VELVET EDEN was created in November 1998. The band started as the duo Dada and Kalm, with Dada on vocals and Kalm on keyboards and programming. He was also the composer of their songs.
On November 14, they had their first concert at the Shibuya On Air West Event Tokyo Chikashitsu. In March 1999, the duo started their own label called Arachne (spider) on which they released their first demo-tape Street of Alice in the same month. It contained four songs and there were only 1,500 copies released. The band performed at a few events over the next few months and on July 24th, they released their second demo-tape Madame Tarantula.
VELVET EDEN continued to perform at several events, and on October 31st, they participated in an event called Yaneura dai Circus. Dada participated in this not only as the vocalist of VELVET EDEN, but in a side-project called Mononoke unit. Other members of that band were Ao of cali≠gari, Ya-su from Yafoo! and Onan Spelmermaid.
In December, the band moved to the Castle Records label, soon thereafter released their first mini-album called Ningyou Shoukan. The following year in March, they released their first videotape called Sad Mask. It contained videos of several songs from the Ningyou Shoukan mini-album, the upcoming Street of Alice mini-album, as well as new songs.
On March 27, Kalm decided to leave the band. Despite his absence, the mini-album Street of Alice was still released on schedule in May. Just like on Ningyou shoukan, Kalm wrote all the music on this mini-album and Dada wrote all the lyrics.
That spring, Dada recruited new members, choosing Masahiro on guitar, R.Y.O on bass, Abexx on drums, and Hora on keyboard. In the following months they performed heavily, and by the fall they released the single Sute Neko. With the newer members writing the music, the difference in sound was apparent on this release. With this single, VELVET EDEN sounded like a rock band and from this moment their sound continued to change from electronic, dark-wave to rock.
In December, VELVET EDEN changed back to their own label, Arachne, before releasing the demo tape Kumo Onna. On December 20, Abexx and R.Y.O left the band and Hibiki and Ren joined as the new bassist and drummer.
The year 2001 saw a number of changes. In early Spring, Hora left the band. Shortly after Hibiki and Ren, who had been support members, became full members and used the occasion to change their names to MiMi and LEM. Around the same time, Masahiro also changed his name and now called himself BERA. In May they released Opera-za no Kaijin, but few lives followed and they soon fell quiet.
It wasn't until January 2002 that they resurfaced, and the band had a three-demo tape campaign through March. One day, however, Dada failed to show up for one of their live performances, which forced the other members to sing in his place. This was considered as the break -up of VELVET EDEN, although there was never an official statement.
Several of the members of VELVET EDEN continued on to new music ventures. Hora started the electronic duo Schwarz Stein, which disbanded after a short but very successful career, and then began a solo project. Bera, Mimi and Lem formed the band THE VELVET but soon lost their vocalist, leaving Mimi to take over. Dada became a model for the fashion label Arachnophobia and produced illustrations and artwork for DIR EN GREY, but then faded from view.
In May 2010, however, he made a surprise comeback with new band members, an official MySpace and brand new songs, which signaled a return to VELVET EDEN's original dark-wave sound. The first concert with the new line-up, consisting of Dada on vocals, violinist and composer Aci (THE ROYAL DEAD), as well as dancers Lilly and Yurikago, took place in July at the well-known goth event Tokyo Dark Castle. Having published a number of new songs and videos on their MySpace, VELVET EDEN embarked in October on their first international tour to Russia, where they played six concerts together with local band Jack Riot.
The new year began with a member change as Yurikago left the band to start a career as vocalist and was replaced by Ceeei. In February 2011, Dada announced that the PV collection Sad Mask, which had originally been released in 2000 on VHS, would be re-released on DVD, but didn’t specify a release date. In March, VELVET EDEN published their eagerly awaited first mini album with the new line-up, Witch on Flames, on Dada's newly created music label, Panther Pink. The album, to which Dada contributed the lyrics as well as the cover artwork, contained three new songs and a PV. In order to promote the CD in Russia, the band recorded a Russian version of their classic song LA FIN, which fans could download from the internet. Panther Pink also began to sign other promising artists, among them the industrial duo Zwecklos and the singer Sarasa (ex Syaranosui).
May saw the release of the song Street of Alice 2.0 on a CD compilation of the Russian goth magazine Rock Oracle. Composed by Kalm, the track was a new version of VELVET EDEN's 1999 signature song. This new collaboration with Kalm apparently lead to tensions within the band. Having deleted their official MySpace in April, Dada announced in early May on Facebook that Aci had left the band because he lost confidence in his ability as a composer and that VELVET EDEN will "require extensive surgery."
Since then Dada and his dancers have been continuing on their own. Apart from several live performances, VELVET EDEN also contributed a track to the compilation " NECROMORPHOSIS VOL. 3", which was published in September. In October, VELVET EDEN played their first concert in Shanghai, China, together with GPK. In the same month, they were planning to perform together with Közi, The Candy Spooky Theater and DJ Chihiro at Tokyo Dark Castle in Moscow, Russia, but the event was postponed to May 2012. Tokyo Dark Castle was instead held with the same lineup on 19th November at Shinjuku Marz. December saw the release of the russian version of "LA FIN" on CD as well as a DVD version of the classic PV collection "Sad Mask". Both products were only available in Russia.
Currently Dada is working on new songs and has posted several demo tracks on Youtube, among them his own compositions as well as tracks by Kalm and GPK. Moreover, guitarist Chro joined the band. It seems that fans can look forward to new material soon.
VELVET EDEN makes darkwave electronic music with visual kei aspects. The band is fronted by the eccentric vocalist Dada, who has a lovely, deep voice.
While the band's first run was from 1998 to 2002, VELVET EDEN has since broken their silence and resumed activities, much to the delight of fans.
