Osaka, March 27th 1961 - Tak Matsumoto, with more than 80 million records sold and Asia's most successful guitarist, was born. Growing up in a very music-loving family like the Matsumoto's had been, it doesn't seem strange that he always wanted to become a musician. The teachers of his kindergarten and school time remember him being a small, athletic boy, a bit hyper sometimes but always there when a classmate needed help.
Like every little kid, Tak dreamed of his future. He wanted to be a professional soccer player. When his family got a dog, he suddenly wanted to become a vet. Later, during High School, he discovered the movie business and aimed for being a critic. When the future superstar listened to an album by The Rolling Stones, he developed his passion for rock music and at the beginning of his high school years, he was a big fan of The Beatles. Bands like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple belonged to his favorites list as well.
The first guitar that Matsumoto wanted to buy was a Stratocaster just like the one his idol Ritchie Blackmore used. Unfortunately, this model was sold out at that time, so he went to his second choice - a Gibson Les Paul EG 700. Up until now, this guitar is one of his most precious possessions.
Besides playing guitar, nothing existed for him any more aside from sleeping, eating and going to school. At that time, he practiced up to ten hours a day. During high school he started a band that he now remembers being a horrible group with a female vocalist that couldn't even get the tunes right. But since she'd been pretty, said band got probably more attention than they deserved and were invited to other schools to play there.
After that time, Tak wanted to at least learn the basics of music and song writing so he joined the music school MUSE. A short period of time later he left again, since his teachers found him being good enough already. He kept practising at home, got a part-time job, played in a new band for several lives and so got the chance to work as a session guitarist after a while. The first step to becoming a professional musician was finally taken.
At the age of 21, he was allowed to co-work on a studio album for the very first time, but he quickly noticed that this was not what he had imagined. He wanted to play his on songs and not just work through some titles that didn't fit his taste. Then the heavy metal boom came to Japan and the guitarist decided to keep the job. Last but not least a big and exciting offer popped up: being a support musician for Japan's 80s rock queen Mari Hamada.
Because of his commitment, Tak met one of Japan's biggest acts in the 80s, TM Network. One of their guitarists couldn't make it so Matsumoto got a chance to play with them as TMN's second guitarist, who'd also played with Hamada.
TMN didn't match his tastes though, since there weren't enough guitars in Tetsuya Komuro's (formed V2 with YOSHIKI and is nowadays the producer of globe) songs. That is why he wanted to leave the band but was brought back by Komuro himself. A long friendship formed between the two, through which Tak learned a lot about music, songwriting and so on.
Some time later the dream of having an own band became too strong and together with the singer Koshi Inaba he formed B'z. During the following years, Tak mostly released instrumental solo albums aside from the works with his group. Because of the few songs in which he decided to sing himself, one can see why he chose to focus on guitar work most of the time.
In 1999, he was selected as Asia's first and only "Gibson Signature Artist", an honor that he shared with other guitar legends such as Joe Perry (Aerosmith), B.B. King, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) and Angus Young (AC/DC). In Japan his three signature models are more than popular.
With his solo albums Hana and House Of Strings (released in 2002 and 2004) he fully concentrated on his instrumental work again, and this time he focused on orchestral music combined with guitar solos. In between (2003) he started a totally unique project: on his album Hit Parade, he covered many classics of Japan's musical history that were sung by Japanese rock/pop stars. Besides his long-time companion, Koshi Inaba, the guest musicians appearing on this album were Mai Kuraki, Yuki Nakamura from Garnet Crow, Fayray and many more.
The next project, the Tak Matsumoto Group (short form: TMG), debuted in 2004 and consisted of famous international musicians (e.g. Eric Martin on vocals). Their first and only album left a great expression and was even released outside of Japan as well. European and American artists seemed to want to beat each others' good reviews and praises for this masterpiece of rock history. Fans hoped that this success would lead the band globally for concerts, but unfortunately the group grew quiet around that project after they had finished their tour in Japan.
In 2005 Tak composed the soundtrack for the "Ultraman" movie and contributed four songs to the cover album Theatre of Strings, which was produced by him under his label House of Strings and included songs from Takashi Masuzaki (Dimension) , Michiya Haruhata (TUBE) and Yoshinobu Ooga (OOM) as well. By 2006, Tak gave KAT-TUN a hand, writing the music for the song Real Face which quickly became a best selling single for that year.
Over the past few years, Tak has focused his attention on B'z and House of Strings. He did not record any solo works or perform without his partner, Koshi. However, in 2010, he released the album Take Your Pick and went on a nationwide summer tour with Larry Carlton, an American jazz artist, releasing a DVD for the tour by October.
In February, Tak's album Take Your Pick was nominated for nine awards at the 2011 American Grammy Awards. The album ended up winning the Best Pop Instrumental Album.
