Yasunori Sakurazawa, known by his stage name Sakura, is a Japanese musician. He is probably best known as former drummer of the rock bandL'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 eighteen. 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. It was Dead End's manager who gave L'Arc-en-Ciel bassist Tetsuya Sakura's contact information around December 1992. In 1993, Sakura joined pop rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel. They released their debut album Dune soon afterward. In 1996, their fourth album True, became their first to sell over a million copies. 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". 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. There, after a surprise performance, Zigzo announced that they would officially restart activities at a concert on March 17, 2012 at Akasaka Blitz. 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 and kazu. Sakura supported Malice Mizer in place of Kami, his former drum protégé who died in 1999, for two 25th anniversary performances on September 8 and 9, 2018. In tribute, he dressed up as Kami and used his original drum kit for the shows.
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 which gathers the articles published in the magazine Arena 37º, in his column "Sakurazawa no Uwaki", during his days in Zigzo. The latter was only available through mail order to customers living in Japan.
Discography
;With the Harem Q
Opium
;With L'Arc~en~Ciel
Dune
Tierra
Heavenly
True
;With Zigzo Zigzo Discography ;With Sons of All Pussys Sons of All Pussys Discography ;With Lion Heads
