SKIN

SKIN is a supergroup made up of several famous Japanese rock musicians and was formed in 2007, in Los Angeles, California. The band’s members include Gackt (Gackt Camui) on vocals and piano, Miyavi (Ishihara Takamasa) on guitar, Sugizo (Yasuhiro Sugihara) on guitar and violin and Yoshiki (Yoshiki Hayashi) on drums and piano.

The group is Yoshiki’s newest project and the star studded line up has already gained a great deal of attention. Yoskiki is a musician, songwriter and producer, primarily known for co founding the popular rock band X Japan, in which he played drums and piano. X Japan was one of the biggest bands in Japan and is commonly credited with starting the visual kei movement. X Japan broke up in 1997, and since then Yoshiki has collaborated with several noted artists. He produces the bands Dir en grey and TRAX and has briefly joined the band Globe.

Gackt is a musician, songwriter and actor, best known for his work with Malice Mizer and his career as a successful solo artist. He joined Malice Mizer in 1995 as the group's vocalist and pianist. His solo career was launched in 1999 and since then, Gackt has been extremely prolific. He plays a large variety of instruments and his music has been featured as theme songs for numerous animes and video games. In 2003, Garckt co wrote and costarred in the 2003 movie Moon Child, and since January 2007 ha splayed the warlord Uesugi Kenshin in the NHK drama Fūrinkazan.

Miyavi (originally Miyabi) was guitarist for the visual kei indie band Dué le quartz, which disbanded in 2002. Miyavi began his solo career that year and released his debut album gagaku. Miyavi also starred as himself in the 2004 film Oresama and is regularly featured in J-Rock magazines. He has modeled for the Gothic & Lolita Bible and for various brands such as the clothing line Fotus.

Sugizo was guitarist and violinist for visual kei band Luna Sea. Since the group broke up in 2000, Sugizo has incorporated many of these other talents into his solo works. He also appeared in the art fantasy film Soundtrack, as well as writing and performing its score. In recent years, Sugiz has performed in a number of bands, including Sugizo & The Spank Your Juice, with which he wrote a number of anti war songs. Recently, Sugizo joined forces with young vocalist Yuna and created The FLARE.

In August 2006, Yoshiki announced at Otakon that he was going to start a band with Gackt. In December that year, it was reported that Sugizo might join the group as the third member. An announcement followed in May 2007, at the JRock Revolution festival in Los Angeles that Miyavi would also be joining the band.

An album is planned and rough recordings of several songs were made in March 2007. The band made its live debut on 29 June 2007 at the Anime Expo in Long Beach, California, with Ju-ken (from Gackt's support band GacktJob) on bass. Thousands turned up for the hugely successful show.