TRF Biography

TRF (TK Rave Factory) was formed in 1992 by producer Tetsuya Komuro, and was originally a 10-member group, with YU-KI and Suzi Kim as the vocalists, DJ KOO and Hiro Matsumoto as the DJs, and the dancers, known as MEGAMIX.
They debuted as trf in February of 1993 with the single "GOING 2 DANCE / OPEN YOUR MIND", released on the same day as their first album "TK RAVE FACTORY - THIS IS THE TRUTH", which sold about 400,000 copies. Their first album was soon followed by their first remix album, "HYPER TECHNO MIX" on the May of the same year.
But it was their 2nd single, "EZ DO DANCE", which brought them to success. The single debuted at #16 on the charts but managed to sell 940,000 copies. Exactly a month later, their first mini-album "EZ DO DANCE" was released and debuted at #4, becoming their first album to break the 1 million sales mark. In August, they performed in the avex rave '93 live concert in Tokyo Dome, and in September they went on their first nation-wide Tour, called "CLUB TOUR - EZ DO DANCE".
Towards the end of the year, after the release of their second remix album, "HYPER TECHNO MIX II", trf became a 5-member group (YU-KI as the vocalist, DJ KOO as the DJ, CHIHARU, ETSU and SAM as the dancers) and released three new singles: "Ai ga mou sukoshi hoshii yo" and "Silver and Gold dance", released simultaneously on the 21st of November, which failed to reach the success of "EZ DO DANCE"; "Samui yoru dakara...", released on the 16th of December, a Winter-themed song, which debuted at #8 on the charts and sold about 840,000 copies.
In 1994 they released their third original album, "WORLD GROOVE", which reached the #1 spot, selling about 1,600,000 copies. On February they won an award at the 8th "Nihon Gold Disk Taishou" as New Artist, and the 21st of March they released their first Video, "WORLD GROOVE", which featured Promotional Videos of their previous singles, plus new Music and Live Videos. In April their third remix album, "HYPER MIX III", debuted at #1 and sold about 920,000 copies.
In May they went in Mexico to shoot a Coca Cola Commercial and the Music Video for "BOY MEETS GIRL", which was the Commercial's theme song. On the 25th of May, they released their sixth single, "survival dAnce ~no no cry more~", theme song to the drama "17sai -at seventeen-", which debuted at #1, selling 1,490,000 copies. From May to June they went on their second tour, "trf CLUB TOUR seven8 '94", and on the 22nd of June their seventh single "BOY MEETS GIRL" was released, becoming their second single to break the 1 million sales mark.
trf's second mini-album, "BILLIONAIRE - BOY MEETS GIRL", as expected, debuted at #1, selling 2,450,000 copies, and was soon followed by their third national Tour. It was their first Tour to be released on Video, under the name of "trf TOUR '94 BILLIONAIRE ~BOY MEETS GIRL~". At the end of the year, the single "Samui yoru dakara..." was re-released as the ending of the TV show "Marui TOKYO TASTE 「Rooms」", and trf was invited for the first time to appear on NHK's "Kohaku Utagassen".
At the beginning of 1995, they released their eighth single, "CRAZY GONNA CRAZY", theme song to the drama "Gaman dekinai!". The single reached the #1 spot in the charts, selling 1,600,000 copies. In February they already had a record of 10,000,000 copies of their albums and singles sold since debut, and in March they won another award at the "Nihon Gold Disk Taishou". Their following singles, "masquerade" and "Overnight Sensation ~jidai wa anata ni yudaneteru~", were both big hits, and their fifth album, "dAnce to positive", sold more than 3 million copies.
A month later they debuted their first dance musical, "1999... gogatsu nanoka Tsuki ga Chikyuu ni KISS wo suru~LUNA xxx THE EARTH~" at the LIVE UFO '95, with the participation of other popular artists like Marc Panther of globe and Yuki Uchida, and with music compositions by Testuya Komuro.
In May trf went on another nation-wide tour "trf TOUR '95 dAnce to positive ~Overnight Sensation~", which was released on Video as well. In June, they released their fourth remix album "hyper mix 4", which sold over 1 million copies, a great record for a remix album, and another video clip collection, "Ultimate films 1994-1995".
Their 11th single, "BRAND NEW TOMORROW" was the theme song of the drama "KURISUMASU~IBU ni aimashou" (in which DJ KOO and YU-KI starred as minor characters) and debuted at #1, though breaking their record of consecutive 1 million-selling releases. In December they released their sixth album, "Brand New Tomorrow" and a new single, "Happening Here", whose b-side was the theme song of two Morinaga Chocolate commercials that featured YU-KI, "teens". Then, they performed in their biggest concert, "BRAND NEW TOMORROW IN TOKYO DOME ~PRESENTATION FOR 1996~", with an audience of 50,000. They also performed at the "Velfarre Christmas Live" concert, and at the "Kohaku Utagassen" for the second time. The year ended with their single "Overnight Sensation ~jidai wa anata ni yudaneteru~" receiving an award at the 37th "Nihon Gold Disk Taishou". At that moment their sales had already reached the 20,000,000 copies.
1996 began with the release of the album "THE LIVE3", consisting of 3 CDs with Live Recordings from trf's '94 and '95 Tours and their Tokyo Dome concert, and the Video of "BRAND NEW TOMORROW IN TOKYO DOME ~PRESENTATION FOR 1996~".
Their following single, "Love & peace Forever", sold very good, but still showed a significant drop in trf's sales. With the next single, "Hey! Ladies & Gentlemen" their name became an all capitalized TRF.
The members began working on other projects other than the band, like the "DANCE REPUBLIC" event, organized by SAM and to which also ETSU and CHIHARU took part, and the "DJ TRAIN ~Dance Mixture~" for DJ KOO.
In September they started their nation-wide Tour, "Panasonic presents TRF '96 ARENA TOUR", during the which they released their last two TK-produced singles for a long time, "SILENT NIGHT" and "LEGEND OF WIND".
1997 was a pretty quiet year for TRF, if not for the Video release of "TRF LIVE in YOKOHAMA ARENA", their performances at the "TK PAN-PACIFIC TOUR '97 IN TAIPEI" (which also featured artists such as Namie Amuro and globe) and YU-KI's solo single "dragon's dance", opening theme to children's movie "Elmer's Adventure: My father's dragon", in which she worked as Elmer's voice actress.
TRF's activity was back in 1998, with the release of their first best-of album, "WORKS - THE BEST OF TRF", and three new singles in three months, which had moderate success but weren't hits. Their seventh album, "UNITE", sold very little compared to their previous albums, and confirmed that their popularity was slowly declining.
After their "TRF TOUR '98 Live in Unite!", they kept releasing singles, till in 1999 they released an album, "LOOP#1999". The unsuccessfulness of their releases continued in 2000, with the release of five remix singles ("Burst drive mix") and a non-stop remix album containing the best remixes from the singles. This was their last try before going on a six-years hiatus.
During those years, TRF members focused on their individual careers, with DJ KOO working on a solo project, SAM, CHIHARU and ETSU working as choreographers for many artists such as Ayumi Hamasaki, BoA, dream, etc., and YU-KI performing in musicals ("tick, tick... BOOM!" in 2003 and "CLAUDIA" in 2004 and 2005). They also appeared at some events, like a-nation, zento and Act Against AIDS.
In 2002, TRF appeared in TK's project "song+nation", an album with the purpose of helping the victims of the 11th September terrorist attacks, with the song "One Nation". This song actually has a forerunner, "extacy of nature", which was only released in Vynil format for the zento night club with another song, "Final Destination" (both composed by Tetsuya Komuro). They also made an appaerance in Ayumi Hamasaki's COUNTDOWN 2002-2003.
In 2006, TRF made their comeback with the single "Where to begin", and the album "Lif-e-Motions", which contained both new works from the band and also covers of their songs performed by other artists (Ayumi Hamasaki, BoA, Every Little Thing etc.). In March a new YU-KI solo single "NEXT LEVEL" came out as the opening theme of the "Kamen Rider Kabuto" live action serie. In June they went on Tour to promote the album, and announced a new single and Live DVD. In August they performed as usual at a-nation, and on the 30th they released their new single "Silence whispers" and Live DVD "Lif-e-Motions TOUR 2006". On the 29th of November TRF released their first single produced by Tetsuya Komuro after ten years, "We are all BLOOMIN'", while YU-KI released her third solo single "Shiroi Tsuki", the opening theme of the anime "Bakegyamon Gekifu Battle", for which she also worked as a voice actress.
2007 was the year of TRF's 15th Anniversary. At the beginning of the year Sansei R&D released a special TRF Pachinko, and they recorded a disney cover song, "Look through my eyes", which appeared on the album "CLUB DISNEY 2007". On the 7th of February their second best-of album "TRF 15th Anniversary BEST -MEMORIES-" came out, in three different jackets, one of those a limited version which was sold out shortly after the release date. The best-of album debuted at #6, selling about 75,400 copies.
On July 11 an online Single was released with the a new song, "lights and any more" (opening song of the anime "Wangan MIDNIGHT"), plus new versions of three of their old songs, like "survival dAnce '07" (theme song of the movie "AWA Dance").
On November they released their 29th Single, "iNNOVATiON" and in winter they went on their 15th Anniversary Tour, which will be released on DVD on April 23, together with their latest Single, "Live Your Days".