Cinema Bizarre

All Music Guide:

With a sound that mixes glam, goth, and new wave -- plus the haircuts to match -- Germany's Cinema Bizarre came on the scene in 2007 with the plaintive hit "Lovesongs (They Kill Me)." Bandmembers Kiro, Strify, and Yu originally met in 2005 at the anime convention Animagic, held annually in Berlin. They were all musicians, so forming a band seemed the natural thing to do. They became Cinema Bizarre by adding members Luminor and Shin and adopting an edgy, gothic look that was inspired by the flamboyant Visual Kei scene in Japan. Their debut album, Final Attraction, was released in October of 2007 on the Island label.

Wikipedia:

Cinema Bizarre was a glam rock band from Berlin. They released their debut album in 2007. Their manager is Lacrimosa singer and songwriter Tilo Wolff. In January 2010, the band announced that they were taking a break.

Members

History

Their first single CD "Lovesongs (They Kill Me)" was released on September 14, 2007, two weeks after their first live performance in the German music show The Dome. The Norddeutscher Rundfunk (north German television broadcast) nominated the band for the national final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, but Cinema Bizarre did not manage to impress the audience. No Angels and Carolin Fortenbacher, made it into the second election round of the final.

They released their first studio album, Final Attraction, in 2007. This is the only album to feature keyboardist and backing vocalist Luminor. Three singles were released from the album: Lovesongs (They Kill Me), Escape To The Stars, and Forever Or Never.

On March 28, 2008, they began their first tour throughout Europe. In September, 2008, Luminor took a break from going on tour with the band. It was announced that his health was poor and he needed time off in order to get better. While he was on break, Yu's close friend traveled and played with the band.

On November 1, 2008, a trailer was released which stated the name of Cinema Bizarre's upcoming album to be Toyz.

Initially, the first single from their new album was to be "My Obsession", a song Strify described to be a 'powerful ballad'. However, the single was leaked, and thus was pulled off the Internet. The album release date was also pushed back from May to August 21. "My Obsession", although it already had cover art, was not released. The band released a message on their official YouTube account expressing their disappointment, and that they would change the single. On their official website, they announced that their American album was going to be titled "Bang!". The first single from the albums "ToyZ" and "BANG!" was "I Came 2 Party", a duet with Space Cowboy (musician).

"My Obession" was chosen to be the second single from "Toyz" and "BANG!" and was accompanied by two different versions of the music video.

On January 21, 2010, the band announced via MySpace that they were taking a break, as they felt that it was "time to start something new."

Strify started going by his full name, Jack Strify, and released a new version of their song "Blasphemy" as a featured artist with French DJ Junior Caldera in June 2011. He later announced that he would be releasing a solo album by the end of 2011.

On November 11st, 2011 Yu Phoenix (Guitarist) released a new single on iTunes named "Moonflower" which features J'Lostein.

Luminor's departure

From September onwards, Luminor had been absent at a few concerts and Yu's closest friend temporarily helped out in Luminor's place. On November 27, 2008, Luminor announced on his MySpace profile that he had to leave Cinema Bizarre. He said this departure was due to health issues and unresolvable inner conflicts. In his statement, he briefly said that his condition had worsened, he was not able to continue participating in the band, and it was a private issue. Luminor is gone and not much is known of Romeo but surely there will be some info on him.