THE SOUND BEE HD is a visual kei band signed to the indie label Starwave Records. Their music is described as a fusion of electro and heavy rock with a touch of Japanese aesthetics, and their albums are usually based on themes.
After ex-media youth frontman DAISUKE left the band LOOSAR POP MART FAMILY, he created his own solo project called SOUND BEE in 2000. The name stemmed from a combination of two of his favourite things: “sound”, meaning music, and “bee” because DAISUKE admires the small, but dangerous image bees have. In January 2001 they released their first CD under avex – a maxi-single titled Dol-Bee6. The band's first album BEE CYBORN was released in August 2002.
After this release they concentrated on performing lives, but there is hardly any information about the band's activities during that period. The silence was broken with an announcement about almost all of the members leaving the band around 2007. On October 31st, DAISUKE changed the name of the band to THE SOUND BEE HD and found replacements for the missing members. From then on, the line up was as follows: vocalist DAISUKE, guitarists Tak (Calmando Qual) and YUICHI, bassist YOU and drummer HIRO. Before signing to a new label, they released the single Uchuusen and full album MUTATION.
The band signed to Starwave Records in early 2010, and the very first album they released under the new label was Hachi, the third album in their discography. To promote it, the group participated in a sponsored event at Ikebukuro Black Hole, which took place on April 24th. In June, all of the bands signed to Starwave Records recorded a compilation album to commemorate label's formation. THE SOUND BEE HD contributed the song TRANS-FIXION and also took part in a promotional event at Ikebukuro LIVE INN ROSA.
Their next release, the mini-album Doku, followed very quickly and saw the band start to base each of their albums on a particular theme. Doku was built around the concept of "poison." JIN of auncia participated in the recording process as a guest guitarist and a sponsored event was held at Ikebukuro Black Hole to promote the new release.
Their appearance at Nekocon13 in Virginia, USA was a big step for the band, as they presented themselves to an international audience for the first time. A new mini-album called Hana was released the following year, and was written with the theme of "flowers" in mind. The promotional event took place at Meguro Rockmaykan, but, unfortunately, Hana would turn out to be the last release to feature guitarist YUICHI. After he left in June 2011, the band continued their activities as a quartet.
Their first release with this line up, the mini-album A-De, featured "captivation" as its theme, and a sponsored event in support of it took place at Ikebukuro Black Hole on December 14th.
While searching for a new guitar player DAISUKE had asked Starwave Records owner Kiwamu to find him someone like Kazuha, one of the members of his own band BLOOD. To his surprise, Kazuha himself soon volunteered to become a support member of the THE SOUND BEE HD, and he has even gone on to contribute to the song-writing process.
Unfortunately, in January 2013 guitarist Tak decided to leave the band because it was becoming too difficult to balance activities between THE SOUND BEE HD and his main group, Calmando Qual. A quartet once again, THE SOUND BEE HD returned to the US in February 2013 to perform at Katsucon 19 in Washington D.C. They came prepared with two new EPs to offer the audience: Sou, which had been released the previous summer, and cross, which came out just weeks before their appearance.
In August, due to DAISUKE's friendship with the members of SPEED-iD, THE SOUND BEE HD were invited to take part in the Hope And Live charity event, which brought a number of popular artists together to raise funds for the treatment of people who are HIV-positive. The band’s first best-of album GHOST WORST FOREST was also released on September 18th, and featured reworked, heavier versions of tracks from their previous releases.
So far, 2014 has seen THE SOUND BEE HD perform at another installment of Hope And Live, as well as a number of Starwave Records events. Sadly, it was announced in summer that Kazuha had decided to cease his support work with the band in order to pursue other projects. His last live with THE SOUND BEE HD was on August 27th, and he has since resurfaced as a member of Tokami.
Yuu (ex-SUICIDE ALI, lix) began performing as their support guitarist on September 5th and also helped out with the production for their new mini-album. Something must have clicked during this period, as Yuu joined the band as an official member on October 1st.
A band that continues to evolve both musically and visually with each passing year, with a clear desire to reach out to new fans overseas, THE SOUND BEE HD is definitely a group to keep your eye on in the future.
