Hideto Takarai (寶井 秀人, Takarai Hideto; born January 29, 1969, in Wakayama, Japan), known by his stage name Hyde (stylized in upper or lowercase), 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 and has a solo career. Hyde rose to fame in the 1990s as part of L'Arc-en-Ciel, who have sold over 40 million records and were the first Japanese act to perform a solo show at Madison Square Garden. He began a successful solo career in 2001, releasing several number one singles, and many of his albums have reached the top five on the Oricon chart. In 2008, Hyde teamed up with K.A.Z to form the hard rock duo Vamps. Through both his solo career and Vamps, Hyde has collaborated/toured with artists such as Apocalyptica, Motionless in White, Starset, Yoshiki, Sixx:A.M., In This Moment, and Danzig, and producers such as Kane Churko, Nicholas Furlong, Drew Fulk, and Howard Benson.
Bands
- L'Arc~en~Ciel - current member
Credited On
- L'Arc~en~Ciel - TOUR 2007~2008 THEATER of KISS - L'Arc~en~Ciel, released August 27, 2008 (
KSBL-5909). Vocal, Vocals.
Biography
Translated from the ja.wikipedia article Hyde (CC BY-SA 4.0), revision 110650866.
Overview
Although he had been involved in various bands since his student days, his full-scale career began around the time he formed L'Arc-en-Ciel in 1991. The first studio recording featuring hyde as lead vocalist to be released was the band's original video L'Arc-en-Ciel. As one of L'Arc-en-Ciel's principal composers, he has composed such songs as the million-selling "HONEY" and "HEAVEN'S DRIVE", as well as "flower", "I'm so happy", "Niji no Namida", "ROUTE 666", "Killing Me", "Ophelia", "SEVENTH HEAVEN", "Hurry Xmas", "BLESS", "X X X", and "Mirai". He has also written the lyrics for most of the songs released by L'Arc-en-Ciel.
Since 2001, he has also worked as a solo artist under the name HYDE through his own label, HAUNTED RECORDS (ホーンテッド レコーズ). As in his band activities, he serves as a vocalist in his solo work and also plays guitar on some songs. Initially, his solo albums were produced around the concept of “stillness”. His first album, ROENTGEN, featured recordings leaning toward the soft rock he had enjoyed listening to during his student years and in the early period of his band activities. From 2003 onward, however, he made a complete shift toward songwriting influenced by the hard rock, grunge, and alternative metal he favors, under the concept of “movement”. During periods centered on the concept of “movement”, recording and live performances have often been conducted in a band format, with various rock musicians invited as co-composers or guests. In his current activities, he alternates between the two concepts of “stillness” and “movement” depending on the period, releasing soft rock-oriented songs such as "evergreen", "Angel's tale", "A DROP OF COLOUR", "SECRET LETTERS", "NOSTALGIC", and "DIE HAPPILY", as well as harder songs such as "MIDNIGHT CELEBRATION", "SEASON'S CALL", "MAD QUALIA", "SET IN STONE", "ON MY OWN", and "6or9". His approach to a diverse range of musical styles has also led him to perform in a wide variety of formats, ranging from all-standing concerts to seated dinner shows. To date, HYDE has released seven albums, 24 singles and individual-track digital releases, and eight video works. In addition to his own solo releases, HAUNTED RECORDS also released works by the alternative rock band MONORAL. In 2018, hyde moved from the aforementioned independent label to Virgin Music, a label within Universal Music.
In 2008, he formed the rock unit VAMPS with K.A.Z. Through VAMPS, he developed the “movement” style of his solo activities in a form closer to that of a band. In 2016, VAMPS signed with the major American management company 10th Street Entertainment and moved the main base of its music production overseas, thereafter undertaking collaborative productions with overseas artists and producers. VAMPS has held performances in a variety of formats, including “siege-style tours” consisting of consecutive shows at live houses throughout Japan, arena concerts, outdoor summer concerts, and Halloween events. The group has also performed extensively overseas, touring Asian countries outside Japan, Europe, and the United States. In 2014, it made its first appearance at the British outdoor rock festival Download Festival. In February 2015, it held the self-produced live event “VAMPARK FEST” at Nippon Budokan, appearing alongside artists from Japan and abroad. To date, VAMPS has released five albums, 15 singles and individual-track digital releases, and 12 video works. In 2022, HYDE joined THE LAST ROCKSTARS, a rock band formed under the leadership of YOSHIKI of X JAPAN that combines edgy EDM with aesthetic rock sounds.
He has also provided songs he composed to Mika Nakashima, Jaejoong, Cö shu Nie, and TOMORROW X TOGETHER, among others. Outside music, he established the apparel brand SWITCHBLADE (スイッチブレード) in 2017. In 2023, he launched WaRLOCK (ワーロック) as SWITCHBLADE's second line.
His management company is VAMPROSE, which he established in February 2012. His current record label is Virgin Music within Universal Music. His official fan club is HYDEIST, established in 2001, and his official mobile site is HYDEIST Mobile, launched in 2008.
Early Life and Childhood
hyde was born on January 29, 1969 in Wakayama, Wakayama Prefecture. He was said to have been introverted as an elementary school student and to have had few friends. Looking back on this period in his autobiography THE HYDE, hyde stated: “I was relatively introverted and did not have many friends. Or rather, there were several children my age in the neighborhood, so I did play with them, but I was rather weak, the kind of child who would be bullied by them and go home crying.” He had been interested in drawing from an early age and reportedly spent this period quietly drawing by himself. During elementary school, he was particularly absorbed in Rumiko Takahashi’s manga Urusei Yatsura. He also liked animated films such as Hayao Miyazaki’s The Castle of Cagliostro, and around this time began vaguely to think that he wanted to become either a manga artist or an animator in the future.
Although hyde spent most of his elementary school years as “a crybaby who was bullied,” he later recalled that he was saved when he made a friend around the sixth grade. He also said that meeting his homeroom teacher at the time was significant to him. Speaking later of this teacher, whom he regarded as a mentor, he said: “I still keep in touch with my teacher from the sixth grade. They were my homeroom teacher, and were a wonderful teacher who always tried their hardest, cried and laughed with us, and got angry with us.” According to hyde, he also began consciously listening to music around this time. During elementary and junior high school, he reportedly listened extensively to Off Course, as well as New Wave/New Romantic artists including David Sylvian, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, and Culture Club.
Student Years – Transition From Art to Music
From around the time he entered junior high school, hyde became interested in pursuing work related to art and began submitting manga he had drawn himself to manga magazines such as Weekly Shonen Sunday. During his junior high school years, influenced by the film Rambo, which had been released at the time, he often wore military uniforms and went camping in the mountains and by the sea with friends. In addition to Rambo, he also liked the fashion worn by New Romantic artists, typified by John Taylor of the then-popular Duran Duran, and from this period began imitating the clothing of film characters and musicians.
After graduating from junior high school, hyde decided that he wanted to make art his profession in the future. In order to become a designer or painter, he enrolled not in an ordinary high school but in a school that also offered design classes. Regarding his reasons for choosing such a school, he stated: “For me, simply going to an ordinary high school was no longer possible. I heard on the radio that there was a high school with art classes, and when I told my parents, ‘I want to go here,’ they allowed me to. I think the entrance fee was probably expensive. At that high school, about half the classes were ordinary subjects, while the other half were art classes.” Although he enrolled in a vocational school, he gradually became increasingly concerned about coloring, as he had a congenital color vision deficiency and found it difficult to distinguish intermediate shades, despite being confident in his ability to draw. Recalling this period, he stated: “When it came to coloring... I have a color vision deficiency, so I just couldn’t manage it. With things like watercolours, I was a little weak, or rather. In elementary school, the homeroom teacher I mentioned earlier, from when I was in sixth grade, told me, ‘Don’t worry about it; color it as you see fit,’ so even when people said it was wrong, I would confidently apply the paint. But that did not work in the real world, and by the time I was in vocational school, I had completely lost confidence in coloring.” He also stated: “Of course, you cannot suddenly become a painter, so you have to get some kind of job, right? So I wondered, ‘Will I be able to find employment with this?’ [...] Even then, all I could think of was expressing things through such light and shade. I had a great deal of anxiety about what would happen when I actually entered a practical profession.”
Eventually, prompted by his anxiety over coloring due to his color vision deficiency and by discovering the guitar through the influence of heavy metal guitarists, hyde’s interests gradually shifted and he began exploring a transition into music. Reflecting on his feelings at the time he was drawn to music, he stated: “Music has no check on color; what I express as red becomes red through the lyrics and performance,” and “When I started music, my worries disappeared.” After graduating from vocational school, he decided to look for band members while working part-time in order to save money to move to Osaka.
While devoting himself to musical activities and part-time work in his hometown, around the time he turned 20, his mother told him, “If you really want to become a musician in the future, do it now. Do not keep missing opportunities by saying that you need to save money first.” Taking these words to heart, he borrowed money from his mother and decided to move to Osaka to pursue a career in music.
Formation of Jelsarem's Rod – Invitation From tetsuya
After moving to Osaka, hyde began frequenting live music venues and gradually expanded his circle of acquaintances. However, as he was devoted to hardcore bands such as GASTUNK and Discharge at the time, he reportedly had difficulty finding companions with compatible musical tastes. Looking back on his search for band members years later, he recalled: “I wanted to play dark music, and I wondered whether there was anyone like that around, so I looked everywhere, but there was nobody at all.” For a time, he did not become a permanent member of any band and instead participated in various groups as a session musician.
During this period of repeated sessions, hyde began performing vocals as well as guitar. At the time, he said, “Since I came from hard rock, I only had a lame image of vocalists,” and initially participated in sessions as a guitarist. However, when he was to play in a GASTUNK cover band, he became its vocalist. This prompted him to decide to pursue activities as a vocalist. Looking back on his transition to singing, he later stated: “When I tried singing, I realized it suited me extremely well, and it felt like a good fit,” and, “After that, I only used the guitar for songwriting.”
Among the many bands whose musical styles did not suit him, one group with which he became friendly was Kiddy Bombs, which included pero, later a founding member of L'Arc-en-Ciel. According to hyde, he and pero “hit it off immediately.” Recalling pero, he said: “He was easygoing, sociable, and funny, so we became friends right away.” Kiddy Bombs later became a three-piece after its guitarist left. At that time, hyde joined the group as a supporting guitarist and performed live shows with them, although he said that he had not formally joined the band. After Kiddy Bombs disbanded, hyde, pero, and the two remaining Kiddy Bombs members formed a new band, Jelsarem's Rod (ジェルサレムズ・ロット). The name Jelsarem's Rod was derived from Stephen King's novel Salem's Lot, which hyde liked. In the music magazine ROCKIN' ON JAPAN in 2002, he explained the band's name: “I liked Stephen King at the time. I liked the presence of Jerusalem's Lot. It was like a fictional town. Like a town of terror where something happens.”
Soon after forming Jelsarem's Rod, hyde and pero were invited to a session by a guitarist. Hyde and pero went to the session without giving it much thought, where they met tetsuya, who would later become a founding member of L'Arc-en-Ciel, and played together. Tetsuya then asked hyde and pero whether they would form a band with him. However, as hyde and pero had only just formed Jelsarem's Rod, they declined the offer. Looking back on the session years later, hyde said: “At the time, we had just formed Jelsarem's Rod, so I had no interest in any other band. Pero said, ‘Let’s go,’ so I went, but it felt like we played through everything and went home. I did think, ‘They’re good,’ and, ‘They’re completely different from our band,’ though.”
Having begun activities as Jelsarem's Rod, hyde started performing joint live shows throughout Osaka. Tetsuya, whom he had met at the earlier session, attended every one of these performances. According to tetsuya, when he met hyde and pero, he intuitively felt that “hyde, pero, hiro, and I were all connected” and that they would become “an amazing band.” Tetsuya even attended the after-parties held after Jelsarem's Rod's shows and persistently tried to persuade the two to join him. Recalling tetsuya's enthusiastic recruitment at the time, hyde said: “It seemed that tetsuya had his eye on us at that time, during the session. After that, he started coming to every one of our band's shows, and he came to the after-parties and called us. He would ask, ‘How is the band going?’ and when I said, ‘Yeah, it’s going well,’ he would say, ‘I see,’ and look disappointed [laughs].”
After continually receiving these persistent appeals, hyde gradually began to see no future for Jelsarem's Rod and decided to have another session with tetsuya. Around February 1991, hyde, tetsuya, and pero were joined by hiro, who had been looking for band members with tetsuya, for a session at a studio near Nishinomiya-kitaguchi Station in Hyōgo Prefecture. During this session, hyde felt that “the quality was completely different from our own band after all.” He responded to tetsuya's invitation by saying, “Let’s do it together,” and decided to disband Jelsarem's Rod. Thus, L'Arc-en-Ciel, a new band consisting of hyde, hiro, tetsuya, and pero, was formed. In his autobiography published in 2012, hyde later reflected on his decision to disband Jelsarem's Rod: “In the meantime, our band, Jelsarem's Rod, had really reached an impasse. Every time, the guitar solos were out of scale [laughs]. I loved them as friends, but I began to realize that this would not work as a band. After that, I had to bring up disbanding Jelsarem's Rod, and I remember that it was very painful.”
Formation of L'Arc-En-Ciel and Activities in Various Projects – Present
Having formed a new band, hyde held L'Arc-en-Ciel's first live performance at Namba Rockets on May 30, 1991. Although the concert was held in a multi-band format, it drew more than 100 people. On September 27, 1991, the group held its first solo concert at the same venue, attracting an audience of more than 300. L'Arc-en-Ciel thus began gaining momentum soon after its formation and went on to undertake a range of activities centered on Osaka. According to hyde, the band was able to gain a certain degree of popularity from its earliest days largely because hiro was already known through a previous band and because of the promotional image strategy devised by tetsuya.
At the time, it was standard practice for many amateur bands to raise funds by selling homemade demo tapes and then conduct extended live activities in various regions under the name of touring. Amid the abundance of such bands, L'Arc-en-Ciel avoided selling demo tapes in its earliest period, deliberately remained largely in Osaka, and did not announce upcoming concert schedules. Tetsuya later recalled that reducing the number of concerts and not announcing long-term live schedules generated word of mouth and increased attendance. Whenever the band performed, its members themselves reportedly sent information on the concert and attendance figures to music magazine editors, carrying out promotional measures intended to spread awareness more widely. Hyde later recalled this strategy, stating, “I thought tetsuya's idea was very smart too: rather than going to Tokyo, where there are lots of bands, it would stand out more if we became number one in Osaka. And that is exactly what happened.”
At the time, many amateur bands sought to close the distance between themselves and their audiences, even allowing fans to take part in post-concert parties, but L'Arc-en-Ciel avoided any excessive communication with fans. In addition, according to tetsuya, from a branding perspective the members did not distribute concert leaflets and flyers they had made themselves directly, and, in order to avoid having members carry musical equipment in front of concertgoers entering and leaving venues, the band employed roadies and staff from its earliest days. Looking back on this image-building, tetsuya later stated, “From the start, we made it look as though we were popular as a matter of branding”; “There has never been a time in L'Arc's history when we carried our own equipment into a venue”; and “We did it thoroughly before we had become successful, even if people said we were ‘full of ourselves’.” In his 2012 autobiography, hyde looked back on L'Arc-en-Ciel's activities at the time of its formation and wrote:
“What was interesting was that L'Arc-en-Ciel was strategic from the very beginning. I was thinking something like, if we just put on good live shows, eventually people would notice, attendance would increase, and we might become professionals. But L'Arc-en-Ciel was very strategic. Tetsuya already had a list of a great many people, and he sent direct mail based on it. Guitarist hiro was already somewhat well known, so even just the fact that he was returning became a topic of conversation. Was the first concert attended by 150 people? We had an attendance figure that would normally be rather unimaginable.”
In L'Arc-en-Ciel's early years, hyde made use of his aptitude for design by creating concert announcement leaflets and the band's logo. Looking back on that period, he later stated:
“What I could do was make concert leaflets by using the color photocopier at my part-time job without permission. I had a packaging job at a belt and glove company, but they saw that my background included graduating from a design academy, so I ended up helping with planning. My main work was probably turning the drawings of belts made by fashion designers into drawings that were easier to turn into products. Since I worked alone most of the time, I made dozens of color copies, which cost around 100 yen each at the time (laughs). I did it nervously, knowing I would be scolded if I were found out (laughs). Since we had not released CDs, the band's artistic sense was partly determined by its leaflets, so I spent quite a lot of time on them. They were the prototype of ‘self portrait’ [an art project by hyde serialized in the music magazine R&R NewsMaker], which was completely analogue and made full use of color photocopies. I think it contributed to raising L'Arc-en-Ciel's quality. I also made the first logo at that desk. It is a little distorted because I copied something cut and pasted together with a cutter and glue over and over again (laughs).”
Even after L'Arc-en-Ciel made its major-label debut, hyde sometimes drew images that came to mind while listening to recordings when writing lyrics, and then wrote lyrics based on those drawings. He also sometimes drew storyboards himself when producing music videos for songs released under his solo name.
Through these carefully considered strategies, L'Arc-en-Ciel was able to fill venues for solo concerts soon after forming, giving the band an unusually smooth and successful start. After various twists and turns, L'Arc-en-Ciel released its first album, DUNE, in May 1993, about two years after its formation. In July 1994, it released its major-label debut single, “Nemuri ni Yosete”, and its second album, Tierra, beginning its activities on a major label. Even after its major debut, L'Arc-en-Ciel continued its activities through member changes and went on to build a career of more than 30 years.
After L'Arc-en-Ciel had been active for around ten years, from around the middle of 2001, at hyde's request, each member began undertaking solo work. In a 2001 interview, hyde explained the circumstances behind beginning his solo activities: “Working as four members in a band can produce results that we could never have imagined, and things can turn out in a good direction, but I thought I would like to try creating something that moves toward where I myself anticipated.” Initially, albums for this solo work were made around a worldview based on the concept of sei (“stillness”). Rather than adhering to the basic band-sound format of guitar, bass, and drums, the work pursued recordings leaning toward jazz and art rock, in the style of David Sylvian, Stina Nordenstam, Suzanne Vega, and Sting. From 2003 onward, however, the approach shifted completely, under the concept of do (“movement”), toward songwriting influenced by the hard rock, grunge, and alternative metal favored by hyde. During periods centered on the concept of do, recording and live performances were often conducted in a band format, with a variety of rock musicians invited as guests, including former members of bands he admired, such as The Mission and The Cult. Hyde uses these two concepts, sei and do, at different times, creating music in a variety of directions. As his activities approach diverse musical styles, he has also presented concerts in a wide range of formats, from all-standing performances to seated dinner shows.
In 2008, hyde formed the rock unit VAMPS with K.A.Z of Oblivion Dust, who had served as co-producer on his solo work since 2003. With VAMPS, the do style that had been pursued in his solo activities came to be presented in a form closer to that of a band. VAMPS held concerts in diverse formats, including “siege-style tours” consisting of consecutive performances at live houses across Japan, arena concerts, outdoor summer concerts, and unplugged shows. The group also performed actively overseas, touring Asian countries outside Japan, Europe, and the United States. After releasing two albums through its own label, VAMPS moved in 2013 to Delicious Deli Records, a label within Universal Music. At the time of this move, it was also announced that the group had formed a partnership with Live Nation, one of the world's largest event promoters, and would undertake more extensive touring outside Japan. In 2016, VAMPS signed with the major American management company 10th Street Entertainment and shifted the main base of its music production outside Japan. From then onward, it began producing collaborative works with overseas artists and producers. In February 2015, VAMPS held the self-produced live event “VAMPARK FEST” at Nippon Budokan, appearing alongside Japanese and international artists including Sixx:A.M., Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, Buckcherry, Nothing More, SADS, and [Alexandros]. In November of the same year, it held a multi-band tour featuring musicians invited to “VAMPARK FEST”, as well as MONORAL, ROTTENGRAFFTY, Nothing's Carved In Stone, KNOCK OUT MONKEY, MY FIRST STORY, ASH DA HERO, Apocalyptica, and HIM.
From its formation in 2008 until the announcement of its hiatus in 2017, VAMPS held an annual Halloween live event every October. The event originated with “HALLOWEEN OF THE LIVING DEAD”, an event held by hyde in 2005, and was held a total of 12 times by 2018, either under hyde's solo name or under VAMPS. From 2010 onward, the event name was fixed as “HALLOWEEN PARTY”, and it was generally held at arena-scale venues in the two cities of Tokyo and Osaka. Various Japanese artists were invited to the event, including bands featuring DAIGO, who was close to hyde; Acid Black Cherry, the solo project of yasu of Janne Da Arc; Kiyoharu of Kuroyume and SADS; as well as Tommy heavenly6, MONGOL800, Mika Nakashima, MUCC, MIYAVI, Kishidan, UVERworld, MAN WITH A MISSION, Jaejoong, Gesu no Kiwami Otome, Negoto, and Silent Siren. Idol groups including Momoiro Clover Z, Dempagumi.inc, Watarirouka Hashiritai, and S/mileage were also invited. In 2012, the event's participants assembled under the name HALLOWEEN JUNKY ORCHESTRA and released the Halloween song “HALLOWEEN PARTY”.
After VAMPS suspended its activities in 2017, hyde again began full-scale solo activities, releasing the album ANTI through Virgin Music in 2019, his first album in approximately ten years. For the recording of this album, overseas producers including Drew Fulk and Nicholas Furlong were invited, and the songs were produced through an approach leaning toward alternative metal and metalcore. Since resuming activities under his solo name, hyde has increased his opportunities to work with Japanese bands in live performance and recording, actively participating in domestic rock festivals, appearing in multi-band concerts with GASTUNK and Dragon Ash, and releasing a collaborative song with MY FIRST STORY. In 2019, hyde also appeared as a guest act at a concert by Bring Me the Horizon, a band he regularly listens to. In 2023, he performed at “NEX_FEST 2023”, a rock festival curated by the band.
In 2022, hyde announced that he would join THE LAST ROCKSTARS, a rock band formed under the leadership of YOSHIKI of X JAPAN that combines edgy EDM with an aesthetic rock sound.
Hyde currently conducts three activities in parallel: activities under his solo name, activities as L'Arc-en-Ciel, and activities as THE LAST ROCKSTARS.
Band, Unit and Solo Work History
Bold type indicates bands.
Parts
In L'Arc-en-Ciel, in addition to his primary role as vocalist, hyde has handled guitar, keyboards, programming, harmonica, and alto saxophone in recordings, depending on the song. In L'Arc-en-Ciel's part-changing band D'ARK-en-CIEL, he plays guitar under the name HYDE DARK, while in P'UNK-en-CIEL he plays guitar under the name HYDE P'UNK.
At L'Arc-en-Ciel concerts, he had played guitar from an early stage when performing songs such as "I'm so happy", ""good-morning Hide"", "HONEY", "Shinohai", and "Ibara no Namida", but had not played on any recordings. The first studio recording to include guitar played by hyde and to credit him accordingly was "THE NEPENTHES", included on the band's eighth album, REAL, released in 2000. In addition, at ken's request, hyde played acoustic guitar during the production of L'Arc-en-Ciel's 2001 song "Spirit dreams inside". At L'Arc-en-Ciel concerts, he has also sometimes played tambourine, congas, and whistle.
In his solo activities, which began in 2001, he has continued to serve as vocalist, and personally wrote, composed, arranged, and produced nearly all songs released through 2003. On his second solo album, 666, released in 2003, he played guitar in the production of every track. Thereafter, he began collaborating with guitarist K.A.Z (Oblivion Dust), as well as producers and composers from Japan and abroad.
He also serves as vocalist in VAMPS, formed in 2008, and THE LAST ROCKSTARS, formed in 2022. At concerts held as VAMPS, HYDE occasionally played guitar when performing songs such as "LOVE ADDICT", "EUPHORIA", "THE PAST", and "ZERO".
Lyrics
hyde has written the lyrics for most songs released by L'Arc-en-Ciel, VAMPS, and under his solo name. For some time after he began writing lyrics for L'Arc-en-Ciel, he wrote many lyrics expressing a desire to escape from the world he inhabited or aspirations directed toward somewhere far away. For this reason, in a review of the 1998 album HEART, music critic Tetsushi Ichikawa described hyde's lyrics as having “hyde's distinctive escapist desire to ‘float in the sky.’” However, in an interview with a music magazine in 1993, hyde stated, “I only sing about things around me, so I would like people to think that any seemingly impossible story is entirely a ‘metaphor,’” suggesting that he had not intended to write about worlds detached from reality. In a 2021 interview, however, he reflected on lyrics he had written in the past: “There was a reality for me within [fictional stories].” “What I was writing was an imaginary world, but for me, it turned out that way because I was seeking reality.” “Looking back on it now, I think, ‘Shouldn't [my old lyrics] have been a little more aware of reality?’ But at the time, I must have been seeking extraordinary events.” Regarding his lyric-writing around 1998 and 1999, when L'Arc-en-Ciel continued to score hits, hyde once said that at the time, “There was a strong feeling of wanting to be liberated from something. Whenever I was writing lyrics, it was all ‘Let's go somewhere, let's go somewhere.’”
hyde has said that, because he frequently listened to Western music and hardcore music during his sensitive student years, he was unaccustomed to writing Japanese lyrics when he first began playing in a band. When writing lyrics for L'Arc-en-Ciel, he drew inspiration from the lyrics written by Kazumasa Oda of Off Course, whom he had liked since childhood. In an interview for the 2016 issue of the music magazine Rolling Stone Japan, hyde stated: “When I began making music, I was into hardcore and gothic rock, so when I started L'Arc and the members came up with very catchy songs, I had absolutely no idea what kind of lyrics I should write. I agonised over it, wondering, ‘What should I say?’ and went through a lot of trial and error in writing lyrics, and the drawer I opened was Off Course. Off Course songs actually have a cool, urban feel, and I think their lyrics are also very abstract. Their words are chosen very carefully. That made me think, ‘Ah, there is this way of expressing things.’ My lyrics also show the influence from that time. For example, I think ‘Blurry Eyes’ has several words that Kazumasa Oda would use.” In this way, he incorporated the word choices and abstract metaphorical expressions of lyrics written by the Kazumasa Oda he admired, and began writing lyrics described as “expressions layered with metaphor upon metaphor.” In a 2012 interview, hyde explained why he had avoided direct expressions that anyone could understand: “Saying ‘sad, sad’ about something sad is not very sad. It actually makes you pull back a little. Abstract or indirect expressions are more effective at conveying it, I think.” According to hyde, he also once felt resistance toward writing lyrics about straightforward romance. In his autobiography published in 2012, he stated, “Now, of course, I do not care about such things, but originally I had this feeling that it was uncool for men to talk about romance. I was fine with making lyrics out of intense, slightly crazy love, but I was not good at lyrics about ordinary, warm-feeling love.”
Furthermore, during L'Arc-en-Ciel's early years, hyde would draw pictures before writing lyrics in order to visualize the song. In an interview concerning the 1994 album Tierra, he stated: “This is something I have continued to do: as a guide for writing lyrics, I draw a simple picture for each song and write the lyrics with the feeling that I am in that world. When I do that, concrete things come into view.” In Bessatsu Takarajima, published in 2007, literary critic Tetsuo Machiguchi described the lyrical world hyde created during this period as “a tactile world,” meaning one possessing a sense of touch and texture.
From around 2000, however, hyde's lyrics increasingly included phrases that appeared to confront reality. In an interview concerning the 2000 album REAL, hyde described his change in state of mind: “‘So, even after the year 2000 arrived, the city has not changed at all.’ There are modest hopes, but that is what I am writing about in the album REAL. It is resigned, but also says, ‘Maybe something good will happen.’” “Perhaps it was becoming apparent that, realistically, a future like a deep dream could not exist. That is why there are many disillusioned lyrics.”
After releasing REAL, around the middle of 2001, the four members of L'Arc-en-Ciel, including hyde, began solo activities and activities in other bands, leaving L'Arc-en-Ciel effectively inactive. L'Arc-en-Ciel subsequently considered disbanding, but held its first live concert in some time in June 2003 and decided to resume activities in earnest. In 2004, the band released SMILE, its first album in approximately three years and seven months. Unlike the themes of lyrics hyde had written up to that point, this album contained many lyrics expressing direct positivity. In an interview from this period, hyde described his change in state of mind: “Ordinary CDs that are simply sad no longer move me emotionally. That may be because that is my current state of mind, but if I were to write sad lyrics now, I feel I would make them sound very false instead. I am not very interested in that. There may be songs that express such sad aspects, but it is certainly true that, somewhere inside, I do not want to put sadness or dark aspects of my current feelings into recordings.” The 2005 album AWAKE featured lyrics themed around anti-war and peace, while the 2007 album KISS included many lyrics depicting minimal relationships between people through familiar expressions.
According to hyde, from around 2006 and 2007, he also began writing lyrics themed around “ordinary everyday life.” He had previously written lyrics based on events close to him for several songs, including “C'est La Vie,” “TIME SLIP,” and “ALL YEAR AROUND FALLING IN LOVE,” but KISS, released in 2007, came to include many songs with lyrics employing expressions close to people. In his 2012 autobiography, hyde wrote of this change in mindset: “One time, when I suddenly felt filled with love in everyday life, there was a moment when I thought, ‘I could die like this,’ and felt that I had connected with the universe. At the moment I was able to accept death, I thought, ‘Ah, so this is what the universe is.’ By the way, I was not on drugs [laughs]. Then I felt as though I could smoothly understand the principles of the universe, or everything. Perhaps that was significant. At that time, I probably lost my attachment to life. From then on, the familiar scenery around me began to feel very precious. That sensation forms the core of the lyrics I wrote around then, such as L'Arc-en-Ciel's ‘ALONE EN LA VIDA’ and my HYDE solo song ‘I CAN FEEL.’ ... Alongside ‘I do not mind dying at any time,’ I think I also gained the feeling, ‘I should live in a way that is all right even if I die at any time.’” From around this time, hyde also consciously began increasing the number of phrases using direct expressions, rather than metaphor alone, so that listeners would not greatly misunderstand the meaning of the lyrics.
According to hyde, when writing lyrics, he often asks the composer about the image of a song and works from that basis. When providing songs for films or animated works, he may also discuss them with the production staff, including the director, before writing lyrics mindful of the tie-in work. L'Arc-en-Ciel provided the song “finale” as a film theme song in 2000. Regarding the lyric-writing process at that time, hyde stated: “If I took an approach entirely different from the film, it would feel as though one had awakened from a dream, but if it was exactly the same, I felt there would conversely be no synergistic effect with the film. So, based on my own sensibility, I thought this kind of feeling would be good if it played during the film.”
After beginning activities under his solo name in 2001 and launching VAMPS as a new project in 2008, HYDE increasingly wrote most of his lyrics in English. Consequently, he adopted lyric-writing methods different from those used when writing for L'Arc-en-Ciel. When writing lyrics as a solo artist or as VAMPS, he first writes the lyrics in English, then replaces certain phrases with Japanese lyrics. HYDE also often deliberately includes a single line of Japanese in English lyrics, which he says is written as a kind of hook. His English lyrics are often written together with Lynne Hobday and Anis of MONORAL, and in recent years with Ali of MONORAL.
Regarding the act of writing lyrics, hyde has said, “Writing lyrics is really troublesome, but as a person, I think I am glad that I write them. I think writing lyrics and text is a very good thing.” He has also stated, “When you only think about something in your head, it is difficult to bring it together into one form. But when you turn it into writing, you can see it in the form of sentences and realize, ‘Ah, I see, that is what I was thinking,’ so it is easier to understand. Then it becomes easier to pursue it to the end, and you can see the essence of things.” He further stated, “I think the act of a vocalist properly writing lyrics and singing them is the most real thing. Singing lyrics written by someone else feels, after all, as though you are speaking for that person's sensibility. I do not mean that is bad, though.” Regarding lyrics in music, hyde has said, “I think they should be understood in a somewhat incomplete way. Lyrics would not be cool if you explained every single thing,” and “I do not think that writing only good things just because you want people to understand them properly will necessarily create something good.” He therefore often avoids explicitly stating the intended meaning of lyrics in interviews and leaves their interpretation to listeners.
Musician Koji Wakui described hyde's lyrics as “atmosphere-focused works that seem to scatter fragments of a story,” and commented, “They are far removed from ‘rock and roll’ as a post-punk mentality, but if viewed as the potential development of an expression that incorporates elements of literature, film, and theatre to become ‘rock,’ I think they are highly worthwhile.” Music writer Shunsuke Kosugi, writing in the 2004 issue of the music magazine ROCKIN'ON JAPAN, commented: “In this country's hit charts, which remain dominated by a mentality akin to naniwabushi, the fact that L'Arc continues to win without relying at all on either ‘tearfulness’ or ‘empathy’ cannot be praised highly enough.”
Jun Kano, the founder of the music magazine MUSICA and a music journalist, described a characteristic of hyde's lyrics as follows: “In ballads, he develops a highly literary world of words, yet the moment it becomes a driving number, he sings only easily understandable words. That is precisely why L'Arc's songs can always be ‘heard,’ no matter what kind of song they are. This is actually an amazing thing.” Furthermore, in a 1999 conversation with Haruo Chikada, singer-songwriter Yumi Matsutoya named hyde and two lyricists as people who “have the same little grains.” Matsutoya commented on the lyrics written by the three lyricists, including hyde: “The lyrics and melody are interlinked, yet I felt a pleasant blank space in the lyrics.”
Composition
L'Arc-en-Ciel, of which hyde is a member, adopts a band style in which “all members are songwriters.” In the band's early years, ken and tetsuya were its principal composers, so songs composed by hyde were often included as B-sides on CD singles. However, hyde wrote the vocal melodies for almost all songs released by L'Arc-en-Ciel through 1995. This was because, in L'Arc-en-Ciel at the time, it was customary for the vocalist to create the melody, while the person who created the chord progression and backing track was credited as the composer—an approach described as one commonly found in old heavy metal bands. From the 1996 single “Kaze ni Kienaide,” composed by tetsuya, onward, L'Arc-en-Ciel's composers began creating both the backing tracks and vocal melodies.
According to hyde, the first song he composed was titled “NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD,” written long before the formation of L'Arc-en-Ciel, although it has never been released in recorded form. He also composed many songs for Jelsarem's Rod, a band he belonged to before forming L'Arc-en-Ciel, including “Moon Seduction” and “With Silence.” “With Silence” was performed again after a long absence at L'Arc-en-Ciel's concert at Shibuya Kokaido (渋谷公会堂) during the April 1994 live tour Nostalgia no Yokan.
As noted above, many songs composed by hyde were included as B-sides on singles released during L'Arc-en-Ciel's early period. These have included songs with a Britpop atmosphere, such as “I'm so happy,” notable for its pop melody and melancholy sound; danceable songs with a white funk flavor, such as “THE GHOST IN MY ROOM”; and songs such as “Peeping Tom,” notable for its elusive guitar and accordion sounds.
Among the representative L'Arc-en-Ciel songs composed by hyde are the million-selling “HONEY” and “HEAVEN'S DRIVE.” He also composed “In the Air,” which reflects influences from the new wave music he favors; “and She Said,” created with the Beatles in mind and with languid and psychedelic atmospheres; “flower,” which incorporates the atmosphere of neo-acoustic music popular in the early 1990s; “LORELEY,” which develops from an intro of feedback noise and emotive piano into an interplay of alto saxophone and band sound; “Ibura no Namida,” which shifts from clean-guitar arpeggios into a heavy rock style towards the chorus; and “Spirit dreams inside,” a rock number foregrounding brisk acoustic-guitar sounds. He has also released songs produced in a soft-rock direction, including “Singin' in the Rain,” notable for the buoyant rhythm characteristic of a swing beat; “Anemone,” a ballad notable for its beautiful and majestic soundscape; “My Dear,” an adult-oriented rock number making extensive use of keyboard tones and sampled sounds; and “Ophelia,” a jazz-influenced song featuring piano by Haruo Togashi and flugelhorn by Jun Miyake. Since his student days, hyde had enjoyed listening to music leaning towards soft rock in addition to new wave and heavy metal, and in producing his first solo album, ROENTGEN, he at one point aimed to create recordings with songs by David Sylvian, Sting and others in mind. “My Dear” and “Ophelia” were based on demos hyde had made when preparing his next work in the direction he had pursued on his first solo album.
From around the latter half of the 2000s, hyde changed his approach to songwriting for L'Arc-en-Ciel. Initially, he often focused on what kind of songs to make as the rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel, but after pursuing songwriting inclined towards hard rock and alternative metal in his solo work, that desire was sublimated, and he began steering towards recording production not subordinate to rock. In an interview given upon L'Arc-en-Ciel's release of the album KISS in 2007, hyde stated: “Until now, I had a fixation about L'Arc-en-Ciel—something like wanting it to be more of a rock band. But that was sublimated through my solo work. On the contrary, I began to feel that perhaps what L'Arc-en-Ciel should do is take on greater musical challenges.” He also said: “In my solo work, I was creating within the constraint of ‘hard rock,’ but since this was L'Arc-en-Ciel, I reaffirmed that it was a band without constraints, one capable of anything. So I made songs with an extreme range, thinking of this kind of song and that kind of song.” In interviews in 2011 and 2012, he stated: “Rather than a rock band, L'Arc-en-Ciel is a musical collective. I see it as a gathering of artists who make music. What is important is whether each member can enjoy it as music; whether it is rock or not is something entirely different. It has both the enjoyable aspects of rock and the pleasurable aspects of pop. It takes the best of everything.” He further stated: “L'Arc-en-Ciel pursues something beyond enjoyment. It is not enough simply to enjoy ourselves; I think it is a band that has reached the point where there is no point in continuing unless it challenges itself at a higher musical level.”
This change in his perception of L'Arc-en-Ciel led him to produce songs in a variety of directions from the latter half of the 2000s onward. “SEVENTH HEAVEN,” for example, was produced with the idea of a modern version of Dead or Alive, while “Hurry Xmas” was given a sound evoking a jazzy, pop Christmas song. From the 2010s onward, he released “BLESS,” a ballad that makes extensive use of brass, woodwind and keyboard percussion in addition to string instruments, and “Mirai,” an electronic and fantastical song incorporating electric violin sounds. The 2011 song “X X X” began production with the concept of combining R&B and metal. At the time, hyde stated regarding its production: “I often feel that pop music and R&B are actually heavier and more rock than things called rock. So I deliberately mixed them, aiming to combine rock and pop.”
In his solo activities, which began in 2001, he broadly distinguished between two concepts, “stillness” and “motion,” producing recordings suited to each. His first solo album, ROENTGEN, released in 2002, contains songs reflecting his desire to give form to influences from soft rock and ambient music, including David Sylvian, Stina Nordenstam, Suzanne Vega and Sting. The album includes moody songs such as “evergreen,” “Angel's tale,” “A DROP OF COLOUR,” “THE CAPE OF STORMS,” and “SECRET LETTERS.” hyde has stated that making this album was a turning point for him as a composer. In his autobiography published in 2012, he wrote: “I feel that making ROENTGEN greatly refined my sense of pop. I think that, without it, I probably would not have had that growth.” He also wrote of changes in his compositional method: “Until then, even when I said I was composing, the process was to play guitar, sing a melody, bring it to the band, and put it together with everyone, so I probably relied heavily on the band for arrangements. With ROENTGEN, I began the method of making demos and then continuing to arrange them myself.” From 2003 onward, meanwhile, under the concept of “motion,” he released melodic songs colored by hard-rock sounds, such as “HELLO,” “MIDNIGHT CELEBRATION,” “COUNTDOWN,” and “JESUS CHRIST.”
In VAMPS, the rock unit launched in 2008, he was joined by K.A.Z of Oblivion Dust, and the group produced recordings approaching hard rock and alternative metal. In VAMPS, HYDE composed songs including “LOVE ADDICT,” “DEVIL SIDE,” “AHEAD,” “SEX BLOOD ROCK N' ROLL,” “BLOODSUCKERS,” “INSIDE OF ME feat. Chris Motionless of Motionless In White,” “UNDERWORLD,” and “IN THIS HELL.” HYDE has stated that when he co-wrote “RISE OR DIE” with Richard Z. Kruspe of Rammstein in 2016 as VAMPS, he encountered a production method different from his own and the preconceptions he had held until then collapsed. He has suggested that this experience led to a change in his songwriting methods for his solo work from 2018 onward.
In his solo activities under the concept of “motion,” resumed in 2018, HYDE began writing songs through a co-writing system with overseas producers such as Drew Fulk and Nicholas Furlong, as well as various musicians in Japan and abroad, resulting in an increase in recordings leaning towards alternative metal and metalcore. According to HYDE, this was a method adopted from his experience recording “RISE OR DIE.” He has released “MAD QUALIA,” co-written with Sho of MY FIRST STORY; “SET IN STONE,” co-written with PABLO of Pay money To my Pain; “DEFEAT,” co-written with SHOW-HATE of SiM; “LET IT OUT,” co-written with Kuboty, formerly of TOTALFAT; “ON MY OWN,” co-written with Kevin Thrasher Gruft of Escape the Fate; and “SOCIAL VIRUS,” co-written with YD of CRYSTAL LAKE. His 2026 album themed around “stillness” also incorporated co-writing, and included jazzy songs such as “DIE HAPPILY,” weaving together flowing string sounds and an alluring jazz-blues soundscape.
hyde has stated that in recent years he has often approached songwriting with a sensibility close to that of a producer, creating while imagining the finished form on the basis of an image of what kind of song would be good for him to make next. He has also said that he is not the type to make a large number of demos and use only one song, stating: “I combine one thing and another in my songs and change them, or, even if a song is boring at first, I keep arranging it into a song I like. It is rare for me to suddenly come up with a great song all at once, so I keep arranging a song and make it into something good.” As a result, he has said that while each song takes time to produce, he has comparatively few discarded songs.
Regarding his attitude towards making music and creating works, hyde has stated: “Artists have to be somewhat assertive, believe in their art, and push ahead. Otherwise, they cannot enjoy themselves, and fans do not want artists who are not enjoying themselves.” He also regards continuing to change as a positive thing, writing in his 2012 autobiography: “When you change for the first time, many people will leave, but if that change is good, I believe new fans will certainly come. I think that renewal is what keeps things from fading. Even if you change, if it is good, people will acknowledge it whether they want to or not. So they will love you again when you change next time as well. This accumulates and leads increasingly to trust. And someday, it becomes, ‘This band is cool no matter how it changes.’ I think that means they have come to like the person's essence, rather than merely the surface. So it may be strange for me to say it, but I think people who say, ‘I will definitely buy L'Arc-en-Ciel's next album too,’ probably trust us.”
hyde also dislikes musical activities constrained by preconceptions or by a particular music scene, stating: “Above all, I want to freely do what I find enjoyable and break down the borders between genres and scenes. I think rigid ideas such as ‘it has to be this way’ get in the way. It is more interesting to absorb all the good elements and sublimate them in one's own way, and as entertainment, I think it would be better if genres and scenes became more mixed up.” He has also expressed a desire for audiences at live concerts to be freer in their behavior, stating in a 2014 interview: “I think everyone should enjoy concerts and live shows however they want. Seeing everyone make the same movements, as is often the case, is not something I find particularly cool.”
Musical Roots and Musical Preferences
He mainly listens to new wave, new romantic, synth-pop, hard rock/heavy metal, and hardcore, which flourished from the late 1970s through the 1980s, as well as grunge and alternative metal from the 1990s onward.
As one of his formative musical experiences, he has cited artists such as Off Course and Billy Joel, whom he encountered during his elementary school years. Hyde's family ran a coffee shop at the time, and he listened to various songs on the jukebox there, which held numerous records, while looking for familiar tracks. Looking back on his elementary school years in a 2002 interview with the music magazine ROCKIN'ON JAPAN, he said, “The music I listened to on the jukebox during the coffee shop days became music I liked on the level of, ‘Ah, I’ve heard this song before,’ as I awakened to music.” Hyde has cited Billy Joel's The Stranger and Duran Duran's “Union of the Snake” among the records he first bought himself.
Around the time he entered junior high school, Hyde began listening extensively to new wave/new romantic music, which was booming primarily in London, England. In later years, he said of that period, “I never listened to music as much as I did around that time afterward. It was such an important period in which the foundation of my sensibility was built,” and, “Basically, the fact that British new wave was popular during my teenage years was fatal for me. I think that is true of everyone: you can never leave behind the music you listened to in your teens for the rest of your life. The music that formed my roots is 1980s new wave. I have listened to all kinds of music since then, but the influence of that time is strong.” Among artists commonly classified within this genre, he was particularly fond of Depeche Mode, David Sylvian, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Kajagoogoo, Spandau Ballet, The Fixx, Dead or Alive, and Naked Eyes. During this period, Hyde sought out new music through programs such as MTV and Best Hit USA, as well as local music cafés, and often shared the music he discovered with friends. In addition to the aforementioned bands, he also listened to Billy Idol, Men at Work, and Eurythmics, among artists who flourished during his junior high school years.
Among the new wave artists he listened to frequently at the time, Hyde has often named Depeche Mode as a particular favorite. In an interview with the music magazine Rolling Stone Japan published in 2016, he said, “Depeche Mode made an incredible musical impact on me, and they have been my favorite ever since. I like them so much that even a bad work is okay for me [laughs]. I have reached the point where it is enough just for them to release a new work,” and, “Even now, they are a treasure trove of musical ideas. [...] When I think something should be done a little differently here, I remember Depeche Mode. Then it becomes more to my taste. There were times when I imitated the way they sang, too.” Hyde has cited “People Are People” as the Depeche Mode song that made a major impression on him at the time.
Of David Sylvian, Hyde said, “Everything about him seemed like a mass of aesthetic consciousness. For me at the time, he was the beginning of decadence,” and, “I like David Sylvian even more after he went solo.” Regarding Ryuichi Sakamoto's “Forbidden Colours,” in which Sylvian participated, Hyde stated, “There is a film called Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, and of course it is extremely famous, and I think ‘Forbidden Colours’ is probably a song that everyone in Japan knows. But surprisingly, people do not know that David Sylvian sings this song, do they? I loved David Sylvian, and on top of that, David Sylvian singing a song written by Ryuichi Sakamoto—for me, it was like, ‘What happened when god and god collided?’ [laughs].” As VAMPS, a rock unit, Hyde released a cover recording of Depeche Mode's “Enjoy the Silence” in 2016. At an acoustic concert held under his solo name in 2017, he also covered “Forbidden Colours.”
From around the end of junior high school, he began listening to hard rock and heavy metal artists such as Judas Priest, Michael Schenker Group, Metallica, Mötley Crüe, and Ratt. He subsequently became strongly drawn to hardcore-oriented music by bands including GASTUNK, Misfits, GBH, Discharge, and Stormtroopers of Death. GASTUNK and Misfits in particular are often cited as hardcore bands incorporating horror elements, and Hyde has said that they greatly influenced him during this period. From around this time, he also listened avidly to rock bands incorporating gothic elements, such as DEAD END.
Of GASTUNK and Misfits, Hyde said, “At the time, hardcore and metal were gradually beginning to come together, and thrash metal was starting to emerge, but I thought GASTUNK was the most innovative at that time. Also, I think the first time I ever went to a live house was for a GASTUNK concert. The impact of that moment is eternal. I thought it was not of this world, and everyone in the audience looked like a vampire. It was also my first experience of the atmosphere of a live house, so it was truly an immense shock. That is exactly what I want to do with VAMPS. Perhaps I am merely reworking what it would be like to recreate that sensation in the present day,” and, “Unlike other Misfits albums, Legacy of Brutality has many songs that do not sound like hardcore, but its atmosphere feels like horror punk. The hardcore played in the film The Return of the Living Dead was my ideal, and I was searching for something like, ‘Isn’t there a song like that?’ Misfits were exactly that. They had a considerable influence on me.” In 2017, Hyde performed with Danzig, the band formed by Glenn Danzig of Misfits, at a concert in the United States. In 2022, GASTUNK appeared alongside him at a tour held under his solo name. In 2015, he and Sixx:A.M., a project led by Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx, performed together at a live event organized by VAMPS. Hyde has said that the first song he learned to play on guitar was Mötley Crüe's “Looks That Kill.”
In addition to such hard music, Hyde also enjoys soft rock or more adult-oriented rock by artists including the aforementioned David Sylvian, Sting, George Michael, Stina Nordenstam, and Suzanne Vega. He said, “I think everyone is like this, but I also have two sides. Even during the periods when I was listening to hard rock and thrash metal, I was listening to quiet music in the background. I liked Sting, David Sylvian, Stina Nordenstam, and Suzanne Vega as well. Those two sides were always within me. L'Arc-en-Ciel exists in between them and can go in either direction. But conversely, it cannot be packaged as only one of those two.” Hyde's first solo album, ROENTGEN, strongly reflects the influence of these artists. During the period in which he was producing the album JEKYLL, he listened to standard jazz. In 1998, on the music variety program LOVE LOVE Aishiteru, where L'Arc-en-Ciel appeared, he participated in a cover session of Wham!'s “Careless Whisper,” sung by George Michael.
Hyde has also listened avidly to artists including The Cure, The Smiths, the Police, Led Zeppelin, the Doors, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, U2, INXS, Fairground Attraction, Tears for Fears, The Cult, The Mission, and D'ERLANGER. The Cure and Johnny Marr of The Smiths are also artists admired by ken and tetsuya, members of L'Arc-en-Ciel. Possibly owing to this background, some works released by L'Arc-en-Ciel during its early years include songs reflecting influences from these artists. In later years, ken said of the direction of songwriting the band sought in its early days, “There was the idea of making backing tracks with an atmosphere like The Cure.” Masahiro Oishi, the representative of L'Arc-en-Ciel's management agency, recalled encountering L'Arc-en-Ciel by saying, “I remember that all four members listened frequently to UK rock such as The Cure.” According to Hyde, ken once asked him to “sing like Robert Smith of The Cure.” As VAMPS, Hyde released a cover recording of David Bowie's “Life on Mars?”, from the album Hunky Dory, in 2009.
After forming L'Arc-en-Ciel in 1991, Hyde avidly listened to alternative rock or grunge artists including Nirvana, Radiohead, Dinosaur Jr., Stone Temple Pilots, Atomic Swing, and the Cranberries. He also enjoys Soft Ballet, the Cardigans, Björk, Slipknot, A Perfect Circle, Marilyn Manson, Sevendust, and Linkin Park. Around a short time after L'Arc-en-Ciel made its major-label debut, most of the members were avid listeners of Atomic Swing, which Hyde said they “often listened to in the car.” At live performances held under his solo name from the 2010s onward, Hyde has covered Slipknot's “Duality” and Linkin Park's “Given Up.”
Among artists who emerged in the 2000s and 2010s, he frequently listens to songs by Thirty Seconds to Mars, Celldweller, Red, Palisades, Bring Me the Horizon, In This Moment, Palaye Royale, Sylar, From Ashes to New, and Fever 333. In 2019, Hyde was invited as a guest act to a Bring Me the Horizon concert, and in 2023 he appeared at NEX_FEST 2023, a rock festival curated by the band. Hyde has included songs by these artists in his own playlists and uploaded them to music streaming services.
Among Japanese music, in addition to Off Course and Kazumasa Oda, whom he listened to avidly during childhood, Hyde has been greatly influenced by GASTUNK and DEAD END. On the other hand, he has said that he “did not like bands that sold extremely well in Japan,” and in a 2002 interview with ROCKIN'ON JAPAN, he revealed that beat rock, which was popular in Japan in the 1980s, was “not to [his] taste.” At live events held under his solo name or as VAMPS, formed in 2008, he has covered Off Course's “Kokoro Hanarete,” Yosui Inoue's “Shonen Jidai,” Eikichi Yazawa's “Jikan yo Tomare,” and aiko's “Kabutomushi.” In a 2015 interview with a music magazine, Hyde said of lyrics written by aiko, “Whenever a song plays, I often think that the lyrics aiko writes are wonderful.” In 2016, at the VAMPS unplugged concert MTV Unplugged: VAMPS, he performed with Chara and sang a duet of her song “Milk.” In the 1996 interview book L'Arc-en-Ciel is, Hyde cited Kahimi Karie's “Humming ga Kikoeru” in response to the question, “What is your favorite song?” In 2020, he selected illion's “BRAIN DRAIN” for a playlist published by Billboard JAPAN titled “A playlist I listen to when drinking or relaxing.”
At concerts held by L'Arc-en-Ciel from 2020 onward, playlists comprising songs by various artists have been played in the venue before the start of the performance. These playlists were selected individually by each of the four members and were released on music streaming services after the performances. Hyde's playlists often include songs by artists who influenced him, as well as artists with whom he has shared bills in his solo activities.
Playlists of opening background music selected by Hyde and played before L'Arc-en-Ciel concerts
2020: ARENA TOUR MMXX OPENING BGM 2021: L'APPY BIRTHDAY! OPENING BGM 2021: 30th L'Anniversary TOUR OPENING BGM 2022: 30th L'Anniversary LIVE OPENING BGM
Playlists of opening background music selected by Hyde and played before concerts under his solo name
2020–2021: HYDE LIVE 2020-2021 ANTI WIRE (JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL DAYS – Spotify; HIGH SCHOOL DAYS – Spotify)
Profile
Since his amateur days, hyde had performed while concealing personal details such as his real name, date of birth and birthplace. In the April 2002 issue of the music magazine ROCKIN' ON JAPAN, he publicly disclosed his date of birth, January 29, 1969, and his birthplace, Wakayama, Wakayama Prefecture, for the first time. Consequently, his birthday also began to be listed in the profile section of L'Arc-en-Ciel's official website. In January 2012, he also revealed that his real name was Hideto Takarai (寶井 秀人).
hyde reportedly kept his profile undisclosed for a long time because, when he began playing in bands, he admired “mysterious band members whose identities and backgrounds were unknown,” such as Misfits and GASTUNK. However, after L'Arc-en-Ciel became a major presence in the latter half of the 1990s, people increasingly investigated his personal details. As information such as his birthplace became identified, he was sometimes told that he “must be ashamed that Wakayama, [his] hometown, is rural.” Looking back on that period, hyde said: “I thought that way of thinking itself—hiding it because you are ashamed of your hometown—was uncool, yet people saw me that way too... That was extremely frustrating.”
In response to this situation, hyde published the autobiography THE HYDE under his real name in 2012, deciding to disclose his real name as well as once again reveal his birthday and birthplace. Regarding his reasons for making his personal information public, he stated: “When I had those people I admired, society was not yet so internet-based, and I never imagined a world like this. Now, no matter what you hide, the internet reveals more and more. So it cannot be the same as it was then. Some fans may be a little disappointed by my confirming what I had remained silent about until now, but it is already completely known, and I no longer find remaining silent appealing. So I had thought I would confirm it at some point. It is a world without dreams, after all.”
hyde said that, as far as his real name was concerned, he had intended to disclose it when making his major-label debut. Explaining why he had wanted to reveal it then, he said: “I thought I would become like Sawada Kenji = Julie [laughs]. But before I knew it, I had debuted [laughs]. At the time, I avoided making a big deal out of a major-label debut, and I was busy, so before I knew it, it had passed.”
In the same book, he also disclosed his height. hyde suggested that he did so because an unfounded rumor had circulated online that “hyde is 156 cm tall,” and revealed that his height is 161 cm. In his autobiography, he wrote: “I have no idea where or how that story started, but it has been strangely popular for quite a long time, hasn't it? [laughs]”
He does not like disclosing information about his private life, writing in his autobiography: “I think, ‘Why do I have to tell the public whether things about my private life are true or not?’” and “If there were a line where, beyond it, one was a celebrity, and before it, one was not, I would have wanted to go to the non-celebrity side. I still do not know where that line between celebrities and ordinary people is drawn.” He has also stated: “While I have wanted to peek into the private lives of people I admired, I have also sometimes regretted finding things out, so I do not think being open is necessarily always good,” and “I want to continue drawing a line between work and family.”
hyde has confessed in his autobiography that he “cannot become a celebrity,” saying of himself: “I do not dislike musicians who appear on variety shows, but I do not have the character to go that far [laughs]. The way things have been until now is just right for me.” In fact, he appears on television extremely rarely except when appearing on music programs to promote recordings. In November 2024, he appeared on Nippon TV's Oshare Clip, a talk program featuring a single guest; this was his first appearance on a talk-variety program in approximately 20 years.
Within L'Arc-en-Ciel, of which hyde is a member, tetsuya serves as leader. It was hyde who recommended tetsuya for the role. Regarding the circumstances behind this recommendation, hyde said: “I think we needed to decide who would lead. He could not say himself, ‘I will become the leader,’ so I said, ‘I think tetsuya is suitable to be the leader.’ tetsuya was dependable even then.”
In a 2007 interview, tetsuya described hyde as “someone like a teacher or an older brother to me from long ago,” adding, “For me, he is the biggest older brother in the band. I rely on him the most; he is calm, kind, and an extremely hard worker.” K.A.Z of Oblivion Dust and VAMPS described his impression of hyde as follows: “He is basically a quiet person normally. When he gets immersed in something such as recording, he becomes extremely stoic. His concentration is incredible. He also draws pictures. When he is in the studio, he is basically either making music or doing something related to art, so he feels like an artist through and through.” Hajime Okano, co-producer of L'Arc-en-Ciel, said of hyde: “He is natural, or rather, not easily disturbed. When he is in the studio, it makes you feel at ease. That must be innate. He is very broad-minded, I suppose... He is a person with a mysterious aura. You can tell that the other members greatly respect that aspect of him as well.”
Tatsuro (逹瑯) of MUCC said of hyde: “He is so natural that you do not feel at all that he is putting on an act or trying to look cool. I thought he must truly be a good person in his natural state. That is probably why people naturally gather around him. I have seen many senior figures up close, including rock stars and legends, but what is so appealing about HYDE is that he does not hide his uncool side. Although he is a rock star, he is somehow human as well. That makes him approachable.” Pierre Nakano of Ling Tosite Sigure recalled an episode involving hyde: “A Sony staff member introduced a new staff member to hyde. Normally, it would end with, ‘Ah, nice to meet you. Do your best from now on,’ would it not? But rather than only offering the passionate words, ‘The future rests on us, so let us work hard together,’ he also spoke deeply about the music industry, then looked the person in the eyes and firmly shook hands. The moment I witnessed that, I was truly moved.”
Regarding how he builds personal relationships, hyde has said: “I want to like people as much as possible, and I trust them to an appropriate extent, but I do not have excessive expectations”; “I am not good with people who act arrogantly by using their age or career as a shield”; and “I do not think I am particularly good at judging people. However, I want to like people based on my own will as much as possible. Sometimes friends tell me things like, ‘You should be careful around that person,’ but at such times, I observe them a little and may think, ‘No, I like them,’ or I may conclude, ‘They really are no good.’ While taking the opinions of those around me into account to some extent, I make my own judgment and decide whether to associate with someone.”
Because he had not originally listened much to bands that achieved hits in Japan, he was reportedly not particularly oriented toward major success when L'Arc-en-Ciel had only recently made its major-label debut. In an interview with ROCKIN' ON JAPAN in 2002, hyde said that he had aimed for “something neither particularly successful nor unsuccessful, but with longevity.” In a 2011 interview, he reflected on the band's progression toward the mainstream: “To be honest, it was not that I particularly wanted to become a popular artist. I never imagined I would go so far as to sing on television. But once I entered this world, there were many things I could not do when I wanted to express my art unless I had become successful. I think that is what increasingly accelerated things.”
During an interview on the news program News Station in 2000, an interviewer asked, “Even looking at the data—attendance figures and CD sales—you are already invincible, are you not? Does that not give you confidence?” hyde replied: “It does not. Even if the artists I admired at the time were not selling at all, they were charismatic to me... If you ask whether I have actually surpassed them, I do not think I have surpassed them at all, so naturally I do not fit that description.” He has also said: “Certainly, in terms of sales and recognition as a rock band, it may have been activity that remains in the record books. But if I were a boy, none of that would excite me,” and “It would be fine even if I returned to a four-and-a-half-tatami room someday. If I do what I want to do and fail as a result, it cannot be helped. I think life is a gamble in that respect.”
On December 25, 2000, he registered his marriage to television personality and newscaster Megumi Oishi after they became acquainted through appearing together on the TBS music program Utaban. Their first child was born in 2003.
Preferences
From an early age, hyde enjoyed drawing and would play by drawing pictures alone. However, he was born with color vision deficiency and found it difficult to distinguish intermediate colors, which made him anxious about coloring. Amid such concerns, his sixth-grade homeroom teacher told him, “Don’t worry about it; color things as you see fit,” which he has said gave him confidence.
Hyde subsequently enrolled in a vocational design school, but as he began considering employment, his anxiety about coloring steadily increased. In a 1996 interview, looking back on his feelings at the time, he said: “Of course, you can’t suddenly become a painter, so you have to get some kind of job, right? So I wondered, ‘Will I be able to find employment with this?’” Along with this change in mindset, he began playing guitar under the influence of heavy metal and decided to pursue a career in music.
In an interview with the culture magazine SWITCH in 2001, he explained why he had been drawn to music: “My eyes have color vision deficiency, but if they did not, I do not think music would have excited me this much. Even though I have color vision deficiency, I can see colors in my own way. It is just different from how other people see them. So, in my case, music is what allows me to make use of what I see”; and, “In the world of music, whether shades of green differ slightly is left to the listener’s judgement, right? Green is green. People simply imagine the green they have seen. In that sense, it offers a great deal of freedom and is ideal.”
He has said that he longs for snow, which he attributes to having grown up in an area where it seldom snowed. Regarding winter and snow, hyde has stated: “Apparently, people in snowy regions do not like snow very much, but because I grew up somewhere without it, it makes me really excited”; “When people are cold, they try to warm themselves up, right? Because it is cold, they think of warming themselves a little by the stove or having a hot pot meal. I like that kind of thing. So, to me, winter has a warm image”; and, “Winter is cold, but precisely because it is winter, everyone gathers together and has a strong desire to do something warm; that intention is very warm. It is something you would not ordinarily notice. People who do not notice it just think it is cold, cold, but in fact it makes people’s lives warmer.”
This preference is strongly reflected in his lyrics. Songs released by L’Arc-en-Ciel, such as “winter fall” and “Yuki no Ashiato”, and songs released under his solo name, such as “Angel’s tale”, “WHITE SONG”, and “SMILING”, feature lyrics set in winter or snowy landscapes. “winter fall”, one of L’Arc-en-Ciel’s signature songs, was given a title intended to mean “the end of winter”, combining “winter” with “curtain fall”, and tells a story in which a romance comes to an end along with winter.
His strong longing for snow was greatly influenced by the Fuji Television drama series Kita no Kuni kara, which he watched as a child. Perhaps because of this background, he has described Hokkaido as “a region I particularly like,” and since 2014 has held an annual winter event titled “Kuro Misa” in Furano, Hokkaido. Hyde is also said to have enjoyed watching Yasashii Jikan and Kaze no Garden, dramas written by So Kuramoto, who created Kita no Kuni kara.
Since around the mid-2000s, snowboarding has been one of his hobbies. From the 2010s onward, hyde has held the fan meeting event “SNOW MONSTER HOTEL” every winter in Naeba, Niigata, for fan club members. Before the evening event, he snowboards on the adjacent slopes.
He likes slopes and has said that they “stimulate a sense of nostalgia and curiosity,” adding, “When a slope is very winding, I wonder what it will be like if I turn that corner.” Regarding his attraction to slopes, he has stated: “I may have been influenced by films set in Onomichi directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi, and perhaps that has been imprinted on me in some way, but I do not really know the reason myself.”
He began enjoying horror films while he was a student and started listening to heavy metal. Looking back, he said: “After moving to Tokyo, I rented horror films one after another from a video rental shop in my neighborhood—A-grade, B-grade, and C-grade.” Regarding the appeal of horror, hyde has said: “I think the feeling of being scared is pleasurable. Perhaps it is similar to being moved? I think its good point is that it stirs people’s emotions. [...] The lyric ‘Darkness is something to savor deeply’ in L’Arc-en-Ciel’s ‘DRINK IT DOWN’ is exactly that kind of idea”; “It is fun to expose all five senses to fear, yet still enter the next room with a feeling like, ‘I am fine’”; and, “To savor fear... in a sense, I feel eros in it.” However, according to hyde, “I used to like splatter films too, but recently I have become unable to watch them.”
Many of the lyrics written by hyde have death as their theme, and he has analyzed this himself as possibly being because “at heart, I like horror.” Regarding his lyrics about death, he has said: “Things like, ‘What will happen if I die?’ or, ‘That person died in that way, but perhaps it was actually like this.’ There is a feeling of writing a will in them. I have heard that it is a good thing to write your own will while you are healthy, and it feels almost the same as that.”
Hyde’s fondness for horror can be seen not only in the lyrics of the aforementioned L’Arc-en-Ciel song “DRINK IT DOWN”, but also in various works. For example, the name of Jelsarem’s Rod, a band in which he had previously played, was derived from ’Salem’s Lot, a novel by Stephen King that hyde was an avid reader of at the time. The music video for “WHO’S GONNA SAVE US”, released under his solo name, was made as an homage to the film The Shining.
In L’Arc-en-Ciel’s activities, the band provided “finale” as the theme song for the 2000 horror film Ring 0: Birthday, and “Don’t be Afraid” as the theme song for the Japanese-dubbed version of the 2016 horror action film Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. In 2016, a VR music video for PlayStation VR, “Don’t be Afraid –Biohazard® × L’Arc-en-Ciel on PlayStation®VR–”, a collaboration with the Biohazard series of games on which the aforementioned film was based, was released.
Besides horror, he is also interested in the occult, although hyde has said that he “does not believe in these kinds of stories at all.” He has stated: “Basically, I do not believe in anything at all (laughs). But I love it.” The albums ark and ray, released by L’Arc-en-Ciel in 1999, incorporated The Great Prophecies of Nostradamus as one of their concepts. In Japan around the end of the 1990s, books connected with The Great Prophecies of Nostradamus were popular due to an occult boom, and L’Arc-en-Ciel conducted album-release promotion reflecting “fin de siècle thought” in light of this. However, hyde has said that he “does not believe in this prophecy at all.” Ken and tetsuya, also members of L’Arc-en-Ciel, likewise apparently did not believe in the prophecy at all. At the time, ken said of it: “It is interesting as a dream, but it gets interpreted only after something happens, right? And they are all poems that can be read in any number of ways, depending on how you read them. There are also an enormous number of them. So there is a great deal about it that I cannot trust.” At the time of the albums’ release, tetsuya explained why the prophecy had been incorporated into the release promotion: “It is not that we are conscious of it; we are using it—the fin de siècle idea. It is not that we seriously believe in it or anything; we are only using it.”
Although he is also skeptical about the existence of God, in writing the lyrics for L’Arc-en-Ciel’s “Ibara no Namida”, he deliberately wrote from a perspective entirely opposite to his own beliefs. Discussing the song’s lyrics, he said of God and religion at the time of its release: “I do not really like the very blind kind of feeling of believing in one God. [...] Knowing nothing else, the first religion one sees is everything, and it is the truth. The fact that an individual can even die for that is very strange. I had always thought it was foolish, but... while thinking that it was foolish, I also wondered whether being able to believe in it and die for it might, in a sense, be beautiful... So I wrote ‘Ibara no Namida’ from a viewpoint different from my values up to that point”; and, “There are people who believe in [God and religion], right? Whether they are right or wrong, I think it is a pure feeling. In that sense, it is beautiful.” Hyde released the solo album FAITH in 2006, and the lyrics of its songs extensively express his views on religion.
He is fond of the science-fiction film Blade Runner and has incorporated elements of it into many works. In “Mado -Fenêtre-”, a short film included in L’Arc-en-Ciel’s 1995 image video Siesta ~Film of Dreams~, which hyde planned and starred in, a shot of a Java sparrow perched on his shoulder was included with the scene in mind in which Roy Batty, the replicant played by Rutger Hauer, has a dove on his shoulder. L’Arc-en-Ciel’s “metropolis” borrowed its title from the film Metropolis, but its lyrics were written with the world of Blade Runner in mind.
The lyrics of L’Arc-en-Ciel’s “NEXUS 4” also partly incorporate the world of Blade Runner, including the phrase “We wandering ones dream of electric sheep”, based on Philip K. Dick’s science-fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the source material for the film. The title “NEXUS 4” was also taken from the name “Nexus-6”, the replicants manufactured for labor that appear in the film. When filming the video for “GET AWAY”, released by VAMPS in 2014, the production was made with the atmosphere of the film in mind. In his solo concert tour held in 2019, he used a stage set themed around the fictional city “NEO TOKYO”, combining the worlds of Blade Runner and the manga AKIRA.
In addition to Blade Runner, he has produced recordings inspired by various other works. L’Arc-en-Ciel’s “Singin’ in the Rain” borrowed its title from the musical film Singin’ in the Rain, while “Angel’s tale”, released under his solo name, has lyrics inspired by the film Edward Scissorhands. When filming the music video for the solo song “INTERPLAY”, he wore a white costume inspired by characters in the film A Clockwork Orange. He has also said that he wrote the lyrics for the aforementioned VAMPS song “GET AWAY” with the film The Graduate as its motif. In addition, hyde once said at the time of its release that the lyrics of L’Arc-en-Ciel’s “forbidden lover” “may have been influenced by the film Dracula.” For a time, he also frequently wore a ring, featuring a star design within amber, worn by the devil played by Robert De Niro in the film Angel Heart.
He also frequently writes lyrics based on real incidents and historical events. “SECRET LETTERS”, released under his solo name, was partly motivated by Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl, while “DOLLY”, likewise released under his solo name, features lyrics themed around Dolly the sheep clone. Among L’Arc-en-Ciel songs, he wrote lyrics expressing his feelings about environmental destruction and the conduct of society in “Sai wa Nagerareta”, released in 1996; his feelings for children in war zones caught up in the Iraq War in “Hoshizora”, released in 2005; and his feelings in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake in “wild flower”, released in 2012. Hyde has occasionally written lyrics set against or themed around war, expressing his own thoughts and feelings in songs including the aforementioned “Hoshizora” as well as “fate”, “forbidden lover”, and “DAYBREAK’S BELL”, released by L’Arc-en-Ciel. Many songs on AWAKE, released by L’Arc-en-Ciel in 2005, feature lyrics expressing hyde’s ideas of opposition to war and peace, while the concert tour held that same year adopted costumes and staging suited to a concept expressing opposition to war.
He has named Neon Genesis Evangelion as one of his favorite films. For Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone and Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance, films in the Rebuild of Evangelion series, he rented out cinemas and watched them with all four members of L’Arc-en-Ciel. Hyde has also revealed that he watched the subsequently released Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo and Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time.
In 2012, hyde stated of Japanese animation: “I think it could do much more. Since it has spread around the world to that extent, it would be fine to push forward more and more”; and, “If people organized lots of events and all made the strongest possible anime together, it seems as though it could become a movement that changes Hollywood.”
Among manga, he has enjoyed reading Doraemon, Devilman, Urusei Yatsura, TO-Y, KISSxxxx, Nekojiru Udon, Multiple Personality Detective Psycho, and Death Note, among others. He is said to have particularly liked and avidly read works by Yoshihisa Tagami when he was in junior high school. He was especially greatly influenced by Devilman, saying: “It makes up most of who I am. I also aspired to Devilman in terms of artistic expression, or the musical expression of rock. There is a line where a devil says to a human, ‘You are the real devil,’ and that really struck me. In other words, it is a line saying that humans are the ones doing outrageous things. That is my central core. That is where my rock-and-roll aspiration lies.”
A comment by hyde was published in Doraemon 100, a magazine issued in 2012 to commemorate 100 years before Doraemon’s birth. He also contributed a comment to the obi strip of volume 2 of Nekogami-sama, a work by Nekojiru. Nekojiru Daizen: Jokkan, released in 2008, reprinted an interview with hyde originally published in the September 1998 issue of Monthly Comic Bingo, the manga magazine in which the manga had been serialised. The back cover of L’Arc-en-Ciel’s 2006 single “the Fourth Avenue Café” uses an illustration created by Nekojiru before her death.
In “hyde self portrait”, a portrait-production project intermittently published in the music magazine R&R NewsMaker until 2001, hyde released a drawing created with Lucy Monostone, a character in the manga Multiple Personality Detective Psycho, in mind. “AHEAD”, released by VAMPS in 2013, borrowed its title from “A-HEAD”, the debut song of TO-Y (Fujii Toi), a character in the manga TO-Y. The single containing “AHEAD” depicts the song title with the “A” enclosed in a circle on its cover, also following the notation of TO-Y’s song title. Hyde is also said to have worn an ear piercing in imitation of Kaie, another character in the manga. In 2024, a T-shirt depicting hyde, drawn by Junji Kamijo, the manga’s creator, was sold, and in 2025 a conversation between the two was published in Kamijo’s To-y Tobirae-shu COVERS.
From around the latter half of the 2010s, he has been an avid reader of manga by NON and has revealed that he read Hare-Kon. and adabana: Juka. Hyde contributed a comment to the obi strip of volume 13 of Hare-Kon. and provided his song “FINAL PIECE” as the theme song for its television drama adaptation.
He is also said to have avidly read Tokyo Revengers, by Ken Wakui, and Raging Hell, by Hikari Araki. In 2023, hyde and Wakui held a special conversation on the news website Natalie.
L’Arc-en-Ciel appeared in the cover gravure of the February 2, 2000 issue of the manga magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. In addition to photographs of L’Arc-en-Ciel, the issue included illustrations of the members by manga artist Yoshihiro Togashi.
He has named Osaka Ohsho’s “Fluffy and Melting Tenshinhan” as one of his favorite foods. Tenshinhan appears as an item in HYDE RUN, a game produced under hyde’s full supervision.
Originally a smoker, he quit smoking around 2009. According to hyde, the impetus was K.A.Z of Oblivion Dust and VAMPS quitting smoking after suffering a bone fracture so as not to delay his recovery, which made hyde think, “I will quit smoking too.”
Artist Name
When active as a member of L'Arc-en-Ciel, he uses the lowercase spelling “hyde”, while for other activities he often uses the uppercase spelling “HYDE”.
However, HYDE himself is not particular about the distinction in spelling. In his autobiography published in 2012, he wrote: “It has become something like lowercase for L'Arc-en-Ciel and uppercase for solo work, but I myself am not particular about it. After all, my signature is ‘hyde’. It just happened that way before I knew it, but even now I do not really care, and I think it is fine to change it depending on the design.”
2001–2002: ROENTGEN—Beginning Activities With the Concept of <Stillness>
In 2001, at HYDE's request, each member of L'Arc-en-Ciel entered a period of solo activity. Under his solo name, HYDE adopted <stillness> as his theme, pursuing a musical direction different from that of the songs he had worked on in the band. On October 17, 2001, he released “evergreen”, which had been used as the song for a Uniqlo commercial in which he appeared, as his first solo single, thereby beginning his activities in earnest. Regarding his reasons for beginning a solo career, HYDE stated, “It was like a child growing up and wanting their own room; I developed a desire to try making music by myself.”
The first-press limited-edition CDs of the three singles “evergreen”, “Angel's tale”, and “SHALLOW SLEEP”, the latter two released in 2002, used coffin-shaped cases, reflecting HYDE's strong wish “to make everything, from the CD case and jacket onward, truly to my own taste.” In addition, a new label was established for his solo work: HAUNTED RECORDS (ホーンテッド レコーズ) was launched in 2001 within Ki/oon Music, a Sony Music Entertainment label to which L'Arc-en-Ciel belonged.
In March 2002, HYDE released his first album, ROENTGEN, which included the title tracks of the three preceding singles. Every song on the album was recorded at Air Studios in London, England. Ian Curnow and Dave Ford, both formerly affiliated with PWL, the record label run by the British music production team Stock Aitken Waterman, participated as co-arrangers. Other contributors brought in for the production included Pete Glenister, who had worked on albums by Frida and Terence Trent D'Arby; Phil Palmer, who had worked on David Sylvian's album Brilliant Trees; as well as Chris Laurence and Pip Williams.
Throughout ROENTGEN, string instruments and acoustic instruments were effectively featured, creating a moody soundscape with a strong ambient character. Against this background, the work was presented as HYDE's first concept album. Its production proceeded in a direction different from the musical style he had pursued in the band, in part because he wanted to give form to influences from the soft rock he had enjoyed listening to from his student days through L'Arc-en-Ciel's early years, including David Sylvian, Sting, Stina Nordenstam, and Suzanne Vega. In an interview at the time of the album's release, HYDE reflected on its production: “I didn't want it to be music containing all sorts of things. It was unique to a solo project, I suppose; from beginning to end, including the song order and the lyrics, I wanted to include only songs that belonged on this album.”
HYDE also stated, “If I couldn't release it at this time, I had no confidence in what my sensibilities would become in the future, so I was incredibly lucky to be able to make this album while I could,” and, “I was able to make it because of all the pent-up feelings I had had until then, but it was enormously draining both mentally and physically. It would take a lot of energy to make another album like it, so I thought it would take several more years.” In 2002 and 2004, in accordance with HYDE's wish to release it entirely in English, albums containing versions of all the songs with English lyrics were released in Japan and various Asian countries. On November 3, 2004, ROENTGEN STORIES, a music video collection that translated the album's world into visuals, was released; in 2021, it was adapted into a picture book as ROENTGEN STORIES EHON PAMPHLET.
Because HYDE wanted to complete the album as “music that can be enjoyed at home,” he performed almost no live shows in its release year of 2002. However, the special program Midnight Channel: HYDE Unplugged, broadcast on NHK General TV on April 7, 2002, aired footage of a concert recorded on March 19 that year in the chapel of Gloria Chapel Shinagawa Church. Haruo Togashi on piano and Seigen Tokuzawa on cello participated as supporting musicians, and the concert was performed in an unplugged style by a three-piece ensemble. This performance was a promotional event, and the concerts held on March 29 and April 2 that year were likewise strongly conceptual events.
Although no concert tour bearing the album's title was held for a long time after its release, concerts titled “10TH ANNIVERSARY PREMIUM LIVE -ROENTGEN NIGHT-” were held in 2011, marking the tenth anniversary of HYDE's solo activities, and “20th Orchestra Tour HYDE ROENTGEN 2021” was held in 2021, marking his twentieth anniversary as a solo artist. Performances themed around <stillness> are now held regularly.
2003–2004: Shift to Activities Centred on the Concept of '666'–<Movement>
From 2003, HYDE made a complete shift in policy from album production-centered activities to <Movement>-centered activities focused on live performances. His musical style also moved towards harder rock. Regarding the reason for this change in direction, HYDE stated, “I thought, it had been more than half a year since the previous album came out and I had not been on stage. So I felt like changing my way of thinking, making an album that would allow me to perform live, and going out to meet everyone.” According to HYDE, this marked “the real start” of his solo career.
After switching to a <Movement>-centered approach, HYDE took part in “BUBBLE FESTiVAL”, a live tour organized by the rock band SONS OF ALL PUSSYS, which included Ken of L'Arc-en-Ciel, from April 27 to May 15, 2003. During this tour, he traveled to various locations and premiered unreleased songs created with melodic hard rock in mind, including “HELLO”, a single released on June 4 that year. On November 6, 2003, he released the single “HORIZON”, which was used as the theme song for the film Sky High. In December of the same year, he released his second album, 666. K.A.Z, the guitarist of the rock band Oblivion Dust, was brought in as co-producer and guitar adviser for the album.
HYDE also recorded extensively as a guitarist for the first time on this work. In a departure from the musical style of his previous album, he adopted a harder direction characterized by frequent use of heavy riffs. According to HYDE, because the songs were written with the intention of performing them live in a band with a simple format, he avoided overdubbing additional sounds over recorded tracks as much as possible.
At the live performances held around this time, HYDE handled vocals and guitar, accompanied by bassist HIROKI, formerly of media youth and KILLERS, and drummer FURUTON, formerly of SPACE COWBOY, Oblivion Dust, and BUG. The performances were held in a three-piece band format. This was the first time since the formation of L'Arc-en-Ciel that HYDE played guitar throughout an entire live performance. In an interview after the shows, he recalled the initial impulse he had felt when he began playing in a band: “I was completely occupied with playing the guitar. I was probably really bad at first. But it somehow felt very nostalgic, like being in high school. It was probably playing that was below even high-school level, though [laughs]. The other two might have been good, but I could not even tell that, because I was too occupied with myself. But it was fun. It made me realize again that I can still do it with those feelings.”
On August 1, 2003, HYDE made his first appearance at the outdoor rock festival ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2003 as a secret guest. In the following year, he held his first solo live tour, “2004 FIRST TOUR 666”, consisting of 21 performances in 11 cities across Japan. At the Zepp Sendai performance of the tour on March 14, 2004, he invited sakura, the former drummer of L'Arc-en-Ciel, as a guest drummer and performed the L'Arc-en-Ciel song “I'm so happy”. The tour also included band-arranged versions of songs from his previous album ROENTGEN, as well as covers of the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.
2005–2006: "FAITH"
From May 2004, L'Arc-en-Ciel resumed activities and began touring, and as band activities continued for approximately the following year, HYDE suspended his public solo activities. During this period, on August 31, 2005, he provided a song for singer Mika Nakashima for the first time. The song, “GLAMOROUS SKY” (lyrics by Ai Yazawa; music by HYDE), was used as the theme song for the film NANA and attracted considerable attention alongside the film's major success. On August 26 of the same year, HYDE appeared as a member of Nakashima's backing band on the TV Asahi music program Music Station. This was his first appearance on the program as a guitarist.
HYDE resumed his solo work with the release of the single “COUNTDOWN” on October 5, 2005, which was used as the Japanese-language theme song for the film Stealth. For the production of this single, K.A.Z, who had served as co-producer on the previous album 666, also began participating in recording sessions as a guitarist. That same month, HYDE held the Halloween event “HALLOWEEN OF THE LIVING DEAD”, which he organized himself. In addition to HYDE, the event featured MONORAL, UVERworld, OLIVIA, HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR, Mika Nakashima, and yasu (formerly of Janne Da Arc). The Halloween event was subsequently carried on by VAMPS, the rock unit HYDE formed in 2008, and was held annually under VAMPS' auspices until 2017.
On February 22, 2006, HYDE released the single “SEASON'S CALL”, approximately four months after his previous single. Until this release, HYDE had written all the lyrics and music for songs released under his solo name other than cover recordings, but K.A.Z, his co-producer and support guitarist, composed a song for the first time on this release. On the third album FAITH, released in April of the same year, K.A.Z composed half of the recorded songs, significantly changing the songwriting arrangement. This production style later became the prototype for VAMPS. In an interview conducted shortly after the formation of VAMPS, HYDE described the circumstances behind its formation: “Various timings and factors came together, but in fact, the style we are using now had already been completed from the previous album, FAITH. However, it would have been difficult to continue using the name ‘HYDE’ in the same way as before.”
FAITH carried on the worldview of AWAKE, the album released by L'Arc-en-Ciel in 2005, and was produced as a work centered on anti-war and peace themes that also incorporated HYDE's own religious views. Almost all recording work for the album was carried out in the United States. In addition to Craig Adams and Scott Garrett, who had been members of The Mission and The Cult, both bands HYDE enjoyed listening to, Danny Lohner, who had supported Nine Inch Nails on tour, took part in the recording, while the engineers were also selected locally.
From April 1 to September 2, 2006, for approximately five months immediately before the album's release, HYDE held his second concert tour, “HYDE TOUR 2006 FAITH”. The tour visited 40 cities in Japan and the United States, including HYDE's first solo performances in the United States, and comprised 51 shows.
2018–2019: 'ANTI'
On December 1, 2017, after approximately 10 years of activity as VAMPS, HYDE suddenly announced that the group would suspend its activities. In March 2018, he announced that he would hold the solo live tour “HYDE LIVE 2018” from June of that year. He resumed his solo activities through a dynamic, live-performance-centered approach. Support members for the tour included PABLO of Pay money To my Pain on guitar, Ali of MONORAL on bass, Ryo Yamagata on drums, Shuntaro Kado on drums, and Yoshiteru Horimukai on keyboards, who participated on a rotating basis. The tour visited seven cities in Japan in a five-member band format.
In March 2018, HYDE provided a song to Mika Nakashima for the second time. It was the first collaboration between Nakashima and HYDE in approximately 13 years, since “GLAMOROUS SKY” in 2005. The song, “KISS OF DEATH”, was used as the opening theme for the anime series Darling in the Franxx.
On June 27, 2018, he released the single “WHO’S GONNA SAVE US”, his first single under his solo name alone in approximately 12 years. In parallel with the aforementioned tour, he also released the singles “AFTER LIGHT” and “FAKE DIVINE”. All three singles were made available for download and streaming before their physical releases. From 2018 onwards, new releases, including the album released the following year, were generally issued digitally in advance, apparently in consideration of listeners’ listening environments. In August of that year, he released “Monster feat. HYDE”, a collaboration with the American rock band Starset, which had appeared as a support act at the Tokyo dates of the tour. In October, at the invitation of YOSHIKI of X JAPAN, he participated as vocalist on “Red Swan”, which was used as the opening theme for the anime series Attack on Titan Season 3. The song was performed as “YOSHIKI feat. HYDE” on the 69th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen, broadcast on December 31, 2018.
In the activities resumed from 2018, HYDE continued his contract with Universal Music’s Virgin Music label from the VAMPS era, while also partnering with the major American management company 10th Street Entertainment and Live Nation, one of the world’s largest event promoters. Against this background, from 2018 onward he increasingly worked with overseas producers, appeared at overseas festivals such as Welcome to Rockville, and held overseas tours. In 2018, he also appeared at numerous rock festivals held in Japan, including ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2018, Ongaku to Higetachi 2018, Kishidan Banpaku 2018, and Porno Chotokkyo 2018. From 2019 onward, he also frequently appeared at festivals in Japan, including SUMMER SONIC, VIVA LA ROCK, MONSTER baSH, METROPOLITAN ROCK FESTIVAL, ARABAKI ROCK FEST., and Oga Namahage Rock Festival.
In January 2019, he held “Kuro Misa”, a dinner-show-style concert previously held every winter in Furano, Hokkaido, at Makuhari Messe Event Hall. On January 29 of the same year, his birthday, he held the acoustic concert “HYDE ACOUSTIC CONCERT 2019 Kuro Misa BIRTHDAY WAKAYAMA” at Wakayama Big Whale in his home prefecture.
As in the previous year, he continued to release works in quick succession in 2019 in preparation for an album release. In February, he released “ZIPANG”, featuring YOSHIKI of X JAPAN on piano, and in March he released “MAD QUALIA”, which was used as the image song for the game Devil May Cry 5, as advance singles. In May, prior to the 13-city American tour “HYDE LIVE 2019 US”, he began advance digital distribution of all tracks from anti, his fourth album and first album released under his solo name alone in approximately 13 years. In June, approximately one month after digital distribution began, he released the physical edition of the album ANTI.
In recording ANTI, with overseas tours and event appearances planned, HYDE sought to filter the production through an American lens. Songs were created with overseas producers such as Drew Fulk and Nicholas Furlong, as well as guest Matt Brandyberry of From Ashes to New. In addition to live support members PABLO of Pay money To my Pain and Yoshiteru Horimukai, Sho of MY FIRST STORY also participated in the production, resulting in an album featuring songs leaning toward alternative metal and metalcore. According to HYDE, one reason for increasing the number of co-writes on the album was that, when he co-wrote “RISE OR DIE” with Richard Z. Kruspe of Rammstein as VAMPS in 2016, he encountered a method of production different from his own and his previous preconceptions were overturned.
From June 22 of that year, immediately after the physical release, he held the 26-date live tour “HYDE LIVE 2019” across seven cities in Japan. The stage set for the tour was “NEO TOKYO”, a cyberpunk fictional city combining the worlds of the manga AKIRA and the film Blade Runner. Both works date from the 1980s, but because their stories are set in 2019, HYDE incorporated them into the tour’s stage production. Following the American tour and domestic Japanese tour, appearances as a support act at Starset concerts, and an appearance as a guest act at Bring Me the Horizon’s Japanese concerts, he held “HYDE LIVE 2019 ANTI FINAL” at Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Halls 4–6 in December 2019. The event saw diving and circle moshing on the floor, and was positioned as a culmination of the ANTI project.
2020–2021: A Return to Origins From <Motion> to <Stillness>
In January 2020, HYDE announced the completion of the new song “BELIEVING IN MYSELF”. The song was created following a discussion with the race director of the Tokyo Marathon, a marathon event held in Tokyo’s special wards, and was used as the image song for that year’s event. It was included on the single “BELIEVING IN MYSELF/INTERPLAY”, released on March 18 that year. From January to March 2020, HYDE also held the “ARENA TOUR MMXX” live tour as a member of L'Arc-en-Ciel. After the tour, plans had been made for a solo tour of live houses, among other events. However, due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, whose first domestic infection was confirmed in Japan at the end of January that year, tours planned under both the band and solo names were canceled, forcing major changes to his schedule. While public music activities came to a halt, HYDE announced in May that year that he would sell charity merchandise, with the proceeds to be donated to an emergency support fund.
As movement restrictions were imposed around the world due to the spread of the coronavirus, HYDE turned the inability to perform intense live shows as intended to his advantage by staging the seated acoustic concert “HYDE LIVE 2020 Jekyll & Hyde” in September 2020. This performance marked his first paid live stream, using the video streaming service SHOWROOM. From December 2020, he held the acoustic live tour “HYDE LIVE 2020-2021 ANTI WIRE”, once again bearing the album title ANTI. Although described as acoustic, the tour’s sound was designed to combine acoustic elements with a rock sound that retained a sense of heavy low end. HYDE described the tour as “an extension of ‘HYDE LIVE 2019 ANTI FINAL’” and stated, “The stage concept was also set as what would be called ‘Episode.0’ in a film, making it a story of beginnings leading from here to the world of ANTI, which is ‘Episode.1’.” Although live plans were revised for the reasons described above, new releases continued steadily, with the single “LET IT OUT” announced in November 2020 and the digital single “DEFEAT” in December. In April 2021, “ON MY OWN”, a song featuring production participation by Kevin “Thrasher” Gruft of Escape the Fate, was released as a digital single.
At the final Osaka-jō Hall shows of the above acoustic live tour, held on March 6 and 7, 2021, HYDE suddenly announced that he would make “a second ROENTGEN.” In an interview after the performance, he explained the circumstances behind the announcement, revealing that, in light of Japan’s response to the coronavirus at the time, he had “changed [his] mindset to do now what [he] had wanted to do two years later.” Thus, he shifted away from pursuing rock sounds centered on hard guitar riffs and returned to his origins of creating sounds centered on strings and live instruments.
Having decided to return to songwriting themed around <Stillness> for the first time in approximately 19 years since the 2002 album ROENTGEN, HYDE released the two singles “NOSTALGIC” and “FINAL PIECE” while also carrying out activities with L'Arc-en-Ciel, which marked its 30th anniversary as a band. From June 2021, he held the orchestral concert tour “20th Orchestra Tour HYDE ROENTGEN 2021”, performing in various locations with the two new songs mentioned above as well as previously unreleased new songs including “SMILING” and “THE ABYSS”. On July 31 and August 1, 2021, he held the orchestral concert “20th Orchestra Concert 2021 HYDE HEIANJINGU” on a special stage at Heian Shrine (平安神宮) in Kyoto. The concert featured songs rearranged with a gagaku style. Guests included Koji Sato, general director of the Tenri University Gagaku Club, and members of the club, as well as stone flute player Kazuya Yokozawa and Noh performer Ippei Shigeyama. The stage was set against the Daigokuden (大極殿), a building designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan, while the Byakkoro (白虎楼) and Seiryuro (蒼龍楼), rising on either side, were also illuminated in accordance with the production. Projection mapping was another highlight of the concert: during “SMILING”, snow was projected falling upon and gradually accumulating on the roof of the Daigokuden, while during “THE ABYSS”, a dark shadow was projected passing across a full moon. The concert was streamed simultaneously via the video streaming service GLOBE CODING and shown as a live viewing in 41 cinemas across Japan.
2022–2023: A Return From <Stillness> to <Movement>
After completing his performance at Heian Shrine, HYDE continued to hold concerts in his home prefecture of Wakayama and in Tokyo, while pursuing recording and concert activities themed around <Stillness>. Amid these activities, HYDE suddenly announced in April 2022 that he would hold the joint live tour “HYDE LIVE 2022 RUMBLE FISH”. The tour was themed around <Movement> and was performed in a standing format for the first time in some time. According to HYDE, the joint tour had been planned but postponed behind the scenes due to the spread of COVID-19.
The tour was held as a series of two-band concerts with nine bands: GASTUNK, Dragon Ash, ROTTENGRAFFTY, TOTALFAT, coldrain, Crossfaith, THE ORAL CIGARETTES, CVLTE and NOISEMAKER. Each performance also included unannounced twin-vocal performances. The setlists for the tour consisted entirely of hard rock songs, including “PANDORA”, a song produced with the participation of SHOW-HATE of SiM and released as the theme song for the game Star Ocean: The Divine Force. Following the joint tour, HYDE held the “HYDE LIVE 2022” tour, fully resuming activities in the <Movement> style. The June 18 performance at Zepp Haneda was titled “BEAUTY & THE BEAST” and was streamed on the video distribution service Stagecrowd.
In January 2023, HYDE held the first tour of THE LAST ROCKSTARS, the rock band formed the previous year, with seven performances in Japan and the United States. The concerts on this tour were held after all restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic had been lifted. From June of the same year, he undertook the solo tour “HYDE LIVE 2023”. While performing two new songs, “TAKING THEM DOWN”, which was produced with the participation of Julian (formerly of MAKE MY DAY), and “6or9”, which combines an EDM beat with an eerie melodic line and metallic guitar riffs, he held 18 performances in six Japanese cities. Beginning with this tour, the lineup was changed to a twin-guitar configuration, with two of PABLO, Julian and Yas Nomura participating as guitarists, forming a six-member lineup. HYDE subsequently continued recording two albums while appearing at various festivals in Japan.
2024–present: The “dynamic” HYDE [INSIDE] / the “static” JEKYLL
In early 2024, HYDE announced that he would embark on a live tour across Japan from June, without disclosing the official title of the concerts. He also announced the release of the collaborative songs “Mugen” (夢幻), written and composed by MY FIRST STORY and CHIMERAZ, and “Tokoshie” (永久 -トコシエ-), written and composed by Yuki Kajiura, with the rock band MY FIRST STORY, of which his close acquaintance Hiro is a member. The two songs were used respectively as the opening and ending themes for the anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc. Around seven months after its digital release began, “Mugen” surpassed 100 million cumulative streams on the Billboard JAPAN chart.
On the live broadcast of the Niconico Channel program HYDE CHANNEL on April 25, 2024, HYDE announced that he would release the album HYDE [INSIDE] in the summer. At the same time, he revealed that the tour announced earlier would be titled HYDE [INSIDE] LIVE 2024. HYDE stated that he had been conscious of the “dynamic” side of his work in making the album, declaring that it would be one of the heaviest rock albums of his career. During the broadcast, he also discussed future plans, suggesting that he would release a “second installment of ROENTGEN” under the album title JEKYLL, borrowed from the novel Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
For the live tour that began in June 2024, the stage set was designed around the image of a fantastical circus and sideshow. In addition to songs included on the aforementioned album, HYDE performed covers of Linkin Park’s “Given Up” and Namie Amuro’s “Hide & Seek.” From July that year, he appeared in succession at more than 15 rock festivals held both in Japan and abroad. Regarding his increased number of event appearances, HYDE stated: “What I am doing as a solo artist now is not music that necessarily aligns with current trends in society... I think that, when it comes to my music, seeing is better than hearing a hundred times—or rather, sound alone does not even amount to hearing it a hundred times. So I think it is quicker for people to watch the live shows and experience the entertainment value and musicality for themselves. That is why I am taking part in various festivals this year.”
After completing the tour, HYDE began worldwide digital distribution of his fifth album, HYDE [INSIDE], in September 2024. Around one month after its digital release began, in October of the same year, he released the physical edition of the album. In support of the album, he held an overseas tour of Asian cities and the United States, as well as a domestic Japanese tour, beginning that month. In 2025, continuing from the previous year, he held the HYDE [INSIDE] LIVE 2025 WORLD TOUR, which visited cities in Asia, including Japan, as well as Europe and South America. On October 25 and 26 that year, during the tour, he held HYDE [INSIDE] LIVE 2025 WORLD TOUR -JAPAN FINAL- at Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hall 9–11, the culmination of the Japanese concerts, bringing the Japanese leg of the project that had continued from the previous year to a close. Immediately after the final performance, he announced that he would release an album themed around “static” in the spring of 2026.
From January 2026, HYDE returned to activities in the “static” style and held the orchestral concert tour HYDE Orchestra Tour 2026 JEKYLL. On January 29 that year, his birthday, he released the advance single “THE ABYSS,” and in March he began worldwide digital distribution of his sixth album, JEKYLL, as announced around two years earlier. Around two months after digital distribution began, in May of the same year, he released the physical edition of the album. The album was positioned as a sequel to ROENTGEN, his first album, which had been themed around “static,” and was completed as a work paired with its predecessor.
While carrying on the world of ROENTGEN, JEKYLL shifted toward a sound with jazz nuances, maturity and a sense of nostalgia, reflecting HYDE’s listening to standard jazz during its production. Comparing the two works, HYDE stated, “Although the concepts are similar, this one is intended for live performance, and the sound has a somewhat stronger jazzy atmosphere,” and said, “JEKYLL may contain elements of what I want to do in the future from here onward.”
In May 2026, as the conclusion of the project, HYDE held his first concert in Austria at the Great Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus. The venue has a history of more than 100 years, and in addition to the band that accompanied him on the domestic tour, a local full orchestra took part in the performance. It was the first concert by a Japanese rock artist to perform with a Vienna orchestra. The concert was streamed through the video distribution service LIVESHIP and was also shown as delayed live screenings at 61 cinemas throughout Japan.
Support Members
Names in bold indicate members who also participated in recording sessions, and asterisks indicate members who continue to provide live support.
Microphone
SHURE BETA 58A hyde Custom
A custom model of a Shure microphone. Reflecting hyde's desire to make the microphone look cool as a weapon in itself, his artist name and engravings are carved into the grip. A ring resembling a handgun trigger guard is attached to the upper part of the grip; during live performances, he often puts a finger through it and performs while spinning the microphone in his hand.
Guitar
Dyna DML-hyde A guitar featuring Get in the Mood (気分を出して), a representative work by Kuniyoshi Kaneko, a painter who was a close friend of hyde. This custom-made model was presented to hyde by STUDIO KANEKO. Replica models are also manufactured.
Fender Mustang Dakota Red 1965
Fender Mustang 1969 hyde custom A hyde custom-model guitar based on a 1969 Fender Mustang.
Gibson Style-O
Gibson SG Melody Maker
Gibson Melody Maker SG rebuild by Zodiacworks
Gibson Les Paul Junior
Gibson Les Paul Junior hyde custom A hyde custom-model guitar based on a 1956 Les Paul Junior.
Gretsch SCH DUO JET 6128T-62
P-Project AI-H
STEINBERGER GM4
Zodiacworks Custom Made Guitar for hyde A hyde custom-model guitar developed jointly with Zodiacworks.
Saxophone
Alto Sax Selmer SERIE II
A French Selmer alto saxophone. This was the model used by hyde during the recording of “LORELEY”, a track included on L'Arc-en-Ciel's 1998 album HEART. The model was also used when performing the song live. In 2005, when L'Arc-en-Ciel performed “Ophelia” on the concert tour AWAKE TOUR 2005, hyde used this model to substitute for the flugelhorn part performed by Jun Miyake on the recording.
Designer
During the early years of L'Arc-en-Ciel's activities, hyde created flyers announcing live performances and designed the band's logo. He also designed T-shirts and other items sold at concert venues. From the April 1997 issue to the December 2001 issue of the music magazine R&R NewsMaker, poems by hyde and self-portraits he planned and designed were published intermittently under the title “hyde self portrait”.
In his solo career, which began in 2001, he sometimes drew storyboards himself when producing music videos for his own songs.
In 2015, he designed and produced the original character CHUPACABRA (チュパカブラ). Plush toys of the character were released through the official merchandise website as well as as prizes for amusement facilities throughout Japan. Original merchandise created in collaboration with Sanrio character Hello Kitty was also released in 2015 and 2017.
He has also designed and produced the original character Edyh (エディ), which is based on a cat. Its name is his artist name, “HYDE”, written in reverse. Its design is based on part of the outline formed when HYDE's face on the cover of his autobiography THE HYDE is turned upside down. The character frequently appears on merchandise released during HYDE's solo activities, and in 2022, tea tins created in collaboration with the tea specialty shop Salon de Sima were sold.
He has also designed characters such as SNOW MONSTER, BEAST-kun, and Hitsuji, whose names are derived from events he holds. In 2021, a mini tote bag designed with a collection of characters created by HYDE was sold.
In 2022, he designed L'Arc-en-Ciel's official character Luciel-chan (ルシエルちゃん). Although hyde led the character design, painter Raou Tanaka also participated in its creation. The character incorporates the individual personalities of each L'Arc-en-Ciel member and is positioned as the second form evolved from Ciel-chan, which had long been used on merchandise and other items as the band's official character. LINE stickers featuring Luciel-chan were released in 2023.
He was responsible for the jacket design of TRIBUTE OF MUCC -En [en]-, an album by the rock band MUCC released in 2017. This was realized at the request of the band's vocalist, Tatsuro.
In 2017, he founded the apparel brand SWITCHBLADE with Kei Takahara, formerly a designer for Roen and BLACK HONEY CHILI COOKIE. The brand is characterized by unisex street fashion with an underground aesthetic. Since founding the brand, he has released collaborative concert merchandise both under his solo name and with bands of which he is a member.
In 2023, under the concept of “Wa”, he launched WaRLOCK as a second line with Oda Sho, a long-established Kyoto kimono manufacturer with a history of more than 100 years. Oda Sho had previously released yukata and kimono in collaboration with the painter Kuniyoshi Kaneko, who was a close associate of HYDE.
Actor and Voice Actor
To date, he has appeared as a guest actor or voice actor in four films, one drama, and two anime productions.
In 2011, he appeared in the NHK Educational TV anime series Bakuman. as the music producer of a character in the series. Rather than appearing as a fictional character, he appeared under the name HYDE, and, as VAMPS, provided an original song written for a character in the series, voiced by Showtaro Morikubo.
Event Supporter and Other Activities
In 2015, HYDE became the official supporter of a new event held at Universal Studios Japan, a theme park in Osaka, Japan. He attended the opening ceremony on January 22 of that year alongside the producers of Evangelion, Attack on Titan, Biohazard, and Monster Hunter.
For two years, from January 30, 2019 to January 29, 2021, he served as Wakayama City Hometown Tourism Ambassador in Wakayama, Japan, his birthplace. From December 23, 2019 to May 31, 2022, the “HYDE Southern”, a HYDE-wrapped Nankai Electric Railway Limited Express Southern train, operated through his home region of Wakayama. On January 30, 2021, HYDE received the Wakayama City Cultural Award.
HYDE remained closely connected with Wakayama after stepping down as tourism ambassador. From September 18, 2021 to May 31, 2022, as part of a collaboration with Nankai Electric Railway, the two-car 7100 series “Medetai Densha Kashira”, decorated with HYDE’s silhouette and logo, operated on the railway. On October 3, 2025, HYDE was invited to “Wakayama DAY”, an event held by Wakayama Prefecture at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai to promote the prefecture’s history and culture, where he performed a special live concert at the EXPO Arena.
On November 13, 2023, it was announced that, following an offer from the Austrian National Tourist Office, HYDE would serve as an Austria Tourism Ambassador for three years, from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2026. Regarding its decision to appoint HYDE, the Austrian National Tourist Office stated that his “outstanding contributions to the music industry are in line with Austria’s spirit of love for the arts,” and that he was “ideal as a tourism ambassador who deeply understands and communicates Austria’s appeal.”
The music video for “LAST SONG”, released in 2024, was filmed entirely in Austria. Filming took place at locations including the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna and the Prater amusement park; HYDE was the first artist from outside Austria to film a music video at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. In 2026, “THE ABYSS” and “FADING OUT”, whose music videos were filmed in Salzburg and Innsbruck, respectively, were released.
In 2024, Swarovski Crystal Worlds, a museum opened by Swarovski, Austria’s leading crystal brand, to commemorate the company’s 100th anniversary, created and presented two crystal-decorated hats for HYDE. HYDE wore the hats during his live tour held that year. The hats were also displayed at the Austria Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai.
In May 2026, a solo performance was held at the Great Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus, featuring local orchestra members, the first such performance by a Japanese rock artist.
HYDEPARK
Since 2019, an original theme park planned by HYDE has been held regularly at Zepp venues. In 2019 and 2021, it was held at one location for approximately one to two weeks; since 2023, it has been held at three locations for approximately one month. The venues display costumes worn during live performances, VR footage of live performances, and documentary footage. They also sell items from the apparel brands SWITCHBLADE and WaRLOCK, supervised by HYDE; merchandise related to the game HYDE RUN; goods featuring characters designed by HYDE; and collaborative merchandise with other content. Some of the collaborative merchandise is also sold for limited periods at Village Vanguard.
Original ume shochu, ANTIN; original vodka, PSYCHO LOVE; and original blend coffee, 81° Coffee, are also sold. In addition, a product fair from HYDE's home prefecture of Wakayama is held.
Episodes
As an elementary school student, he was relatively introverted and was reportedly the kind of child who would return home crying after being bullied. Looking back on this period, hyde stated: “I was quiet, kind of like a girl. I was probably easy to pick on, wasn’t I?” He also said, “When I came home after being bullied, if I had been hurt somewhere, my mother would worry and try to contact their parents. Apparently I would say things like, ‘But I feel sorry for that child.’”
He was reportedly saved by a friend he made in the sixth grade of elementary school and by his teacher at the time. Even after beginning his band activities, hyde occasionally kept in contact with this teacher, whom he regarded as a mentor, and sent them works he had produced. In later years, hyde recalled hesitating to send his former teacher a work containing L'Arc-en-Ciel’s song “metropolis”, because he had included an obscene word in its lyrics.
As a child, he reportedly enjoyed wandering through deserted streets at dawn. Reflecting on the time, he said: “As a boy, I liked roaming around at daybreak. That time of day was when I felt the most freedom, and we would run around feeling as though the whole town was a world belonging only to us.” He also stated: “There is a film called Dawn of the Dead. The entire world is full of zombies, but they drive the zombies out of a department store and make all the daily necessities their own. In a world with nobody else in it... dawn is close to that.”
During elementary school, his family kept a cat named Tama. hyde recalled: “My parents both probably worked, and I think they thought I would be lonely, so it was kind of a substitute friend. I adored it—or rather, I learned how to adore something.” His family also kept cats named Kitty and Chii. However, he developed a cat allergy around high school, and despite being fond of cats, became unable to play with them.
He was a member of his junior high school football club, but quit after three days because he found retrieving balls troublesome, becoming a member of the go-home club instead. After quitting, he reportedly played a game with friends in which they searched for music, and drew pictures by himself.
He reportedly worked a variety of part-time jobs, including at a ramen shop, a doughnut shop (Mister Donut), a billiard hall, and a roasted sweet potato shop.
Aspiring to be a mysterious artist, hyde did not disclose any of his personal profile for a long time, as he wished to become such a figure. Against this background, a theory circulated that hyde’s real name was “Doi Hachirou” (土井 八郎 or 土居 八郎), an anagram of “hyde”. In fact, this name had been repeatedly used as a joke by the members of L'Arc-en-Ciel, including hyde, in magazines and other media, and merchandise bearing the name “Doi Hachirou” was also sold as novelty goods. In 2012, he officially revealed his real name as Takarai Hideto (寶井 秀人), and stated that he was surprised that fans had genuinely believed Doi Hachirou to be his real name. hyde commented, “I thought, ‘Nobody names someone Hachirou these days,’ though.”
At the beginning of L'Arc-en-Ciel, his artist name was “hide”, taken from his real name. He changed it to “hyde” largely because of hide of X JAPAN and zilch, stating: “There was HIDE from X, and since hide is pronounced ‘hyde’ in English, I changed the ‘i’ to a ‘y’ to make it read that way.”
During the late 1990s, when L'Arc-en-Ciel was achieving major hits, hyde sometimes wrote lyrics about the stress of being followed by paparazzi and others. For example, L'Arc-en-Ciel’s 1998 song “Peeping Tom” was given a title meaning “voyeur”, while the 1999 song “HEAVEN’S DRIVE” expressed anger toward laws established by the state and toward the media. In a 1999 interview with a music magazine, hyde, who wrote the lyrics, stated: “People who debuted in the same generation as me had been photographed, so I had the feeling that it would come around to me someday. But even when I saw that happening, I thought, ‘Why do they have to go that far?’ Even when it happens to other people, I think, ‘Just leave them alone.’” In a 2000 interview, he said: “I do not like not having a private life. I end up thinking about causing trouble for the neighbors. I do want to do interesting things, but there is this strange feeling of not wanting to become famous...”
Possibly owing to his handsome appearance and androgynous aura, he ranked highly in various “artists one would like as a lover” surveys conducted by different media during the 1990s and 2000s. When an interviewer asked whether he liked his own face, he replied: “Ah... if divided into liking and disliking it, I suppose I like it. Because I like my parents. I think a large part of it is that I like this body my parents gave me.” hyde has also served as the model for characters in manga and other works. For example, the character Maki Tsuyoshi in Reiko Shimizu’s manga The Top Secret is modeled on hyde.
Whether working under a band name or as a solo artist, he has used photographs of his own face on the covers of his works extremely rarely. Explaining why he does not often use his face on covers, hyde stated: “For jackets and merchandise, the standard I often use is basically whether I would want to put it in my room. It is easier to make a judgment when I think about whether it is a jacket I would want to display. That is why I do not use photographs of myself very much. Despite how I may look, I am not much of a narcissist.” He also stated: “There were times when, because of my relationship with the record company, they said, ‘Wouldn’t something like that be good?’ and I went, ‘I see,’ and did it. But fundamentally, I do not really want to use photographs much.”
His musical style, as well as his hairstyles and fashion, has varied considerably depending on the era. Looking back on changes in his visual presentation in 2024, hyde stated: “It was an impulse to destroy my image, I suppose. Since I was seen as beautiful, I probably wanted to turn that around and destroy the image.”
Around 2000, hyde got his first tattoo. It was a pair of wings inspired by the Winged Victory of Samothrace, tattooed from his back to his shoulders. Regarding its design, he stated: “I spent about a year drawing the wings myself. I imagined and drew the outer pattern of the wings that I liked most. The motif was the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the statue of the goddess of victory displayed at the Louvre Museum. ... But that statue does not have the outer parts of its wings either. Beautiful feathers are carved on the inside, but the outside is merely a shell. So I imagined that outer part and drew it myself. I bought a stone reproduction of the statue, traced the shape of the wings, and drew them while looking through all kinds of books about angels, thinking, ‘Maybe they looked like this.’” Concerning the time he showed the tattoo to his parents, he said: “My father said, ‘Couldn’t you have found something better?’ He said, ‘Wasn’t there something like BLANKEY JET CITY?’ I thought, ‘That is what you mean?’ I guess, from my father’s perspective, wings seemed a little fancy.” He has cited “the resolve to make a living as a musician” as one reason for getting a tattoo. Addressing fans who have tattooed themselves in imitation of him, hyde stated: “There are often people who imitate me and get wing tattoos, but do not blame me if you regret it. I want you to think carefully.”
In addition to wanting to try creating work that moved in the direction he had envisioned, hyde reportedly began his solo career in 2001 because he had come to feel “completely fed up with being in a band.” This way of thinking was influenced by the sense of stagnation that began to surround L'Arc-en-Ciel around 2000, when meetings could be filled with prolonged silences. hyde stated: “I would think, ‘This is interesting,’ because there were various worlds in my solo work, but when I returned to the band the atmosphere was not very good, and for a while I thought, ‘Is there any point in this?’ We reached the point of saying, ‘Let’s just quit.’” In 2002, he in fact told the other three members that he wanted to leave the band. After hyde and tetsuya discussed the matter, they confirmed that they would improve the atmosphere within the band and its relationship with its agency, and L'Arc-en-Ciel continued.
When appearing on J-WAVE’s WOW MUSIC in 2021, hyde said of the members of L'Arc-en-Ciel: “After 10 years, then 20 years, you begin to respect the members in the opposite sense.” He also stated: “I gained respect for tetsuya in the sense of thinking, ‘Being a leader must be difficult.’ When I think about composition, I think ken is amazing, and there is yukihiro’s stoic side as well. Perhaps it is because I have become more at ease myself, but after 30 years I have come to think, ‘These people really are amazing.’ If we had disbanded at that time, I do not think I would have gained this feeling.” He further stated: “They are all extremely particular about music. They all have a sense of pursuing it. I think it would be good if they could handle interpersonal relationships a little better, but... they are artists, so perhaps that is fine. Because four artists like that come together, there is no way everything can go well.” In a 2023 discussion with Tatsuro of MUCC, hyde stated: “I really respect the members of L'Arc-en-Ciel. They are all amazing as players, and their sense of composition is wonderful too.”
Regarding the reason he had been able to continue the band for so long, hyde stated: “When L'Arc-en-Ciel had only just started, a member of an older band told me, ‘To keep a band going for a long time, it is best to do it with the attitude that you can quit at any time.’ I thought that was surprisingly true, and that is how I have continued until now.” He also said: “I still think the key to continuing is having the attitude that you can quit at any time. In a positive sense.”
In 2008, he formed the rock unit VAMPS because he wanted to try playing in the kind of band he had wanted to form in high school. According to hyde, he wanted to have a music career without regrets at the time. At the group’s formation, he said: “How would it be to die while playing in one band and thinking, ‘This is the kind of band I wanted to be in during high school...’? ... How would it be to die while thinking, ‘What would have happened if I had freely done more of what I wanted to do?’ Even if I failed 10 years later and lost everything, I think it would feel better to try as many possibilities as I could and conclude, ‘It really was no good,’ rather than living forever with a question mark in my mind.” In a 2010 interview with the music magazine Ongaku to Hito, he stated: “In a sense, I think my life is already somewhat over. ... Or rather than over, there is a sense in which it is complete. For the past several years, there has not been much that I want anymore. I think that feeling has become even stronger. So even if I died tomorrow, I do not think I would have that many regrets. Of course, there are many things I want to do, and things I want to do with VAMPS, but... of course there are still things I want to obtain, but I have reached a point where I think it might be fine if they remain dreams.”
In 2016, VAMPS signed with the major American management company 10th Street Entertainment. Around the time of this partnership, hyde also established a base in Los Angeles, United States, and began conducting music activities there. Around this time, he also began to connect with musicians such as YOSHIKI of X JAPAN, with whom he had long had no contact or interaction because of differences in their periods of activity and musical styles.
hyde first had a dinner meeting with YOSHIKI through a mutual acquaintance, which led to their friendship. They subsequently appeared as guests at each other’s concerts, releasing “Red Swan” as “YOSHIKI feat. HYDE” in 2018 and “ZIPANG” as “HYDE feat. YOSHIKI” in 2019. In 2022, HYDE and YOSHIKI began a new band project, THE LAST ROCKSTARS, with MIYAVI and SUGIZO of LUNA SEA. According to HYDE, YOSHIKI spoke to him about the concept for the band when they first met for dinner, and also told him the planned lineup.
In an interview around 2020, hyde stated of the direction of his recent musical activities: “I suppose it is about purely pursuing my potential as an artist not only in Japan, but elsewhere as well.” He also stated: “What should I do before I die? I am already doing something like preparing for the end of my life.” As a solo artist or as part of a band, hyde has held solo live performances and concerts outside Japan in Asian cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul, Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, as well as in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Argentina.
Relationships
Kiyoharu (Kuroyume, SADS)
While L'Arc-en-Ciel were active as amateurs, they frequently performed joint shows with Kuroyume, the rock band to which Kiyoharu belonged. As L'Arc-en-Ciel were an unusual amateur band in that they did not often perform joint shows, Kuroyume were one of their few such counterparts. On December 26, 1992, hyde appeared as a guest at a Kuroyume concert held at Nagoya MUSIC FARM. Kuroyume and L'Arc-en-Ciel both made their major-label debuts in 1994. Kiyoharu was born in October 1968 and was therefore in the same school year as hyde, who was born in January 1969.
Most members of L'Arc-en-Ciel, including hyde, continued to associate with Kiyoharu after making their major-label debut. From the latter half of the 2000s onward, Kiyoharu was invited to Halloween live events organized by hyde as VAMPS, and they subsequently appeared together at various concerts. In 2021, linked programs were broadcast through the Nico Nico Channels established separately by hyde and Kiyoharu. The two have also streamed together on Instagram and attended concerts by GASTUNK, a hardcore band both admire.
When interviewed for the TV Asahi network music program Kanjam Kanzen Nen Show in 2024 and asked, “Who is your rival?”, hyde named Kiyoharu and stated: “Even now, I still think he is cool. I do not want to lose to him... What we do is completely different, but somehow, he is a good rival. That is how I feel.” Meanwhile, Kiyoharu said of hyde in the music magazine Rolling Stone Japan: “Even when I look at people in the same field and the same generation, no one else evokes any feelings in me. MORRIE, whom I admire, is a great senior, so that is different. He is the only person I acknowledge and the person who makes me feel threatened. From the past until now, he has always been the only one. Our exits were different, but I selfishly think that our scent remains the same even now.” In addition, tetsuya, the leader and bassist of L'Arc-en-Ciel, in which hyde performs, described Kuroyume in 2022 as “our greatest rival”.
Initially, hyde and L'Arc-en-Ciel had little contact with bands other than Kuroyume that made their major-label debuts during the same period. Although L'Arc-en-Ciel had been present at the same live events as GLAY, a band that also made its major-label debut in the same year as Kuroyume, they had no particular relationship, owing in part to differences in their bases of activity and the cultures of the labels from which they originated. However, as GLAY also began recording major hits when L'Arc-en-Ciel broke through, the two bands were often compared by the public despite differences in the music that had influenced them and in the direction of the songs they created. Regarding his relationship with GLAY during the 1990s, hyde said, “People see us that way, as rivals, but we had hardly spoken at all.” From around 2000, however, hyde began associating privately with TERU and TAKURO of GLAY. In 2007, after TERU made a direct request to hyde that he wanted to appear at “JACK IN THE BOX 2007”, a live event organized by L'Arc-en-Ciel's management agency, TERU, TAKURO and hyde performed a surprise session of GLAY's signature song “Yuwaku” and L'Arc-en-Ciel's signature song “HONEY”. In 2025, hyde was invited to a concert organized by GLAY and performed the same two songs with the band as a surprise. TERU has described L'Arc-en-Ciel as “an object of admiration from our perspective”.
Kuniyoshi Kaneko (painter)
Some time after L'Arc-en-Ciel made their major-label debut, hyde began associating with Kuniyoshi Kaneko and frequently went out to meals with him privately. On April 7, 2001, the two held a discussion in the NHK General TV special program Midnight Channel - HYDE Unplugged. In 2006, at hyde's request, Kaneko designed the cover of hyde's solo album FAITH. Kaneko also designed a yukata featuring a bat motif, as hyde likes bats. The name of VAMPS, the unit hyde formed in 2008, was borrowed from Kaneko's photobook Vamp. Their friendship continued until Kaneko's death in March 2015.
For the second anniversary of Kaneko's death, STUDIO KANEKO sent hyde a custom-made guitar, the “Dyna DML-hyde”, depicting Kaneko's representative work Kibun o Dashite. hyde performed with the guitar at a solo concert held on Kaneko's birthday.
hyde was greatly influenced by Kaneko. Speaking of that influence in an interview in 2016, he stated: “In terms of art, Kuniyoshi Kaneko-sensei had exactly those aspects that are ideal to me. Even in old age, his paintings became increasingly stylish and refined. That is something I do not have. Even if I could do something similar, something would be missing. I think that in order to be stylish, one has to understand the times to a certain extent. That does not necessarily mean that the cutting edge is best; one needs to understand every era, to know that ‘in the present age, this thing from the past is the most stylish.’” He also stated: “Even if it is extreme, I want to create something that is beautiful in some way. That is something for which I still want to look to sensei as an example.”
HYDE also associates with the painter Bunta Inoue, who studied under Kaneko. HYDE planned and produced Inoue's first art book, released in 2022. HYDE also associates with Mafuyu Hiroki, an illustrator and manga artist who has created cover illustrations for SF Magazine and science-fiction novels; paintings depicting HYDE have been released. In addition, in 2013 HYDE held the collaborative exhibition Yoshitaka Amano × HYDE Exhibition: Tenmei to Haitoku—NIPPON EVOLUTION—with Yoshitaka Amano, a painter who has long served as character designer for the Final Fantasy game series.
yasu (Acid Black Cherry, formerly Janne Da Arc)
Since his independent era, yasu had publicly stated that he was a fan of hyde and L'Arc-en-Ciel, and occasionally covered L'Arc-en-Ciel songs at Janne Da Arc concerts. In 2004, after attending the Tokyo performance of L'Arc-en-Ciel's “SMILE TOUR 2004”, yasu visited the dressing room to offer greetings, exchanged contact details with hyde, and began associating with him. Subsequently, yasu and DAIGO of BREAKERZ came to take part almost every year in Halloween live events organized by VAMPS or HYDE.
DAIGO of BREAKERZ had also accompanied yasu to the concert he attended. DAIGO was present when yasu asked hyde for his contact details, and also exchanged contact details with hyde at that time. Although hyde rarely appears on television programs other than music programs, he appeared in the Nippon Television network variety program Tuesday Surprise in 2020, where DAIGO was in charge of a segment. DAIGO recalled the following regarding hyde and tetsuya: “In 2005, under the name DAIGO☆STARDUST, I released my second album, HELLO CRAZY GENTLEMAN, but honestly, sales were so poor that it did not even enter the top 100 on Oricon. But hyde said to me, ‘It was a very good album. I cannot believe this did not sell.’ In fact, tetsuya had also listened to the album. He told me, ‘I wanted to write songs like this too.’ During my solo era, I did not achieve results and was even fired by my agency, but thanks to the two of them, I was able to persevere without becoming discouraged, thinking, ‘I can still do this. After all, hyde and tetsuya praised me.’”
Jaejoong (formerly TVXQ)
Since his time as a member of TVXQ, Jaejoong had publicly stated in interviews and music programs that he was a fan of HYDE and L'Arc-en-Ciel. In October 2020, “BREAKING DAWN (Japanese Ver.)”, for which HYDE wrote, composed and produced the music, was released under Jaejoong's name. In 2022, HYDE appeared as a guest on Jaejoong's concert tour and performed “GLAMOROUS SKY” with Mika Nakashima and SUGIZO of LUNA SEA.
They also associate privately, and HYDE and Jaejoong have traveled to South Korea together. Of HYDE, Jaejoong said: “Usually, he is very boyish and approachable, but on stage he is the embodiment of charisma. He commands the place with overwhelming power. [...] I also think it is wonderful that he never settles for who he is now and constantly takes on new challenges. With a career like his, he should be able to live more easily, but when it comes to music, he always seems to push himself.”
HYDE also associates with Yuya Tegoshi, formerly of NEWS, and Yuta Nakamoto of the South Korean boy group NCT. HYDE has also had contact with Jin Akanishi, formerly of KAT-TUN; Taiga Kyomoto of SixTONES; Ruki Shiroiwa of JO1; actors Kanata Hongo and Toma Ikuta; Kim Sang-hyuk of the South Korean seven-member boy group Click-B; and South Korean singer and actor No Min-woo.
Hiro (MY FIRST STORY)
HYDE and Hiro began associating from around the time MY FIRST STORY participated in the Halloween live event organized by VAMPS in 2015. HYDE subsequently appeared as a guest, as VAMPS, on a concert tour organized by MY FIRST STORY in 2017. In 2021, when a feature on HYDE was published in the magazine Bessatsu Kadokawa Scene07, Hiro contributed a comment. They have since deepened their relationship through musical activities and in private life. In 2024, HYDE released “Mugen / Towani - Tokoshie -” in collaboration with MY FIRST STORY. In Bessatsu Kadokawa Scene07, Hiro said of HYDE: “For someone of his stature, it is remarkable that he still voraciously confronts music with such devotion and continues to take on challenges. You can tell that he truly loves music from the bottom of his heart. I genuinely respect him.”
HYDE also associates with Taka of ONE OK ROCK, Hiro's older brother. In 2016, a photograph of HYDE and Taka together was posted on Taka's Instagram. In an interview in 2024, HYDE said of ONE OK ROCK, “I do not think there has ever been a band that has fought the world to that extent.”
Takuya Yamanaka (THE ORAL CIGARETTES)
Yamanaka has long publicly stated that he is a fan of L'Arc-en-Ciel. THE ORAL CIGARETTES, to which Yamanaka belongs, first performed with VAMPS at the 2016 live event “J-Rock Live to the World 2016 ~J-MELO 500 Anniversary~”. In 2018, THE ORAL CIGARETTES were invited to a Halloween live event organized by HYDE, and HYDE began associating with Yamanaka. In 2021, HYDE and Yamanaka held their first discussion on the J-WAVE program WOW MUSIC, and in 2022 they appeared together on HYDE's joint concert tour “HYDE LIVE 2022 RUMBLE FISH”. In 2025, HYDE appeared as a surprise guest at a concert organized by THE ORAL CIGARETTES.
From 2018 onward, HYDE began appearing at numerous rock festivals in Japan and organizing joint concerts, leading to associations with a variety of musicians. Around this period, HYDE also began making recordings jointly with various Japanese rock artists. PABLO of Pay money To my Pain, SHOW-HATE of SiM, Sho of MY FIRST STORY, Julian, formerly of MAKE MY DAY, and YD of CRYSTAL LAKE have participated in creating songs for HYDE's solo work. HYDE has also associated or had contact with DAIDAI, guitarist of the rock band Paledusk; UVERworld; ASH DA HERO; the rapper (sic)boy; and Novel Core.
BAKI (formerly GASTUNK)
BAKI was the vocalist of GASTUNK, a band respected by hyde. Although hyde primarily played guitar during his amateur years, he became a vocalist in order to perform GASTUNK covers. Of a GASTUNK concert he once attended, hyde said: “The shock I felt at that time will last forever. I thought it was not of this world, and everyone in the audience looked like vampires.” HYDE and GASTUNK first performed together on the joint concert tour “HYDE LIVE 2022 RUMBLE FISH”, organized by HYDE in 2022. BAKI also attended L'Arc-en-Ciel's 30th-anniversary concert, “30th L'Anniversary LIVE”, in 2022.
In 2024, HYDE and BAKI appeared as guests at “MORRIE 60th Birthday Celebration ~FLESH FATE FESTIVAL~”, a concert held to mark the 60th birthday of MORRIE, vocalist of DEAD END. hyde had also listened extensively to DEAD END since his school days, and regards the band as one of the bands that influenced him. Of the two bands, hyde stated: “GASTUNK is like my birth parent, and DEAD END is like my foster parent.”
Sources
- Wikidata entity Q306122.
- en.wikipedia, Hyde (musician) (revision 1355967648), CC BY-SA 4.0.
- ja.wikipedia, Hyde (revision 110650866), CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photograph: hyde.jpg - Press shot via Deezer (artist 915).