Toshio Masuda (増田 俊郎, Masuda Toshio, born October 28, 1959) is a Japanese composer. He has composed and synthesized scores for several Japanese television shows and animated series. Masuda is perhaps best known as the composer of the 2002 hit anime series Naruto where he combined traditional instruments like the shamisen and shakuhachi together with guitar, drums, bass, piano and other keyboard instruments along with chanting.
Biography
He became interested in music through African ethnic music he heard in his childhood, and later, influenced by his father, who was also a musician, he began listening to a wide range of music genres such as jazz, classical, and pop without limitation.
During junior high school, he was strongly drawn to the sound of synthesizers that he heard for the first time, and he began creating self-made tapes through multitrack recording, starting his amateur music activities. He taught himself piano and drums, and began his activities as a keyboard player while attending Nihon University. Immediately after graduating, he joined the backing band of former Candies member Yoshiko Tanaka, marking the beginning of his full-fledged professional career.
Since then, he has participated in stage support and recordings for many artists such as Ikki Kajiwara's Sepia, Yasuhiro Suzuki, Akiko Kobayashi, Miho Nakayama, Uta Shimada, etc. Particularly, in Sepia's concert tours, he handled all aspects of stage arrangement from their debut to dissolution, and even played the role of comprehensive music director extending to stage direction.
Currently, he is active mainly with his band "Euphoria," supporting and serving as music director for concerts by Toshiro Yanagiba, music director for concerts by Keiko Nagashima, and performing support, arrangement, and music direction for Maomao Ochi's recitals and dinner shows. He is also in charge of the music for Fuji TV's "Downtown's Gotsu Ee Kanji" and "Rasta Tonneruzu." Especially, Downtown's Eccentric Boy has become a big hit with over 500,000 copies sold. He has expanded his activities to include music production for commercials, anime, dramas, etc.
