GLAY is arguably the most popular band in Japan right now. Unlike many visual rock bands GLAY's music is bright and upbeat. It's a very infectious pop-rock style with an emphasis on catchy melody which has won them fans of all ages, sexes and all musical tastes. Both men and women seem to like them equally (although often for slightly different reasons). Personally I don't have a favorite member and like them all the same. That's not something I can claim with many bands. Teru's a great singer with a crooning yet slightly husky voice and a lighthearted stage prescence. Jiro, the baby-faced bassist plucks out some aggressive basslines and is fun to watch. Hisashi is the most "visual" of the group and also has that pretty boy thing going for him apart from being an energetic guitarist. Finally there's the band's leader Takuro who is both excellent with the guitar and saavy songwriter.

GLAY is considered a visual band, but other than dyeing their hair and sometimes putting on light makeup, they look relatively normal as Japanese visual bands go. I personally wouldn't consider them a visual band anymore, but since they started off with a somewhat visual kei influence, everyone still refers to them as such. By now, Hisashi is really the only member who still has a consistent visual kei influence in his sense of style. While Jiro is still the man of a thousand colourful hairstyles (many inspired by anime and 60's pulp film) and still wears makeup from time to time, it's only borderline visual kei.

In the beginning there was Takuro. In high school Takuro had formed a band named Guest-apo which became totally punk-rock. But as Takuro became enamoured with groups like the Beatles, he grew tired of only performing hard punk songs and yearned to make something with more melody. He wanted to be a band that could do hard rock as well as ballads. So he broke up Guest-apo and began a group he would call GLAY.

The name is a romanization of the Japanese word "gurei" which is the Japanese way of saying "gray". However since there is no difference between the "L" and "R" sound to the Japanese ear, they can spell it with an L. But don't think this was some mistake. The misspelling was pretty much Takuro's intention to make their name look different. The name was a reflection on Takuro's vision for this new band. As a band who's music isn't totally rock or pop, or in other words, black or white but a shade in-between. Even to this day, GLAY's music still fits their name perfectly.

When GLAY was starting out, it was made up of Takuro on guitar, an ex-member of Takuro's old band on bass and Teru on drums. Teru and Takuro knew each other as old schoolmates, but they weren't altogether familiar. Still Takuro needed a drummer so he called up Teru. So they had the main components to make the music of a rock band, but they were missing one very important piece, the vocalist. But a good vocalist that could perform the wide range of GLAY's music was hard to find. However one time they tried to make a demo tape of all of their music (sans vocals). As an experiment Teru recorded his singing voice on to the tape. Later when Takuro got to listen to it he discovered to his surprise that Teru had a promising singing voice. Takuro asked Teru to be the vocalist since it would be much easier to find a drummer. Ever since Teru has been the voice of GLAY and has gotten better every year.

Later in high school Takuro came to know Hisashi who was then a very punkish kid in another band named Ari (but he's still a punkish kid). Takuro became interested in having Hisashi play guitar with the band and since Ari had broken up Hisashi decided to join. Now GLAY had a stronger sound with two guitarists. Still with Hisashi's different music background there was some clashing of ideas, but the overall vision of GLAY as a visual pop-rock band always prevailed.

After high school GLAY decided to leave their hometown of Hakodate and move to Tokyo. So Takuro, Teru and Hisashi left for Tokyo to seek their fame but the bassist and drummer both stayed behind. Things were hard for GLAY as an indie band. Their image was too unusual for the pop crowds yet too poppish for the visual rock crowds. They struggled for a long time having trouble finding gigs and finding time to play together with their side jobs. Things started to change when Jiro came along.

Takuro had known Jiro from his band called Pierrot and was hoping that Jiro could become GLAY's bassist. Jiro wasn't interested since he wanted to play other kinds of music like California rock. But Takuro was able to convince Jiro to play a little with them. Soon enough despite his initial objections he became a permanent member. With Jiro's help they were able to get more live gigs. But also the market was changing in those days. Visual kei bands were becoming more and more common and were being recieved by a larger market, not just metal, punk and goth fans. GLAY was finally starting to get the attention they deserved as an indie band.

A year after Jiro joined, GLAY finally got a break that would soon propel them into the big time. Yoshiki of X Japan came to see them play a live gig. Quite impressed with GLAY, he offered to produce a CD for them on his indie record label, Extasy Records. He even produced their first single "Rain" and played piano on the track. Ever since it's been a fast rise to fame for GLAY. They signed with the major label Platinum Records for their next album and from then on and have since released 4 best selling albums as well as a compilation CD and album of piano renditions of their hit songs.

No longer are they snubbed by both the pop and visual rock clubs. Now pop and rock fans alike embrace the music of GLAY. Still even today some close-minded hard rock fans tend to regard them as pop band since their sound isn't usually heavy or angst ridden. But make no mistake, it is indeed rock music. Either way they really know how to make great music and they are my favorite band. It's probably just me, but the melodies and guitar stylings in their music fills me with nostalgia for my carefree summers of youth and I really can't explain why. Especially with songs like Kuchibiru, Glorious, Yuuwaku and Tsuki ni inoru which have such classic melodies that are timeless. This is definately the number one reason why I love GLAY. As long as Takuro keeps writing songs that mix such great melody with kicking rock n' roll sounds I'll be a fan for life.

Notes: