Yoshii Kazuya was the frontman of one of Japan's biggest rock acts, neo-glam rockers the Yellow Monkey. He started working on his own material right after the band went on hiatus in 2001, collaborating with several American musicians in the process, but his first solo release -- the single Tali -- didn't appear until 2003, a year before the members of the Yellow Monkey admitted that the band was finished. Relaunching his career wasn't a big feat for Yoshii (then performing under the name Yoshii Lovinson), who already had a decade of professional experience and a reputation as a rock idol behind him. His new musical direction, evidenced on his debut solo LP, At the Black Hole (2004), was more of a direct shift toward his heroes, Smokey Robinson and David Bowie, but it proved to be modern enough to earn him chart success, although less than that of the Yellow Monkey. By that time he was also joined by another member of his former band, Hideaki "Emma" Kikuchi. His next LP, White Room, followed suit, and Yoshii spent 2005 on a huge tour promoting this album. He continued touring and recording in the next two years, releasing four well-charting singles and appearing on a Japanese Nirvana tribute album, All Apologies. Yoshii also indulged in a moniker play, switching from the stage name of "Yoshii Lovinson" to "Yoshii Kazuya" -- a variation of his real name employing a homonymic hieroglyph for "Kazui" with the meaning "luck." ~ Alexey Eremenko