Chiba-Ken was formed in New York City in 2003 by lead singer George William. The name comes from a town in Tokyo, Japan where George was staying at the time. Upon returning to New York, George, a trained actor and singer who was performing as "Tony" in the Off-Broadway hit "Tony-n-Tina's Wedding" as well as a guest role on "All My Children", met up with drummer Jason D'Amelio and guitarist Elias Tannous, two musicians who had been veterans of the NYC rock circuit as teenagers. The next piece of the puzzle came by way of Kazakhstan, a place made famous recently by the movie "Borat".
Guitarist Julian Petrov, who was born in Kazakhstan, was living in Israel singing and playing guitar in his former band. Julian decided to relocate to America and after auditioning in front of a board of US officials, he was granted an Artists' Visa.
Julian auditioned and was accepted into Chiba-Ken and his first show was opening for none other than Iron Maiden at the Blossom Music Center in Ohio in June of 2008. It was a dream come true for the band and for Julian especially.
Chiba-Ken returned to their studio in Long Island and began writing new music. They recorded their second full length album entitled "Hard To Be Human" with producer Mike Watts (As Tall As Lions). The band relocated to Los Angeles in June of 2009 and after playing the world famous Whisky A Go-Go and Viper Room they quickly gained notoriety as one of the Sunset Strip's best new rock bands. It was there that they met and teamed up with bassist Hal Berkstresser. A Berklee School of Music grad, Hal has been recording and touring since he was 14 years old, and is an exciting new add to the band.

-Chiba-Ken was one of the last bands to play and be signed at the world famous CBGB’s in Manhattan.


Quote from lead singer George William :
"In the 5 years of our existence we have seen members come and go, promises made and broken, been praised and criticized, loved and hated. We've been both victor and victim in our young career, and the experiences encountered so far have been lessons in life that have changed us forever. Not everyone gets the opportunity to be in a band, to live with the other members, to entwine your life with theirs, to put forth your creative ideas and watch as they are stretched, twisted, torn, destroyed, buried, resurrected, destroyed again, and sometimes…used. Not everyone gets the opportunity to ride around the country in a cargo van with no seats, no AC, no GPS, during a summer heat wave with 4 other smelly dudes, only to get to the next bar, next house, or next tent where there might be no people, no sound guy, no PA, or worse yet…no beer. But these are all opportunities. I feel bad for those that will never know the feeling of being onstage and having someone yell at you, spit at you, or throw something at you, because they will also never know the feeling of being onstage and having people sing with you, cheer for you, and applaud for you. We’ve played backyards for 30 people, and music houses for 3,000 people, but every time we step on the stage we’re the same band, playing the same songs for the same reason. We do it, because it’s part of who we are, part of our lives, and part of the world we’re in. Thank God we have such strong support from the family and friends that we have, because to be in a band is like swimming in a shark tank and you need as many life rafts as you can. It’s sink or swim, there’s no rest for us. The second you stop swimming…you sink. We’ve been swimming for 5 years looking for the shoreline. Sometimes you think, maybe we’ll never see it, maybe we’ll never make it there, maybe the sharks will get us. But then you say…fuck it, it’s better to die out here then to never have jumped in the water in the first place."