Hideto Takarai

Hideto Takarai[citation needed] (born January 29, 1969 in Wakayama, Japan) known professionally as Hyde, is the singer for the Japanese rock band L'Arc~en~Ciel as well as the singer for VAMPS.

He joined L'Arc~en~Ciel in 1991 after leaving the band Jerusalem's Rod where he was the guitarist. In addition to being the lead singer and main lyricist of L'Arc~en~Ciel, Hyde has released 4 solo albums and 8 singles, as well as started his own independent record label called VAMPROSE.

After L'Arc~en~Ciel released the single, "Spirit dreams inside" in 2000, the band went on an unofficial hiatus as each of the members began work on solo careers. This was Hyde's debut as a solo artist. In October 2001, Hyde released his first solo single, "Evergreen." After two more singles, "Angel's Tale" and "Shallow Sleep," Hyde released his first solo album, Roentgen, on March 27, 2002. An overseas edition featuring English lyrics was released in July the same year. Hyde's next two singles, "Hello" and "Horizon," were released June and November 2003 respectively, and second solo album, 666, was released on December 3, 2003. "Horizon" was used as the ending theme in Ryuhei Kitamura's film, Sky High.

In 2003, Hyde starred alongside Gackt in the Japanese film Moon Child. In a duet as part of the project, Hyde and Gackt sang "Orenji no taiyou", and when sang live, Hyde could not be there because he was on a music tour. The song was also released on Gackt's fourth full-length album, Crescent. In December 2003, Hyde's song "Shining Over You" from his 666 album was used as the commercial song for Namco's Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean.

In 2004, Hyde took on the role of the guitarist Adam in the movie Kagen no tsuki/下弦の月 (Last Quarter), a movie based on the manga by Ai Yazawa. The movie's theme song, "The Cape of Storms", came from Roentgen.

Source: Wikipedia