kei

kei was originally born in August 1984 in the Kanagawa prefecture, where he started training to play guitar. With the idea of expressing his feelings through music, the young guitarist joined his first band when he was only 14 years old. Though the real beginning of his career started in 2001 when he first joined the short-lived band kannivalism along with vocalist Ryo, bassist 8342 and drummer Kiri.

Although he already had experiences from the music scene, as he was one of kagerou's roadies and a member of the obscure visual kei band Clarity, his band could not continue on, and after only five months of activities, disbanded. In the same month, along with his former bandmate Ryo and others members, he created baroque, which hit a considerable success and even managed to play a one-man concert at the large venue Nippon Budokan. Even though their already huge popularity was clearly crescent, the band decided to disband after a very emotional live at Zepp Tokyo on December 25th, 2004.

After no activity for almost a year, kei decided to reform kannivalism with two of his former bandmates: vocalist Ryo and bassist 3892, this time named Yuchi. The band was an instant hit, putting their first mini-album in the 18th position in the Oricon charts, which gave them enough attention to get signed with the avex trax label. Although their popularity kept going strong, and they started to play in bigger venues every tour, the band announced that they would enter an indefinite hiatus as of the beginning of 2008 after releasing several singles and a full album.

After approximately ten months of no activity, kei surprised his fans by announcing the beginning of his solo career in the same year, in which he would act as vocalist and guitarist. He decided to steer away from his usual sound and adopted a new sound by mixing electronic and rock elements, creating his new style called electronica rock. His songs now had a dreamy and flowing edge, most of the time very relaxing and calm, and were also helped by his sweet vocals and clever guitar riffs. His first single, the primary., was released on November 19th through avex trax's sub-label cutting edge, a pattern he followed with his next releases as well.

Even though it had not yet been even half a year since his first CD, kei quickly planned the release of his first full-album, silk tree., which came out in March 2009. The album, different from the usual releases, came in three editions featuring unusual and creative content, such as song commentaries, a self-interview, a conversation with the album producer and an extra remix CD, which also featured a remix made by himself.

It didn't take long for kei to come back with a new release: for fleeting moment., a mini-album, in September. During this period, the news most anticipated by fans was also released: the long-awaited return of kannivalism, now as a quartet, with a new single in November. kei has focused his activities within the band since they stepped into the musical scene again, as they have a new album and one-man concert scheduled for 2010.

Looking back to his past works, there's no doubt the young musician is extremely talented, since he has achieved so much in such a short period of time. Taking his own personal style and mixing it with a modern and listenable sound, kei will certainly keep pleasing his and kannivalism's fans with either his charisma or very inspiring music.