Yukihiro

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Yukihiro Awaji, known as "yukihiro" is the drummer and remixer of the j-rock band L'Arc~en~Ciel as well as the leader of Acid Android. His nick name is "Yukky" as well as "teacher".

He joined L'arc~en~Ciel in 1998, taking over the former drummer, Sakura. yukihiro is so skinny (It is announced his weight is only 48Kg, 7.56Stone)that anybody can hardly imagined him as a drummer. He composed a few songs for L'arc~en~Ciel, including "trick", "cradle", "Revelation", and "New World". He also known as his remixing works of the band, and released the remix album, "Ectmorphed Works"in 2000. He had been a member of some Japanese Rock band, including Die In Cries and Zi:Kill.

1 Early Life
2 Before L'arc~en~Ciel
3 As a member of L'arc~en~Ciel
4 Trivia
5 External Links

[edit] Early Life

yukihiro was born on November 24, 1968 in Chiba, near Tokyo. His father is a company worker, and his mother is a Kimono-wearing instructor. He has a younger sister. yukihiro has stated that he has as ordinary a childhood as any other Japanese kid; going to the school, university and being a Salaryman, Japanese white-color worker, and he have never doubt about this typical future. But he loved music, both Japanese and American, from Heavy Metal to Pop music. He was also a good short-track athlete in his junior high school. However, he was fired from athlete club because of his sabotage of daily training.

When he entered high school, he started to play the drum and decided to be a professional rock drummer immediately. Once he made the decision, he told his parents he was leaving school because it was useless for him. However, his parents forbade him to do it. Thus, he continued his education while devoting himself mostly to rock music.

During his university days, he joined Zi:Kill, one of the rising j-rock groups at that time. He left the univerisity.

[edit] Before L'arc~en~Ciel

Zi:Kill signed a recording contract with Extasy Records in 1989. However, they turned into a quarrel during the first album recording outside Japan. Finally, yukihiro was fired there. After that, he formed the band named Optic Nerve with guitarist Shin Murohime. In 1991, he joined Die in Cries in 1991.

Die in Cries released the debut album, "Nothing to Revolution" in 1991. They became popular among Japanese rock fan, and they succeeded the performance live in Nippon Budokan in 1994. At the same time, yukihiro became frastrated with the strict band policy. Later, he stated that Die in Cries was caught in the "heavy metal" manner which was made by themselves, especially, singer KYO. yukihiro wrote some songs but they were rejected because of unlikely style for the band. Some of these songs, "trick" and "L'heure" would have recorded as L'arc~en~Ciel song in 1999.

Die in Cries was broke up in 1995, with their last albume SEED. yukihiro worked as free-lance drummer. During that time, he had no home and moved around his friends. tetsu stated it was so hard to cath yukihiro then, because he had no mobile phone and always relocted among the friends.

[edit] As a member of L'arc~en~Ciel

When it is announced that the former L'arc drummer Sakura quit the band in 1997, Tetsu, a leader of the band, asked yukihiro to help recording the new single, via their common friends. During that time, they had a good chemistry between them. His unique rhythm track was accepted in the song. When their first come-back single "Ni-ji(虹)" was released and did the comeback concert "Reincarnation in Tokyo Dome" , yukihiro was still a support member. It is 1998 when the band announced yukkihiro's joining as official member with the new album "HEART".

Despite of some arguments from sakura's fan, yukihiro quickly get acclimatized to L'arc. His first song, "a swell in the sun", was played as a prologue during the 1998 tour ハートに火をつけろ！Light My Fire. L'arc got ont of the most popularity in Japan, that all of them have never expected. The hall tour was sold out, the album got platinum disk. The band rushed to release the seven new singles and hit the top 10 charts, every month.

On July 1, 1999,they released the sixth album"Ark", and the seventh album "Ray" on the same day. They started the enourmous concert tour named the Grand-Cross Tour. The album hit the top two ranks, and the tour was huge success.

[edit] Trivia

He is the seventh member of L'arc~en~Ciel, since the band started.

His name had been published "YUKIHIRO" in Capital letters until Die In Cries. After joining L'arc, it is changed to small letters, "yukihiro" same as the rest members.

His second nick name, "teacher", is derived from his experience of his part time work as a home teacher. Further, he took a teaching course during his collage days.