J.

Since the breakup of Japanese rock group <a href="spotify:artist:5oiTT9V0uAPYS8TABvvjnS">Luna Sea</a>, Jun "J" Onose has arguably had the most successful solo career of its five members, maintaining a high profile with regular bouts of touring and recording, including collaborations with Billy Duffy and Scott Garrett of <a href="spotify:artist:49DW3KvkyjHO35mK1JnSyS">the Cult</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4Cqia9vrAbm7ANXbJGXsTE">Slash</a>. J's music is a looser, more traditional take on the hard rock-inspired visual kei sound that <a href="spotify:artist:5oiTT9V0uAPYS8TABvvjnS">Luna Sea</a> virtually perfected in the 1990s.

Bassist J founded Lunacy with drummer Shinya Yamada in 1989, recruiting Ryuichi Kawamura, Yasuhiro Suighara, and Shinobu Inoue -- only the following year did they change their name to <a href="spotify:artist:5oiTT9V0uAPYS8TABvvjnS">Luna Sea</a>. Throughout the '90s <a href="spotify:artist:5oiTT9V0uAPYS8TABvvjnS">Luna Sea</a> was a regular feature on the Oricon charts. Although J's solo career nominally began in 1997 with the release of his debut album, Pyromania, and the recruitment of Garett and Takashi Fujita of heavy metal also-rans Doom, it wasn't until 2000 when <a href="spotify:artist:5oiTT9V0uAPYS8TABvvjnS">Luna Sea</a> split up following a sayonara live show at Tokyo Dome that it really began in earnest. Backed by a band that included two guitarists of note, <a href="spotify:artist:2s3VN6FjmyuvBZnABKaMyq">Steve Jones</a> of the <a href="spotify:artist:1u7kkVrr14iBvrpYnZILJR">Sex Pistols</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:3KEe5d2p5jKihMMvuXVhr1">Duff McKagan</a>, ex-<a href="spotify:artist:3qm84nBOXUEQ2vnTfUTTFC">Guns N' Roses</a>, J embarked on his "Fire Wire" Japan tour, then performed for five consecutive nights at Tokyo's Shibuya Ax in 2002 -- a feat he repeated two years later. Also in 2002 he began his tradition of playing a New Year's Eve concert at Tokyo's intimate Astro Hall venue. The following year he played the storied Budokan venue, something of a right of passage for every Japanese artist -- but insisted that everyone stand to watch the show. In 2005, J signed with the Blowgrow label, a rock-oriented subsidiary of Avex Trax home to Kirito, for whom his first release was the Glaring Sun album. Urge (2007), which marked J's tenth year as a solo artist, and 2008's Ride followed. The six-track Stars from the Broken Night EP was issued in 2009. Proving the esteem with which budding rockers hold him, the ESP-manufactured J bass guitar has clocked sales of 50,000. Lesser-known fact: J's homepage is an acronym of his favorite phrase, "What's up, motherf**cker?" ~ David Hickey