Daisuke Asakura (浅倉 大介, Asakura Daisuke?, born November 4, 1967, Asakusa, Japan) is a male Japanese pop artist who is known for his compositional work and mastery of the keyboard synthesizer.
His childhood consisted of piano and electronic organ lessons and the expectations to follow the family trade of plumbing. He started working with Yamaha keyboards and synthesizers in his early teens.
Asakura began his career with landing a job at Yamaha right after high school. While under Yamaha, Asakura worked on the EOS synthesizer; he was also featured in its instructional video. His talent was discovered by Tetsuya Komuro of TM Network and Asakura was pulled from Yamaha to work under Komuro as his protégé. Asakura played the bass synthesizer during TM Network's 1990-91 Rhythm Red tour. He then met Hiroyuki Takami in 1990 following Rhythm Red, featured him as a vocalist in some of his solo work, and eventually formed access (or AXS) with Takami on vocals and lyrics after breaking away from TM Network in 1992.
The breakup of access in 1995 left Asakura open to pursue new projects that included producing and composing songs for new artists; one of the most successful acts he created was J-pop idol Takanori Nishikawa under the title of T.M.Revolution (also known as "TMR"). In mid-1996 Asakura started a three-man unit titled Iceman which brought Kenichi Ito (guitar) and Michihiro Kuroda (vocals) to the spotlight. After several years Iceman ended activity due to conflict between Kuroda and Asakura. During and after his years with Iceman Asakura built his wealth and reputation as a composer taking after his idol and teacher, Tetsuya Komuro. He produced singles and albums for various J-Pop vocalists. He was also the featured music composer for the anime series Gravitation. Examples of Asakura's past projects includes vocalists such as Yosuke Sakanoue, Kinya Kotani, Daichi Kuroda, Akiko Hinagata, Yuki Kimura, FayRay, Takashi Fujii and groups such as, Onapetz, Pool Bit Boys, Lazy Knack, Run&Gun and The Seeker. He also composed songs for artists such as the visual kei J-rock band, Shazna. Most of the above listed, as well as a group of school boys under the name D.A.N.K., were included in a project called Cherry Garden.
In 1999, Asakura and Takanori Nishikawa formed their own official two-man unit, The End of Genesis T.M.Revolution Turbo Type D (or "TMR-e", for short). They produced three singles and one album together, with Asakura performing alongside Nishikawa and appearing in their music videos. The project was officially ended in April 2000 when Nishikawa reverted back to his original stage name of T.M.Revolution.
In 2001, Asakura produced his first solo album in five years as well as working with Iceman guitarist Kenichi Ito in Mad Soldiers; a sort of comedic spin-off from Iceman in which both men's "sinister" alter egos "Scorpion" (Asakura) and "Snake" (Ito) produced music for Kinya Kotani, amongst others, and performed officially unrecorded cover versions of famous songs such as 'Lemon Tea' by Sheena & The Rokkets and 'Hungry Like the Wolf' by Duran Duran. The name of Asakura's alter ego is a reference to his zodiac sign, Scorpio.
In 2002 he reunited with Hiroyuki Takami and reformed access. Having partnered back up with his favored vocalist, Takami, T.M.Revolution was dropped from the top of Asakura's priority list, though he is still TMR's primary music composer.
Asakura went off on a solo project in 2004 titled "Quantum Mechanics Rainbow", in which he released multiple CDs for a year, and each CD title referenced both a color and math property. The project featured multiple live performances and subsequent DVD releases.
In 2006–2007, Asakura produced two singles for new J-pop idol Kimeru, hit the road with TM Network for 2007's TMN Tribute tour and created new songs for the newest version of the popular dance-step game, Dance Dance Revolution.
In November 2007, access released a memory/discography book, alongside highly coveted access plushies, to commemorate their 15th anniversary. As of 2012, access is currently celebrating their 20th anniversary.
In 2008, Asakura embarked on a new solo project entitled "DA Metaverse ~100 Songs for 1000 Days," in which he would release 100 new songs over the course of 1000 days exclusively through iTunes. The project was launched on June 25, 2008. In 2009 he composed and produced the soundtrack for the anime adaptation of Chrome Shelled Regios. Also in 2009, Asakura composed and arranged the soundtrack for a musical rendition of Goodbye Charlie in which Hiroyuki Takami played one of the lead roles.
Recently, Asakura has worked with J-pop artists such as Daisy x Daisy (for the opening theme song to Chrome Shelled Regios), ON/OFF, and May'n as a composer and/or producer. He is also currently featured as an MC/performer for the event concert series, GIRL'S FACTORY, alongside Mayu Watanabe of AKB48 and various guest artists. Since 2006, Asakura has been a member of the DOMOTO BROS. BAND on the music TV series, "Shin Domoto Kyoudai" ("New Domoto Brothers"), hosted by the duo of KinKi Kids, as a keyboardist. Asakura formed a group with other musicians from the show's band in 2009 called "Sugar and the Honey Tones" and they have produced one album.
Asakura is featured in his own radio talk show, "NEO AGE CIRCUIT", which airs every Saturday at 11pm (JST) on FM NACK5 79.5. His official fanclub, "Smile", was originally the official fanclub for access until their breakup in 1995. It is still active in relation to Asakura's activities today.