Sugizo

Yūne Sugihara (杉原有音), born Yasuhiro Sugihara (杉原 康弘) and better known by his stage name Sugizo, is a Japanese musician, songwriter, composer and record producer.

He preferred the trumpet's "dirty" image from the 1950s through the 1970s over playing the violin, which was seen as something for higher-class people.

During his junior high school days, he became exposed to non-classical music types, such as the Japanese synthpop group Yellow Magic Orchestra, the British new wave group Japan, David Bowie's glam rock, and the London punk scene, forming his attraction to rock'n'roll.

Sugizo's parents divorced when he was in high school, and his father moved out.

He has a good relationship with his mother and has since reconciled with his father, who has another family.

Despite his father's disapproval, Sugizo acquired a bass guitar and an electric guitar and began to teach himself how to play.

He has cited three Japanese guitarists as influences; Masami Tsuchiya, Kazumi Watanabe and You.

When he was around the age of 17, then in high school, Sugizo with Shinya on drums and Tezya on vocals formed a power metal band called Pinocchio, where he played as the bassist.

Yasuhiro Sugihara was born on July 8, 1969, in Hadano, Kanagawa, in Japan.

His Manchukuo-born father played trumpet in the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and his mother played cello in the same orchestra.

He also has a younger sister.

From a young age, Sugizo was brought up on classical music and studied classical music theory.

At the age of three, by his father's initiative, he started to learn to play the violin.

He practiced it for 3 hours per day, but without the right type of music or composer, began to hate playing music, and coercion from his parents aggravated his feeling of repulsion.

The situation persisted until the age of ten.

His early favorite composers included Beethoven, Bartók, Liszt and J.S. Bach.

When Sugizo was eleven or twelve years old, he began to play the trumpet.

Since the internal structure of Pinocchio was not cohesive, Sugizo and Shinya left and briefly joined Kashmir in 1988.

He is best known as the lead guitarist and violinist of the rock band Luna Sea since 1989.

On January 16, 1989, they both joined another band which performed at the same live houses, called Lunacy, formed by J and Inoran.

With the addition of Ryuichi Kawamura, vocalist from the band Slaughter, the five formed the visual kei rock unit Lunacy.

Since J was already the bass player and Inoran preferred to play rhythm guitar, Sugizo became the lead guitarist and took on his stage name, which he believes Shinya came up with.

Soon they were discovered by hide (then lead guitarist of X Japan), who got them signed by X Japan co-founder Yoshiki, to his independent label Extasy Records, on which they released their debut album in 1991.

Upon their first album release, the band changed their name from Lunacy to Luna Sea.

They became one of the most famous rock bands in Japan, selling more than ten million records, as well as performing in China and Taiwan.

Sugizo's first solo activity came 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 hide, J and Inoran.

In the upcoming three years, a variety of lesser-known musical collaborations and contributions took place.

Sugizo started his solo career in 1997 and has since collaborated with a variety of different artists.

After Luna Sea went on break in 1997, Sugizo started his own solo career and opened the independent label "Cross" to produce other artists and release 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 July 9, his debut single "Lucifer" was released and reached number 8 on the Oricon singles chart.

It was 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.

Then on September 10 he released his second single, "A Prayer", which reached number 7 on the charts.

On November 19, his first solo album Truth? was released, and reached number 12 on the album charts.

It was met with mixed reviews, largely because of the unexpected musical style which mixed different genres with electronica beats.

A variety of artists participated in the album, from Ryuichi Sakamoto and Mick Karn, to Lou Rhodes and Valerie Etienne.

Towards the end of the year, remix editions of his two maxi singles and album were released.

He formed the psychedelic jam band Shag in 2002, the rock duo The Flare in 2004, and the electronica duo S.T.K (Sensual Technology Kooks) in 2005.

In 2007 he became a member of the international trance/world music act Juno Reactor, and of the Japanese rock supergroup S.K.I.N. Sugizo officially joined the rock band X Japan in 2009, and became a member of the supergroup The Last Rockstars in 2022.

In addition to being known for experimenting with many musical genres, mostly rock, psychedelic and electronica, he is known for his political views and for being an anti-war, anti-nuclear, and environmental activist.