THE ORIGINAL FIVE / THE SIGNAL THEY LEFT BEHIND
DIFFERENT
FREQUENCIES.
Guitars, bass, drums and beautiful electronic mistakes.
01 / RikaRiot
Rika “Riot” Kurosawa
Lead vocals · Lead guitar · Principal songwriter
Rika is Dead Channel’s driving creative force: a Japanese-American guitarist with a smoky, raspy alto-mezzo voice, a blunt sense of humour and a commanding stage presence. Her signature guitar, Heartbreaker, is the battered vintage Kuroda electric she bought at fifteen and kept alive through years of repairs before it finally became unplayable. Beyond Dead Channel she develops into a successful solo artist, songwriter, session player and guitar teacher, mentoring younger musicians including Nami Kobayashi while exploring a broader, often more intimate musical style. After Mika Saionji’s death brings Dead Channel to an end, Rika continues making music while building a life with Kai Hayashi and their daughter, Mika, named for their lost friend.
02 / KaiVolt
Kai “Volt” Hayashi
Co-lead vocals · Rhythm and lead guitar
Born to a British mother and Japanese father, Kai left a troubled adolescence in England to make a new start in Tokyo, reconnecting with his father and Japanese heritage. He brings sharp guitar hooks, a bright raspy rock tenor and unapologetic glam-punk swagger to Dead Channel as its second guitarist and male co-lead vocalist. His turbulent romance with Rika eventually gave way to a close friendship and years of independent solo work and collaboration; the pair later reconciled and settled together. They are now parents to daughter Mika Hayashi, named in memory of their late Dead Channel bandmate Mika Saionji.
03 / YumiVex
Yumi “Vex” Arisawa
Bass · Vocals
Rika's oldest musical friend and the player behind Dead Channel's distinctive melodic basslines. Yumi performs on her heavily modified four-string bass, Black Rose, and has a clear, bright and agile mezzo-soprano voice. Practical, perceptive and dryly funny, she is fiercely protective of the people close to her. Now divorced, Yumi is raising her daughter Hana while working in a music shop and teaching music, having stepped away from a full-time music career to provide them with a steadier income.
04 / MikaGlitch
Mika “Glitch” Saionji
Synthesizers · Keyboards · Sampling · Vocals
Mika “Glitch” Saionji gives Dead Channel its electronic identity, combining vintage analog synthesizers, primitive samplers, field recordings and found electronic noise with the band’s guitars and drums. Quiet, observant, dryly funny and relentlessly curious, she is the band’s keyboardist, synth programmer and sound architect, with a soft, clear higher voice used for occasional vocals. Outside the band she runs Mika’s Retro Tech & Repairs, specialising in old and unusual electronics, and releases her own experimental electronic music as Glitch. Her black-and-white tuxedo cat, Pixel, is a fixture of the shop. Mika later dies following an illness, and Dead Channel ends with her rather than continuing without her.
Visit Mika’s little corner ↗
05 / RenCrash
Ren “Crash” Nakamura
Drums · Percussion · Shouted vocals
Ren “Crash” Nakamura provides Dead Channel’s speed and physical energy through explosive acoustic drumming, combining punk velocity with hard-rock weight and huge, physical fills. He occasionally contributes rough count-ins, gang vocals and shouted lines, but is not a melodic lead singer. Ren strongly prefers musicians playing together in the same room and dislikes click tracks, excessive overdubs and repeated takes, making that live interaction central to the band’s raw sound. Easygoing, reckless and fiercely loyal, he is the group’s resident bad influence—usually the first to enthusiastically agree to a terrible idea. He loves motorcycles, cheap food, stray animals and sleeping late; his danger comes more from enthusiasm than menace.
06 / NamiNami
Nami Kobayashi
Artist · Friend · Archive keeper
Nami Kobayashi is a close friend and protégé of Dead Channel rather than an official member of the band, having first entered their orbit as a teenage guitar student of Rika’s. Now 20 and developing her own career as an alternative/indie-pop artist, she has a youthful, clear high soprano and a musical identity deliberately distinct from Dead Channel’s harder sound. Following Mika Saionji’s death, Nami took responsibility for maintaining Dead Channel’s website and managing the band’s growing archive, preserving its history without attempting to replace Mika or become part of the line-up herself. She also took in Mika’s tuxedo cat, Pixel, giving her a particularly personal connection to the friend whose digital legacy she now looks after.
07 / PixelPixel
Pixel the cat
Mika’s shop cat · Nami’s companion
Pixel is a black-and-white tuxedo cat who began life as a stray before wandering into Mika Saionji’s shop one day and apparently deciding he lived there. He promptly fell asleep on her printer, beginning a habit of treating expensive electronics as particularly comfortable furniture. Mika adopted him—or, more accurately, Pixel adopted Mika—and he became a familiar fixture around the shop. Following Mika’s death, Pixel was taken in by Nami, settling into her home with characteristic ease while providing her with a small, living connection to her friend.
