Get to Know J-Rock Superstar MIYAVI With These 12 Fun Facts! (Exclusive)

MIYAVI is a Japanese rock legend and a superstar actor, and we’re honored to exclusively allow our readers to get to know him even better.

The 40-year-old multi-talented “Samurai Guitarist,” just one of his many well-known nicknames, has not only been a staple in the Japanese music scene since the early ’00s, but a star in many beloved films, including Unbroken, Kong: Skull Island and Maleficent 2, as well as his Netflix project called Kate, which arrived last year.

He’s also a fashion icon, and currently the face of Gucci in Japan.

This month, he released his song “Hush Hush” with Kang Daniel, the South Korean singer-songwriter who went from Produce 101 to being a member of Wanna One, to becoming a solo star in his own right. The song is featured on MIYAVI‘s 2021 studio album, Imaginary.

Watch the music video for MIYAVI‘s “Hush Hush” with Kang Daniel and check out 12 Fun Facts inside…
Click inside to read more…

1. I have a tattoo of a name of a band that I used to be in. The band’s name was Dué le Quartz and whoops, the tattoo reads “Duéle quartz” which stylistically is written wrong. Good memory.

2. I acted in the film Maleficent 2. Every morning on set, it took 4 hours to put the special effects makeup on me in my trailer. The makeup team was amazing, the set was great, even the weather in London was really nice, the entire experience was perfect except I didn’t get any lines in the film, ha.

3. There is one thing I have been wanting to apologize for but haven’t. When I attended Unbroken movie premiere party, I met Chris Martin from Coldplay who composed the theme song for the film. I wanted to tell him I’m a big fan of his but when he said my acting performance was great in the film, I got nervous and just said “yeah, I know.” I think he hated me after that.

4. I’ve been wanting to shave my head but couldn’t do it because of film shooting commitments. In the music video for my track “New Gravity,” I appeared with a shaved head look on camera which was actually a bald cap but it looked real. My fans freaked out when they saw the video. I felt bad that I couldn’t reveal the truth about the bald cap for a while.

5. I featured legendary actor Samuel L. Jackson on my album Samurai Sessions 3. When I first met him on the set of the film Kong – Skull island, I really wanted to take a picture with him but as an actor on the same set, it’s not cool to ask for a photo. When I was leaving the film, he said “Can we take a picture?” And I was like “Absolutely!”

6. As a musician and actor, I travel a lot and I have been wanting to get involved with some cultural creations to represent my country Japan. For example, Angelina Jolie has her winery Miraval, and George Clooney co-founded a tequila company. Now, I’m making my own sake called MIYAVI SAKE by partnering with one of the oldest sake factories in Kyoto, Japan. Something I have never told my sake partners, is that I am a bit of a tequila connoisseur which inspires my mission to bring sake to the masses.

7. In all the films I have appeared, I’m always cast as the villain and I love it. But I did book one “good guy role” where I played a fairy (with no dialog, ha) in Maleficent 2.

8. In the Netflix action movie Kate, I did a full stunt action scene with the crew from John Wick. My fans call me the “Samurai Guitarist,” which I sometimes take too literally when I film fighting scenes.

9. I partnered with KLKTN, an NFT platform to make exclusive digital collectibles based off my last album I released and loving what we been creating. Go check it out here!

10. For the music video for my track “Hush Hush” from my last album Gravity – I got to work with the incredible Kang Daniel on the song. I shot my part in Los Angeles, while he shot his part in Seoul with our production teams working from Japan, Los Angeles and Vietnam. KLKTN brought us all together, it was an incredible international team involved.

11. I love cosplaying and anime and so does my family. I once cosplayed with my kids and wife as the character from the live action movie Bleach that I starred in. That was an unintentional but perfectly organic movie promotion plus a lot of fun for my family.

12. I am a gamer, I play Valorant with my daughters. And I believe that I’m better than them, needless to say we get super competitive in our home.