Taka Hirose
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Taka Hirose (born July 28, 1967 in Mizuho, Gifu, Japan) is the Japanese bassist for the successful British rock band Feeder.
[edit] Biography
Taka began playing bass at the age of 14 in high school and played in several jazz and metal bands during his school years. After leaving school, he moved to Tokyo and worked for guitar manufacturing specialists ESP as well as working at night in a downtown bar.
In 1992 Taka planned to move to London to work as a graphic designer, but was unable to come up with the money for the flight by himself, and earned it by playing for Tokyo mafia bosses in exchange for money. After moving to London, Taka planned to continue his musical activities, and answered an ad in the local Loot magazine from Grant Nicholas and Jon Lee, who were searching for a bassist in their new band, which would later become Feeder. A few days later, Hirose met Lee at Camden Station and they went back to Nicholas' house where the band was officially formed.
As Feeder began to take off, Hirose began to consider quitting. He had only planned for his music to be a sideline, and was unwilling to give up his graphic designer's job to do it professionally. Following persuasion from Nicholas and Lee, Hirose packed in the job and Feeder set off to try and break the music business. After winning critical acclaim for their debut release Swim and their first full length album Polythene, the band made their chart breakthrough with Top Ten follow-up Yesterday Went Too Soon. In January 2002, after Feeder had spent the previous year enjoying the success of their fourth and most popular album Echo Park, which spawned hit singles "Buck Rogers" and "Seven Days in the Sun", Lee committed suicide at his house in Miami. In shock and unsure whether Feeder would continue, Hirose returned to Japan to spend time with the family and friends he had left behind.
After much deliberation, Hirose and Nicholas decided to continue, and set to work later that year on their fourth full-length album Comfort in Sound, with Mark Richardson recruited as their new drummer. The album's change in direction towards a more melancholy sound, largely due to the sadness caused by Lee's death, earned Feeder new fans and more success, and this was continued with the follow-up release Pushing The Senses.
Recently, the band released a singles album titled The Singles to high critical acclaim. The album charted at #2 in the UK, after entering at #3 the week before. It also made #10 in the European charts, and #32 in the Worldwide sales chart, as well as going platinum in the UK. It is also their most commercially successful album in Ireland getting as high as #13 after also moving up from the chart entry position, which was #16. The album however made #1 on the UK iTunes chart, only a day after it was first added to their catalogue.
[edit] Trivia
- Hirose is accomplished at judo, which he has practised from an early age.
- He once hit Keanu Reeves in the face with an orange, as the crowd were booing him when playing in his band Dogstar at the Glastonbury Festival in 1999.
- The Shining is one of Taka's favourite films, and he has a photo of Jack Nicholson taken from the film attached to one of his guitars (the infamous "Here's Johnny!" shot after he breaks down the door with the hatchet).
- He is a huge video game fan, and has helped make several games, including assisting in the production of Gran Turismo 3, on which Feeder featured on the soundtrack.
- He once broke Jon Lee's fingers by trapping him in a van door.
- He accidentally knocked out a tooth of his guitar technician, Andrew Mountain (aka "Punky"), with the headstock of his bass.
- Despite being able to write and produce music, he is yet to contribute other than instrumentally and vocally to a Feeder song.
- He is married with three children, and owns three cats.
- He is also arguably the most successful Asian artist in UK chart history, either as part of a group or solo.
[edit] External links
| Feeder |
| Grant Nicholas | Taka Hirose | Mark Richardson |
| Jon Lee |
| Discography |
|---|
| Albums and extended plays: Two Colours EP | Swim EP | Polythene | Yesterday Went Too Soon | Echo Park | Swim Rerelease | Comfort in Sound | Picture of Perfect Youth | Pushing the Senses | Feeder The Singles |
| Singles: Stereo World | Tangerine | Cement | Crash | High | Suffocate | Day in Day Out | Insomnia | Yesterday Went Too Soon | Paperfaces | Buck Rogers | Seven Days in the Sun | Turn | Piece by Piece | Just a Day | Come Back Around | Just the Way I'm Feeling | Forget About Tomorrow | Find the Colour | Comfort In Sound | Tumble And Fall | Feeling A Moment | Pushing the Senses | Shatter / Tender | Lost and Found | Save Us |
