Cinema Bizarre (GER)
Cinema Bizarre is a young, german Rock/ Pop band that stands for a creative and strange but actually popular manga style combined with great pop/ rockmusic that adresses most of all female teenagers. Their first single, "Lovesongs (they kill me)" hit the german charts and they have a strong fanbase after just a few weeks released.
“With our sound and show we want to offer people something unique! As a band, we combine so many different elements. For us, music means: There are no limits to the imagination.” (Strify)
It doesn’t happen very often that a band that doesn’t have a release out is able to generate as much speculation and as many rumors only through blogs, a few Internet websites and by word of mouth, triggering such praise-filled entries from fans, as Cinema Bizarre has been able to in past months. Hardly any information about the recording of their debut album leaked out. Only through a few short clips were the fans in the forums and communities able to learn a little bit more about the band, but nevertheless everything continued to remain very mysterious and many questions continued to remain unanswered – which, however, didn’t set any limits to how fascinating they had become. But that is only one reason why Cinema Bizarre is one of the most exciting newcomers of the year… On their debut album, they combine elements from pop, rock, new wave / new romantic and electro, coining their own sound which captivates both mind and body. With powerful, atmospherically charged songs, Cinema Bizarre creates small, big hymns, lifting pop songs onto a new level. The debut single “Love Songs (They Kill Me)” is more than just a foretaste of the upcoming album – Cinema Bizarre is interested in bringing the glam back to the pop world and wants to offer great cinema to their friends: “Our sound and our show stand for major fireworks – musically and emotionally. We want to captivate people and carry them off to another world with our songs, a world in which there are no rules, no restrictions. Everything else would actually be boring,” says lead vocalist Strify.
Everything started with Japanese youth culture’s “visual Kei” scene, which since it came into being in Japan in the ’80s has – largely via Internet – spread to the rest of the world. “It is about individuality, self-realization, rebellion. In Japan, it is a way for the youth to show that they won’t let themselves be repressed. We incorporate many elements from the visual Kei scene and turn them into a part of Cinema Bizarre,” says lead vocalist Strify and bassist Kiro adds: “For many years now, each one of us has been fascinated with visual Kei and it has become a part of each of us – together as a band we take it a step further and make something that is particular to us out of it.” Strify, Kiro, Shin, Yu and Luminor – all between 17 and 22 years of age – met in 2005 at the “Animagic,” the famous Manga / Anime convention, where fans from all over the country met who were into Japanese comics and the music scene.
The chemistry between the five guys, who had also already previously made music in various other projects, was right immediately and the idea of making music together was born. “We just started doing it. As a band, we have an energy that is very particular to us,” says guitarist Yu and Kiro adds: “It did have something like fate to it. We were supposed to meet…” The band name Cinema Bizarre stands for their individual look, their bombastic stage show and is also an allusion to the movie house film series of the same name (sci-fi, thriller, horror – every genre was represented), which in the ’70s and ’80s found its fan following outside of mainstream cinema and continues to have cult status today: “The films – like, for example, ‘Psycho’ – all had one thing in common: They were different from everything else playing in the cinema at the time. Bizarre, weird, original and free of standards. That’s who we are, that’s Cinema Bizarre!” says the second lead vocalist and keyboardist Luminor and Strify adds: “We are all big film fans and also let that influence our music. Whether it’s a quote from a film that we inserted into the text or a sample – it is also a homage, but in principle we musically continue what cinema sets out to do: to offer people something they haven’t seen before!”
It did not take long for Cinema Bizarre to make its first contacts and to in record time obtain a record contract. “For us, it was like someone fired a starting shot. Now we could work on an album that would blow the world away! That could only be experienced as different, great – as intoxicating! Simply Cinema Bizarre!” is how Strify describes the beginnings of the creative process.
Malcolm McLaren, “the inventor of punk” and manager of the Sex Pistols, as well as long-time business partner of designer queen Vivienne Westwood, contacted them from England and enthusiastically offered to write a song for Cinema Bizarre. He had also learned of Cinema Bizarre via the Internet and immediately reached for the phone. In spring 2007, Cinema Bizarre started work on the first recordings for their debut album and went into the studio in cities including Berlin, London, Copenhagen and Stockholm. “It was very important to us to intensively work with the producers and to hone the songs together as a team. For us it was about working with people who did not want to change us, but who had really understood our vision and what made the band special,” says Kiro and Yu adds: “We each have our own musical preferences and tastes. Whether it’s rock, pop or new wave, J rock (Japan rock) and glam rock – we combine various elements to create our sound. Everyone was able to intensively contribute.” Their sound is unique, doesn’t fit in any category and already has a name in Web forums: i-Pop! “We are of course proud that we have generated a new word, yes actually a type of new genre, which also perfectly describes us. But the most important thing for us is that people love the songs as much as we do!”
With their unusual charisma and presence, an irresistible mixture of sounds that one can no longer get off one’s mind and the glam-charged aspiration to fascinate the world with great cinema, Cinema Bizarre presents a debut album, which one can undoubtedly count among this year’s musical highlights. Complex and dazzling, emotional and glamorous, insistent and thrilling – it is always exactly when you think you can finally put them into words that Cinema Bizarre continues to surprise you with something else. Strify isn’t any less mysterious when he explains why that is: “The game with the imagination, with semblance, with the look – perhaps we want to be provocative… but perhaps we also just want to play.”
Members
Kiro,
Bass (* 11.
January 1988 in
Birkenfeld)Luminor, Gesang, Keyboard (* 22. March 1985 in Neunkirchen (Saar))
Shin, Schlagzeug (* 12. December 1989 in Berlin)
Strify, Leadgesang (* 20. August 1988 in Villingen-Schwenningen)
Yu, Gitarrist (* 29. December 1988 in Sulingen, real name: Hannes de Buhr)
Releases
Album12.10.2007 "Final Attraction"
Single
2007 "Lovesongs (they kill me)"
Official website: http://www.cinema-bizarre.de
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