JILS

JILS was formed in November 1999 with the following members: Yukiya (ex. D=SIRE) on vocals, Shun (ex. Vasalla) and Mariki (ex. ZENITH) on guitars, and Hideyoshi (ex D=SIRE) on drums. Yukiya is the president of the KREIS label, well known for producing acts such as Shelly Trip Realize as well as JILS themselves.

The band released their first two demo tapes, Shiro and Kuro, on November 11th, seemingly off to a strong start when suddenly, Hideyoshi decided to leave the band the next month. Filling his position, Tohru (ex. MERRY GO ROUND) was introduced into the band in January. That May, their support bassist Ren (ex. TEAR) became an official member and the band's first two maxi singles were simultaneously released on the 29th.

JILS activities remained strong throughout the rest of the year and into the first half of 2001, until things started slowing down. On August 24th 2001, at their event at Shibuya O-EAST, they announced that they were taking an indefinite break. During the hiatus, the members went their own ways. Yukiya created YUKIYA with kreis project and made a few releases, including MOMENT, which featured participation from all the members of Dir en grey. Shun started to go by Shunsuke and started his own group, FUZZ, while Mariki, Ren and Tohru officially left the band on November 11th. Tohru joined Moi dix Mois as their support drummer, but left them as well in 2005.

Not ones to stay down for long, a month later, Yukiya and Shunsuke decided to revive the band. Ichiro (ex DAS:VASSER) joined them on bass and once again, Hideyoshi returned on drums. For their second anniversary, they held a one-man on Christmas Eve 2001 in Shinjuku LOFT and after this, they released a best-of, entitled CHRONICLES.

2002 was a quiet year for the band. They released three singles and toured a bit, but the biggest thing that happened for them that year was when their website, JILS.net opened for fans on their anniversary on November 11th.

JILS stayed very productive in 2003. They released the singles SPIRAL e.p. and PASSING e.p. simultaneously on March 20th and on the 31st, they held a one day three-man with Gullet and Waive. On May 2nd and 3rd, they held a special two day one-man event at Shibuya AX at which Hideyoshi announced that, once again, he was leaving the band.

The remaining members of JILS pressed on without filling Hideyoshi’s position and during their one-man tour in August, they released four singles in one week. They finished up the year with a limited release of BIBLE e.p. in December.

The band started off 2004 with two one-man tours in the spring where they gave away free CDs to those in attendance; releasing the singles Rakuen and A SONG FOR YOU -Kimi no Tame no Uta- as presents to their audience. They also released the Fool’s Mate limited edition album A VERSE in April, which sold out on preorders. After the release of yet another single, JILS once again announced that they were taking yet another break. Shunsuke continued with his group The Fuzz and released a mini album, while Ichiro created the band ROOM#NUMBER.

As the two year mark of their hiatus approached, JILS played a few shows in February and March 2006 with Tomoi (ex. Laputa) as their support drummer, but they didn’t officially resume activity until their May 2nd show at Shibuya O-EAST. In June, they participated on an omnibus CD ROCK is LOFT and followed it through with a special two day one-man; day one was limited to boys only, day two was girls only. November 12th marked the tenth year of the Kreis label, and the following month, JILS made one of its soon to be last releases.

At the beginning of 2007, JILS announced that they would be ceasing activity again. Calling it their last single, they released endroll on April 18th and played their last show, Re-BIRTHDAY- Day of promise on May 2nd. Time will only tell whether the band’s hiatus will be their last.