JrockRevolution.com Presents: HIZUMI and JIN at Naka-Kon 2015

With Naka-kon just a few short days away, we want to remind you about a few awesome industry guests: HIZUMI and JIN! We'll be there with bells on, but you don't want to miss them live! Details and schedule below. We better see you there!

Jrockrevolution.com presents: HIZUMI and JIN @ Naka-Kon 2015.

Naka-Kon 2015

Date: March 13-15

Website: naka-kon.com*

Location: Overland Park Convention Center

Overland Park, Kansas

Panel and Event Times and Dates:

Friday, March 13 (10-11 PM)

Getting into the Japanese Entertainment Industry

JIN and Ali Watson (JRR)

Courtyard 6-7

Saturday, March 14 (2-3 PM)

HIZUMI Beyond Music

HIZUMI (Interpreting: JIN, Mod: Jess Tran (JRR))

Courtyard 4-5

Saturday, March 14 (7-9PM)

Charity Gala

JIN (Guest singer)

Ballroom A-B

Saturday, March 14 (9-10 PM)

Uta no JIN Live

Ballroom C

Sunday, March 15 (10:30-11:30 AM)

The Good, the Bad, and the Awesome of the Japanese Entertainment Industry

JIN, Ali Watson (JRR), Jess Tran (JRR), and HIZUMI

Ballroom A-B

Autograph Sessions:

Friday, March 13 (6-7 PM)

Autograph Room A (JIN)

Autograph Room B (HIZUMI)

Saturday, March 14 (3:30-4:30 PM)

Autograph Room A (HIZUMI)

Autograph Room B (JIN)

Sunday, March 15 (12-1 PM)

Autograph Room A (HIZUMI)

Autograph Room B (JIN)

HIZUMI Born and raised in Yamagata, Japan, HIZUMI discovered his love of music during senior high. As with many teenagers, he soon joined his first band. Fast forward some time, throw in a dramatic move to Tokyo, and BAM! D’espairsRay was born.

Over 12 years of working as the vocalist, lyricist, art director and designer for D’espairsRay, HIZUMI visited and performed all over the world, including the Wacken Open Air festival in Germany, Jrock Revolution festival in Los Angeles, the Taste of Chaos tour in America and Canada and the Human-Clad Monsters tour in Japan, North America, and Europe.

After D’espairsRay disbanded in 2011, HIZUMI started his own design company, Umbrella. Currently, he is developing a line of T-shirts, mugs, prints, and accessories.

He also designs other Japanese rock bands’ merchandise, including PIERROT, D’ERLANGER, LM.C, ALvino, defspiral, and REDRUM.

JIN A visual-kei (VK) singer known for his androgynous voice and appearance, JIN is both a band vocalist as well as a YouTube singer (Youtaite) who is now active in Tokyo. JIN used to live in an igloo, had polar bears as pets and drifted on sleighs delivering tofu back in his hometown of Vancouver, Canada. Having his passion awakened by the dark and glamorous genre, he formed the visual-kei band eqlipsE in 2003. eqlipsE was ambitious and many thought of them as one of the most successful and iconic overseas VK bands at the time, leading the biggest VK and J-rock movement in Canada. The band's first album, "reconnaissance," was released in 2006. eqlipsE also performed as the main local music guest at Anime Evolution 2006, and was featured in Japanese VK websites and magazines.

After eqlipsE disbanded in 2007, JIN remained active with other bands and was a prominent leader in the local J-rock scene, hosting J-rock shows in the following years, and appearing on the radio as well as a local magazine cover. In 2010, he started the anisong (anime songs) cover band Final aNiX, which led to a local anisong boom. The band performed at various local anime conventions and was also invited to play their first away show at Yukai Con 2011. The band went on hiatus in 2012 when he re-located to Japan in order to return to his VK roots and pursue his dreams. He briefly returned to Vancouver to play a successful show with the band at Anime Revolution 2014.

Back in 2009, JIN also started his solo activities as a Youtaite. His YouTube channel, jinxyz527 features his covers of various VK, and J-rock anime songs. His channel has about 1,000 subscribers and over 705,000 video views. Over 1,000 fans follow his music activities and cosplays on his facebook Fanpage. JIN is in the preparation stage for new band projects in Tokyo, as well as recording new covers for his YouTube channel.


*Passes no longer available online, but will be available for purchase at the door.