Kawamura Ryuichi

During LUNA SEA's momentary break in 1997, Ryuichi started his solo career. Going by his full name, Kawamura Ryuichi, he changed his vocals from the powerhouse rock sound everyone was used to from LUNA SEA to more of a pop idol sound.

In 1997, he released four singles, one mini-album, and one full album. He also started his own production house, appropriately titled RK. He would later go on to produce artists such as Hideki, Azumama Toga and even IZAM (ex-Shazna) in 1999.

After the disbanding of LUNA SEA at the end of 2000, Ryuichi held a press conference on January 14th regarding his solo activities for 2001. He announced that he would embark on his first solo tour. He also announced that he would create a subsidiary of RK intended for the production of film music. Shortly after, he composed music for the film "So Faraway."

In mid-2001, the fanclub "RKF" (Ryuichi Kawamura Family) opened and was made available to his foreign fans. He then released the single Ne, which was used in the ending credits for a NTV drama. At this point, Ryuichi was very unsettled and unsure of what his future would be like. He went ahead and released the singles Shizuka na yoru wa futari iyou and Julia, both of which received high praise from the fans and critics alike.

Every one of his releases, thus far, has made it into the top six, thanks to his faithful and ever-growing fanbase. During this time, he made several appearances on popular music shows such as "Music Station" and "Hey!x3." On October 28th, he released Kimi no mae de piano wo hikou and announced his role in the upcoming film Picaresque, which was based on the life of Dazai Osamu. An accompanying tour also followed.

In 2002, Ryuichi traveled to Seoul for an exclusive concert as an attempt to gain more international fans. When he returned to Japan, instead of touring he organized several meet and greet events in ZEPP Fukuoka and ZEPP Osaka. During these events, he sold special goods (including manga he illustrated as well as figurines, etc.) and talked about his upcoming TV Asahi drama series "Kowloon de aimashou." He was cast as the lead male and also wrote the ending theme, Sugar Lady.

Early 2003 saw the new tour, Mahiru no tsuki to mayonaka no taiyou, as well as the release of a special photobook. The tour Kaze special no sasagaki to kimi to acoustic was held in many small, intimate venues across Japan and was an excellent chance for Ryuichi to get upclose and personal with his fans and vice versa. Later on, he performed two special concerts with an orchestra entitled Symphonic Night Cruising on August 8th and 21st.

Even after all of this, there was no news about a new album or single. Perhaps he was a bit preoccupied by his production company. At the time, he was producing artists such as Memory Cats and Kiyoshi, which left little time for his own solo career.

Finally in 2004, he released the single Spoon and the album Vanilla followed by the Vanilla tsugi no shuunan tour during the summer and the Still tour in October. He planned a special New Year's Eve live and INORAN (also ex-LUNA SEA) was there as a special guest.

He released a tape of his drama Number One in January. That spring he participated in a series of solo concerts from March 20th to April 8th with the final entitled NEGRO SPIRITUAL DAY 2005-AKA TO AO. After this, he headed to Europe for a short vacation.

Upon his return to Japan, Ryuichi along with INORAN and H.Hayama announced the formation of their new unit, Tourbillon. Their first official concert was on July 2nd, 2005 in Nippon Budokan, and it received high attendance and excellent reviews. LUNA SEA fans everywhere were ecstatic about two of the ex-members working together again as it brought back hopes of a LUNA SEA reunion.

On January 23rd, 2006, Ryuichi shocked fans everywhere. He announced on his OHP that he had just married his girlfriend Sano Kumi, stating that he wanted to "give a small part of my 24 hours to her.” Even though many fans were saddened that he was no longer eligible, the news was received very well and everyone sent their wishes to the happy couple.

Even though his solo activities were not his main concern at the time, Ryuichi released a cover album in May. Entitled evergreen ~anata no wasuremono~, he covered songs by artists such as Ozaki Yutaka and Kobayashi Akiko as well as the song I for you by LUNA SEA.

He also sang the Japanese National Anthem for the seventh Grand Prix D1 series in October 2006. In celebration of his tenth anniversary as a solo artist, he held a special tour. The odd thing about this tour was the fact that it was not actually a tour, rather, it was an opportunity for Ryuichi's most dedicated (and wealthiest) fans to have a special tea or dinner date with him. The final date of this tour was a normal live that took place on New Year's Eve.

Although he was busy with Tourbillon, he still made time for his solo career. In April 2007, he released the single Dare no demonaku kimi ni. After this release, he concentrated on celebrating the anniversary of RK for the rest of the year with multiple tours and events. In between these multiple anniversary tours, he managed to release a new solo album, ORANGE, in June and a new solo single in October. The biggest event of 2007 Ryuichi participated in was surprisingly LUNA SEA’s reunion concert titled GOD BLESS YOU〜One Night Dejavu〜.

The next year, LUNA SEA reunited once more to perform at the hide memorial summit on May 4th. It was announced in the summer that Ryuichi was going to star in the Japanese version of the Broadway musical “Chicago” playing the character Billy Flynn. The musical started in October and ran for a month. It has been announced he will star in the musical for a second time starting in June 2010.

He started off 2009, by releasing a new single, Heroine, in which Tetsuro Oda produced one of the songs. The next month, on March 22nd, he performed in Hong Kong with INORAN as a special guest. Keeping up with his busy schedule, Ryuichi released his next solo album, Piano, in April followed up by an extensive tour until August. In September, he collaborated with the jewelry company GemCEREY, creating a pendent. To go along with this collaboration, he released the single, Brilliant Stars, whose title track was used for the jewelry brand’s commercial. His next single, released in January 2010, was also used for a GemCEREY commercial.

These two singles as well as his newest album, Sora, are the first releases since his move to the avex trax label. With this new change, Ryuichi’s schedule hasn't let up one bit, so we’ll continue on watching his numerous activities with anticipation.