The band’s creation goes back to the members' secondary school years, at an international school in Osaka where Nakamura Fukiko and Iizuka Keisuke met Song Rui from China. In January 1998, the 15-16 year old friends created CORE OF SUN, which they quickly renamed to CORE OF SOUL. In November 1999, they represented Osaka at the TEEN MUSIC FESTIVAL. Despite the fact that the band did not win the main prize, their performance attracted a great deal of attention and they gained themselves an encouragement prize.
In 2001, February 1st, they produced a two track demo-tape for the Indies market. Sold for only 100 yen and only available in the Kansai area, it rapidly sold-out. Some time later, the trio signed with TOSHIBA-EMI and released their first major single, Photosynthesis, on May 16th of the same year. The disc included Angel, a track included on their demo-tape and sung entirely in English, proving Fukiko's ability with the language. Three months-and-a-half after Photosynthesis, on August 29th, they released their second single. It was in fact another song taken from their demo tape FULL MOON PRAYER.
The following year, on February 27th, their third single and first album were released on the same day, both titled Natural Beauty. The album, produced by the band, only contained nine tracks, including the three previously released tracks. Despite a moderate commercial success, the album became recognised as one of the greatest Japanese releases of 2002 and remains, for many fans, as the band’s best album.
On August 7th, the band offered their fourth single Flying People, with all new songs. This single marked the beginning of quality production and arrangement offered by their label and was clearly audible in their new work. In 2003, the band released their second album Over the Time, a year after Natural Beauty's release.
March 14th, 2003 was an important date in the band’s history. Fukiko, along with her fellow band mates, who had never hidden their desire to become an international band, performed overseas. Performing in Austin, Texas, USA at the SXSW festival, which had already seen the likes of Cocco and LOVE PSYCHEDELICO, the band was warmly received. Some months later, the band offered an extract of this live performance as a CD-Extra on their new single Make Me A Woman.
In the October of 2003, their first mini-album RAINBOW was released, featuring a live track taken from the performance in America. CORE OF SOUL, once again, had the opportunity to perform in the USA at the famous CBGB club in November. The band leaves behind a great impression with those who attended their performance and prove themselves to be approachable to the public.
2004 heralds a promising start for the band with the release of Purple Sky, which contained a CD-Extra in the form of a PV. This was a great relief for the fans who had yet to see any form of DVD release from the band, despite their plentiful live performances and PV history. Two months later, in March 2004, the band released their third album, appropriately (yet soberly named) 3.
It was then that band took a ten month break, with their next single Ageha being released in January of 2005. This single contained a remix of the title track by Jazztronik (Nozaki Ryouta) who Fukiko had previously worked with on his own song TIGER EYES. This single release was followed in August by Yumenori RIDERS, a single which contained the band’s first cover: Wonderful Tonight, by legendary performer Eric Clapton.
The Spring of 2006 was, ultimately, a full-packed affair for the band. Alongside their fourth album release ONE LOVE, ONE DAY, ONE LIFE!, the band released a PV Collection DVD and also a best-of in March. These developments were preceded by the ONE LOVE, ONE DAY, ONE LIFE! live tour, which took the band outside of their native Japan to perform in other Asian countries such as Korea, China, Indonesia and the Philippines.
However, this busy start to the year was overshadowed by some sad news. On February 12th, the band announced on their official site that they would be disbanding on March 24th, the final date of their tour, in Osaka, the town in which the band emerged. The members explained that their reasoning for this split was centred around a natural evolution. The CORE OF SOUL experience had bought each of them a lot of wonderful things to remember, but they had ultimately decided that they desired to follow their own paths and continue to evolve...
