yukihiro (November 24, 1968 in
Ichikawa, Chiba Japan) is a Japanese musician, best known as drummer of the rock band
L'Arc-en-Ciel.
[1] He also sings for his solo project,
Acid Android. Before joining L'Arc he was in the popular
visual kei bands
Zi:Kill and
Die in Cries.
Early life
yukihiro was born on November 24, 1968 in Ichikawa, near
Tokyo. His father is a company worker, and his mother is a
kimono-wearing instructor. He has a younger sister.
yukihiro has stated that he had as ordinary a childhood as any other
kid, never questioning his destined path of going to school, graduating
to a university, and ultimately becoming a white-collar
salaryman. But he loved music, both Japanese and American, from
heavy metal to
pop.
He was also a good short-track athlete in junior high school. However,
he was kicked out from his athletics club for his sabotaging of the
daily training.
When he entered high school, he started to play the drums and
immediately decided to be a professional rock musician. Once he made the
decision, he told his parents that he was leaving school because it was
of no use to him. His parents forbade this, thus he continued his
education while devoting himself mostly to rock music.
During his university days (he left The Chiba University of Commerce), he joined
Zi:Kill, one of the rising
visual kei rock groups of the time.
1990–1996: Zi:Kill and Die in Cries
Zi:Kill signed a recording contract with
Toshiba EMI
in 1990. However, during the recording of their major debut, they was
infighting and ultimately yukihiro was fired after a show in December.
He then formed a band named Optic Nerve with guitarist
Shin Murohime.
In 1991, he joined Shin's band
Die in Cries, who released their debut album
Nothing to Revolution that same year. They became quite popular and even had a performance at the
Nippon Budokan
in 1994. However, yukihiro became frustrated with the band. He later
stated that Die in Cries was caught in the heavy metal niche, especially
its singer Kyo (
D'erlanger).
yukihiro wrote some songs for the band, but they were rejected because
of their style. Some of these songs, "Trick" and "L'heure" were later
recorded by
L'Arc-en-Ciel in 1999.
Die in Cries broke up in 1995, with their last album
Seed. For a while, yukihiro worked as a free-lance drummer. During that time, he had no home and moved around staying with friends.
Tetsu stated it was so hard to catch yukihiro then, because he had no
mobile phone and was always on the move.
1997–present: L'Arc-en-Ciel
When it was announced that the former L'Arc drummer
Sakura
left in 1997, Tetsu, the leader of the band, asked yukihiro to help
record the new single. During that time, they had good chemistry. So
after their first "come-back" single, "
Niji",
was released, they held a comeback concert with yukihiro as support
drummer. In 1998 the band announced yukihiro was an official member with
the new single "
Winter Fall", followed by the album
Heart.
After joining L'Arc-en-Ciel, his changed the stylization of his name to
all lowercase letters, to match the rest of the members' names (his
name had been written in all capital letters prior).
Despite some arguments from Sakura's fans, yukihiro quickly got
accepted to L'Arc. His first song, "A Swell in the Sun", was played as a
prologue during their 1998 tour. L'Arc-en-Ciel quickly became one of
the most popular rock bands in Japan. Their tour was sold out, the album
went platinum and all seven of their singles hit the top 10 in the
charts.
On July 1, 1999, they released their sixth and seventh albums
Ark and
Ray on the same day. The albums hit the top two ranks, and the tour was a huge success.
L'Arc-en-Ciel stopped activities until 2003 and each member started their own solo projects. yukihiro started
Acid Android, where he is the singer.
L'Arc-en-Ciel came back with the single, "
Ready Steady Go!", and album,
Smile, after the three year hiatus in 2004. Then followed up with
Awake and "
Link" in 2005.
In 2007,
L'Arc-en-Ciel released the single called "
My Heart Draws a Dream" and album
Kiss The group also released the single "
Drink It Down" for January 2008, with the music composed by yukihiro.
Personal life
Despite his skinny appearance (he weighs only 48 kg), yukihiro is fond of fast foods such as
chocolate,
Coca-Cola, and
McDonald's FishMac. Due to his soft and loose voice style, some of his fans addressed his ways of speaking as "
hiragana shaberi".
Equipment
Throughout his career, yukihiro has played
Pearl drums and
Sabian
cymbals. He uses two double bass drum kits, with different set ups. He
has his own signature 13x3.5" snare drum made by Pearl. He has also
played his kit with
Remo rototoms.
- Drums
- Pearl MX Standard Maple Pure White Lacquer + Remo Roto Tom:
- Pearl Brass Shell Piccolo Snare 14″ x 3.5″
- Tom Tom 10″ x 8″
- Floor Tom 14″ x 14″
- Floor Tom 16″ x 16″
- Remo Roto TOM 6″
- Remo Roto TOM 8″
- Remo Roto TOM 10″
- Bass Drum 22″ x 18″
- Hardware
- Pearl Rack System
- Cymbals
- Sabian HH Series & AA Series + Afro:
- 13″ Flat Hi Hat
- 16″ Sound Control Crash
- 10″ Mini Hi Hat
- 18″ Thin China
- 8″ China Kang
- 8″ Afro China Splash
- 18″ Thin China
- 12″ Mini China
- 12″ Mini Hi Hat
- 10″ Leopard Ride
- 16″ Sound Control Crash
- 16″ Chins
- yukihiro Signature Snare Drum
- YA-9114P (14″x3.5″) 60,000yen
- Shell : Hammered Brass
- Hoops : Top-Single Flange / 10 Tensions; Bottom – MasterCast / 10 Tensions
- Strainer : SR-010B
- SnareWire : S-022
- Lugs : FT-35B
- Bolts : Top – SST-5042F; Bottom – SST 5038
