In addition to being the vocalist to the well-known and highly influential X JAPAN and having his own solo career, TOSHI created the band TOSHI with T-EARTH as of June 2008. TOSHI with T-EARTH revolves around an ecological theme, categorizing them as “Eco Hard Rock” in contrast to TOSHI’s softer and soothing solo works. The band started out with two guitarists from visual kei bands, Jun from ex-Phantasmagoria and Touya from Charlotte and later on Ruka, also from Charlotte, was announced as the bassist.
The new band debuted at the Busan Rock Festival on August 2nd in South Korea and later the same week their first album, EARTH SPIRITS, was released. Their nationwide tour started the week after on August 12 with two drummers splitting up the tour dates, Levin (THE HUSKY, ex-La’cryma Christi) and Shinya (LUNA SEA). Even though their first tour was only a Japan tour, TOSHI had already mentioned his intention of touring around the world to spread the message of Eco Rock. With this intention, TOSHI with T-EARTH traveled to South America just two months after their Japan tour to perform in Chile on October 11th and Brazil on October 12th.
Their next release, the full-length album, Harukanaru Toki wo Koete, was released at the end of November and the next month these songs were first performed at the highly anticipated TOSHI with T-EARTH Christmas LIVE in TOKYO 2 DAYS. These two lives later became the band’s first DVD, which was released a few months later in February.
In April, RIKU, a young drumming genius, was welcomed into the band at the young age of 12. Around this time TOSHI appealed to the general public asking for applications of people who wanted to join the band. The major requirement for joining was “People who want to save the Earth.” After sending in applications to join the band, guitarist RYO and bassist KAIN officially joined, completing this totally new line-up in July 2009.
With this new line-up, TOSHI with T-EARTH will release their next album, Honto no ai, in two different versions on August 13, 2009. The other version of Honto no ai is called TRUTH and will be the English language release of the same album. On the same day as these releases, their new line-up will be performing for the first time at Akasaka Blitz. With this new start, it will be interesting to watch as this band grows and sends their ecological hard rock message all over the world.
