MIYAVI, (born Takamasa Ishihara (石原貴雅) in Konohana-ku, Osaka, Japan on September 14, 1981) is a Japanese singer-songwriter, guitarist, record producer and actor. He is known for his finger-slapping style of playing a guitar. MIYAVI is the ex-guitarist of Dué le quartz. During his time with Dué le quartz, he was known as Miyabi, meaning elegant. After going solo in late 2002, he changed his stage name to 雅-MIYAVI-. In 2013, with the release of his self titled album MIYAVI, the artist went through another name change, simplifying the name by dropping the kanji. Dué le quartz: Miyabi's position in the band was that of guitarist and, occasionally, background vocals. He was the youngest member of the band, joining in 1999 at age 17, and developed the "youthful and flamboyant" image he still carries on today in his solo career, albeit it has been tweaked a bit. Dué le quartz disbanded in September of 2002, with Miyabi following up shortly afterward with the announcement of his solo career. As a solo artist, Miyabi appeared on TV to promote his debut album, 【雅楽】-gagaku-, also stressing the name change from Miyabi to 雅-MIYAVI-. He continued to stress this change on into the first year of his solo career. It wasn't long before he had amassed a very large fan base, despite having lost some of his old fans from his Dué le quartz days, going on to release multiple singles and another album. About two years later, in late 2004, he was signed (or "married" as Universal and he had jokingly put it) to Universal Records Japan, making the transition from indie to major. The release of the single ロックの逆襲 -スーパースターの条件-/21世紀型行進曲 marked his major label debut. Around that same time, in late 2004, he also started referring to himself as MYV, but remained listed as "雅-MIYAVI-" on both his official website and in magazines. In 2007, MIYAVI became a member of the supergroup S.K.I.N. along with three other notable Japanese rock musicians associated with or closely related to the visual kei movement - YOSHIKI, Gackt and SUGIZO. S.K.I.N. debuted with their first and so far only concert held on June 29 at Long Beach Arena, California, USA. After their debut performance, the band's activities suddenly came to a halt. The future of the project still remains unclear. MIYAVI embarked on his first world tour in 2008, performing 33 concerts in North and South America, Europe and Asia. The concerts gained extensive media coverage and the majority of them were sold out. It was the most successful international tour undertaken by a Japanese artist to date. On March 14, 2009, MIYAVI married the Japanese singer melody.. He announced the marriage and that his wife was expecting their first child on his official MySpace blog. Lovelie (Airi) Miyavi (愛理 雅) was born July 29, 2009. MIYAVI and melody. welcomed their second daughter, Jewelie Aoi, October 21, 2010. In April 2009, MIYAVI left PS COMPANY Co,. , his record label, and Universal Records Japan with the expiration of his contract. On April 8th, he announced that he had started his own company J-glam Inc.. On December 31 that same year he also signed a contract with EMI Music Japan. His first single with EMI, Survive, was released March 10, 2010. In 2013, with the release of his self titled seventh studio album MIYAVI (released June 19 in Japan) and singles leading up to it, MIYAVI changed his stage name from 雅-MIYAVI- to MIYAVI. The album is MIYAVI's first release in which the majority of the song lyrics are in English. It is also MIYAVI's best-selling album so far. In October that same year it was announced that the artist would venture into professional acting with his international debut in the film Unbroken, directed by Angelina Jolie. The film was released in December 2014. During the release of the film, MIYAVI and his family relocated to Los Angeles, California, USA, where they currently still reside. In 2017, MIYAVI celebrated his 15th year as a solo artist with the release of an anniversary compilation album, All Time Best: Day 2 on April 2, and a tour in Japan titled MIYAVI 15th Anniversary Live „NEO TOKYO 15” beginning May 21. He also played a cameo role in the movie Kong: Skull Island. As of 2017, MIYAVI has embarked on a total of five world tours, performing mainly in North and South America, Europe and Asia. http://myv382tokyo.com/ Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.