Masato Hayakawa

Masato Hayakawa
Hayakawa performing live in Paris, France in 2024
Background information
Birth name	Masato David Hayakawa
Born	(1986-12-17) December 17, 1986 (age 38) Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
Genres	Post-hardcore metalcore alternative metal alternative rock hard rock punk rock
Occupations	Musician singer songwriter producer model
Instruments	Vocals guitar
Years active	2005–present
Labels	VAP Hopeless Sony Warner

Masato David Hayakawa (Japanese: 早川 雅人, Hepburn: Hayakawa Masato, /ˈmɛərtoʊ ˈθaʊkw/ MAR-sah-toe HAY-yah-COW-ah) born December 17, 1986); known professionally as Masato, is a Japanese singer, musician, songwriter, producer and model. He is known for being the bandleader and vocalist of the Japanese rock band Coldrain since their formation in 2007. He was a former member of AVER, alongside one of his fellow Coldrain members, drummer Katsuma Minatani.

Hayakawa is also known as being the director and designer of a clothing line, as well as being a model for Over(all) Tokyo.^[1]

Early life

Masato David Hayakawa was born on December 17, 1986, in Nagoya, Japan.^[2] He was born to an American mother from Iowa and a Japanese father who was born in Niigata.^[3]

He was taught to speak English at a young age by his mother, who was an English teacher.^[4][5] All of this has helped him to become fluent in English as well as Japanese. Hayakawa has stated that he hated it at the time but is very grateful for it now.^[6]

This duality in his family made Hayakawa fly out to the United States every summer. On one of these vacations, he saw Limp Bizkit and Korn music videos on MTV as a 13-year-old, later calling them "very cool" and the reason for his realisation of his profession.^[7]

Hayakawa started to learn how to play the guitar in his second year of middle school. He later attended Nanzan University in Nagoya, studying law in hopes of becoming a sports agent. Hayakawa later dropped out after two and a half years to focus on his career as the frontman of Coldrain.^[8]

Career

AVER

In around 2003, Hayakawa met Katsuma Minatani in high school. A few years later, they formed a band as friends, called AVER. Hayakawa sang and played guitar while Katsuma drummed. They produced songs such as "Voices Over Bullets" and regularly played gigs in clubs around their hometown of Nagoya.^[9]

After rivalling with another band called Wheel of Life for a while, they decided to make a supergroup of the two most popular local bands in the area due to their similar musical interests and getting to know each other after meeting at rehearsals.^[7]

Coldrain

Main article: Coldrain

The band Coldrain formed in 2007, with Hayakawa as the vocalist, Y.K.C. and Sugi as the guitarists, RxYxO as the bassist, and Katsuma as the drummer.^[10]

In what was very rare in Japan, Coldrain sang solely in English. This stemmed from Hayakawa feeling more natural singing in English than Japanese due to his early years learning English and traveling between Japan and the United States, and the band's western influences which helped to elevate this sound into their music and translate the energy to Japanese audiences at the time.^[7]

The first song they recorded was "Painting", along with two maxi-singles, " Fiction" and "8AM". They handed out demos on the streets to help spread their music through word of mouth and played gigs in high school gyms and clubs.^[11] Some of these songs were included on their debut studio album, Final Destination, which was released in the backend of 2009.^[12]

Coldrain gained traction after a couple of their songs, "8AM" and "We’re Not Alone", were used as opening themes for two anime: Hajime No Ippo: Challenger and Rainbow: Nisha Rokubō no Shichinin. Another was on the soundtrack for Pro Evolution Soccer 2011, called "Die Tomorrow"; it thus became a staple song.^[13] The latter two songs were used on their debut EP, Nothing Lasts Forever, released in the summer of 2010.^[14]

Masato Hayakawa performing at Rock im Park in 2014

Coldrain released two follow-up studio albums, The Enemy Inside and The Revelation. The latter was released worldwide in 2014 as a reissue, including new songs from their Japanese exclusive EP Until The End, following being signed to the North American-based label Hopeless Records that is home to bands such as All Time Low, Avenged Sevenfold and Silverstein.^[15] This allowed them to tour all around the world with bands such as Bullet for My Valentine and Papa Roach, as well as playing festivals in Europe such as Download and Rock am Ring.^[16][17][18]

Vena was the first album released worldwide at its initial release. It featured songs such as "Gone" and "Wrong", as well as a feature from Papa Roach frontman Jacoby Shaddix on "Runaway".^[19] The band went on several tours in 2016, including the Warped Tour in the summer.^[20][21] During this time, they released their third maxi-single for the first time since 2009. This was released as Vena: Chapter 2, and featured two new tracks, as well as acoustics of "Gone" and "The Story".^[22]

2017 marked Coldrain's 10th anniversary as a band. To coincide with this milestone, they released their fifth studio album Fateless, in October of the same year, as well as a tour that ended with them playing at the famous Nippon Budokan venue. Their performance at Budokan in February 2018 was released as a DVD/Blu-ray.^[23]

At the end of 2018, the new single “Revolution" was a tie-in of Gundam: Extreme Vs 2.^[24] This tease led to speculation of a new album which was later released as The Side Effects in August 2019. This included other singles such as "Coexist", "January 1st" and the title track.^[25] "Mayday”, featuring Ryo Kinoshita of metalcore band Crystal Lake, elevated the band. This song became the opening theme for Fire Force.^[26] Hayakawa co-wrote One Ok Rock's song "Renegades" alongside Ed Sheeran. It was featured as the official theme song for the Japanese live action film Rurouni Kenshin: The Final.^[27]

Solo work

In 2021, Hayakawa performed his solo song "Remember", which is a theme song used in the anime Jujutsu Kaisen.^[28]

Personal life

On October 24, 2019, Hayakawa married Hanna Kelk, an Australian model of Japanese descent.^[29]

Tattoos

Hayakawa currently has three tattoos. His mother disapproved of the first, a key, so he got two owls, her favourite animals, on either side of the key to represent the duality of his nationality.

His second tattoo was the symbol from the cover of the band's Nothing Lasts Forever EP, which represents not taking one's life for granted and living it to the fullest. It features an Excalibur type sword with a rose wrapped around it.

A picture of Hayakawa's third tattoo became the cover art for the band's album Vena; in hindsight, he was only too happy of this sacrifice.^[30]

Influences

As a child, Hayakawa was influenced by the J-pop scene as well as the music his older brother tended to listen to. Due to these early years as a child, Hayakawa's earliest western and eastern influences consisted of Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Hikaru Utada and L'Arc-en-Ciel.^[7][8]

In the nu metal craze in 1999, Hayakawa got into heavier bands, citing this as a critical point of his life which would end up helping him carve his career path. Limp Bizkit and Korn were the first bands he saw on MTV as a teenager, with songs like "Nookie" and "Freak on a Leash" on constant rotation.^[7]

His main influences are Hoobastank, Papa Roach, Metallica, Pearl Jam, The Used, Silverchair and Slipknot.^[31][32] He has said that without Sevendust, "Coldrain simply wouldn't exist".^[33]

His major influences as a vocalist are Chester Bennington of Linkin Park and Brandon Boyd of Incubus, who were also his two favourite bands growing up.^[34][31]

Discography

Coldrain

Main article: Coldrain discography

• Final Destination (2009)
• The Enemy Inside (2011)
• The Revelation (2013)
• Vena (2015)
• Fateless (2017)
• The Side Effects (2019)
• Nonnegative (2022)

AVER

• "Voices Over Bullets" (2005)

Other appearances

Singles

Year	Song	Artist	Album
2011	"Demise and Kiss"	Crossfaith	The Dream, the Space
2013	"Dead Dust"	Before My Life Fails	(For)Lorn
	"Resurrection" (also featuring Hazuki of Lynch)	Pay Money to My Pain	Gene
2016	"Free the Monster" (also featuring Kenta Koie of Crossfaith)	AA=	Non-album singles
2017	"Skyfall" (also featuring Kenta Koie of Crossfaith and Mah of SiM)	One OK Rock
	"Bumps in the Night"	Miyavi	Samurai Sessions Vol. 2
2018	"Faint"	Crossfaith	Ex Machina
	"The Circle"	Crystal Lake	Non-album singles
2020	"Chemical Heart"	Five New Old
2021	"Damage Control"	Annalynn	A Conversation With Evil
	"Remember"	Masato Hayakawa	Jujutsu Kaisen Soundtrack
2023	"Rumble"	Paledusk	Palehell
2024	"Dunk"	The Oral Cigarettes	Non-album singles
	"All We Have"	Nothing's Carved in Stone
	"Supernatural"	Noisemaker

Music videos

Year	Song	Artist	Director	Link
2020	"Baseball Bat"[35]	SiM	Inni Vision	[1]

Accolades

Publication	Accolade	Year	Rank	Ref.
Metal Shout	Best Clean Metalcore Vocalists of All Time	2023	13	[36]

References

1. "Overall Tokyo.com". Overall Tokyo. February 3, 2020. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
2. "Metal Archives". June 30, 2018. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
3. "bestrocklist.com". YouTube. August 9, 2016. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
4. "JayRock interviews Masato from Coldrain". September 29, 2018. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
5. "This is Hopeless: Masato Hayakawa". YouTube. September 22, 2015. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
6. "Facts about Masato". September 20, 2015. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
7. "New Metal Revolution: Coldrain - The Rising Sons". February 27, 2015. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
8. Wunderl, Steffie (July 20, 2014). "Interview: Masa (Coldrain)". Rock Fanatics. Retrieved December 29, 2021.
9. "Did you know that Masato and Katsuma were in the band AVER together before Coldrain?". December 30, 2019. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
10. "INTRODUCING: COLDRAIN". www.punktastic.com.
11. "Masato David Hayakawa of Coldrain interview part 1 Norhtlane vs Volumes". YouTube. December 15, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
12. "coldrain - Final Destination". Discogs.
13. "PES 2011 Soundtrack by Various Artists". Genius.
14. "Get millions of songs. All ad-free". Apple Music.
15. "Coldrain - The Revelation - Reviews". Rock Sound Magazine.
16. "Live Nation presents Bullet For My Valentine + support act While She Sleeps & Coldrain".
17. "Coldrain And The One Hundred Will Support Papa Roach In The UK This Spring - News". Rock Sound Magazine.
18. "coldrain, Participating in English Rock Fes "DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 2014"".
19. "Coldrain : VENA - Record Shop X". www.recordshopx.com.
20. March 2016, Scott Munro04. "Coldrain announce UK and Europe headline tour". Metal Hammer Magazine.
21. "Concert Photos: COLDRAIN at Vans Warped Tour in Columbia, MD". Antihero Magazine. July 30, 2016.
22. "coldrain to release first single in seven years titled "VENA CHAPTER: II"". JROCK NEWS. July 14, 2016.
23. "coldrain commemorate 10th anniversary with new album "FATELESS" and Nippon Budokan performance in 2018!". JROCK NEWS. August 22, 2017.
24. "coldrain bring about a "REVOLUTION" with digital single". JROCK NEWS. December 26, 2018.
25. "The Side Effects – Review". September 23, 2019.
26. Luster, Joseph. "Fire Force Anime's New Ending Theme Performed by Lenny code fiction". Crunchyroll.
27. Tokuyama, Hiroki (April 19, 2021). "ONE OK ROCKの疾風怒濤の新曲"Renegades"、そして全開のロックモードをTakaが遂に語った！" [Taka finally talked about ONE OK ROCK's new song "Renegades" and the rock mode at full throttle!]. Rockin'On Japan (in Japanese). Retrieved June 19, 2021.
28. "Masato（coldrain）、TVアニメ"呪術廻戦"最終話の挿入歌「REMEMBER」を歌唱！" [Masato (coldrain) sings the insert song "REMEMBER" from the final episode of the TV anime "Jujutsu Kaisen"!]. Gekirock. March 28, 2021.
29. "Masato David Hayakawa on Instagram: "10.24.2019 @hanna6587 ボーカリストによるフライング投稿で昨日はお騒がせしました！遅くなりましたが、結婚しました！また詳しく報告します😊一先ずみんな愛してる。ありがとう！ Photo by @yamada_mphoto"". Instagram. Archived from the original on December 25, 2021.
30. UnScene, ROCKwell (August 16, 2016). "A CONVERSATION WITH COLDRAIN FRONTMAN: MASATO DAVID HAYAKAWA".
31. "Interview Coldrain: Masato". GigView.
32. Parker, Jack (May 25, 2016). "Coldrain: "You give everyone a beer and they're all friends"".
33. November 2015, TeamRock 12. "The nine best nu metal singles by Coldrain's Masato David Hayakawa". loudersound.
34. "Vans Warped Tour "coldrain" Exclusive Interview". YouTube. July 3, 2020. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
35. "SiM brings together 25 bands in "Baseball Bat" music video, from 5th album". Jrock News. June 4, 2020. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
36. Alvarez, Daniel (November 22, 2023). "The 15 Best Clean Metalcore Vocalists of All Time". Metal Shout. Retrieved November 20, 2024.

External links

• Masato Hayakawa Official Twitter