Ayase (music producer)

Ayase was born on April 4, 1994, in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. When he was around 3 or 4 years old, he received his first piano lessons from 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, Radwimps, Aiko, Post Malone, Yumi Matsutoya, Mariya Takeuchi, and Toshinobu Kubota. 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. His music genre influences include '80s and '90s music, K-pop, J-pop, and folk music. == Career ==

2012–2020: Davinci In 2012, at age of 16, Ayase formed the rock band Davinci with classmates from high school, performing under the name Keiichirō, and he served as both the 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. Eventually, the band announced their disbandment two years later in July 2020. 2018–2022: Breakthrough and Yoasobi During Davinci'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. Following this, he continued to self-publish several songs, including "Last Resort" in April 2019, which was his first song to gain popularity. Eventually, Ayase released his debut extended play Ghost City Tokyo, recorded by Hatsune Miku vocals, on November 17, 2019. Around the time "Last Resort" became popular, 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. He found Ikura on Instagram, where she covered the song, and later checked her YouTube channel, and contacted her directly to persuade her to form the duo, called Yoasobi. In 2020, Ayase wrote and produced the song "Saikai", performed by singers Lisa and Uru, to promote Sony noise-cancelling headphones. 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, including "Yoru ni Kakeru", which previously appeared on Ghost City Tokyo. 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 previously being published on YouTube and Niconico during 2019 to 2020. 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. 2022–present: Further activities Ayase released his first non-Vocaloid single "Hōwa", alongside self-cover of "Cinema", on September 30, 2022. In 2023, he recorded two anime opening themes: "Shock!" for Buddy Daddies, and "Hiten" with for the 2023 edition of Rurouni Kenshin. Ayase and Vocaloid producers Syudou, Surii, and Tsumiki collaborated for the EP Ryūgūjō, as Dreamers; Ayase wrote the song "Kira Kira Kira". It was released exclusively at the Creators Market of Hatsune Miku: Magical Mirai 2023 festival in Osaka on August 11. In 2024, Ayase wrote and performed the song "From Now!", which was also co-composed and arranged by Yasutaka Nakata, and was released on September 6. It was used for limited event quests and commercials for the mobile game Monster Hunter Now. He was in charge of writing and producing the theme song for the 2024 medical film Doctor-X: The Movie, titled "Episode X", which was performed by Ado. == Personal life ==

Ayase has been dating Nina Ai, who works on some of Yoasobi's cover artworks and music videos, including "Yoru ni Kakeru". == Discography ==

Extended plays Singles Non-commercial releases Guest appearances Songwriting and production credits All song credits are adapted from the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers's database unless stated otherwise. ==Awards and nominations==