Dope Stars Inc.

Dope Stars Inc. are an industrial rock band from Italy, founded in Spring 2003 by Victor Love, Darin Yevonde, Grace Khold and Brian Wolfram. They capitalized on cyberpunk imagery in their songs and appearance.
Origins
Dope Stars Inc. was formed on May 8, 2003. The band began with the line-up of Victor Love (vocals, guitars, synthesizers, drum machine), Darin Yevonde (bass), Grace Khold (designer, live keyboards) and Brian Wolfram (guitar).
10.000 Watts of Artificial Pleasures EP
Dope Stars Inc. began working on their debut EP on May 8th, 2003. The EP was produced and recorded by Victor, and is currently out of print due to the fact most of the songs were re-recorded for their debut album, ://Neuromance.
The band recorded a video for their song "I'm Overdriven" in 2004.
://Neuromance & Make A Star EP
Dope Stars Inc. signed a deal with the German label Trisol, and started production of their first full-length release. Also in February, Brian Wolfram left the band and was replaced by Alex Vega, who previously was the guitarist for Klimt 1918.
In April, it was announced that Thomas Rainer of L'Âme Immortelle, would produce three tracks on the new album. It was announced as well that John Fryer would act as a producer on the new album. The name of the album was then changed to ://Neuromance in June 2005. ://Neuromance is a reference to the William Gibson novel Neuromancer. William Gibson is credited with establishing the cyberpunk culture. ://Neuromance was released on August 22, 2005.
Throughout 2006, the band continued working on new material, and on August 4, they released the Make a Star EP. The EP featured four new songs produced by Victor Love himself and a new rearranged version of "Make a Star", again produced by Thomas Rainer.
During Summer 2006, La Nuit joined the band as guitarist for the live line-up, allowing Victor to perform just the vocals on the live set. In the same summer, the band played at Wave Gotik Treffen, Amphi Festival & M'era Luna Festival.
Gigahearts
After a full year of touring, Dope Stars Inc. entered Subsound Studio to record a new full-length album between July and September 2006. Gigahearts was released December 5, 2006, right after a tour of 11 dates in Germany supporting ASP. Back from the tour, because of personal reasons, Grace Khold left Dope Stars Inc. during Winter 2006. In the same period guitarist La Nuit joined the band as a full-time member. The band continued as a quartet, with Victor Love taking care of composition, performing and programming of all synthesizers as he has done since the band's foundation.
In December 2006, Dope Stars Inc. was featured on the cover of Orkus Magazine.
On January 27, 2007, Dope Stars Inc. performed at the premiere of Saw III with the director Darren Lynn Bousman in Munich. A new song titled "Getting Closer", inspired by the movie, was released on the European version of the . In early 2007, Noras Blake joined the live line-up of Dope Stars Inc. to take care of synthesizers for their upcoming shows in Germany, as well as the appearance at Wave Gotik Treffen 2007.
Current events
Dope Stars Inc. has finished their 2007 German tour with the Finnish band Entwine and with second performance at the Wave Gotik Treffen. They performed during the summer in Barcelona, Spain, at the Summer Darkness Festival in Utrecht, Netherlands and the Infest Festival in Bradford, UK.
In early October, Alex Vega decided to leave the band for personal reasons. Since then, the band has stayed as a trio with Victor performing vocals and guitars on the live set. A few weeks later, the band jumped on tour supporting London After Midnight and Kirlian Camera from October 27th to November 8th around Germany, France, Belgium and Austria.
Dope Stars Inc. appears on the official soundtrack of horror movie SAW 4 with the song "Beatcrusher" from the Gigahearts album.
On December 22nd, the band performed in Italy at the Tempo Rock for the 2nd edition of the Dark Fest.
Dope Stars Inc. also performed at the On a Dark Winter Night festival, together with Nightwish,Amorphis, Blind, Jesus on Extasy, Tarot and Van Canto in Salzburg Arena (Austria - Dec. 28th) and Oberhausen König-Pilsener Arena (Germany - Dec. 29th).
In February 2008, the band confirmed on their website that they'll perform 2 shows in Finland on the 19th and 20th of April (Helsinki, Tampere) and 2 shows in Russia on the 25th and 26th of April (St. Petersburg, Moscow)
Ash Rexy from the Industrial band Erotic Juliet later joined the band taking care of the electronics live. "is with a lot of joy that we announce that ASH will be on stage, taking care of the electronics, with our friends Dope Stars Inc. for their latest concerts this year in Italy, Austria and Germany, headlining the DarkFest Festival and as an open act for Nightwish"
December 22 - Gualtieri (RE) - Italy - Headlining at the DarkFest
December 28 - Salzburg - Austria - Open act for Nightwish
December 29 - Oberhausen - Germany - Open act for Nightwish
Band members
Current members
* Victor Love - Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Drum Machine, Producer (2003-Present)
* La Nuit - Guitar (2007-Present)
* Darin Yevonde - Bass (2003-Present)
Past members
* Alex Vega - Guitar (2005, 2007)
* Grace Khold - Designer, Live Keyboards (2003-2006)
* Brian Wolfram - Guitar (2003-2005)
Discography
Studio albums
* ://Neuromance (2005)
* Gigahearts (2006)
* Third studio album (2009)
EPs
* 10.000 Watts of Artificial Pleasures (2003)
* Make a Star (2006)
* Criminal Intents / Morning Star: Double Feature EP (2009)

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