A year ago, ELLEGARDEN announced that the band is on indefinte hiatus.  A year later, it appears all four members have settled into their new bands.  Where are they now?

Takeshi Hosomi 細美武士 (vocals, guitar)

Takeshi is the singer/guitarist for the HIATUS, formerly Takeshi Hosomi Solo Project.  He’s joined by members of toe, Radio Caroline, Neil & Iraiza, and FULLSCRATCH.  Ironically, almost all of these bands are inactive.  Perhaps they see the HIATUS as an actual hiatus from their respective bands? Or maybe there’s a future for the HIATUS?  They already topped the Oricon charts with their debut major label album “Trash We’d Love,” beating out J-Pop idol Ken Hirai.  Musically, the HIATUS is predictably similar to ELLEGARDEN, the only major difference being the addition of piano.

http://www.thehiatus.com/

Shinichi Ubukata 生形 真一 (lead guitar)

Shinichi formed Nothing’s Carved In Stone, featuring members of STRAIGHTENER, FULLARMOR, and vocals by Taku Muramatsu of Abstract Mash.  The guitar sounds a bit like ELLEGARDEN, but the vocals are more mature making this a great alt rock band.

http://www.myspace.com/ncisjp

Hirotaka Takahashi 高橋宏貴 (drums)

Hirotaka is the drummer for Scars Borough, a female fronted punk rock band.  There’s very little traces of ELLEGARDEN’s sound in this band.  They sound raw at times, but have a very fun, spunky sound.  For fans of Ketchup Mania, noodles, etc.

http://www.myspace.com/scarsborough

Yuichi Takada 高田 雄一(bass)

Yuichi is the new bassist for MEANING, an unsigned hardcore band from Tokyo active since 2004.  The band has no previously released albums or singles.  MEANING is currently playing the Shake! Shake! Shake! Tour with with Scars Borough.

http://www.myspace.com/meaning666

The Future of ELLEGARDEN

I think that there’s a future for the HIATUS and Nothing’s Carved In Stone.  Both sound similar to ELLEGARDEN, it’s hard to think they could have split due to “creative differences.”    Honestly, I don’t see Scars Borough making it big outside of the live house and  MEANING will go nowhere until they decide to record a CD.  Will ELLEGARDEN get ever get back together?  Who knows.  But at least they formed new bands that don’t suck, unlike blink 182.