Skin (stylized as S.K.I.N.) is a United States-based Japanese

visual kei is a movement among Japanese musicians that is characterized by the use of varying levels of make-up, elaborate hair styles and flamboyant costumes, often, but not always, coupled with androgynous aesthetics, similar to Western glam rock. Som ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

supergroup founded by Japanese musicians

Yoshiki Yoshiki is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Yoshiki can be written using many different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples: *義樹, "justice, tree" *義基, "justice, foundation" *義機, "justice, opportu ...

Gackt , better known by his mononymous stage name Gackt (stylized as GACKT), is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. Born in Okinawa, Japan, to a Ryukyuan family, Gackt learned the piano at a young age and was raise ...

Sugizo , born and better known by his stage name Sugizo, is a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter, composer and record producer. He is best known as the lead guitarist and violinist of the rock band Luna Sea since 1989. Sugizo started his solo care ...

and

Miyavi , better known by his stage name Miyavi (雅, stylized as MIYAVI), is a Japanese guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor known for his finger- slapping style of playing a guitar. He has been active since 1999, first as guitaris ...

in 2007. The group's debut performance was on June 29, 2007, in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

. Although they had announced more activities, including a live tour and releasing a record, no further activities were recorded.

History

Conception and announcement

Miyavi, Yoshiki, Sugizo at Jrock revolution (2360497224)

The origin of the band dates back to when

invited

to his Los Angeles mansion in 2002, where they decided to produce some music together in the future. The band was publicly announced in July 2006 at an

Otakon Otakon ( ) is an annual three-day anime convention held during July/August. It stands for Otaku Convention. From 1999 to 2016, it took place at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland's Inner Harbor district; in 2017, it moved to ...

conference where Yoshiki as a guest said, he would be starting a band with Gackt. He announced how the band would be composed of five members, and they are going to produce a recording with a live tour in 2007. In December of the same year, it was announced that

would be the third member and the first guitarist of the group. And then at the first "JRock Revolution Festival" on May 25, 2007, organized by Yoshiki, he officially announced that

would be the fourth member and second guitarist, and that Skin would be having its debut performance on June 29, 2007 at the

anime expo Anime Expo, abbreviated AX, is an American anime convention held in Los Angeles, California and organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). The convention is traditionally held annually on the first we ...

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

. Yoshiki confirmed that the group was planning to release an album and that rough recordings of seven or eight songs were made in March 2007. With the well known members the band is considered a supergroup, causing their concert to be called the "Japanese rock concert of the century". Both

and

said that they want to be the first Asian band to conquer the world charts, beginning with America. Leading a rock revolution and starting a new era of rock and roll, by opening the market for Japanese in the Western music industry.

Debut concert

On June 12, premiere Skin concert tickets started to be released via the internet. However, massive interest led to flooding of the servers, causing them to crash, and in a few hours ticket reservations were temporarily stopped. On Thursday night of June 28, Skin performed for the first time at

Long Beach Arena The Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center is a convention center located in Long Beach, California. Built on the former site of the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium, the venue is composed of the Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach Ar ...

, supported on bass by

Ju-ken Ju-ken (born June 27, 1971 in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese session bassist. He was a support member of Gackt, The Wanderers and Anna Tsuchiya. He is one of the most in-demand bassists in Japan. Career Ju-ken started his ...

, at the time a member of

's live band. The concert began almost two and a half hours late, for unknown reasons. They performed around five songs, of which four were "Gei-Sha", "Killing you softly", "Beneath The Skin", "Violets", and most lyrics were in English. During the intermediate of the performance of "Beneath The Skin",

and

both played piano,

was on violin and

played the traditional Japanese

shamisen The , also known as the or (all meaning "three strings"), is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument . It is played with a plectrum called a bachi. The Japanese pronunciation is usual ...

. At the end, Gackt announced that they would meet again.

2007–present

Since their debut performance, Skin has been inactive. All activity was suddenly stopped without any information and the future of the band still remains unclear. According to Yoshiki, after the show the members were talking about the next step for the band. However, as the other members had their own projects going on, Toshi from

X Japan was a Japanese rock band from Chiba, formed in 1982 by drummer and pianist Yoshiki and lead vocalist Toshi. Starting as a predominantly power/speed metal band with heavy symphonic elements, they later gravitated towards a progressive soun ...

called him and they talked for the first time in ten years and about possible X Japan reunion. He was not sure what to do next, decided to reunite X Japan for at least one time, but the reaction was overwhelming and when Sugizo joined X Japan's activity continued till today. Yoshiki stated that "''it’s a little more like my fault, because I was not planning on doing X Japan at that time, then I started doing X Japan''". In a 2008 interview,

was asked about the band. He had said that at the meeting was concluded they would definitely continue to work together, but are all too busy to get together at the same time and place, and added ''"maybe from next year summer"''. After nothing happened the following year, in a 2009 interview he stated ''" I don't know... I think it will continue"''. In 2011 said that he does not want to give up the project, and that they should restart it. During a press conference in June 2010,

said he was honored being included in the group, and revealed that he would like to become active with Skin in the near future. In November 2011, he tweeted that he met with Yoshiki, and they talked about the band. In 2010 interviews,

said as he is currently working with

and his solo project Violet UK, as well other members on theirs, it will be after them and it's not in his immediate thoughts. In a 2014 interview Yoshiki stated they're still talking about it and "''there’s definitely a possibility we will be together, but at this point, we don’t have any specific plan''". The song "Beneath The Skin", which Sugizo composed for the Skin, was covered and played by X Japan in 2014. In November 2022, Yoshiki, Miyavi, and Sugizo announced their collaboration in a new supergroup, The Last Rockstars, with Hyde as a singer.

Members

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

–

;Session member *

– bass

References

External links

Archived promotional clip from Yoshiki.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skin Visual kei musical groups Japanese rock music groups Rock music supergroups Musical groups established in 2007 2007 establishments in California