Name Kaoru (musician) Origin Hyogo, Japan Instruments Guitar | Role Musician Music group Dir En Grey | |
 | ||
Born February 17, 1974 (age 50) ( 1974-02-17 ) Occupation(s) Guitarist, composer, record producer Associated acts Dir en grey, La:Sadie's, Charm, Cecil Die:Steria Genres Alternative metal, Avant-garde metal, Rock music Albums Dum Spiro Spero, Arche, Uroboros, VULGAR, Withering to Death Similar People Die, Toshiya, Kyo, Shinya | ||
Kaoru (薫, Kaoru, born February 17, 1974, in Hyōgo) is a Japanese musician, best known as the leader and one of the guitarists of the extreme metal band Dir En Grey. He has been with the group since its inception in 1997 and was previously a member of La:Sadie's. He has composed most of Dir en grey's songs (at least up to the Vulgar album, at which individual credits for the music were dropped). His contributions display a fair amount of variety, ranging from slow ballads such as "Zakuro" to upbeat numbers like "Jessica". He performs many solos for the band, which vary strongly in feeling and tempo, similar to his compositions. Kaoru cites X Japan guitarist hide as his biggest influence and the reason he plays guitar, saying "If I had never known him, I wouldn’t be who I am today." Revealing "Kaoru" to be his birth name in his book Dokugen (読弦), he's the only Dir En Grey member with a known real name.
Contents
Since 2014, Kaoru has suffered from nerve paralysis, and has sometimes resorted to taping his guitar plectrum to his hand. In 2015, he hosted a radio program, "The Freedom Of Expression".
Equipment
Kaoru is endorsed by ESP Guitars in Japan, who provides him with most of his guitars, picks, and straps. In the past, Kaoru primarily used ESP Custom Shop guitars from his signature-series, Ganesa. He stopped using the Ganesa guitars around 2005 and switched to the Viper series, in which he has his own custom model, the D-KV-420. Recently a limited edition Edwards version of his D-KV is being sold.
ESP has released several replicas of Kaoru's signature guitars in Japan through the ESP and Edwards product lines. The ESP artist series offers replicas of the D-KV-420 and the Ganesa II. Edwards offers a miniature Ganesa and replicas of the Ganesa IV and VIII. Kaoru uses guitar amplifiers by Diezel and cabinets by VHT.