The Japanese drummer Satoshi Yamaguchi, known for his work with the rock band RADWIMPS, began experiencing unusual symptoms during a concert in 2009. “The sound stopped suddenly,” Yamaguchi said in a 2023 interview with NHK World-Japan. “I wanted to use my right foot to hit the drum twice, but I ended with the first try. At that instant, my brain really drew a blank. I thought, ‘What’s going on?’”
It took five years before he was diagnosed with musician’s dystonia, a neurological disorder that causes involuntary muscle spasms and affects about 1 percent of professional musicians worldwide. The condition eventually led him to leave RADWIMPS, which he had co-founded in 2003.
Yamaguchi discussed his journey at an event hosted by the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University. He spoke about moving from performing on stage to researching the disorder that impacted his career. He also demonstrated a voice-activated drum kit that allowed him to return to live performances in 2024 after nearly ten years away from the band.
“My children had only ever seen me play the drums on the screen,” Yamaguchi told attendees while sharing a photo of his family. “This was the first time they heard me perform live.”
A key figure in Yamaguchi’s transition was Shinya Fujii from Keio University’s NeuroMusicLab. Together, they began academic research into musician’s dystonia after meeting when Yamaguchi became a visiting researcher in 2021.
Their initial study published in 2024 detailed how dystonia affected Yamaguchi’s ability as a drummer. While some effects might not be obvious to most listeners, scientific tests showed he would lose rhythm with a metronome when symptoms appeared.
“When I was still active in the band, I had no way to share the difference or the struggle with the people around me,” Yamaguchi said at Smith Campus Center. “But through science, I was finally able to reveal the true nature of that ghost.”
Inspired by these findings, Yamaguchi conducted a survey among Japanese musicians and found that professional players were more likely than amateurs to experience musician’s dystonia—especially affecting their right lower limbs.
The research also pointed toward stress from using in-ear metronomes as another possible factor linked to developing dystonia among drummers and other musicians who rely on precise timing devices during performances.
“In recent years,” explained Yamaguchi, “large-scale live performance has evolved into a total entertainment experience that includes not only listening to performance, but also synchronizing the music with visuals, lighting, special effects, and programmed sound sources.”
In 2023, he moved to California for residency at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics where he discovered taiko drumming—a traditional Japanese art form taught orally rather than through sheet music—and performed with San Jose Taiko during its anniversary concert.
Learning taiko inspired him: “What if I could use my voice to create the sound of the bass drum?” This idea led him and Yamaha Corporation engineers to develop VXD—a bass-drum interface operated by vocal cues and throat sensors.
Recently at Harvard Biodesign Lab meetings and public demonstrations, Yamaguchi used VXD technology while playing several RADWIMPS songs including “Sparkle” from “Your Name,” along with earlier tracks like “25-kome no senshokutai” (“The 25th Chromosome”) and “Iindesuka?” (“Is It Alright?”).
“Music has given me life,” he concluded during his talk. “Music has also caused me pain. I lost it once, and then I found my way back to it — and it saved me.”
He closed his appearance by performing “Zenzenzense” (“Past Past Past Life”), another song featured in “Your Name,” demonstrating how technology now enables him both physically anchor himself while letting music lift him up again.
