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

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates 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 genre and film scoring. ...

. 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 , known professionally as hide, was a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the rock band X Japan from 1987 to 1997 and rose to prominence in Asia as a solo artist f ...

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 Hide or hides may refer to: Common uses * Hide (skin), the cured skin of an animal * Bird hide, a structure for observing birds and other wildlife without causing disturbance * Gamekeeper's hide or hunting hide or hunting blind, a structure to hi ...

'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-s ...

'', 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 (company), a British payment services company * Zilch (software), a compiler used by Infocom to create Z-machine games * Zilch (electromagnetism), a group of conserved quantities ...

'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 numb ...

'' in 1999. K.A.Z also appears on hide with Spread Beaver's 2000 version of "

Tell Me Tell Me may refer to: * ''Tell Me...'', a 1979 album by Jimmy Knepper * Tell me (advertisement), a 2005 Chinese-language newspaper ad calling for universal suffrage in Hong Kong * Tell Me (TV series), ''Tell Me'' (TV series), a 2019 South Korean qu ...

" and has played with them each time they reunited; 2008, 2016, 2018, and 2023. 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 , stylized as L'Arc〜en〜Ciel and abbreviated 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, guitarist Ken and drummer Sakura were ...

bassist

Tetsu Tetsu (written: 哲, 徹, 鉄 or テツ in katakana) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese photographer *, Japanese voice actor *, Japanese musician *, Japanese politician and Prime Minister of Japan ...

. 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 popula ...

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 p ...

. 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 * List of highways numbered 6 ...

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

Faith Faith is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept. In the context of religion, faith is " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". According to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, faith has multiple definitions, inc ...

'', and composed five of the songs, including the single " Season's Call". 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 (; born February 21, 1972), better known as Seo Taiji or Seo Tae-ji (), is a South Korean singer, musician, songwriter and record producer. After dropping out of high school to pursue a music career, he rose to become one of t ...

'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 482,0 ...

''. 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 manga magazine ''Young Animal'' from September 2005 to April 2010, with its chapters collected in ten volumes. The manga was licen ...

'' (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 male songwriters Visual kei musicians Japanese alternative rock musicians Musicians from Yamanashi Prefecture 20th-century Japanese guitarists 21st-century Japanese guitarists {{guitarist-stub