Night Flight
the world of La'cryma Christi
Night Flight
the world of La'cryma Christi
Hiro is the sole guitarist for La'cryma Christi, formally being one of two guitarists, along with Koji. He also sings backing vocals along with Shuse. Hiro writes a lot of the band's music, especially a lot of their earlier songs. Working with Taka, he's written the lyrics for three songs, "Screaming," "Blossom," and "Your Song."
La'cryma's songs toss the melody between different parts constantly during songs, not often having a strong repeating melody and the way Hiro and Koji's guitars work together is a part of that. Neither is designated rhythm or lead guitar and they trade off who gets the solos. Most of La'cryma's work doesn't feature prominent guitar solos, but we're getting a taste of something a little different on their ZEUS album, with it strong classic rock feel and lots of guitar. It's definitely a change from the back and forth interplay of the earlier songs. Especially now after the departure of Koji, the role of the guitar in La'cryma's music will be undergoing a transformation. Hiro uses the LCH-360 guitar from ESP.
However, it's not his guitar work that Hiro is the most famous for --- it's probably his long black hair. Until 1999 Hiro had long, long dead straight black hair, hanging down almost to his hips. He'd flip it all over during concerts, wore lots of black, and heavy white and black makeup.
He was definitely the most goth-looking of the group and even after the other members had mostly shed their visual images, Hiro hung on. Hiro's look is a major reason that La'cryma Christi was considered a visual-kei group for a lot longer than they perhaps were, but it helped keep some visual fans and allowed the band to sit the fence between visual-kei and straight rock. When Hiro cut his hair and dyed it different colors it was a big shock for a lot of fans and many of them were upset, but he's back to black again now.
Even though Hiro is the "scary one" of the band, he's reportedly fairly shy and quiet off stage. He has a very soft speaking voice and hides behind his hair a lot during public appearences. During concerts, he's fairly subdued and stays stage left, which he pretty much has to himself. He is also apparently a fan of Jack Daniels whiskey as he or other band members are always talking about Hiro and Jack Daniels on the band's website.