouTube

Category:1970 births Category:Living people Category:People from Kanagawa Prefecture Category:Japanese rock guitarists Category:Luna Sea members