Steve Eto

Born in Los Angeles, USA, he lived in New York until he was 6 years old. The house was just a few doors down from The Dakota House, where John Lennon would later be shot. He is the second son of three brothers. His father is a blind and charismatic koto musician who went to the United States after World War II and was very active[1], and his brother is VictorHiroyuki Eto, who trained many musicians as a publicist, and his younger brother is Leonard Eto, a Japanese drummer.

Both of his parents are Japan, but he was born in the United States and is currently a U.S. citizen. He often posts stories about visas on his blog. His younger brother, Leonard, is also a U.S. citizen.

Graduated from Waseda University's Waseda Business School High School and Waseda University. When I was in high school, I lived in Gokurakuji Temple in Kamakura City[2]. Tetsuya Komuro in high school, Hoppy Kamiyama, Sunplaza Nakano, Holy Hunger II, etc. in college. In junior high school, he was the chairman of the morality committee, and in high school, he was the secretary of the student council.

When I was a freshman in high school, I started playing percussion after listening to Santana. The first percussion instrument I bought was a bongo I bought for 14,000 yen at Kawai Gakki in Shibuya.

He began his career as a professional musician by participating in Toshiyuki Nishida's "If I Could Play the Piano" tour.

Participated in Yamaha's EastWest '81 contest and won the Best Percussionist award. After that, he was invited by Funky Sueyoshi to join the Blast Gun (Bop Gun), which won the Grand Prix in this tournament. After working for PINK, he worked as a support member for Torayasu Nubukuro, COMPLEX, Koji Yoshikawa, Fumiya Fujii, and others. He later became a member of Kyoko Koizumi's live backing band.

In 1998, he released his own album "Steve Eto". All the titles of the songs were named by Kyoko Koizumi.

Due to the background of participating in Haruo Minami's tour, the name of Eto is also engraved on a bronze statue of Minami that was built in 2002 in Koshiji Town, Mishima District, Niigata Prefecture.

Since visiting Amami Oshima for the first time in 2003, he has been attracted to the Amami Archipelago, which is not a resort, and has visited several times a year and regularly participates in Amami-related events such as "Dear Doshi Dea" held with Mina Ganaha and others, and is said to know more about Amami than the people of Amami[3]。 He also participates in the planning of Ikue Asazaki's live performance. He owns a large number of Amami's taiko drums "Chijin". He produced original drumsticks wrapped in Amami's hub skin, and is called the "Habu Ambassador" officially recognized by Hara Habuya Amami.

He is a skinhead and has a mild-mannered face, so he appeared in the movie "Ichibanjojin" as a monk. It is said that when you go to Nara Prefecture and other prefectures, you may actually be mistaken for a monk and put your hands together.

He lived in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo for a long time, but has been living in Nara City since the beginning of 2015. Since 2016, he has been running a gallery workshop "Taikodo" in Naramachi, Nara City, and has also stood in front of the store. He also participates extensively in local events such as music events around Nara City and Todaiji Temple.