Chokesleeper was formed in March 1997 as a cover band of Western artists such as Sublime, 311 and The Suicide Machines. Around that time, the line-up consisted of Toru, Azumi and Kenken who are nowadays still the instrumental core of the band, and two vocalists. Already in April, the quintet started to write their own songs and recorded them. In July, they played their first live in Shibuya, and distributed their first demo-tape.
In 1998, the band released their second demo, this time short one vocalist, but with DJ and saxophone. At the end of December, the second vocalist left Chokesleeper too, and the band began to search for new vocalists to complete the band.
The new line-up, which has stayed the same ever since, was formed in 1999. Shige, a friend of the band members who had been in a metal band, was the first to join in April, and a month later Chu also joined. The first concert with the new line-up was held in June. In August they started to hold events under the name CHOKE SLEEPARTY, to which they invited various bands. Around this time, they distributed another demo-single.
The following year contained more live performances and more CHOKE SLEEPARTY events. They still didn't have any official releases to their name, but they did participate in an omnibus album. In October 2001 they finally released their first single, entitled SWING MY SOUL.
In 2002, the band kept mostly quiet and only performed live once. However, they did contribute one song to the compilation album GREATFUL SOUND ~tribute to "BECK", which was a promotional album based on the manga of the same name. Later, the manga was turned into an anime and because of their contribution to this compilation album, Chokesleeper gained a little more recognition, also with overseas fans of "BECK".
In the following year, their activities started to pick up again. They held various performances and toured with the Japanese hardcore/crossover formation Undown as their opening act, and were also featured as the opening act of US band The Suicide machines. In addition, the year also brought a new release, namely the mini-album Star Of The Day.
All these activities took them to their major debut under the Avex label Cutting Edge in May 2004. They debuted with the single Ground and Sky, and a full album followed in August. In between, they also found some time to tour again. They held two national tours, and also performed with the American punk band No Use for a Name.
2005 brought more performances for the band, and they collaborated with the Konami music video games "GuitarFreaks" and "DrumMania". Not only were they featured on the soundtrack of the game, but they also held a live event called Chokesleeper vs GuitarFreaks Drum Mania in Tokyo. That year also saw the release of another mini-album.
The following year brought more performances for the band, two more mini-albums and again they participated in another Chokesleeper vs GuitarFreaks Drum Mania event.
2007 saw Chokesleeper's newest release to date, their second full album entitled simply Chokesleeper. Since then, the band hasn't released anything new and has been focusing on live performances only. For 2009, they have various performances scheduled and we hope they'll be treating us with some new releases as well.
