Atsushi Sakurai

Atsushi Sakurai
Birth name 桜井 敦司
Born (1966-03-07) March 7, 1966
Origin Fujioka, Gunma, Japan
Genres Rock
Occupation(s) Musician, singer-songwriter, actor
Instruments Vocals, drums, saxophone
Years active 1983–present
Labels Victor, Cutting Edge
Associated acts Buck-Tick, Schwein, The Mortal

Atsushi Sakurai (櫻井 敦司 Sakurai Atsushi, born March 7, 1966 in Fujioka, Gunma) is a Japanese musician and singer-songwriter. He has been the vocalist of the rock band Buck-Tick since 1985, previously being their drummer from 1983. He released the solo album Ai no Wakusei in 2004 and was also a member of Schwein alongside Hisashi Imai (Buck-Tick), Sascha Konietzko (KMFDM) and Raymond Watts. In 2015, he formed a solo project called The Mortal.

History

Buck-Tick

Originally Atsushi was the drummer for Buck-Tick.[1] When the members graduated high school and moved to Tokyo, Atsushi was the only one left in Gunma. He then asked Toll Yagami if he could be the singer for his band SP, but was declined. Ironically, he ended up switching to vocalist of Buck-Tick, after the band fired Araki, and Toll became their drummer.[1]

His last name was originally written with the first kanji as "桜" ("sakura"), but when his mother died in 1990 he changed it to "櫻", the older version. He also wrote "Long Distance Call" about his mother's death. He married Buck-Tick's stylist in 1991, but divorced a year later. They have one child. He married again in 2004.

Throughout Buck-Tick's long career, he has written the most lyrics to their songs. He also performs on Der Zibet's Shishunki II and Kaikoteki Mirai - Nostalgic Future,[2] Issay's Flowers, PIG's Wrecked, Masami Tsuchiya's Mori no Hito ~Forest People~ and Chiaki Kuriyama's Circus.[3]

Solo

In 2004, Atsushi released his first solo album Ai no Wakusei (愛の惑星, "Planet of Love"), which featured tracks written by musicians such as Wayne Hussey (The Sisters of Mercy), J. G. Thirlwell (Foetus), Cube Juice, My Way My Love, Raymond Watts, Cloudchair (Jake of Guniw Tools), Masami Tsuchiya,[4] and the remake of a 1992 song where he collaborated with Clan of Xymox.

2004 also saw his acting debut, with the starring role in Ryuhei Kitamura's short film Longinus.[5] He released a book of his poetry and lyrics called Yasou (夜想, "Nocturne") in 2004.[4]

In 2015, he announced the formation of his second solo project, a band called The Mortal.[6] The group consists of guitarist Jake Cloudchair, guitarist Yukio Murata (My Way My Love), bassist Ken Miyo (M-Age) and drummer Takahito Akiyama (Downy). The mini album Spirit was released on October 14 and they played a three date tour in November.[7] The full-length album I am Mortal was released on November 11, 2015.

Discography

Singles
Albums
DVDs
With The Mortal
With Buck-Tick
Main article: Buck-Tick discography

Books

References

  1. 1 2 LOVE ME, Yasue Matsuura, Takao Nakagawa; Shinko Music Publishing Company, Ltd. 1989. ISBN 4-401-61275-2.
  2. ↑ "Sakurai Atsushi Participating in New Album by Der Zibet!". musicjapanplus.jp. Retrieved 2011-09-17.
  3. ↑ "BUCK-TICK and Theatre Brook Participating in Kuriyama Chiaki's New Album". musicjapanplus.jp. Retrieved 2011-09-17.
  4. 1 2 "Sakurai Atsushi JaME Profile". jame-world.com. Retrieved 2011-09-10.
  5. ↑ "Longinus". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2011-07-31.
  6. ↑ http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/2055086/full/
  7. ↑ "BUCK-TICK櫻井ソロプロジェクトTHE MORTAL、10月に音源リリース". Natalie. Retrieved 2015-08-31.
  8. 1 2 3 櫻井敦司のシングル売り上げランキング. oricon.co.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2012-05-20.
  9. ↑ 櫻井敦司のアルバム売り上げランキング. oricon.co.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2012-05-20.
  10. 1 2 "櫻井敦司のDVD売り上げランキング". oricon.co.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2012-05-20.
  11. 1 2 THE MORTALのアルバム売り上げランキング. oricon.co.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2016-02-28.

External links

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