TOMOYASU HOTEI - VIDEOS

TOMOYASU HOTEI

Tomoyasu Hotei (布袋 寅泰, Hotei Tomoyasu, born February 1, 1962 in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture) is a Japanese musician, guitarist and actor.

Biography

Hotei first began playing the guitar in junior high school. In high school, his band “Blue Film” finished runners up in a school contest to “Death Penalty", a band led by Kyosuke Himuro. Hotei was expelled shortly before graduation. The reason was that, when warned about his long hair he replied “Jesus had long hair!” Shortly after, he went to Tokyo where one day he received a phone call from Himuro. The two had never really known each other but hit it off and went on to hold auditions for a new band, which in 1981 became the six-member Boøwy. The band became major stars in Japan, in 1985 played the Marquee in London, and in 1986 had their first million seller, Beat Emotion.
When the band broke up in 1988, Hotei established himself as a solo star, as did Boøwy singer Kyosuke Himuro. Hotei also made two albums with Koji Kikkawa as Complex, both of which went to number one in the national charts. Hotei frequently records overseas, and has collaborated with many foreign musicians, including playing on The Stranglers Hugh Cornwell’s 1993 solo album, on stage with David Bowie at Nippon Budokan in 1996, and at the closing ceremony of the Atlanta 1996 Centennial Olympic Games with Michael Kamen.

He later recorded “Guitar Concerto” with Kamen. He has also worked with Andy Mackay of Roxy Music, guitarist Chris Spedding and Mike Edwards of Jesus Jones. Hotei also sometimes plays in Europe, and performances include a number of major festival dates. His regular drummer in recent years, Zachary Alford, has previously played with Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie. His album of 1998 Supersonic Generation, recorded in part with Apollo 440 and Ofra Haza, was released in 14 European countries.

In addition to releasing many best-selling solo albums, Hotei composed & performed the score for Hiroyuki Nakano’s Samurai Fiction, as well as starring in the film. He composed the score to Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas together with Ray Cooper, and the song “Battle Without Honor or Humanity” was used in the Quentin Tarantino’s film Kill Bill, the PlayStation 2 version of Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA,and Michael Bay’s film Transformers. Hotei recorded a cover of John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” for Merry Axemas, an instrumental guitar Christmas album featuring tracks from guitarists including Jeff Beck, Joe Perry and Steve Vai.

Hotei ventured into the world of video gaming, with the Nintendo DS game Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan featuring his song Thrill. It was followed by a sequel, Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii, which featured another Hotei song, Bambina. Both songs were cover versions.

Hotei is featured in “Grace” on the Apocalyptica album Worlds Collide. The song is featured in NHL 09.