 Ilmari created the short-lived group Steady&Co in 2001 with BOTS and Kenji Furuya of Dragon Ash and SHIGEO of Skebo King.Their aim was to create a much lighter folk influenced form of hip hop against emerging genres such as J-Urban.In 2004, Ilmari helped launch singer Salyu by collaborating with her to release "Valon" under the name IlmarixSalyu.