History of Equator Hideto Sei "Hide" started playing music with some bands in cities near Mt Fuji and moved to Tokyo 1988. There he formed a Band Called "Gunboys". Gunboys played at various Tokyo clubs. Gunboys mainly played at Club 49, which is near Yokota U.S Air Base. This experience inspired him very deeply to become an International Musician. Gunboys's released a Compilation album from F.E.I Records and got a good article in "Player magazine". They also had some of the Gunboys's original songs played on Bz's Radio Program on FM Tokyo. Even though Gunboys wasn't that bad and had some exposure, Hide still had reasons to think that there wasn't a bright future for the Band. So in 1994, after a couple of trips to the U.S, Gunboys called it quits and Hide went to Sydney Australia to play and check out the music industry there. In 1995 Hide went to back to Tokyo to begin constructing a new band. Hide was thinking a lot about the style of the His New Band and thought, "How could I create a sound with an oriental taste of pop rock?" In 1996, Hide went to Mongolia to study the roots of Asian people. There he got inspiration from the Amazing people of Mongolia. "They ride horses like the wind. They are a spiritual and confident people. They inspired me so much and gave me the new ideas that created the new style for my music". In 1997 Hide met Shogo Uruno. They wanted to concentrate on the international market. Hide was very inspired by the American & Australian music scene and the people he met abroad. All of this, including the incredible experience that he had in Mongolia helped shapes his unique style of music. Shogo lived over seas for over 4 years. All of the experiences he had in overseas travel made him a very unique individual. Especially as a Musician. They called themselves "One Piece" and spent a lot of time in the studio, playing, discussing ideas and mainly composing. Shogo can play various instruments including the bass, acoustic guitar, piano and keyboards. Shogo is also very good at programming with sequencers. Hide is mainly a singer songwriter and creates melodies & lyrics but also plays guitar. In late 1998 they finally made a demo with 3 original songs. The songs were entitled Little wing, Lake Baikal & Where I am. Hide took the demo to Sydney, Australia and made a good contact with a local music agency. He made a deal with the Agency in late 1999. One Piece released the original song "Little wing" with Eddie Strucks CD/ Video Compilation from Sydney, Australia. Also from the same demo the song "Lake Baikal" was supported by E.M.I Japan in 2001. One Piece made a new demo with 3 original songs entitled "Release your mind", "From these days 99" & "On the Horizon" in July 2000. From September through December in 2000, the radio program called "Mind Trip" on FM Nishi Tokyo, pick up their song "From these day's 99" and used it as their theme song for the program. In October 2000, Hide went to Auckland, New Zealand to promote their new songs. Hide played in many clubs in Auckland. He mainly played at a club called "The Temple" and did a live recording in the club. He also performed on a local radio station Planet FM. In January 2001 Hide went back to Sydney to promote the new songs. He performed live on Bondi FM 88 and also played at the Bondi Tsunami Beach Festival in Sydney Australia. In April 2001 Hide came back to Tokyo and they changed their bands name from One piece to Equator. In October 2001 they released "From these days 99" on a Compilation album from LAX in Japan. In November 2001 they released "Lake Baikal"'s Minidisk from Music deli in Japan. They also released a CD single for their song "Lake Baikal" in November 2001. In 2002 Hide and Shogo began making Equator's first Album with some guest Musicians. By 2003 they had enough songs for the album but Hide still wanted to work at perfecting the sound. More cool songs having real Oriental flavor and some pop rock. They have not completed the Album yet but perfection takes time. Hide wants the album to be the absolute best it can be. He is well on his way to making his dream come true. In April 2004 Hide met ( waka ), one of the traditional Japanese singing styles, singer named Kyoko Sato. When he heard her sing for the first time he was inspired and got an idea for the cool song that he had wanted to create for the album. They started to make the song called "Like the Burden of a Lullaby" . "Like the Burden of a lullaby" had a sound that contained Japanese traditional Music, Ginyu and Pop rock. In November 2004, Hide went back to L.A. to play in some clubs. Afterwards, Hide returned to Tokyo and had just finished the song "Like the Burden of a Lullaby". So finally in 2006 they were prepared to launch the Mini Album! In March of 2006, Internet Radio website www.playvybz.com one of the Producer from the station Andrew Badger used "Lake Baikal" as theme song for his Program. Andrew was a London based producer. In the same month, www.radiohypnotic.com listed many Equator songs on their play list. This web cast station is based in San Jose, California. More station that play Equator include, Internet Radio "BGL Radio" Cleveland, Ohio Multimedia site www.invinciblemag.com featuring DJ DESIRE McNEISH, London U.K In May 2006, Equators "will..." was available from CD Baby. You can check it out at www.cdbaby.com/cd/equator After May of 2006, Equator began working on new songs in hopes to have them completed by the summer of 2007. Then the band plans to begin promotion of Mini Album "will..." & their new songs, which the band is very excited about. You can check out the bands My space at www.myspace.com/equatorhide Equators website can be viewed at www.equator-net.com