Kisaki

, known exclusively by his stage name , is a Japanese musician, record producer and businessman, whose career in the visual kei scene spans more than 30 years. He is best known for having been the bassist of several bands, including La:Sadie's, Mirage, Syndrome, Kisaki Project, and Phantasmagoria. When Phantasmagoria disbanded in 2007, Kisaki announced his retirement as an active musician. However, in 2010, he ended his retirement and formed the band Lin -The End of Corruption World-.

Kisaki also works as a record producer, including for his two former visual kei record labels, Matina and Under Code Production. These labels launched the careers of many bands, including Vidoll, The Gazette and 12012. In 2023, Matenrou Opera vocalist Sono stated that the visual kei scene would not be what it is today without Kisaki.

Early life Kisaki is from Kainan, Wakayama. As a child, he actively played soccer and went fishing. He first touched an instrument at the end of middle school, when a friend who started to play the drums invited him to play bass. "It wasn't about playing in a band; it was just playing for fun.", "I simply wanted to make loud noise (laughs)." The band then played at the venue about once a month, and, after being covered on the local news, ended up opening for Pink Sapphire in front of 1,000 people. Syndrome released the mini-album Core in April 2002. However, the band suddenly announced their disbandment, and had their last live on November 18, 2002. Vocalist Asagi and guitarists Sin and Ruiza formed D together, while drummer Shion formed Tinc. The group's lineup often changes, with the bassist himself being the only permanent member. Kisaki writes and composes all of the band's songs, which consist primarily of soft rock and pop ballads. When fronted by Jui, it is credited as . In 2004, they traveled to Europe and released an album there. Also in 2003, Kisaki formed the side project with Vidoll bassist Rame on vocals.

Around this same time, guitarist Jun approached Kisaki to start a band together, Phantasmagoria. Kisaki explained that the group came from having noticed that no new bands were emerging, "Bands that should have been able to reach greater heights weren't getting the expected response, and the scene was changing. I felt that I couldn't guide bands unless I immersed myself back in the scene."

In 2013, the "first chapter" of Lin ended. Every member changed, except for Kisaki, and the second chapter of the band started as an independent act. Feeling no need to stay in Osaka anymore, Kisaki moved to Tokyo, but struggled. In 2020, Kisaki organized and produced the omnibus album to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Rock-May-Kan, a Meguro, Tokyo live house that was important to the 1990s visual kei scene. Featuring 50 different bands from the era, all proceeds from the 4-disc album went to the music venue at a time when concerts were prohibited during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. While working with Akira on a separate project, Kisaki and the vocalist realized that Mirage's 25th anniversary was coming up in 2022, and decided to create the band's first full-length album for the occasion. On October 8, Kisaki Project had their first performance with Jui in 16 years at Umeda Trad as part of The Grand Paradox event. The mini-album Eternally and the single "Hakai" ended Kisaki's anniversary celebrations in December. The mini-album is composed of five songs that he could not fit on the trilogy and features Matenrou Opera vocalist Sono and Deathgaze vocalist Ai, while the single was excluded from Eternally because it has a completely different style.

Record labels

Matina Matina was an independent record label that managed visual kei artists. It was formed in January 1997 by Kisaki as Matina Soleil, the Osaka branch of the larger visual kei label Soleil, which was founded the previous year by former Rouage bassist Kaiki. Kisaki was inspired to start his own label like Yoshiki had done with Extasy Records. He personally answered phone calls, told customers the live schedules, and handled the mail-order sales of demo tapes.

Under Code Production Under Code Production was Kisaki's second independent visual kei label, and a sub-label of Free-Will. It was formed in 2003 in the Kansai region. While hospitalized shortly after Matina's demise, Kisaki said the members of Vidoll would visit him weekly to express a strong desire to work with him, which led to Kisaki forming Under Code Production. Kisaki cited the frequency of members leaving and bands disbanding as the reason, "Three years of building something, and then with two members leaving, it's back to the start. Watching these bands, I began to feel a conflict 'perhaps I was just rehashing the same approach'. Continuing like those things would not be good for me or the bands, so I decided to end Under Code Production. It was its 10th year, and I wanted to end on a high note rather than let it decline." As a result, many bands signed to the label split up, such as Nega, Megaromania, Dali, Vior Gloire. A handful of other acts remained active, such as Futurism Boyz, Lin, and Realies. Several musicians related to Under Code formed their own labels, such as Goeman Records formed by Realies' frontman Rayka, and King Zebra formed by Suzaku's vocalist Itsuki.

Discography

With Kisaki Project Albums + List of albums for Kisaki Project Title Album details Shōzō: in the Cradle (肖像~in the cradle~)Released: April 28, 2004 Label: Under Code Production, Mabell Format: CD Note: Released in Japan and Europe Final ConfessionReleased: October 31, 2004 Label: Spec (Shoxx), Under Code Production Format: CD + DVD Kasō (枯想)Released: January 10, 2007 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD + DVD Eien no Yume... (永遠の夢・・・)Released: August 15, 2007 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD, Digital (iTunes) The Solitude SongsReleased: July 23, 2008 Label: World Temptation Entertainment Format: CD + DVD Eien no Yume: for Lovers... (永遠の夢 ~for Lovers・・・~)Released: December 24, 2008 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD + DVD Released: October 31, 2012 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD + DVD

Singles + List of singles for Kisaki Project Title Album details Released: December 25, 2003 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD Released: March 28, 2004 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD Released: August 25, 2004 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD Released: February 14, 2007 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD Released: June 20, 2007 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD + DVD Fragments VoiceReleased: August 28, 2007 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD Released: October 31, 2007 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD Solitude SongsReleased: July 31, 2008 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD, Digital (iTunes) Released: November 11, 2011 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD, Digital (iTunes) Released: November 27, 2011 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD (Live distributed, limit of 300 copies) Released: February 15, 2012 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD + DVD, Digital (iTunes)

Videos + List of video releases for Kisaki Project Title Album details Released: November 25, 2003 Label: Under Code Production Format: DVD Released: July 28, 2004 Label: Under Code Production Format: DVD Impressive SightReleased: October 31, 2004 Label: Under Code Production Format: DVD Released: December 26, 2006 Label: Spec (Shoxx), Under Code Production Format: DVD For Lovers...Released: August 15, 2007 Label: Under Code Production Format: DVD

With Kisaki & Kansai Kizoku

Albums + List of albums for Kisaki & Kansai Kizoku Title Album details Released: August 20, 2003 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD Burst Songs1st Release: July 21, 2004 2nd Release: July 27, 2004 3rd Release: December 2, 2009 Label: Kapparecords, Under Code Production Format: CD

Singles + List of singles for Kisaki & Kansai Kizoku Title Album details Kainushi wa Boku (飼い主は犬?)Released: October 8, 2004 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD Black MilkyReleased: October 31, 2004 Label: Under Code Production Format: CD + DVD

Videos + List of video releases for Kisaki & Kansai Kizoku Title Album details Released: February 26, 2010 Label: Under Code Production Format: DVD Released: February 26, 2010 Label: Under Code Production Format: DVD