I actually learned about this band through a funny story a guy at my old workplace told me. He was a super cool guy who was into some really good music, and he loved collecting movies. While I never met his daughter, he talked about her a lot and she sounded like a pretty cool kid. One day, he told me that she’d found a new band and she wanted a CD. So, off they went to the music store. He asked her what the bands name was, so he could ask if they had anything. He ended up asking the guy at the counter if they had anything by “The Birthday Mascara.” He said the guy looked at him funny for a minute, until they all came to the realization that his daughter had misread “massacre” as “mascara!” I had a good laugh when he told me, and thus, I learned of the existence of The Birthday Massacre!
I looked them up and was extremely happy to learn that not only are they Canadian, but they’re from Toronto, Ontario! I gave them a listen and instantly liked what I heard, and I’ve been a fan ever since.
Some History
The group is originally from London, Ontario. They formed in 1999 under the name “Imagica.” They decided to go the route of using nicknames/pseudonyms instead of their real names. Current members include:
- Chibi – lead vocals, lyricist, writer (1999–present)
- Rainbow – rhythm guitar, audio engineer, mixer, producer, drum programming, backing vocals, lyricist (1999–present)
- Falcore – lead guitar, audio engineer, mixer, producer, film director, lyricist (1999–present)
- Rhim – drums, sound designer, actor (2003–present)
- Owen – keyboards/keytar, web designer, comic book artist (2004–present)
- Nate Manor – bass (2010–present)
Photo by Chris Sanderson, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License
The band originally sparked when Rainbow met Chibi while they were studying the same thing at the same school. Eventually they recruited friends and met some other people, and a group started to come together.
Along with their music the band is very much into the imagery aspect. They have described themselves as an “audio-visual” project, liking to incorporate other forms of art into their act.
They have also said that they’ve chosen violet as their “colour theme” so to speak. This is not something I’ve ever heard of a band doing, and I think it’s pretty cool. Band member Rainbow has been quoted as saying
- “Violet is the color of the tragic comedy. We associate it with fantasy and melancholy. These themes make up much of the band’s lyrical inspiration. The color also mirrors our sound dynamic. Our music mixes contrasting elements. In turn, violet is the sum of two contrasting colors: Red and Blue.”
This is honestly one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard. I’m really big on imagery myself, especially when there’s a dark or creepy theme. I find this element of the band to be utterly fascinating, and you really can see this reflected in both their sound and the lyrics.
The band has associated themselves with both Vampirefreaks.com and Rue Morgue, which also makes me pretty happy. Their profile on Vampire Freaks ranked as number one for the most listeners for many years, and they once made an instrumental track titled “Night Shift” available at Rue Morgue as a free download. Vampirefreaks is basically a Facebook for people who would consider themselves “different” or, as the name implies, freaks. It’s full of goths, metal heads, and people who are heavily into the vampire culture. As someone who loves anything dark and is an avid heavy metal lover, vampirefreaks is a really cool community for me, and one I spent a lot of time on in high school. Along with this, Rue Morgue is probably my favourite magazine. It focuses on horror movies, and the horror culture in general.
A Dark and Captivating Sound
Their sound is a hard one to describe. They’ve been described as new-wave rock, as well as electronic/synth rock. I think they’re a bit of a combination of the two. The songs are fast-paced, sometimes aggressive, and always thrumming with a beautiful beat. This is complimented by lighter electronic tones, and sometimes much, much darker elements. The female singer on lead vocals, really seals the deal here. Her voice is delicate and light, almost airy at times, and absolutely beautiful. And yet, she can make herself sound downright creepy when she wants to, and it’s awesome.
Their lyrics are also difficult to put into words. They are poetic and often rather cryptic, which really works for them. The words they use are often laced with elements of fantasy, and often take on a very dark undertone and tell a bit of a tragic story; which is an interesting contrast to the more lighthearted electronic parts of the music. And if the above quote from one of bands founding members is anything to go by, this is their exact intention.
An Established Look
Their look is not only very established, but is very unique to them. They have a very obvious recurring theme: dark. Dark hair, dark makeup and dark clothing – and it suits them wonderfully. I personally love it when a band has an image to go with their music. It just adds to everything. It adds to the band as a whole, and it adds depth to the music.
They really weren’t kidding when they said they’d chosen violet as “their colour.” It is very present in not only photos of the band themselves, but in album covers and related artwork as well. Do a simple Google image search of the band name, and you’ll be overwhelmed with violet themed images. It’s really quite amazing if you ask me, that they’ve so successfully incorporated something they’re so fascinated by like this.
To me, their “look” kind of says “haunted and abandoned circus/theme park”
Maybe it’s just me, and maybe it was only for a period of time, or a particular series of photo shoots, but that’s the vibe I tend to get, and I LOVE it – and it seriously suits their musical style as well; dark, unique, and completely enthralling.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, this band can be summed up in one word: FASCINATING!
They are so unique, so interesting, and so talented and good at what they do. Their look compliments their sound and vice versa. They really, truly satisfy my never-ending and often all consuming appetite for all things dark.
Discography
- Nothing and Nowhere (2002)
- Violet (2004)
- Walking with Strangers (2007)
- Pins and Needles (2010)
- Imaginary Monsters (2011)
- Hide and Seek (2012)
- Superstition (2014)
I have never heard of this band. Have they ever been to the states? I love their color theme because, well, my favorite color is violet. I am not really into heavy metal, but this band sounds very interesting so I may look into them anyway. I am also interested into looking into Rue Morgue magazine because I love horror films, I mean real horror films not the ones that are suppose to be scary but are not at all scary.
This band definitely has a dark look and a dark theme, but they are far from heavy metal! They have toured in the states before, at least once in support of an album. They’ve been overseas too, all over the place. For a Canadian band, they’ve done really well! And yeah Rue Morgue is super cool, I do suggest checking it out 🙂