Kikuo Kanai is a Japanese American born in Wisconsin who moved to LA, CA in his mid-teens for a film and photography apprentice program. He was a loudmouth in the city's punk scene in the early to mid-1990s as well as a generally revered party and model photographer for more grunge and underground ventures. He was at every party you can imagine since the band he was in during his late teens, "Achievilments", was wildly popular locally at the time, and his photography made its rounds as well. During Kikuos' time as a frequent partier, he met several people that would become staples in his life down the line such as Alice Alcott, a novice model he frequently photographed at events for different album covers and gigs, and Camille Laurent, his best friend from San Francisco and party partner for most of his 20s.

His birthday, which is October 10th, was close enough to halloween that he has always been obsessed with the concepts and dressing up aspects. His favorite halloween monster has always been Frankenstein's Monster and wears the same costume every year. Kikuo is a very passionate and real person who will not hesitate to tell you the truth, even if he simultaneously prides himself in "keeping the peace". He loves music, photography, and film. He knows a lot about production, prop work, and acting and will tell anyone who asks. He has never really felt romantic attraction to anyone in his life and rathers deep personal platonic relationships. He is very thoughtful and treats his friends very well always. Despite all of this he did have alcohol and drug issues which perpetuated bad coping and communication skills in his life and stopped him from saying as much as he had always wanted to.

Kikuo always held Camille on a pedestal because of how much she inspired him with her seemingly natural-born musical talent. They had first met at a sort of "Folk Goes Punk" night at a local music venue where he fell very deeply (platonically) interested in learning more about her. Due to circumstance and simplicity, Camille ended up moving into the apartment Kikuo lived in with his three bandmates and two best friends (seven people in an apartment was a lot! and even they knew it!) in order to help her escape from a bad living situation in her hometown after only knowing each other for a couple of months. Kikuo had always urged her to take any musical opportunities given to her and had on occasion secretly offered her opportunities given to his own band (Much to the dismay of his bandmates, who were never meant to know, but there is not much you can hide from your cramped roommates). In fact, in 1997 Achievilments was slated to fly to Kentucky to record an album right around the time there was a falling out with the band members, and Camille was given the opportunity instead. She had been mourning the death of her absent mother for several months at the time and was basically begging for a reason to leave the state. Kikuo had offered to go with her, but she insisted on going alone. She kept in touch with Kikuo for the first few months and then eventually their relationship turned to radio static. By the end of 1997 at just 26 Camille had taken her own life.

This was one of the worst shocks Kikuo had ever experienced and it had a profound impact on his life and how he viewed himself. He blamed himself for being so preoccupied with alcohol and drugs and parties that he didn't push harder to go with her and defend her from the oppressive label he had unknowingly put her in the grasp of. Achievilments did not last much longer after that and as far as the media knows, they all broke up on good terms; but there was a Camille-shaped hole in his heart.

From then on until 2000, Kikuo became a much more reserved person and tried his best to get clean and make a living with the skills he already had as he approached his thirties. He didn't really want to speak to anyone about his punk rock past and found it hard to even talk to his old friends he lived with for so long. He would take frequent trips back to his parent's apartment in Wisconsin to spend more time with them.

In the year 2000, Kikuo was convinced to attend a party thrown for him for his closely approaching 30th birthday by a group of his old friends who had missed him dearly in the last few years. The party, which took place on October 5th (5 days before his actual birthday), was on a rented boat out on the ocean. A number of horrible calculations and several drinks later, Kikuo would wake up to find himself washed up on the shore covered in stitch marks with a splitting headache. He's dead! The first thing he did when he found this out, though, was look for Camille.

Much later down the line, Kik was introduced to Camille's friend Jules who shared his passion for punk rock music, thus creating Kanstein. At first, it was strange to re-embrace the part of himself he blamed so much for such a horrible moment in his life, but once he did, he found all the screaming and yelling and performing as therapeutic and cathartic, even crying during performances several times.