HIDEKI

HIDEKI was born on January 29, 1972 in Setagaya, Tokyo. In March 1991, he and a high school friend, bassist NATIN (now going by NATCHIN) decided to create a band. At this time, HIDEKI was using the stage name CHACK.

It took a few years for the band’s line-up to become fully established but in 1994, after the arrival of drummer Junji, SIAM SHADE was set to take on the music world. The band released their first album, which was self-titled, and it stayed on the Oricon charts for many weeks. SIAM SHADE gained fans very quickly, and it wasn't long afterwards that the band was signed by a major label. After the release of their SIAM SHADE III album in October 1996, CHACK changed his name to HIDEKI, his real name, and has kept it that way ever since.

The years went by and SIAM SHADE kept themselves busy with many releases and sold out tours. As HIDEKI is a big fan of helping various causes, the band created the SIAM SHADE Romania Charity and the proceeds went to help children in Romania. HIDEKI and the band also made history by becoming the first Japanese rock band to play a live in Korea at the Pusan International Rock Festival in 2000. Before the event, the Japanese language was prohibited in Korea, which had forced the band to release one of their albums completely in English.

At what most fans consider their ultimate, end-all live performance, SIAM SHADE held a nearly three-hour long live called Legend of Sanctuary in December 2001. Little did their fans know, this live would later become a special memorial event as the band announced the following month that they would disband. Their final live, Start and Stand up, took place on March 11th. Emotions ran high with the band as well as their fans and, by the end of the live, there wasn't a dry eye in the place.

Not even a month after this, HIDEKI opened his official site and, in the following months, poured even more effort into the Romania charity, which later had its name changed to the HIDEKI Romania Charity. In December, he teamed up with his friends Koji of La'cryma Christi, Kuroyanagi Yoshio from Sophia and "Joe" Miyawaki from Ziggy, as well as other bands and artists, at a charity event that donated its proceeds to AIDS prevention.

Backtracking for a moment, HIDEKI opened his official fanclub, CLOSE MY FRIEND in April, and he promised that he would be releasing solo material very soon. Fortunately, HIDEKI's fans didn't have to wait very long as his first solo album, Punk Drunker, was released that September. It was a surprise for many fans, since his style had changed a bit from his days with SIAM SHADE. In some songs, he showed a softer facet of his vocal ability, but his underlying strength and power still remained. The album featured a few ballads and even some songs that were similar to his former band's. With the release of his second album in spring 2003, HIDEKI continued to amaze his fans with a mix of hard rock'n' roll songs and heartfelt ballads.

The next month, he held his first solo live and due to its impressive success, a second soon followed. However, in July, HIDEKI shocked fans by suddenly announcing that he would be ending his solo career. The reason for this was that he intended to create a new band called ACID and they would be debuting the next month.

ACID was a rare treat of a band, with a diverse mix of members, twin vocals and three guitarists. At first, they played mainly hard rock and relied heavily on HIDEKI's influence. During lives, they played many of his solo songs and at the end of 2004, they headed into the studio to record their first album. After the album was released the following March, HIDEKI stunned fans once again by deciding to step back from the vocalist position, making Junpei the band’s lead singer while he focused on playing the keyboards. This, he explained, was because he wished for ACID to be known for their own merits instead of being "HIDEKI from SIAM SHADE’s new band." HIDEKI felt completely confident in the members’ abilities - so much so that he left them to their own devices in the summer of 2006. He later stated that he was very proud of the band and that he'd like to see them play at the Tokyo Dome one day.

HIDEKI then restarted his solo career, supported by many famous musicians. For example, Toki ga Owaru made tada...~Start~ was produced by Masahide Sakuma, and he’s also worked with GLAY support drummer Toshimitsu Nagai and KUROYUME bassist Hitoki, among others. The aforementioned mini-album featured the song Senou Hantai which showed a different side of HIDEKI: the punk rock side he had long been hiding. The members of ACID can also be heard during the chorus. He said that the song was written during the days of the Gulf War and since he was unable to stop it or do battle with the tanks, he wrote the song with "the hope that we could shout this song together in live houses and that things could be changed."

Afterwards, HIDEKI shifted his focus to releasing what he called Gekkan HIDEKI, or in other words "Monthly HIDEKI," which consisted of a single and a magazine. The releases were extremely popular and the joy he took in experimenting and pushing boundaries through them was obvious, but after eight installments, the project was ended.

After the passing of their manager, who had believed strongly in the band, SIAM SHADE decided to reunite for a one-off show in his honour at the Nippon Budokan called Heart of Rock on November 18, 2007. SIAM SHADE would return again in 2011 after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, performing a free show titled Siam Shade Spirits ~Return The Favor~ at Zepp Sendai to help lift the spirits of victims of the disaster. A second show was later held in October at Saitama Super Arena.

In another surprising move, 2007 saw HIDEKI form a heavier new band called DETROX with guitarist K-A-Z, who some might know from his work with SADS. He also formed the label UNCOMPROMISING ELEMENTS around this time, which handled all of DETROX’s releases. Unfortunately, after five years together and many albums, the members decided to put DETROX on an indefinite hiatus on April 18, 2012 to allow them to shift their focus to other projects.

HIDEKI bounced back quickly once again, deciding to give his solo career another shot. His first solo single in about six years, HIDEKI e.p. was released on the label SMALLER RECORDINGS in November 18th.

Since then, he has continued to put out albums at a steady pace, releasing two in 2013: HIDEKI I ~encouraged~ and HIDEKI Zero ~Returning, with the latter being a best-of compilation of tracks from the early days of his solo career. 2013 also saw HIDEKI take part in the Hope And Live HIV/AIDS charity event, performing with a special band consisting of Shin Murohime (DIE IN CRIES, BUG), HIKO (nuvɔ:gu), Shinya (LUNA SEA) and D.I.E. (hide, Ra:IN).

SIAM SHADE returned again that year as well, embarking on their first national tour in twelve years: ~HEART OF ROCK SEVEN~. Even more exciting for fans was the announcement of a new single from the band, Still We Go, which was released in October and sold only at live venues.

HIDEKI’s latest solo album, HIDEKI II ~Fight or Flight~, was released in January 2014. The title comes from the fact that it was recorded under an incredibly tight schedule while he was preoccupied with activities with SIAM SHADE, which he felt put him into that state. He headed out on a national tour shortly after the album’s release.

Spontaneous and crazy by his own admission, it’s difficult to predict what HIDEKI will do next. However, one thing is for sure; if the passion and creativity he has brought to his music career for the past two decades stay with him, fans can expect to hear lots more from this talented man in the future.