THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE

___ORIGINS, NOTHING AND NOWHERE_____ The band was officially formed in 1999, known at that time as Imagica, a name taken from a novel by Clive Barker. The group's original line-up consisted of: Chibi (vocals), Rainbow (guitar and programming), Michael Falcore (guitar), and J. Aslan (bass). They originated in London, Ontario where childhood friends Rainbow and Falcore met Chibi and Aslan in college. In mid 2000, Dank, a long time friend of Chibi's joined to play live keyboards. After months of rehearsals and writing songs, they played their first gig on October 28th 2000 at Diversity night club in London. The band released a 7 song demo CD at the show. There were 40 hand numbered copies of the demo which included the first recorded verision of the song "The Birthday Massacre" (later renamed "Happy Birthday"). The following month, in answering an ad posted at the college, O.E. was added to play live drums. During this time, the band also met Rhim and Owen at the same college who would later join as drummer and keyboardist, respectively. In September of 2001, the band relocated to Toronto to begin recording as a four peice shortly after Dank left the group. There, they independantly produced, recorded and manufactured another limited edition demo. Shortly thereafter, the band adopted the name The Birthday Massacre. The new name was taken from one of their own songs, and they retitled that song 'Happy Birthday'. Shows during this time were given infrequently and with a great deal of planning, to be more like themed events. In July 2002, The Birthday Massacre released a limited edition CD entitled "Nothing and Nowhere." In 2003, Adm joined the band on live keyboards and Rhim on drums as the band began playing live shows more and more often. 2003 also saw the launch of the critically acclaimed and highly atmospheric NothingAndNowhere.com -a flash website ahead of it's time and fully designed by the band themselves. ________________VIOLET_______________ On July 20, 2004, The Birthday Massacre released a nine song EP entitled "Violet," and at the end of the year, re-released "Nothing and Nowhere" with new sleeve artwork. Adm soon left thereafter to explore his own projects. In the fall of 2004, the band was signed to Repo Records in Germany, and released a remastered and expanded version of "Violet" in Europe, including updated album art in a digipak case. In 2005 the band signed to Metropolis Records in the U.S.A. and released "Violet" with much larger distribution. I the spring, Owen joined on live keyboards just in time for the studio performance video shoot of "Nevermind" and in August, the band set out on their first European tour. Also in August, a DVD consisting of a video for the song "Blue" was released. It also included behind-the-scenes footage, an interview, the video for "Nevermind," as well as live performances of "Violet" and "Video Kid." The centerpiece of the DVD was the Dan Ouellette-directed video for "Blue". "Nevermind" and the two live videos were directed by Steve Jones of Toronto. In early 2006, the Birthday Massacre toured North America, playing across Canada, the United States and Mexico on their "Broken Minds" tour. They also played Europe and the U.K. in the summer of 2006. The band did not tour again for nearly a year, and instead began work on a new record. ___WALKING WITH STRANGERS, SHOW AND TELL__ The demo version of the song "Kill the Lights" was released on Vampirefreaks and MySpace for streaming on January 1, 2007. In June 2007, it was announced that the band had been working on a new record with Canadian producer/engineer Dave "Rave" Ogilvie and that bass player Aslan had left the band for his own project. Returning to the band, this time on bass, was former drummer O.E. "Looking Glass" (another single from "Walking with Strangers") was posted on August 1, 2007 on Vampirefreaks and MySpace. On August 21, the final version of the lead single "Red Stars" was available with separate promotional art for paid download on the web. Also in August, the band embarked on a series of North American shows lasting three months and included many dates with bands TheStart and Schoolyard Heroes. On September 11, 2007 the band released "Walking with Strangers" in North America, entering at #10 on the Billboard "Top Heatseekers" chart for September 29. The album was released in Europe on September 21 and in the UK on the 22nd of October. A third trip to Europe and the U.K. followed in November to promote the record. During the European leg of the tour, a live performance was filmed in Hamburg, Germany which would later become the "Show and Tell" live recording. A video was shot for "Looking Glass" in Feburary of 2008 and posted to Youtube April 1st. Again, the director was Dan Ouellette. The second single taken from the album, "Looking Glass" was released as an EP on May 6th, containing the video and several remixes by high-profile electronic artists. The band then began a nine week North American tour supporting Mindless Self Indulgence with Julien-K, Combichrist, and others. November of 2008 also saw the band touring Australia for the first time. The live recording "Show and Tell" was released on May 5th, 2009. Filmed in Hamburg, Germany on November 5th, 2007, initally the footage had no designated purpose. However the band's European record label, Repo Records, suggested it was worthy of release and intended it to be available on both CD and DVD. The band, being self-described as both "do-it-yourself" in their work and meticulous in their releases, has stated the work involved in preparing the footage and bonus features was greater than anticipated, and this, coupled with more live dates than initially planned (including shows with "Dommin" and "I Am Ghost" and a short-notice spot on Virgin Mobile's FreeFest in late August) led to the delay of the DVD portion and the delay of the next record release. The DVD was released in Europe on October 2nd, 2009 in PAL format. The North American NTSC version was released Feburary 2010. ________PINS AND NEEDLES, IMAGINARY MONSTERS_______ All along, while the band was touring and finishing up the "Show And Tell" material, work was slowly progressing on the next record. These distractions from writing and recording did eventually cause the delay of the record...and finally, the band had to stop accepting shows and focus on nothing but completing the new record. Begining in the fall of 2009, they did just this, secluding themselves in Toronto and with no shows for nearly 11 months. Once again the band worked with Dave "Rave" Ogilvie in the final mixing stages in June. The album info pertaining to artwork and track listing was finally released in July of 2010. Also in 2010, primary filming for a video was completed over the weekend of July 3rd and 4th. The first single from the album, the video for "In the Dark," premiered on September 7, 2010, directed and edited by The Birthday Massacre's own M.Falcore and Rodrigo Gudino of Rue Morgue. The video can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLOfluH8mgQ Starting in July, a series of tours begins including dates with OTEP in the USA, headling shows across North Americia and an extensive 21 show U.K. tour. This series of shows ended in November with nearly a month in the U.S.A. supported by Dommin (USA) and Aural Vampire (JPN). During this run of shows, Pins and Needles was released. On September 14, 2010 this full length record came out on Metropolis Records worldwide. You can find it here: http://www.metropolis-mailorder.com/...rodnum=MET+680 Pins And Needles debuted at number 6 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart and number 152 on the Top 200 chart. Also as of Sept 23, 2010 the album was number 1 on the DAC (Deutsche Alternative Charts) for the 3rd week. The band also made a lineup change by adding Nate Manor, formally of Wednesday 13, to replace O.E on bass. "Imaginary Monsters" is the third EP by the band, containing three new tracks, five remixes, and album art by Owen. It was released August 9, 2011.