MIYAVI began his music career under the name miyabi in the band Dué le quartz. He was quickly noticed, not only for writing most of the songs and playing guitar very skillfully, but also for his rock star attitude. He started his solo career by opening his website right after Dué le quartz had officially disbanded in 2002, and as he continued alone, he changed the spelling of his name to MIYAVI.
He released his first album, Gagaku, in November 2002. Before the end of the year, he had also released three singles, all with drastically varying sounds. Three more singles were released in the first half of 2003, followed by a live DVD, Gekokujo, in July, and MIYAVI's second full-length album, Galyuu, in December.
2004 saw the artist starring in his very own movie, Oresama before he released two more singles and signed with Universal Music, going major in November, just two years after debuting as a solo indie artist with PS Company. Along with his major label status came a new nickname, MYV, and a complete change in appearance.
In the summer 2005, MIYAVI released the album MIYAVI - MIYAVIzm - shugi. Around this time, he began having others assist in recording sessions by playing all instruments with exception of the guitar. Through the remainder of 2005 into 2006, the vocalist saw a number of releases, from reissues of four previously released singles and both of MIYAVI's indie albums, to two new albums including MYV☆POPS and a single. By the end of 2006, MIYAVI also participated in a charity concert for UNICEF.
In early 2007, MIYAVI performed in the USA for the first time for a small crowd at Tabu Lounge in Las Vegas, Nevada. On May 25th and 26th, he was in the states once more to perform at Jrock Revolution in Los Angeles, along with six other visual kei artists. His global performances did not stop there: By July, MIYAVI also appeared at AnimagiC in Germany.
That year also brought a surprise to all fans, when MIYAVI was named one of the members of a "super group" called S.K.I.N., which consisted of himself, YOSHIKI, GACKT and SUGIZO. The band performed only one show, for fans at Anime Expo in California.
For the start of 2007, MIYAVI's activity was sluggish, but by early summer, a number of new releases hit store shelves, and he embarked on the 17-date tour, The Beginning Of NEO VISUALIZM, which ran through the summer. By December, he announced his first world tour, THIS IZ THE JAPANESE KABUKI ROCK, which started in May 2008 and took him to cities in America, Germany, England, France, South Korea, Taiwan, China, and Japan.
Constant recording kept MIYAVI busy through the end of the year, and he rang in 2009 with live events, including the PS Company 10th anniversary concert, Peace&Smile Carnival on January 3rd at Nippon Budokan.
Spring marked both sunshine and rain for MIYAVI and his fans. In early March, MIYAVI happily married former pop idol melody, and began to write in his Myspace blogs about changes occurring in his life. With fan and media interest peaked, it was only a matter of time before the news became public, resulting in an uproar with fans both extremely positive and negative towards the news.
While MIYAVI immediately addressed the issue, he was not able to give a full announcement at that time. During his period of silence, MIYAVI showed his sincere gratitude to the fans who supported him despite the sudden news through several entries on his Myspace. On April 10th with a large apology, MIYAVI announced not only that he was now married and expecting a child in the summer, but that he had left PS COMPANY and formed his own company, J-glam Inc.
Just three weeks later, Anime Matsuri brought MIYAVI to Texas where he performed at the anime convention before returning to Japan to perform at NEO TOKYO SAMURAI BLACK - Zoku. Nariagari 2009 - the next week. April continued to be a successful one for MIYAVI, seeing the debut of several DVDs, including the filming of the his second concert, Nariagari (shaku) in 2003, the Peace&Smile Carnival and a new PV and singles collection which were released under the title VICTORY ROAD TO THE KING OF NEO VISUAL ROCK .
In the fall of 2009, MIYAVI held his second world tour, returning to Europe and South America with the addition of countries Argentina, Mexico, Russia, and the USA. However, due to an injury, the USA shows were canceled. In total he performed in 22 locations across 15 countries.
On January 1, 2010, J-glam Inc. announced that MIYAVI signed with new record label EMI MUSIC JAPAN. That spring, MIYAVI hit the road, visiting cities across Japan and just two months later, the United States, for the NEO TOKYO SAMURAI BLACK WORLD TOUR 2010. In October, MIYAVI traveled to Australia for the first time, holding two shows in Perth.
With the release of WHAT'S MY NAME? in February 2011, the singer launched into his spring tour, WHAT'S MY NAME? WORLD TOUR, with the tour trekking across western Europe.
Now back in Japan, MIYAVI will be appearing this month at the TOKYO GUITAR SHOW in Japan, and perform in France in July at two festivals, Festival Lez'arts Sceniques and Festival Les nuits de la Guitare de Patrimonio. He will wrap up the summer at a number of Japanese festivals, including ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL and ARABAKI ROCK FESTIVAL.
