Sakura (musician)

Yasunori Sakurazawa (櫻澤 泰徳, Sakurazawa Yasunori, born on November 20, 1969), known by his stage name Sakura, is a Japanese musician. He is probably best known as former drummer of the rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel. After leaving them in 1997, he formed the supergroup Zigzo, the trio Sons of All Pussys, and his solo project Lion Heads.

Currently he performs with the bands Rayflower, the reformed Zigzo, The Madcap Laughs and Gibkiy Gibkiy Gibkiy, and supports Dead End frontman Morrie in his solo project Creature Creature.

Life and career

Sakura was born in Nerima, Tokyo, the youngest of three children. He started taking piano lessons when he was a child. When he was in junior high school he became very interested in rock music, later taking formal music training. Initially he wanted to play guitar but soon changed his mind and devoted himself to percussion.

When Sakura was in high school, he was already playing in the percussion and brass sections for three different school bands. He started working as a roadie for well-known metal band Dead End when he was nineteen. Soon he began playing drums professionally and joined the bands Die+Kusse and the Harem Q, the latter released an album entitled Opium in 1991.

In 1993, Sakura joined pop rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel. The band released their debut album Dune soon afterward. In 1996, their fourth album True, became their first to sell over a million copies.^[1] But the success was short-lived, on October 4, 1997, Sakura quit L'Arc-en-Ciel following being charged with possession of heroin.^[2]

In 1999 he started the hard rock band Zigzo, which disbanded in 2002. Soon after in 2002, he formed the band Sons of All Pussys with his ex-L'Arc-en-Ciel bandmate Ken. He has also played drums for rock/pop band Tamamizu as support drummer during the first half of 2005. In July 2005 he formed his solo project Lion Heads, where he plays guitar under the alias "Sakura-Die-Nerima".

In summer 2009 he became drummer for Dead End frontman Morrie's solo project Creature Creature. In 2010, Sakura became the drummer for the rock band Rayflower, with Sophia keyboardist Keiichi Miyako. On May 15, 2010, he had his first show with the band Circuit9, in which he drums under the alias "Yutaka Noda" (野田ゆたか, Noda Yutaka). In May 2011, Sakura teamed up with his former Zigzo bandmates Ryo and Den to restart By-Sex. They released a mini-album titled Ago on August 17 and had their first show two days later at the 2011 "Chain the Rock Festival". On November 20, 2011, Sakura held a birthday concert at Shibuya O-West.^[3] There, after surprise performance, Zigzo announced that they will officially restart activities at a concert on March 17, 2012 at Akasaka Blitz.^[3][4]

In May 2012, he formed the trio The Madcap Laughs with aie from Deadman and Kiyoshi. Four years later he joined Gibkiy Gibkiy Gibkiy alongside aie, Kazuma (Merry Go Round) and kazu (Kagerou).^[5]

Other work

Sakura is a Pearl Drums, Sabian Cymbals and Remo drum-heads endorser, and has been giving drumming seminars at clinics since early on in his career. Pearl Instruments Japan released a special Sakura signature drumset model in 2003.

Sakura has authored two books, one called Sakura no Drumworks Quick Reference about drumming; and one part-biography part-fiction book called Sakurazawa no Honki (櫻澤の本気) which gathers the articles published in the magazine Arena 37º, in his column "Sakurazawa no Uwaki" (櫻澤の浮気), during his days in Zigzo. The latter was only available through mail order to customers living in Japan.

Discography

With the Harem Q

• Opium (1991)

With L'Arc~en~Ciel

• Dune (1993)
• Tierra (1994)
• Heavenly (1995)
• True (1996)

With Zigzo

Zigzo Discography

With Sons of All Pussys

Sons of All Pussys Discography

With Lion Heads

• Zepetto (ゼペット, 2007)

With Creature Creature

• Inferno (2010)
• Phantoms (2012)

With Rayflower

• Flower Language (2010)

With Circuit9

• Under the Sun (2011)

With By-Sex

• Ago (2011)

With The Madclap Laughs

• Midnight Love (2014)

With Gibkiy Gibkiy Gibkiy

• Fujouri Shugeki (不条理種劇, 2016)

References

External links

• Official website
• Circuit9 Official site
• Rayflower Official site
• Lion Heads Official site
• The Madclap Laughs Official site
• Gibkiy Gibkiy Gibkiy Official site
• Sakura no Kodawari Drumset