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SCMP Reporter

Japanese star Sugizo has turned a different corner with his new solo single, Lucifer.

  The singer, songwriter and guitarist is best known as frontman for the band Luna Sea.

  It was Sugizo who announced at a Yokohama Stadium concert in December that they would be having an extended break.

   'This year will mark Luna Sea's eighth anniversary together. The announced hiatus is intended to be just that.

  'The band will be back again with a fresh and renewed artistry,' Sugizo said.

   But with Lucifer, he has rewritten the book, both on his own career and on the future of the band.

 The musical direction Sugizo is travelling in is a long way from the hard rock of the five-piece group that have been together for about eight years.

  His first solo album, expected in November, will include drum 'n' bass, hip-hop and jazz elements.

  'These various kinds of music will blur and extend the borders of categorisation for the band in future,' he told Young Post.

  'I did not want to go any place I had ever been before.

  'Elaborate production fits each piece of the puzzle in place.'   Sugizo's parents were classically- trained musicians and he began playing violin when he was three years old.

  'They were very strict lessons. If I missed a note, I was slapped,' he said.

 As a youngster, music meant studying more than playing.

  'Later on, in elementary school, I was able to distinguish my likes and dislikes in classical music and was able to play the ones I liked,' he said.

  'But whether I liked the piece or not, classical music is a world of scores. With the violin, for instance, you are instructed which finger to use on every note.

  'That was so rigid and uncomfortable for a kid,' he said.

  But it gave him the ambition to write his own music.

  His early rock influences were YMO and Japan.

  Sugizo's first part in a band was as a bassist but he soon bought his first electric guitar and started writing songs.

 Luna Sea was founded at high school when Sugizo was 19.

 'Luna Sea is the best band there is,' he said.

  'All five of us are leaders which is the ideal structure of a band for me.'   While his excellent guitar playing was instantly appreciated, it was his genius for writing and arranging that spearheaded the band's rise to the top of the charts.

  Sugizo is today recognised as a great stage performer and a fine musician.



New road for Sugizo