Sugizo
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Sugizo, real name Yasuhiro Sugihara, was born on July 8, 1969 in Hadano, Kanagawa, Japan. With strains of Japanese-Chinese and Japanese-German flowing within his blood, and dominant musical influences from both of his parents, he started life with an unusual background and an exceptional talent. At age three he was trained on the violin, and reportedly had to practice up to four hours a day at the insistence of his father. As a teenager, he became more rebellious and delinquent, and was drawn increasingly toward the raucous music of Western rock bands such as KISS. Despite his father's disapproval, Sugizo taught himself the guitar, and then began playing bass in a high school band named Pinnochio.
The internal structure of Pinnochio was not cohesive, however, and soon Sugizo and his friend and the drummer Shinya Yamada left Pinnochio to join up with rival bandmembers J and Inoran. With the addition of Ryuichi Kawamura, the vocalist from the band Slaughter, the five formed the Visual Kei rock unit "Lunacy". With J already a bass player, Sugizo switched to the electric guitar, and as Inoran preferred to play rhythm guitar, he became Lunacy's lead guitar (and invented his familiar stage name).
The five performed in Machida Playhouse and other clubs, persisting in their live performances despite exceptional sales of their demo tapes. Soon enough they were scouted out by one Hide of X Japan fame and signed to Extasy Records. The band's name was then changed to "Luna Sea" and shortly thereafter came the release of their first full-length album. Throughout the course of Luna Sea's joint career, they became one of the most beloved bands in all of Japan, China, and Taiwan, and gained many Western fans as well.
Sugizo in particular became a female fan-favorite, being something of a narcissist and very aware of his public sexuality, and through his leather-and-lace stage costumes, anime-style hair, and flamboyant persona came to acquire the media's nickname of "The Walking Porn". However, with the birth of daughter Luna in 1997, Sugizo's image mellowed considerably; although upon the death of mentor Hide, he dyed his hair bright pink again as a tribute to his fellow guitarist.
While with Luna Sea, Sugizo played the guitar and violin, although over the years he has learned many other instruments as well. Since the group's dissolution in 2000, Sugizo has incorporated many of these other talents into his solo works (including symphonic collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto). He also tried his hand at acting and appeared in the art-fantasy film "Soundtrack" with Kou Shibasaki, besides writing and performing its evocative score. His love of rock music has not been forgotten, however, despite Sugizo's expressed desire to be remembered as more of a poetic singer/songwriter "like Bob Dylan" than a sexually aggressive, androgynous rock star. In past years he has formed and performed in a number of rock units, including Sugizo & The Spank Your Juice, with which he wrote a number of scathing anti-war songs condemning injustice and the politicians who greedily pursue money instead of peace. More recently, Sugizo has joined forces with young Japanese vocalist Yuna and created The FLARE.
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[edit] Guitar Playing
Sugizo's approach to soloing, while still being in Luna Sea, was characterized by a focus on melodies rather than technical difficulties. This usually resulted in beautiful, original and memorable solos. Two of his ear trade-marks were extensive use of 'gliss'/ 'slides' and of shifting octave figures during any guitar lead parts.
Sugizo's guitar skills also extends to acoustic guitar. His acoustic soloing abilities can be heard in the ending portion of the Luna Sea song, "be gone" as well as in the live acoustic intro of the song "until the day I die".
He also wrote and played most bass guitar parts of his solo album "C:LEAR".
[edit] Equipment
While being in Luna Sea Sugizo almost exclusively used ESP guitars and has around 16 signature models with ESP Japan. Those include: a fretless, 7 strings, hollow body, double-neck and even a triple neck guitar. However during his solo projects he sometimes used other guitars such a Fender Jaguar and Fender JAZZ bass. He is also known to prefer single coil pick-ups due to their more glassy and 'raw' rock type of sound. Consequently, only one of his signatures was equipped with a humbucker which he used for 'darker' songs like HURT and 1999.
[edit] Facts
- Sugizo endorses the Japanese silver accessories brand 'GODSIZE'. - Sugizo has a daughter named 'Luna'.
