Yoshiki

Yoshiki Hayashi (林 佳樹), known as Yoshiki, is a Japanese musician, songwriter, composer, record producer, film director, and fashion designer.

He is best known as the leader of the visual kei rock bands X Japan and the Last Rockstars, for which he is the drummer, pianist, and main songwriter.

He has been described by Billboard as a "musical innovator" and named "one of the most influential composers in Japanese history" by Consequence.

Yoshiki's solo career includes several classical studio albums and collaborations with artists such as George Martin, Bono, will.i.am, St. Vincent, the Chainsmokers, Skrillex, Ellie Goulding, Stan Lee, Roger Taylor and Brian May of Queen, Gene Simmons and KISS, Nicole Scherzinger, and Sarah Brightman.

Yoshiki was born on November 20, 1965, in Tateyama, Chiba Prefecture, as the elder of two brothers in a musically oriented family.

His father was a tap dancer and jazz pianist, his mother played the shamisen, while his aunt played the koto.

He began taking piano lessons and music theory at age four.

He then became interested in classical works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert.

In elementary school, he played the trumpet in the brass band, and around age ten started composing songs for piano.

This period was a decisive point in his life.

He was 10 years old when his father committed suicide; he found relief in rock music.

After discovering the music of American hard rock band Kiss, he started learning to play drums and guitar.

Yoshiki was also influenced by works from Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Sex Pistols, David Bowie, Queen, the Beatles, Charged GBH and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Yoshiki also composed the theme for the 69th Golden Globe Awards as well as for several anime and film soundtracks including Attack on Titan and Saw IV.

In 2023, he made his directorial debut with the feature documentary film Yoshiki: Under the Sky.

Yoshiki was selected as the first Japanese artist to be honored with a hand and footprint ceremony at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood in nearly 100 years.

Yoshiki formed the band Dynamite with his childhood friend Toshi in 1977.

Dynamite changed its name to Noise a year later.

When Noise disbanded in 1982, Yoshiki and Toshi formed a new band, which they named X while they tried to think of another name, but the name stuck.

In 1986, Yoshiki founded his own independent record label, Extasy Records, in order to distribute the band's music.

On December 26, 1987, the band participated in an audition held by CBS/Sony which led to a recording contract in August of the following year.

The band's breakthrough came in 1989 with the release of their second, and major debut, album Blue Blood, which reached number six on the Oricon chart and charted for more than 100 weeks.

In 1990, the band received the "Grand Prix New Artist of the Year" award at the 4th Japan Gold Disc Awards.

In the early 1990s through his record label would debut million-selling bands Glay and Luna Sea.

He began learning about jazz improvisation and orchestration.

In 1991 they released their hit million-selling album Jealousy, and were the first Japanese metal band to perform in Japan's largest indoor concert venue, the Tokyo Dome.

The following year they announced the renaming of the band to X Japan in order to launch an international career with an American album release, however, this ultimately did not happen.

That same year he began his first solo activities outside X. Collaborating with Tetsuya Komuro for the rock unit V2, with a concert on December 5 at the Tokyo Bay NK Hall and the single "Haitoku no Hitomi ~Eyes of Venus~/Virginity" (背徳の瞳〜Eyes of Venus〜) in January 1992, which reached number two on the chart.

On December 12, Yoshiki released his first album, the classical compilation Yoshiki Selection, which includes classical works, and its sequel followed six years later.

In 1992, he bought a recording studio complex in North Hollywood, California, US.

On April 21, 1993, he released his first original solo album, the classical studio album Eternal Melody, which was performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and produced by the Beatles producer George Martin.

Besides including orchestral arrangements of X Japan songs, it contained two new songs as well.

The album reached number 6 on the charts.

On November 3, the singles "Amethyst" and "Ima wo Dakishimete" (今を抱きしめて) were released and reached number five and three respectively on the charts.

The later single was a karaoke adaptation of the second orchestral song from the first single, but name credit went to TBS as it was the theme song to one of their dramas, recorded by the lead actors under the group name NOA.

In 1994, it was the 35th annual best-selling single and won the "Excellence award" at the ''36th Japan Record Awards.

In 1994, Yoshiki worked with Queen drummer Roger Taylor on a song he composed, "Foreign Sand", for which Roger wrote the lyrics.

They performed the song at The Great Music Experience event in May, partly backed by Unesco, which featured many other Japanese and Western musicians.

In 1999, at the request of the Japanese royal family, he composed and performed a classical song at a celebration in honor of the tenth anniversary of Emperor Akihito's enthronement.

Extasy Recording Studios would become where recordings for nearly all his projects take place, until he sold it in the 2010s.