The Birthday Massacre (abbreviated TBM) is a Canadian band, formed in 1999 in London, Ontario, and currently based in Toronto, Ontario. The current lineup consists of lead vocalist Chibi, rhythm guitarist Rainbow, lead guitarist Falcore, drummer Rhim, keyboardist Owen, and bassist Nate Manor. When the band formed in 1999, they were known as Imagica. This name was inspired from the fantasy novel Imajica (1991) by Clive Barker.

The group originated in London, Ontario, under the name Imagica, with members using pseudonyms and nicknames instead of their birth names. The group's original lineup formed when Rainbow met Chibi at Fanshawe College, studying in the same fine-arts program. The two decided to start a band for fun as they were already hanging around writing music together. Rainbow recruited childhood friend Michael Falcore to join on guitar since they had already been recording music together in high school. Aslan, who was also attending the same college, became roommates with Rainbow and joined on bass. In mid 2000, Dank, a long-time friend of Chibi's, joined to play live keyboards but left the group shortly before they relocated to Toronto. After months of rehearsals and writing songs, they played their first gig on October 28, 2000, at Diversity night club in London. The band released a seven-song limited-edition demo CD at the show which had been recorded on a four-track cassette recorder during a time when the group was recording cover songs for fun. There were 40 hand-numbered copies of the demo which included the first recorded version of the song "The Birthday Massacre" (later renamed "Happy Birthday"). During this time, the band also met Rhim, Owen and Brett Carruthers who all attended the same college. In addition to this, later in October 2006, Terry McManus, Professor of Music Business and Entertainment Law at Fanshawe College, would join as the band's personal manager. Since its inception, The Birthday Massacre have described the band as an audio-visual project. In a 2009 interview, when asked about why they had started the band, Rainbow stated: "I think more than just being a band, it's a way to sort of incorporate, not just music, but other things. So I think more so than just music, the idea of having a band, and being able to perform, and being able to do artwork, to do music... all these different avenues." Neither Rainbow, Chibi nor Michael Falcore had been in any previous bands and have expressed in multiple interviews that the group formed naturally as a result of spending time together as friends. On July 20, 2004, the Birthday Massacre again independently released an EP, Violet, and at the end of the year, re-released Nothing with new sleeve artwork. In the fall of 2004, Kai Schmidt, former member of electronic group Funker Vogt, signed the band to his label in Germany. They released a remastered and expanded LP version of Violet in Europe, including updated album art in a Digipak case. Adm left the band shortly before signing to Repo Records and can be seen in the original group photo on the nine song EP but is absent in the Digipak and LP version. In 2004, Brett Carruthers briefly joined the band on live keyboards. 2004 saw the band touring outside of Canada for the first time, playing the states of New York, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland performing with American bands 51 Peg, Deadstar Assembly, Celldweller and Crossbreed. In 2005, the band signed to Metropolis Records and re-released Violet. In August, the band began a series of international tours taking them to Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Hungary, Czech Republic, Belgium, Spain and UK. Also in August the band released a DVD with the video for Blue by Dan Ouellette. Owen joined on keyboards first assuming the name Waffles, then O-en, then finally using his given name. Owen previously met the Birthday Massacre when playing in another band called Electric Knife Fight and joined just after the Blue filming was completed and therefore missed making an appearance in the video. On New Year's Eve the band performed in Los Angeles, California, at Bar Sinister. In early 2006, the Birthday Massacre toured North America, playing across Canada, the United States and Mexico on their "Broken Minds" tour sharing the stage with KMFDM, Schoolyard Heroes, Suicide City and the Start. They toured Europe again with bands Das Ich, Jesus on Extasy and Dope Stars Inc; playing in France, Italy, and Poland's Castle Party 2006. Through its European debut, Violet ranked high in the alternative charts. In several countries, the band made it onto the front pages of magazines; performing at some of Germany's largest music festivals, including the annual Highfeild and M'era Luna summer festivals. Also in 2006 the band recorded a remix of the song "Straight to Video" by Mindless Self Indulgence. Later in 2008, the band would record a second remix, this time of the song Never Wanted to Dance with the addition of Chibi's vocals. On January 1, 2007, a demo version of the song "Kill the Lights" was released for streaming on the band's Vampirefreaks profile, which remained for several years the number one ranked profile for the highest number of listeners. In June, the band announced it was working on a new record with Canadian producer and engineer Dave "Rave" Ogilvie and that Aslan was leaving to start a new project and that O.E would be returning to the lineup on bass duties. In August, the band began planning a new video to be directed again by Dan Ouellette. On September 11, 2007, the band released Walking with Strangers in North America, entering at No. 10 on the Billboard "Top Heatseekers" chart for September 29. The album was released in Europe on September 21 and in the UK on 22 October. Artwork was created by JUNO Award winner, Vincent Marcone of Johnny Hollow. In October and November, the band toured Europe and the U.K with German band Psycho Luna. Primary filming of the Looking Glass video took place February 10-11, 2008, directed by Ouellette. Extras were culled from The Birthday Massacre's fan base and all 35 masks were handcrafted. The Looking Glass video was released on the band's official YouTube channel on April 1, 2008, and distributed as a video data file on the EP which was released in May 2008. It contained several remixes by electronic artists such as Dean Garcia, Jamie Miller and Dave Ogilvie. Beginning in June, the band embarked on a large American tour, opening up for Mindless Self Indulgence, and sharing shows with Julien-K, Fake Shark - Real Zombie!, London After Midnight and Combichrist. They would further tour America with bands Tub Ring, Hollowboy and Creature Feature. November 2008 also saw the band touring Australia for the first time. On May 5, 2009, the band released their Show And Tell CD, featuring 16 live tracks from their show in Hamburg, Germany, filmed at Knust, which occurred during their Walking With Strangers Tour in 2007. The DVD portion of the show was released on October 2, 2009, in Europe and in North America on February 9, 2010. During the summer of 2009, Chibi recorded vocals for former WWE Diva Katie Lea Burchill's entrance theme, "Hurt You". During the spring and summer of 2009, the band went on tour with bands I Am Ghost and Dommin in both North America and Europe. In late July 2009, the band was featured on a contest called 'Book The Band', at Virgin Mobile Festival, which took place online and allowed fans to vote repeatedly. On August 17, The Birthday Massacre was declared winner of the contest and was given 100 tickets to hand out to the most fanatic voters. They performed at the festival on August 30, 2009, held at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. Chibi stated in an interview, that since the band is unable to write while touring, the band took a year off to write and record a new album.

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