Channel-Ai Community Blog - JPop reviews, articles

hyde vocals Birthday: January 29, 1968* Height: 158 cm* Misc: colorblind, married, artist

ken guitar Birthday: November 28, 1969 Height: 178 cm

tetsu bass, leader Birthday: October 3, 1968 Height: SHORT Misc: Gundam freak

yukihiro drums Birthday: November 24, 1969 Height: 165 cm Misc: Chocolate freak

L’Arc~en~Ciel (French for Rainbow) is very different than the everyday rock bands you hear today. There is something about them that sets them apart. They, along with the band GLAY, are the last of what some people refer to as the “Early 90’s Greats”. The band currently consists of hyde on vocals, ken on guitar, tetsu on bass, and yukihiro on drums. Yes, all their names are lowercase.

L’Arc~en~Ciel (Laruku for short) have been around a long time, 12 years on a major label (since 1994), and almost sixteen if their indie days are included. Since the beginning they were different from most bands, dressing with a Mediterranean gypsy fashion rather than the black and gloomy clothes that was so prevalent in the indie rock scene at the time. They don’t like to play by the rules; they like to make them up. L’Arc~en~Ciel is one of those bands that go beyond a rigid genre of rock, just as their name suggests, they explore every color of the rainbow, from punk to metal to pop. They can be dark and haunting at times (finale), light and fun (Driver’s High), or slow and beautiful (Pieces). This may be cause for their large fan base in and outside of Japan: the visual rocker and the pop listener will both find something they enjoy. Their music transcends the language barrier. And there is no doubt that L’Arc~en~Ciel has left a big mark on, not only the Japanese music scene, but also Japanese culture, from video games to manga to fashion.

The band was formed in 1991 by tetsu, or rather the band’s concept. He only had a guitarist, Hiro, at the time, and he had all intentions of becoming the vocalist. During this time, hyde and Pero were having trouble with their band “Jersalems Rod” and tetsu decided to recruit them after hearing hyde’s voice. hyde was reluctant at first to become the vocalist and wanted to be the guitarist because he thought girls liked guitars better. After pushing by tetsu, he agreed and tetsu finally had his band, naming it “L’Arc~en~Ciel” after a French movie he just watched with the same name. They held various lives during that year in Osaka and became very popular in the indies scene. In 1992, Hiro left the band, and tetsu called up ken. ken and tetsu had formed a band in high school, but ken went on to architectural studies after graduation. Again, tetsu pushed ken to join, and after much persuasion ken quit school to join the band. Supposedly, he left without the blessings of his parents and haven’t talked to them since. With ken in the band, they recorded a song for the omnibus album “Gimmick”, and soon after released their first single “Floods of tears” with a limited pressing of 1000.

Later that year, Pero decided to leave the band, supposedly to follow Hiro, and tetsu was in search of another member again. He had seen a drummer, sakura, in many lives and called him up to offer him a job. sakura was not an official member of any band and just played with whoever needed him. Being from Tokyo, he never heard of L’Arc~en~Ciel, but decided to check them out. He traveled to Osaka to hear them play and decided that this was the band for him. In 1993, “DUNE” was released through special mail-order and was printed in limited copies. The mail-order only version had only nine tracks and special packaging. Then, later in the year, a regular version of “DUNE” was released and contained ten songs. It hit #1 on the Oricon Indies Charts. The band was being recruited by many major labels, but they continued to travel from Osaka to perform lives in Tokyo. Later that year, they all moved to Tokyo and signed under the Ki/oon Records division of SONY MUSIC. A video single “nemuri ni yosete” was released, followed by their major debut as “Tierra”, arguably considered their most consistent and focused album. The song “Blurry Eyes” was being used for the anime DNA^2 and therefore was released after “Tierra” and is often considered their debut single. In 1995 the band released one single, “Vivid Colors” and the album “heavenly” based on a lighter European rock sound.

In 1996, their first million seller, “True” was released, and the band had reached the level of popularity that they always dreamed of. A good deal of their songs were used for TV, their faces covered magazines and billboards, and they became regular guests on music programs. This all came to an end in 1997 when sakura was arrested for heroin possession. tetsu was extremely upset at this incident and never seemed to get over it, most likely never being able to forgive sakura for almost destroying his band. hyde was very close to sakura and suffered a depression. Many fans agree that the whole event was blown out of proportion: their theme songs were replaced, their CDs pulled off shelves, and their images no where to be found. The release of the single “the Fourth Avenue Cafe” was cancelled. The band seemed to disappear overnight. The rest of the band was put under house arrest by their record company after undergoing a drug test themselves. This was the lowest point of the band’s career, but helped to shape their future direction.

After sakura left the band, the rest of L’Arc~en~Ciel decided to keep on going. They created a “L’Arc~en~Ciel cover band” called “the Zombies” and played in small venues. They then travelled to Europe to film the video to their comeback single “niji“, hiring yukihiro as a temporary replacement of sakura. In February 1998, tetsu announced yukihiro as permanent drummer to the band, and their next album “HEART” was later released, which included their first #1 single “winter fall“. L’Arc~en~Ciel was not forgotten by their fans. “HEART” was followed by the double release of “ark” and “ray” which peaked at #1 and #2 respectively and which gained them a plethora of music awards. In 2001, they released “REAL” and announced that they were going to take a break as a band. The members each pursued their own solo projects, and fear of a break-up arose.

In 2003 the band went on a seven day tour saying that there would be a very important announcement at the end of the tour. While some suspected an announcement of break-up, fans’ fears were eased with an announcement of instead a new album! “SMILE” was released in March of 2004 and was also released in the United States under TOFU Records, a division of SONY created in 2002 to promote JPop in the US. They also surprised US fans with their first American concert at Otakon, an anime convention. 12,000 fans attended the event and it became the largest performance by a Japanese artist in American history.

Their most recent release is the album “AWAKE” which, for the first time, contains 12 full length songs. It will be released in the US in September. All of their recent singles from “jiyuu e no shoutai” have had appearences from their second alter ego band “P’UNK~EN~CIEL”, which consists of TETSU P’UNK on vocals and guitar, HYDE P’UNK on guitar, YUKI P’UNK on bass, and KEN P’UNK on drums. P’UNK~EN~CIEL does punk covers of L’Arc~en~Ciel songs. Their latest single is the summer song “Link” which is being used as the opening theme song for the Full Metal Alchemist Movie.