, known exclusively by his stage name K.A.Z, is a Japanese

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

. He is known for his work with

Oblivion Dust Oblivion Dust is a Japanese rock music, rock band first active from 1996 to 2001; they reunited in 2007. Although they were originally largely influenced by early 1990s American grunge bands,

, hide with Spread Beaver and Vamps.

Career

K.A.Z originally wanted to be a drummer, but drums were too expensive. He found a guitar in his sister's room and began to play with it when she was out. K.A.Z was first guitarist of the bands Gemmy Rockets and The Lovers, before forming

in 1996. In January 1998, he joined hide's backing band, Spread Beaver. However this did not last long due to hide's death on May 2, with K.A.Z only appearing on two songs on his final album ''

Ja, Zoo ''Ja, Zoo'' is the third album by Japanese musician hide, released on November 21, 1998. It is also his last studio album as he died on May 2 while recording it, and the only one released under the name hide with Spread Beaver. It is his best-se ...

'', released at the end of the year. Although, Spread Beaver did go through with the 1998 tour, with K.A.Z joining them. He and his Spread Beaver bandmates I.N.A. and D.I.E. remixed a song for

Zilch Zilch means "nothing" or "zero". Zilch may also refer to: * Zilch (software), a compiler used by Infocom to create Z-machine games * Zilch (electromagnetism), a group of conserved quantities of the electromagnetic field * Zilch (game), an alter ...

's ''

Bastard Eyes ''Bastard Eyes'' is a remix album from the band Zilch, released on March 3, 1999. The tracks on this album are remixes, done by numerous different bands and artists, of the songs from their debut album '' 3.2.1.''. The limited edition reached nu ...

'' in 1999. K.A.Z also appears on hide with Spread Beaver's 2000 version of " Tell Me" and has played with them each time they reunited; 2008, 2016, and 2018. K.A.Z is portrayed by Masato Kataoka in the 2022 film , which shows how ''Ja, Zoo'' was completed following hide's death. In 2001, the year Oblivion Dust disbanded, he co-arranged the song "Tightrope" on the debut double A-side single of

L'Arc~en~Ciel L'Arc-en-Ciel (French: 'The Rainbow', stylized as L'Arc~en~Ciel), also known as Laruku, is a Japanese rock band, formed in Osaka in 1991 by bassist tetsuya and vocalist hyde. Following the departure of original members hiro and pero, guitaris ...

bassist Tetsu. In 2002, K.A.Z formed the short-lived rock unit

Spin Aqua Spin Aqua were a short-lived musical project between the model Anna Tsuchiya and the former Oblivion Dust guitarist K.A.Z. The duo performed music together for a year and seven months, releasing music for less than a year under the on the popular l ...

with singer, actress, and former model

Anna Tsuchiya is a Japanese singer, actress and semi-retired model. Since 2005, she is primarily known as a singer.Oricon pr ...

. After producing three singles and one album, they dispersed in mid-2004. He started to work with L'Arc~en~Ciel vocalist Hyde in 2003, co-arranging all the songs on ''

666 666 may refer to: * 666 (number) * 666 BC, a year * AD 666, a year * The number of the beast, a reference in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament Places * 666 Desdemona, a minor planet in the asteroid belt * U.S. Route 666, an America ...

''. He co-arranged and co-produced Hyde's third solo album ''

Faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people often ...

'', and composed five of the songs, including the single "

Season's Call , known by his stage name Hyde (stylized as HYDE or hyde), is a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. Best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel since 1991, he is also the lead vocalist of Vamps ...

". He also served as support guitarist on Hyde's tours. In late 2004, K.A.Z created the band Sonic Storage with his former Spread Beaver bandmate I.N.A.. He also participated in, influential Korean musician,

Seo Taiji Jeong Hyeon-cheol (Korean: 정현철; born February 21, 1972), better known as Seo Taiji or Seo Tae-ji (서태지), is a South Korean singer, musician, songwriter and record producer. After dropping out of high school to pursue a music career, ...

's album ''

7th Issue ''7th Issue'' is the third studio album by the Korean musician Seo Taiji and his seventh counting the four albums released by Seo Taiji and Boys. The album was a commercial success as the best-selling album of the year in South Korea, with 482,06 ...

''. On June 28, 2007, it was announced that Oblivion Dust would reunite, and in early 2008 K.A.Z and Hyde formed Vamps. K.A.Z is also a composer for films, including ''

Detroit Metal City is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kiminori Wakasugi. It was serialized in Hakusensha's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Young Animal'' from September 2005 to April 2010, with its chapters collected in ten ''tankōbon'' volume ...

'' (2008) for which he wrote the main track "Satsugai".

Equipment

K.A.Z signature guitars
*ESP VP-K350 *ESP KZ.V-ONE-W *ESP KZ.P-ONE-W&Fire *ESP Potbelly K.A.Z Custom *ESP K.A.Z Model *ESP TE-K300 *ESP SG Type *PRS with P-90' *Dean Markley Strings

References

External links

* 1968 births Living people Japanese rock guitarists Japanese record producers Japanese songwriters Visual kei musicians Japanese alternative rock musicians Musicians from Yamanashi Prefecture 20th-century Japanese guitarists 21st-century Japanese guitarists {{guitarist-stub