fade’s history consists of three stages:
In 1991 drummer rui and guitarist kansei started their music activity in New York. Bassist noriyuki joined them in 1994 and guitarist 5° followed in 1998. The band performed for the first time during the members' holidays in Tokyo. The next year, the musicians moved from New York to the Japanese capital. Eventually in 2001, American Jon Underdown joined them as a vocalist. The band changed their name to fade the following year and soon after, their first self-titled mini-album was released via Tower Records as a premium limited edition, while the official release was in 2003. Tickets to fade’s first live, which took place in 2002 in Shibuya, were sold out within fifteen minutes.
The second stage of the band’s history began in March 2005, when the second mini-album A Moment of Truth was released. The members worked on it in New York together with Markku Lappalainen (ex- Hoobastank) and Erik Gregory (sound technician of Linkin Park). In July their next album, Under the Sun, was released, and one of its songs, Beautiful, was used in the movie “Niji no megami” directed by Shunji Iwai.
In 2007 the band held their promotional tour, titled Decade of Influence, recording their fourth mini-album – To Find a Better Tomorrow - in between shows. The album, mixed by Ted Jensen, who has worked with bands like P.O.D., Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance, was released in August 2008.
fade also took part in some music festivals in Japan and Korea, playing together with well-known Western bands. A year after their previous release, their fifth album Age of Innocence hit the stores. Two of its tracks appeared in TV commercials and the song Reality Lose was used in the music games "Drum Mania" and “Guitar Freak”. In 2010 the band launched their national tour American Made Samurai Japan Tour 2010 and appeared in the large festivals Mega Rocks 2010 and Minami Wheel 2010.
In 2011, their mini-album Kings of Dawn was released and the band toured again. During that time fade’s song, One Reason, was used in the anime series "Deadman Wonderland" and soon after was released as a single. Both of the releases hit the stores on April 27th. In the summer Jon sang together with GACKT in a band called YELLOW FRIED CHICKENz and visited nine countries in Europe.
The third stage of the band’s history started when fade signed to the German label Gan-shin, which decided to release Kings of Dawn as a digital release in Europe. Thanks to that opportunity, the band was able to realize one of their aims: entering the world music market.
