Ayase (born April 4, 1994) is a Japanese musician and record producer. He is best known as a Vocaloid producer and composer for Yoasobi, a musical duo composed of himself and vocalist Ikura. He was also a vocalist of the rock band Davinci until its disbandment in 2020.
Early life
Ayase was born on April 4, 1994, in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan.[5] At the age around 3 or 4, he received his first piano lessons by his grandmother who was a music teacher. When he started elementary school, he received professional piano lessons at a music school. In his later grade school years, he also learned how to play acoustic guitar after he was given an acoustic guitar as a Christmas present. The first song he learned to play on guitar was originally written by Ringo Sheena. His early musical influences were Exile, Sukima Switch, Kobukuro,[6]Radwimps,[7]Aiko,[8][9] and Post Malone.[10] He also stated that he was influenced by several rock and metal bands, such as Maximum the Hormone, Coldrain, Crossfaith, SiM, Slipknot and Bring Me the Horizon before he found the band.[11]
Career
Davinci
When he was 16, Ayase formed his rock band Davinci with classmates from high school, performing under the name Keiichirō, and being in charge of vocalist and leader of the band. Due to his band activity, he later dropped out of high school, and, in 2016, the band relocated to Tokyo.[8] In October 2018, the band went hiatus due to Ayase's medical treatment of peptic ulcer disease.[12] The band announced the disbandment two years later in July 2020.[13]
Solo activities
During the band's hiatus, Ayase started making music using the Vocaloid software voicebank Hatsune Miku during his stay at the hospital. He released his first song "Sentensei Assault Girl" via video-sharing website YouTube and Niconico on December 24, 2018.[14] Since then, he continued self-published several songs, including "Last Resort" in April 2019, which gained his first popularity.[15] Eventually, Ayase released his debut extended play Ghost City Tokyo, recorded by Hatsune Miku vocals, on November 17, 2019.[16][17] His second EP Mikunoyoasobi was released exclusively on CD to Tower Records Japan on January 6, 2021. The EP contains cover versions by Hatsune Miku of seven tracks from Yoasobi's debut EP The Book by Hatsune Miku, including "Yoru ni Kakeru", which previously appeared on Ghost City Tokyo.[18]
Ayase's self-cover of two tracks from Ghost City Tokyo, "Yoru Naderu Menō" and "Yūrei Tōkyō", were released to streaming platforms on September 8, 2021, after published on YouTube and Niconico in 2019–2020.[19] He collaborated with Creepy Nuts and Lilas Ikuta on the single "Baka Majime", which featured on All Night Nippon 55th-anniversary stage drama Ano Yoru o Oboe Teru.[20] Ayase released his first original song "Hōwa", alongside self-cover of "Cinema", on September 30, 2022.[21] In 2023, he recorded two anime opening themes: "Shock!" for Buddy Daddies,[22] and "Hiten" with R-Shitei [ja] for the 2023 edition of Rurouni Kenshin.[23] Ayase and Vocaloid producers Syudou, Surii, and Tsumiki, as Dreamers, for the collaborative EP Ryūgūjō; Ayase wrote the song "Kira Kira Kira". It was released exclusively at Creators Market of Hatsune Miku: Magical Mirai 2023 festival in Osaka on August 11.[24] In 2024, Ayase wrote and performed the song "From Now!", which also co-composed and arranged by Yasutaka Nakata, and was released on September 6.[25] It was used for limited event quest and commercial for mobile game Monster Hunter Now.[26]
Around the time "Last Resort" popularized,[28] in mid 2019, Ayase received an offer from Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Yohei Yashiro and Shuya Yamamoto, to collaborate on a project to produce songs inspired by short stories published on creative writing social media Monogatary.com [ja].[29] He found Ikura on Instagram, where she covered the song,[30] and later checked her YouTube channel, and contacted her directly to persuade her to form the duo, called Yoasobi.[9] Their debut single "Yoru ni Kakeru", which was released in December 2019, went viral and became a musical success in Japan which resulted in Yoasobi increasing popularity in Japanese music scene.[31][32]
Personal life
Ayase has been dating Nina Ai, who works on some of Yoasobi's cover artworks and music videos, including "Yoru ni Kakeru".[33]
^Japan physical and digital combined sale figures for Mikunoyoasobi[37][38]
^ ab"Yoru Naderu Menō" was first voiced by Hatsune Miku and was non-commercially published through YouTube and Niconico in early 2019. A self-cover of the song was commercially released on EP Ghost City Tokyo in late 2019. The same self-cover was re-released in 2021, alongside "Yūrei Tōkyō".
^"Yūrei Tōkyō" did not enter Billboard Japan Hot 100, but peaked at number 36 on the Download Songs.[43]
^"Hōwa" did not enter Oricon Combined Singles Chart, but peaked at number 25 on the Digital Singles Chart.[45]
^"Hōwa" did not enter Billboard Japan Hot 100, but peaked at number 36 on the Download Songs.[46]
^"Cinema" did not enter Oricon Combined Singles Chart, but peaked at number 42 on the Digital Singles Chart.[45]
^"Cinema" did not enter Billboard Japan Hot 100, but peaked at number 56 on the Download Songs.[46]
^"Hiten" did not enter Oricon Combined Singles Chart, but peaked at number 9 on the Digital Singles Chart.[47]
^"From Now!" did not enter Oricon Combined Singles Chart, but peaked at number 47 on the Digital Singles Chart.[49]
^"From Now!" did not enter Billboard Japan Hot 100, but peaked at number 47 on the Download Songs.[50]
