|
押谷賢 was born in the 愛知県 prefecture on November
17th, 1973. His zodiac sign is Scorpio, with his Japanese & Chinese
zodiacs being 水牛 & 牛鬼 respectively. His blood type is O. His height and
shoe size (recorded in 2000) are 182cm (5’10”) and 28cm (US11).
Not much is known about his early life. He lived throughout most of the year 1990 in the 原宿 district of 渋谷区 in 東京 prefecture, where he became friends with Junji, who would later become known as the bassist for the band Laputa. In 1992, when he was 19 years old, he worked in a silver accessory shop in アメ横. The following year in 1993, he started an electronic music project with his friend 宅島勇 called “自爆”. Shortly after the project began, he changed his stage name to 0441, while his friend changed his name to 136. To make ends meet during this period, he worked at a leather jacket shop on 竹下通り in the 原宿 district, where he would develop a lasting appreciation for the punk subculture and its music, as well as british skinhead fashion. Together with his friend, they recorded and released music on a short run of cassette tapes.
自爆
Late in 自爆’s activity, 0441 started another project with 圭児 (aka 光雄) called “パラシウト²”. It’s not known what type of music this was, but 圭児 was at this point on break from being the bassist for the band cali+gari and had played with a band called VALEN SCHTEIN. Both bands performed post-punk/goth rock type music, so it’s assumed that this new project had a similar sound. It's around this time that 0441 started going by the name “秀児”. Both music projects would come to an end in 1996 when 圭児 returned to his previous band and brought 秀児 along to fill in on vocals after that band’s previous vocalist had left the band. The band then changed their name to “cali≠gari” and had two more lineup changes from 1996 to 2000, exchanging bass & drums.
cali≠gari
As vocalist for cali≠gari, 秀児 would build a devoted following for his 電波系 (“outsider” or “outcast”) personality and his unconventional look, donning a shaved head and facial piercings. He endeared listeners with his manic stage presence, going from psychotic screaming to gentle singing, resulting in an engaging contrast. This affectation would be revealed as genuine throughout interviews with him during this period where he would disclose his struggles with mental illness, such as schizophrenia, paranoid rage disorders, and anti-social tendencies, making it difficult for him to maintain lasting friendships and keep steady jobs. In addition to his social outcast personality type, he was also known for being a devout & practicing Buddhist. Many of his lyrics have spiritual themes and he’s alluded to the shaving of his head being one of his ways of expressing his devotion to buddha as a “bodhisattva”, or a person who is able to reach nirvana but delays doing so out of compassion in order to save suffering beings. He often attributed his angry outbursts in social settings to the possession of evil spirits and would practice rituals and chants and visit shrines to achieve a calm mind afterward. He also grew a sizeable following from Lolita fashion circles after frequently wearing Lolita dresses & wigs onstage and mentioning his love for Lolita fashion in interviews. His relationship with the members of cali≠gari, particularly founding member 桜井青, was often strained, his closest rapport being with 武井誠, their drummer who joined in 1999. There were multiple instances where 秀児 would attempt to leave the band after getting in heated arguments with 青 but would be convinced by the other members to stay. He would also haze or “initiate” roadies of the band by shaving their heads - one example being 景夕, who had a shaved head when he first met the other members of what would become the popular band "Kra", who recruited him for vocals. During the recording of their mini-album “ブルーフィルム” in June of 2000, the band lost contact with 秀児. Unable to reach him for recording, they made the difficult decision to find a replacement vocalist. Shortly after leaving cali≠gari, 秀児 posted in a blog about his experiences in the band, slandering 青 and swearing off collaborating with anyone related to the band. He then began activities as a solo artist, performing new versions of the songs he wrote with cali≠gari in addition to covers of songs by English punk band The Damned. At the 六本木Y2K venue in August of the same year, he performed a set while accompanied by members of THE SLUT BANKS, a popular visual kei-associated punk band.
In December, he changed the kanji in his name to 秀兒 and formed a new band called “呪”. He would perform his own material with the band and had abandoned makeup and alternative clothing in favor of a more casual punk look. In blogs around this period, he expressed his disappointment with being unable to escape the fanbase he’d built in cali≠gari, saying he wanted to break free of visual kei all together but 呪’s audience would consist entirely of young girls in Lolita fashion. The band lost contact with him a year later.
呪
ピンク菩薩
Then in seemingly the same month, he formed a new band with three presumably different people from before. He would continue to embrace a dark visual style in this band while retaining the same aggressive post-punk sound. This band performed all of the songs he’d written up to this point as well as material that the other members had written. They released 18 tracks of music on mini-discs during their run. This project fell apart after just six months.
百足
Two years passed by with no musical activity until a local punk band he followed called "愚童" had just lost their vocalist. He saw this as an opportunity to join an authentic punk rock band and escape his past and offered to join. The band noticed he and their previous vocalist both had shaved heads and, at this point, 秀児 had gained a lot of extra weight, which matched the heavyset build of their last vocalist. They accepted his offer to join and, in January of 2004, they began to perform together. In April, they released re-recordings of their songs with new material and 秀児 on vocals.
愚童
After many lineup changes and a steady level of live activity, 秀児 decides to leave the band in 2008. The band then decides to dissolve soon after in January. Then in August of 2009, 秀児 befriends ゆ~る and 殲景 and decides to start another band, this time returning yet again to his visual kei roots. They name the band “歩-ふ-“ and start by performing songs written by ゆ~る live. By December of the following year, they had released three CDs totaling to 8 tracks of music, a mixture of ゆ~る’s originals and 秀児’s own songs, including a new version of cali≠gari favorite “人間ポンプ”.
歩-ふ-
Around this time, 秀児 kept an active blog in which he documented his every thought, consisting of a mixture of hopeless self-loathing and spiritual self-encouragement, coupled with occasional mentions of his activity in 歩-ふ- and his previous bands. He expressed a desire to abandon body modification such as piercings and tattoos in order to “achieve nirvana” and had stopped getting tattoos (his first being a dragon on his arm that he got in 2000), he also had finally removed his septum ring for good. In blogs, he also mentioned that every band he’d ever been in had fallen apart due to having creative differences with the other members that resulted in conflicts and the other members not being able to handle his outbursts. He also mentioned in these blogs that he regretted his loss of opportunity but that he was optimistic, striving to improve himself more each day. Also mentioned was how he had been supplementing his income with disability insurance after filing for disability welfare (精神障害者保健福祉手帳). Since leaving cali≠gari, he had spent most of his life living solitarily in apartments in 大阪市, 名古屋市, and 東京, sometimes by choice and sometimes due to having no close connections with anyone. Two years later in 2011, local rock band by the name of “xxGUN/JACKxx” was looking to recruit a vocalist and met 秀児 through their support drummer ゆ~る, who was the guitarist for 歩-ふ-. They recruited 秀児 and started playing at local venues early that year. They released three CDs and contributed to an omnibus CD, a total of 16 tracks written by guitarist devil and 秀児, with one CD featuring three remakes of known 秀児 classics, before the band ceased activities in September of 2013.
xxGUN/JACKxx
It’s unknown whether they had stopped activities due to disagreements or if it was loss of interest or any other reason. Feeling invigorated by performing music again, 秀児 immediately began performing again as a solo artist under the name “あの秀児”. Live reports of this period indicate that he would often busk on the street under the gimmick of “acapella punk”, encouraging passers-by to play an instrument while he accompanies them with his vocals. He would also perform at venues acapella with extended MCs in-between songs, where he would talk about his memories of being a member of various bands, and would self-deprecate and make fun of his career mis-steps to amuse audiences. He was usually accompanied on drums by シダ from the band 赫, known as the band of 久世真輔, who was the vocalist of cali≠gari before 秀児. After taking a break, he returned to music in 2015 as “ST.秀児”, performing acoustic renditions of his songs on stage, playing a guitar live on stage and singing along. At some point in 2016, he performed for the last time and disappeared. Currently is whereabouts are unknown but he is rumored to be retired from music and working as a cook at an 居酒屋 somewhere in the country. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sources
http://ameblo.jp/hageoipunk/
http://skinheadshuji.hatenablog.com/
https://twitter.com/st92967363
http://www.juno.dti.ne.jp/~neurose/i/
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A7%80%E5%85%90
http://sakuttobankas.com/archives/4675
https://ameblo.jp/great-power/
http://id43.fm-p.jp/317/xfux/
http://id17.fm-p.jp/309/xxGUNJACKxx/
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
