The band officially formed in the year 2000, known at that time as Imagica. Playing their first show at Diversity Nightclub in London, Ontario. A seven song demo was released in a very limited edition. In 2001 the band relocated from London to Toronto, Ontario, to begin recording. At this time the band adopted the name The Birthday Massacre. Their current lineup is - Chibi / Vocals, Rainbow / Guitar and Programming, M. Falcore / Guitar, Rhim / Drums, Owen / Keyboards and O.E. / Bass.

Chibi from The Birthday Massacre:

Chris-So, this is the third date on the tour?
Chibi-Yes, third date very excited! Things are going really well so far. Mindless Self Indulgence is a really great band.  We are very excited to be out for two months.

Chris-How did you guys get hooked up with MSI?
Chibi-We actually toured with them a few years ago.  Tour meaning we did a few weeks of shows.  Over the years we did several remixes and basically stayed in touch with them.  I guess they wanted us along.

Chris-Did you do remixes for them?
Chibi-Yea, well we did two remixes for them (Straight to Video, and Never Wanted To Dance).  We are really happy that they wanted us to come out with them.

Chris-How did your band form?
Chibi-Oh my gosh!  Way back in the day! It was actually in 1999.  I was in college with Rainbow.  We basically started recording music for fun.  And it was like, lets try putting a band together.  He knew Mike.  We all basically knew each other from school, back in London, Ontario. 

Chris-When you toured before did you basicly tour Canada?  Or did you tour the states too?       
Chibi-We started really small at first hitting just around Toronto.  Than eventually did a few shows over in the states.  We then got signed to Repo records in Europe.  So our first substantial tour was in Europe for two weeks and than when we got signed to Metropolis we started to tour through the states and across Canada.

Chris-How did you guys get signed to Metropolis?
Chibi-They sought us.  We never really actively looked for a label, so when people would come and approach us we would sort of weigh the pros and cons.  Metropolis approached us. 

Chris-How did they hear about you guys?
Chibi-I’m sure it was the internet.  Since the beginning we have been pretty lucky with our internet presence.  We always had a message board, with lots of people online.  I’m assuming that’s how they heard of us. 

Chris-I like your website it’s the coolest thing I’ve ever been to. 
Chibi-Awwww that’s sweet. 

Chris-Who did the website?
Chibi-You mean the Nothing and Nowhere website?  Actually our old bass player  Aslan Osiris brainstormed and put that together.  He is actually no longer with us now.  I mean he’s still alive.  He’s no longer in the group anymore. 

Chris-You guys still friends?
Chibi-Oh, yeah I just saw him last weekend.  He went camping through Guatemala all by himself. 

Chris-By himself?
Chibi-Oh yeah.  For four months we were terrified that he wasn’t going to come back. 

Chris-I thought normally you would go out with someone else, at least a buddy system?
Chibi-Yeah, that’s what I would do. Its dangerous you know.

Chris-Can you tell me a little bit about your stage show?
Chibi-Well……it’s very good.  We try to just have a lot of energy.  We like to have fun, and like the audience to have fun too.  Our music on cd is very atmospheric.  We try to bring energy to it on stage.  Try to have a good time.  It can be very stressful touring.  I think what we all look forward to is the shows, because that’s when you can just have a good time.

Chris-What do you guys do to prepare yourselves before you go on stage?
Chibi-You mean like rituals? (yes) Basically just stretch, we are pretty active on stage.  We don’t want to strain our arms, so we stretch, and try to get ourselves psyhed up.  A lot of times watching the opening bands and such is a good way to get energized as well.  But nothing crazy like flying chickens or bathing in blood or anything….not yet anyways.

Chris-How did the name of the band come about?
Chibi-We used to have another name and than we had to change it.  We were called Imagica.  There was just a lot of bands called Imagica.  We wanted to put ourselves apart.  We wanted to think of something unique.  We thought that The Birthday Massacre sort of encapsulated kind of track what our whole concept is.  Contrast, you know we try a really pretty atmospheric thing, and the website makes it seem like something creepy going on.  Innocence vs  Adulthood, Dark vs Light, Scary vs Cute.  And so Birthday and Massacre seemed to be opposites, so that’s the concept.  There was some speed metal band with the name Imagica , and they emailed us.  You don’t want to piss off a bunch of speed metalers.  In the end its worked out good. 

Chris-What do you guys do to help spread the word about your music?
Chibi-We’ve always used the internet as best we can.  We have our myspace now.  It seems a lot of bands.  It seems myspace is the place to be so we try to push the myspace .  We have a messageboard that’s active as well.  We try to have a sense of community amongst our audience.

Chris-How do you pick what songs are going to be featured on your myspace?
Chibi-Our manager is like this week we will use this one, and another week we will use this one.  We try to make the default song different just so keep people coming back.  We just released a single and its got  new song and a cover song, so we put the new song on the myspace.  Its all strategic stuff. 

Chris-You have a new EP coming out?
Chibi-Its actually available now.  We have it at the shows.  Its got a bunch of remixes of the song Looking Glass, four remixes, our song Shiver, and a cover of I Think Were Alone Now, (the big 80’s hit)  It also has the video we did of Looking Glass. 

Chris-What was it like working with Dave Ogilvie who’s worked with Skinny Puppy and a bunch of other bands?
Chibi-We approached him about it.  We have always respected the music that he has done and worked with.  I wonder if he would even want to.  He was very enthusiastic.  We just emailed him.  Hes in Vancouver and we’re in Toronto.  He was really excited about it.  He came to us to work with us.  He’s a really nice guy too, and real funny.  We had no idea what to expect.  He’s really good.  I worked really close with him, working on the vocals and stuff.  I always feel kind of doofy, like stupid doing vocals.  Its really embarrassing sort of.

Chris-Do you feel more at home in the studio or live?
Chibi-Oh definitely live.  Because live you can get into it, and sort of feed off the crowd.  I mean its hard to get into it in the studio when your in a glass box with big earphones and music stand.  Its hard to feel awesome when your in there, because I’m very self conscience. 

Chris-How is the song writing process?
Chibi-Rainbow and Mike actually do most of the music.  That’s more of their focus.  I’m more of a lyric person. I’m terrible at writing melodies, just terrible.  They do that, and I work on the lyrics with Rainbow.  We usually do the music first, than have ideas for vocals.  There will be a vocal melody.  We will strip it down.  Ok, here is what I’ve written.  Can we use this thing here, or here? 

Chris-What do you base your lyrics on?
Chibi-Always when we are writing, we never wanted them to come out like a diary.  ‘oh I’m sad and my heart is breaking’  more just not so literal.  We always try to keep that in mind.  Things hopefully people can relate to.  We have some songs where we tell a little story, and that’s like playing a character. 
We are hoping to write on the road, since there are two months, two useable months. 

Chris-What do you guys do for fun while out on the road?
Chibi-Sleep, watch movies, pretty much relax.  Its pretty physically demanding, probably more so than you would think.  I like to read.  ( I read a bunch of different stuff, right now I have Slash’s autobiography, as well as some sort of thriller, horror novels, and than I have The Other Berlin Girl)

Chris-Do you get to hang out with MSI while you are out touring?
Chibi-Yeah yeah.  They are really nice, and really cool.  They kinda remembered us from last time.  They are really good people. At the same time, everyone needs their space.  Its hard to be on all the time.  They are really chilled out.  I know everyone thinks oh they are so crazy,

Chris-What are some of your influences?
Chibi-We will go from Metallica, to Roxxete, or 80’s synth pop to Pantera.  We like so many different things.  Again with the contrast thing, trying to blend the cheesy 80’s synth pop with stuff that’s more darker.  We all listen to completely different styles of music.  I’m really into 80’s pop, some of the guys in the band are really into dark industrial music, indie music, just all kinds.  We all grew up listening to NIN, the Cure, Depeche Mode, Metallica, Pantera, Cyndi Lauper.  We just combine everything and hope it doesn’t sound like crap. 

Chris-What’s the rest of your tour look like?  Where you headed?
Chibi-We are doing a lot in the states, getting into Canada a little bit as well.  We have the Bamboozle festival coming up.  We have done a lot of festivals over in Europe, but I believe this is our first one over here. 

Chris- its been really great talking to you thanks for your time!