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 and brand new songs, which signalled a return to VELVET EDEN's original darkwave sound. The first concert with the new lineup, 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 year 2011 began with a member change as Yurikago left the band to start a career as vocalist and was replaced by Ceeei. In February, 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 lineup, 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 compliation by 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. Shortly after its release, Dada announced on his Facebook that Aci had left the band because he had lost confidence in his ability as a composer and that VELVET EDEN would "require extensive surgery".
Following his departure, Dada and his dancers continued on their own. Apart from several live performances, VELVET EDEN 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. In the same month they were planning to perform at Tokyo Dark Castle in Moscow, Russia, but due to organisational problems the event was instead held held 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.
In early 2012, guitarist Chro joined the lineup. VELVET EDEN continued to regularly perform live, amongst others at the Classic Alamode 11 3rd Anniversary in June, an event sponsored by Starwave Records in July, Tokyo Dark Castle~Daylight Nightmare Vol.3 in August and the Darkest Labyrinth event Darkest Fest Vol.3 in September. At Tokyo Dark Castle they sold a remastering version of their 1998 demo tape Madame Tarantula, but Dada also worked on new songs and posted several demo tracks on Youtube, among them his own compositions as well as tracks by Kalm and GPK (GPKISM). On 14th September, he announced on his Facebook that "The clock of VELVET EDEN will stop again in December", leading to speculation that they would once again disband. Shortly after, he revealed that he, Chro and Kalm had formed a new project with shonen ai voice actors Masanori Kobayashi and Yukari Shimotuki on vocals. The project's first song, PLATONIC BLOOD, which was used as theme song for the game of the same name, was released in November. VELVET EDEN's performance at Tokyo Dark Castle~Daylight Nightmare Vol.4 on 22nd December was billed as their last live and a new version of SAD MASK was advertised as their last song.
However, Dada appears to have had a change of heart. On 11th February 2013 he announced that Takmi (REMNANT) had joined VELVET EDEN as new support guitarist while guitarist Chro was now on bass. No new activities have been announced yet, but it seems to be only a question of time.
