Akira Naito
All guitar, bass, vox and programing


When I was younger, I used to visit a friend who was a university student
at the time.  He would help me cram for my school assignments and sometimes
would show me how he would sing and play his acoustic guitar.  I was
completely fascinated by that because it was so cool!  I tried to find all
kinds of reasons to visit his room because I wanted to listen to his
playing.  In the meantime, I started to play guitar by myself but all I
could do at first was play backward and forward between Em and D.  I was
still absolutely fascinated with such playing though.


  When I became a junior high school student, I was interested in Western
music and listened to Queen, Journey, TOTO, and other Top 40 music.  At the
time, record shops had just become popular near me and there was a section
called "heavy metal" in those shops.  Since I liked the sound of heavy
metal, I picked up a record.  I went crazy for the enthusiastic singing
rather than the sound of just a guitar.  At first I thought Heavy Metal was
the name of a band really called "Rainbow" (vocal Graham Bonnet).   I really
thought that this heavy metal sound was terrific!  The more I got to know
about new bands such as Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Gary Moore, MSG, and Loudness,
the more excited I got.  I was so eager to buy a guitar that made the same
cool sounds like them, but unfortunately had used up all my New Year's Gift
money to buy a double breasted leather jacket!


  Then I played with a speed metal band called "Dictator", and that
consisted of two guitar sounds.  Although I have played many guitars so far,
the Ibane`s Destroyer, the one I got when I was high school, is what I am
using now as a main guitar.  It was my first full scale band and we became
popular in our local area.  Gradually, we worked on presenting a nice music
portfolio and did a video.  We have been playing for a few years now, but as
new faces come and go, we did the same performances so many times a month,
that we became stereotyped.   So that's when I decided to go to the USA.


   In a sense, I was influenced by Marty Freadman and Jason Becker, with
whom I played.  I set foot in the Bay Area of California where I believed
was home to thrash metal music, which had a great influence on my present
music style.  Of course I couldn't speak English at all at that time and I
had no connections whatsoever, but I had my high spirit and a lot of guts.
When I had first arrived in the USA, that was not a good time for my music.
I had a hard time getting work to buy even one hamburger.  I have often
heard that "If you go there, everything will work out."  Well, I'm here to
tell you that this is absolutely wrong.


  When I visited studios to advertise myself, I was often told that if I
didn't speak English then they cannot accept me.  Even after I learned a
little bit of English, nobody would accept me because I didn't have any
music equipment with me.  (I didn't know that musicians are supposed to
bring their equipment and monthly rentals!)  Many people said to me that
they just didn't want to play with a Japanese musician.  Every time I was
faced with that situation, I kept getting stronger and would try to persuade
them to listen to my guitar..."OK, you must listen to my guitar and sound
anyway!"  I would tell them.  I would get that appointment by phone and
visit their studios, no matter how dangerous of a neighborhood they were in.
I played in quite a few jam sessions and met a lot of people.


  I was getting used to such a lifestyle when at 6 months I joined a local
band called  "Wicked In Oakland"  There was a vocalist who once made his
debut as a major singer of a metal band called "Seduce" in the 1980's.  A
little while later, we got a few chances to perform our music with a typical
rock sound, but I had become greedy and began to think that I wanted to play
my own songs and so I decided to leave the band.  One other reason I left
the band was no matter how much I tried, I could NOT pronounce the band's
name properly!  At that same time the vocalist and bass player left the band
with me, so we discussed doing some future gigs for three of us together.
Unfortunately, one of them was an ex-drug user and still receiving
counseling, so that just didn't seem to work out.  I soon got back to my
original objective and looked around for new band members in music Journals.
As a result, I got some incredible people together and we composed some
great music together at the studio every night.  However, one night the
Police came to our studio and arrested our drum player.  I still don't know
what his charge was.


  Many times as I looked through underground heavy metal magazines, I often
would see an advertisement type of offer for a one man band cassette tape
project.  While I was looking for new band members,  I went ahead and
composed 5 new songs with my 4 trucked MTR and drum machine.  I accomplished
all this in my shabby little apartment and then sent my songs to an
underground heavy metal type radio program.  Despite my cheap sound, I got
quite a lot of good feedback, opposite to what I had expected.  It soon
triggered the development of my present band called "Colourfast."  I still
send my sound to listenner of all over the world through the international magazines,  Internet magazines, fanzine, college stations etc., and sometimes my music has been played by the media. 

Colourfast is the word I found from the instructions written on
the back side of a detergent box! 

 AKILLER
My another project which is instrumental music

I am also working consistently as a
member of  GASPANIC with a female guitarist at the same time.