Gaz

Name: 松村達明/Tatsuaki Matsumura

Birthday: February 1st, 1972

Hometown: Takasaki, Gunma

Blood Type: O

Position: Drums

Bands in Chronological Order

Distoma

Sometime around 1989, two of DISTOMA's roadies would later go on to become members of Kneuklid Romance. Initially, we had no idea who were the roadies, but it's believed that Gaz was one of them, since Gaz was apparently friends with vocalist YUKI. Additionally, Tatsuya (now a member of DISTOMA) has mentioned on Twitter that Gaz's stage name was given to him by YUKI, rather than Hiyori from Youthquake. In the same Tweet, Tatsuya mentioned that the second roadie was Tetsu, who was also in DATURA and later, Kneuklid Romance, until April of 1994.

DATURA

Considered the proto-Kneuklid Romance due to its members. Formed in 1991. Gaz (drums), Tetsu (guitar), and Tatsuya (bass) were in the band, as well as Kaede (vocals). Gaz, Tetsu, and Tatsuya later become a part of Kneuklid Romance in 1992 and 1993. Kenichi is not present, briefly being in a band called NEO at the time. As for Kneuklid's first vocalist, K, he was in ZE:RO (with Yu~ki of Malice Mizer). Check out Gaz's drumming on the demo tape!

YOUTHQUAKE

Gaz was not technically a member of YOUTHQUAKE, but he was a roadie. He was also friends with the vocalist, Hiyori. Gaz states in the FALL OF MIDSUMMER SNOW booklet that YOUTHQUAKE is one of his major influences, and that being a roadie for the band has shaped him in different ways. Hiyori essentially described Gaz as the #1 Roadie of the Year 1992, saying that Gaz didn't really make mistakes and could easily forgive the few he did, unlike the other roadies. Good job Gaz. Also the beginning of Gaz's reputation as a yapper - Hiyori said that "he talks a lot" and his first impression was that he was a little bit scared of him. I don't know for sure, but I believe he was their drum tech. Gaz is even mentioned in the credits of YOUTHQUAKE's MEGA DOPE VHS tape! You can see the top of his head for like, 3 seconds in some shots. In 144p. We've come a long way since 1993.(You should listen to YOUTHQUAKE!)

Malice Mizer

The most recognizable band Gaz was in, at least for western visual kei fans, yet he's rarely mentioned in discussions about Malice's early days. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact he was in the band only from August of 1992 until March 17th, 1993. You can hear his drumming on their first demo tape, "Sans Logique", as well as on the Braintrash omnibus album for the track "Speed of Desperate". There's also a few live recordings floating around from while he was still in the band. Check all of them out below!

Sans Logique - 1992

Speed of Desperate - 1993

終幕への扉 - February 20th, 1993 at Ichikawa CLUB GIO

Freeze Me - February 20th, 1993 at Ichikawa CLUB GIO

This was also when he committed to having blond hair as part of his outfits, at least sometime after November of 1992. This would continue to be a key part of his outfits until 1995. Before December of 1992, he wore it like this:

Does this impact anything? No. Did I want to throw it in here? Yeah. Anyways, Gaz leaves the band after the March 15th, 1993 live at 上新庄CHOCOLATE CITY. Kami joins as support less than two days later. Sometimes you'll see this referred to as the "drummer swap" of 1993, but Gaz didn't immediately join Kneuklid Romance after leaving Malice Mizer, and Kami was still the drummer for Kneuklid Romance up until sometime in May of 1993.

BAISER

He was the support drummer for BAISER between December 30th, 1992 and October 1993. There really isn't much to say about this - I have yet to stumble across any photos from this time and the only recording I've seen uploaded with Gaz is this version of ††REAL†† from the Cry-Max Pleasure ~Welcome to the Front Line Party~ omnibus album.

Kneuklid Romance

Gaz joins two of his Datura bandmates in Kneuklid Romance after Kami's departure from the band sometime in May of 1993. This completed the drummer swap of 1993. His first live with the band was on June 7th at Meguro ROCKMAYKAN, which surprisingly, there are uploads of!

Masturbation Myself Service - June 7th, 1993 at Meguro RockMayKan

クモオンナノキス - June 7th, 1993 at Meguro RockMayKan

During this time, Gaz maintains the iconic blond look. However, he had more of a tendency to wear his hair down when he was in Kneuklid. Sorry for the hair tangent again. That remains until 1995, when he and the other band members changed up their looks a little. Look, I love the guy and all, but this was one of the haircuts of all time.

Anyways, I'll shut up about his hair for now. Gaz remains in the band until June 14th, 1998. I don't know if there was ever an official given reason, but I've seen "musical differences" thrown around a few times. Kyo, former Merry Go Round member, replaces him. Despite this, Gaz seems to have been the more popular drummer even to this day based on both his playing and his personality.

VIRGIN KILLER 5

Nothing really to say here. It was a one-night session band consisting of Gaz, Kenichi, Gizzelle from Kuroageha, Kagi from Datenshi, and Yoshi from GRIMM THE CAPSULE. They participated in a vs. live against YNGWIE no COPY'S and other bands on April 6th, 1996.

The Night Breeze Zinnia

He joins the Night Breeze Zinnia in February of 1999 with Keita (ex. DNA), Makoto (ex. Kuroageha), Gizzelle (ex. Kuroageha), and Manabu. He stays with the band until March 31st of 2002, which leads to the band reforming as "StrawberryGANG" with a new drummer.

DOVERMAN

In 2002, Gaz was part of DOVERMAN, along with Kenichi and Gizzelle. The lineup for this band was never consistent, outside of these three. Keita and Makoto eventually participate too, along with other bandmen such as Tsubaki (GRIMM THE CAPSULE) and Tezya (ex. FiX). Gaz was in the band until sometime in 2006.

BUZZ BONE

I have absolutely no info about anything surrounding this band besides the fact Gaz was in it and it lasted from 2004-2005. You can't even access the old website through the Internet Archive because it says the website owner requested it to be excluded.

The VELETTA and Pandemic

He was the support drummer for both of these bands at one point. Again, really not much to go off of for either of these bands.

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