TRF member SAM talks about his earlier years and when TRF became a big hit with “EZ DO DANCE”

TRF (Tetsuya Komuro Rave Factory) is celebrating its 30th anniversary and the group which was produced by Komuro Tetsuya and consists of DJ Koo, SAM, YU-KI, ETSU and CHIHARU.  The group is considered legends in the Japanese music scene.

Bunshun recently had an interview with SAM (Maruyama Matsatsu) who turned 60-years-old.    In the Meiji era, his great grandfather opened a clinic in Iwatsuki, Saitama, and comes from a family of doctors who run a general hospital, but unlike his family, he chose to become an independent person and chose the path of a dancer.

SAM talked about cutting his hair, as he had his long hairstyle for decades.  But now he feels it’s not a good idea now because he’s getting a little bald.  And compared to if you watch an older music video, his hairline has receded.  As he has tied his hair for decades, it put a strain on his roots and of course, due to aging.

SAM discussed his earlier years of watching idol groups such as the Fouir Leaves and Johnny’s Jr. Specials and he would go to the disco in Kabukicho, but stayed at the event until 5 o’clock and would kill time at a coffee shop in Shinjuku until 7 and then went to school.  SAM admitted he disliked school and studying.

As for his name, back in the day, disco regulars would give nicknames to people such as Jimmy and Tommy and he became SAM since he was 16 or 17 years old.

He would have a dance team called Mickey Mouse which was famous in Kabukicho and would go to Kabukicho night clubs everyday to dance.  He was to release a disco song as SAM but in that same year, an unsolved murder case known as the “Shinjuku Kabukicho Disco Nampa Murder Case” occurred and he had to replace the A side and the B side, so the debut song didn’t sell at all.

When the criminal wasn’t caught and a montage photo of the suspect appeared, it looked exactly like him, including the hairstyle.  And because of that, he was interrogated by the police and it didn’t help that he was always at the disco in Kabukicho.

So, when his debut failed, he tried to change his name to “rifraf” and try to have a solo debut again, but he wasn’t able to appear in TV.  He thought by becoming an idol, he would appear on TV.

SAM eventually left to New York for dance training and transition from wanting to become an idol and become a dancer.  But when he returned back home, he became dependent on his parents.

Around 1990, Komuro Tetsuya saw him on the program “Dance!” which was broadcast and he was asked to speak to him.  Komuro Tetsuya was famous for his work for TM NETWORK but Komuro said he wasn’t familiar with the group because he wasn’t watching TV.  He only knew of Komuro through a TV commercial.

Komuro asked what kind of songs does he usually dance to?  And after discussing with Komuro, he didn’t hear back from him for a couple of months but he felt it was because Komuro was busy. But when he received a call to meet at Akasaka Prince to meet with Komuro.

Prior to TRF, SAM said he belonged to a dance team known as MEGA-MIX, which is like the mother of TRF.  He thought in the beginning it would be the debut as a dance team but when YU-KI appeared and introduced herself as the vocalist.  SAM knew her as she was member of the music/dance group ZOO and known her for a long time, but they weren’t informed there would be a vocalist.

Komuro didn’t explain what he wanted SAM and his dance friends to show up at the time.  He was asked about a song which was muddy hip-hop, acid jazz but a completed song in crunchy techno.

For SAM, he wanted to know if its possible were dancers were not backup dancers but members of a group, part of a team.  MEGA-MIX had a policy of not dancing in the back of a singer as there was a strong belief that they would become famous as dancers.

And after “EZ DO DANCE” became a hit, and they toured clubs nationwide, he felt the live-style established just that.

Most people ask SAM about why TRF has five people, as the time of formation, there were 11 members (2 DJ’s, 1 vocalist, 8 dancers) and there were ten people on the cover jacket of “EZ DO DANCE”.

After the break, he appeared in a commercial for Sea Breeze, while several other members appeared in a commercial for a competitor, the number of members naturally decreased.

But SAM admits he wasn’t entirely happy with “EZ DO DANCE”.  SAM felt that the public felt they were back up dancers, as no one saw the members as members of TRF. Even after TRF sold out tickets, it took sometime for the dancers to be recognized as part of the group. And felt their solo parts didn’t illuminate, but Komuro told him, “SAM’s solos are the same as guitar and drum solos” and he knew that Komuro understood his thoughts.

But in 1998, TRF would no longer use Komuro Tetsuya as their producer.

SAM said there was a meeting of “what to do with TRF in the future?” at Avex and the group felt things were “Okay as it is”.  But the atmosphere of the company was to change directions and bring on an image change.

SAM said they came to the conclusion, instead of using the lowercase “trf”, change it to uppercase “TRF” to indicate it was a transition to becoming adults. But he felt, when he made his debut, he was 30-years-old, he was already an adult.

But things have changed, styles have changed, Komuro moved his based to overseas and he was not easy to get in touch with.  And from 2000-2005, it was a time with no releases.  While he produced concerts for V6 and BoA, he was behind-the-scenes and while he had contact with CHIHARU and ETSU, he only saw YU-KI and KOO a few times a year and called to see how they were doing.

When asked if there was discussion of TRF disbanding, SAM said they never talked about such things and have a feeling that “We wish we could do something when and where they want to”, so instead of discussing disbanding, they have a feeling to release a song when they want to release a new song.

With that being said, this year marks the group’s 30th anniversary and they haven’t released a new song in five years, but he would like Avex to do their best.

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