Interview — Diaries of a Hero

Skratch Magazine

Diaries of a Hero make alternative metal out of London for two years Charlie D (vocals/guitar) John Week (guitar), Matt B (bass) and Leonard Berisha (drums.) Their EP has wrapped and you catch them promoting their efforts at show in London and few in Portugal this Spring are in the works as well. But you don’t have to wait until then to find out what Diaries Of A Hero is all about. Here’s what they had to say to Skratch Magazine.

Skratch: Describe your sound:

DOAH: Metal with strong punk influence, extremely melodic lines. Heavy guitar riffing, fast solos, interesting rhythmic patterns and exploding choruses. Over all a powerful band driven by a powerful rhythm section and melodic singing lines.

Skratch: How did you become interested in music?

DOAH: When we were younger we all started listening to classic rock records such as Led Zeppelin, The Who, Metallica etc…Growing up we individually started developing a deeper musical interest which brought us to move to London to study for a music degree. Although we have been studying music from a more theoretical point of view we never forgot how amazing it feels to play fast and hard! That’s why we formed Diaries of a Hero!

Skratch: What is your songwriting process like?

DOAH: What usually happens is since we basically see our faces every day for 10 hours we end up writing the basics of each song together. Every song on the album started as a jamming session and later developed into a song. So the starting point is usually a guitar riff that either John, Charlie or Matt have written in their own time or an interesting drum line Leonard comes up with. The process gets easier once the bones of the track are down, the lyrics in this album were the last thing to written believe it or not.

Skratch: What artists or musicians inspire you?

DOAH:We are inspired by everything. Metal, Punk, Rock, Death metal, Power European metal, Folk, you name it! Musicians that inspired us are: Zakk Wylde, Dime Bag Darrel, Paul Gilbert, Frank Zappa, The Misfits, Metallica, Avenged Senvenfold, Killswitch Engage and a lot of Scandinavian metal.

Skratch: Where do you take musical inspiration from? Your environment? People? Explain:

DOAH: We take musical inspirations from bands we listen to but mostly from the new bands we discover. We like to stay fresh and see what other bands sound like hoping to develop our sound further. As for the environment, there is a lot going on here since it’s population counts 10.000.000 people. Every band comes by London which gives you the possibility to check out so many bands it’s incredible.

Skratch: What is your musical background?

DOAH: As individuals we all have different musical backgrounds: European metal, 80s Rock, Punk rock, 90’s thrash metal etc...

Skratch: Tell us about how you got started as a band.

DOAH: Diaries of a Hero met and formed in college. It started as an instrumental prog metal band called Godsend. After one year Charlie, John and Leonard were left without a bassist so they asked Guitarist Matt to join as a bass player and so Diaries of a Hero begun.

Skratch: What is the most rewarding part of playing in a band?

DOAH: Being surrounded by good people who share their music, and most times happy to listen to you and appreciate your work. Live shows are the primary reason that keeps us doing what we love. Basically we fuckin love playing METAL!

Skratch: What challenges have you faced as musicians?

DOAH :Getting underpaid of course or even worse, not at all. At the moment the marketing and promotional aspect is the most energy and time consuming as every band at the start. But we feed off every little success, and keep going.

Skratch: What would you say is your best song to date? Why?

DOAH: Broken Tears would be our best song to date. The interesting melodic drum n bass in 7 in the intro sets up the mood for a heavy and nostalgic song. The riffing is powerful and fat! The break down in the middle introduces an unexpected, extremely fast solo section where John and Charlie get to shred at each other’s faces. And of course the ending is instrumental madness.

Skratch: Do you remember the first album you ever bought? What was it?

DOAH: First album ever bought: For Charlie the first album ever bought would be The Black album from Metallica. For John Weeks it would be Cowboys From Hell by Pantera. Leonard Berisha’s first album was Americana by Offspring, Matt’s first album would have to be Slave To The Grind by Skid Row.

Skratch: Where do you see your band in five years?

DOAH: We see our band with a couple more records out, hopefully signed to a major and touring like fuck!

Skratch: Would you say your goals as a band are long term, or short term? What do you ultimately hope to achieve? Explain.

DOAH; We definitely think our goals as a band are long term. If everything turns out like we want it to, this could be a life long project. It is early to say, god knows what life reserves for anyone, but we fuckin love each other like brothers and love playing together. We ultimately hope to play with big acts such as Avenged Sevenfold, Trivium, Killswith Engage etc…hopefully make a proper living out something we love doing. Music!

Skratch: How has your band evolved since when you first formed?

DOAH: What we played in the beginning was a bit more complicated. We had songs that revolved around solos, odd time signatures, 12 different sections in each song and such. We made a decision after Matt joined the band, and that was to write songs from a more “songwriting” point of view, giving more importance to the lyrics for starters and the over all structure of the songs. Basically write music that could make us happy and other people listen to it. We definitely toned down a bit from our usual 8 minute progressive instrumental songs where there was always someone soloing over something or riffs where beat “one” was impossible to find. Basically we are now writing more with our ears than we are with our calculators.

Skratch: How often do you practice? What is your rehearsal time like?

DOAH: We practice every day all day. You can say we actually live from 10 am to 9 pm in rehearsal rooms. So if we are not practicing our chops individually, we are rehearsing with Diaries of a Hero. Or playing pool at the pub across the street.

Skratch; What would you say is your band’s motto? Explain.

DOAH: Our motto is “Make it happen,” “keep it fresh,” “oh my god this is so 2010!” (LOL) and basically like anyone holding a guitar…Let’s Rock! YES! Usually lots of Jager is involved and we get emotional, but we won’t share too much of that.

Skratch: What shows/album releases/plans do you currently have set up? Tell us about them.

DOAH: Currently we are based in London so most of our shows are here. We have a big one coming on the 5th of March at the Purple Turtle in Camden Town, London. We are currently looking to play some festivals in Portugal. We finished our 4 track EP and will finish recording the album in beginning of Feb. The EP will be printed in Jan 2010 and hopefully will be released as soon as possible. We have plans of touring the U.S.A this summer 2010 to take our music where it is more appreciated.

Skratch: Where have you performed? Tell us your experience.

DOAH: We performed in a few venues in London but weren’t very happy about it since the metal scene here is very limited if you are just starting, as opposed to indie rock. So currently we keep gigging as much as possible in the U.K but are planning to move to the U.S.A to have a bigger response.

Skratch: What sets your stage show a part from all the other bands making the rounds at venues?

DOAH: Our performance is as rock n roll as it can be! We start our sets with an extremely fast instrumental song driven by fast screeching solos that set the mood for what’s coming and definitely catches people’s attention.

Skratch: Anything else you think we should know about the band?

DOAH: Diaries of a Hero is looking for a manager or record label. We have an Electronic Press Kit (EPK) that sums all the info you need to know about the band: Bio, songs, photo shoots, contacts etc…

Please get in contact with Diaries of a Hero through www.myspace.com/diariesofahero

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