DreadCircus is the musical vehicle from Australian transgender singer / songwriter Jade Starr. Born a male in 1972, Jade has performed with many bands throughout Australia including Despised, Filth, U-10 Cells , FMC (Filthy Maggoty Cunt) , Malmahydrogen, Peppertoe and Running with Scissors. In the mid 90's DreadCircus began as an acoustic project fro Jade to express her female side after years of hiding it away. In 2002 the first DreadCircus CD "Word & Music" was released as a solo acoustic album. Shortly after in 2003 Jade released her 2nd recording which was an EP titled "DC". She enlisted a backing band from Japan & Thailand and began to perform shows in her home town of Melbourne as a woman. The same year Jade began her transition before moving to Sydney in 2004 where she took a 2 year break from performing to write material for a new CD. In 2006 Jade totally reinvented her self with the EP "Transition". This was another solo acoustic album with demo tracks for her next CD. After a successful tour of Australia Jade enlisted a new all girl lesbian backing band for the next CD "Gender Optimized 2.0". By December 2007 the "Gender Optimized 2.0" CD was released and the band set off on tour with Japanese Trans rockabilly band IKOCHI. Successful shows around Australia and Jade decided to take a break away from music and the current line up dissolved. Jade then came back performing solo events and doing drag king performances in Sydney and Melbourne before putting together the ambitious production of her life story to music. From Metal to Maternal was Jade's autobiographical rock cabaret show which toured all over the Australian festival circuit of 2009/2010. The performance has just been released as a special edition website containing audio, video and dialog from the unique performances which were confronting to both Jade and her audiences due to the pure raw honesty in her story. Currently Jade is recording her 5th studio album with the working title "gOS 3.0" due for release by the end of 2010. From the demo tracks listed on her website it's shaping up to be her most diverse and unique recordings to date. Heavily influenced by bands like Mr Bungle, Slayer, Bjork, Muse and Gotye it should be quite an interesting release. Stay tuned for the next incarnation of Gender Optimized Rocker Jade Starr's DreadCircus.