TheNwothm: Greetings Diamonds Hadder! Can you tell our readers about yourself and where your from?

D.H: My name is john evermore. I grew up in New England in a small mill town called Fall River. Ever since I can remember I wanted to sing. It’s been a lifelong pursuit to which I seem to have picked up some other musical skillsets along the way by accident really. And so I created Diamonds Hadder, or rather, my life created Diamonds Hadder and I simply am channeling the things needed to bring it to life. 

TheNwothm: From my understanding Diamonds Hadder is your project, where you sing and play all the instruments? That is quite a talent in itself but how did the idea for the project come about?

D.H: Yes, I play everything. I’m a singer who learned other things along the way. Its been a messy life of defeats and triumphs, but in the end I suppose I suddenly awoke and was able to put it all together. Lots of little brush strokes to create a painting I suppose, I’m just fortunate that I had the colors I needed for this. The idea came from somewhat of a survival mode you could say. It wasn’t really so much planned as it was more of a necessity for me to create it. You see I lived a very seemingly unfulfilled life at one time, and I had just about given up on that kid who dreamed of magical things. Mind you it wasn’t from a lack of trying or a lack of being passionate about things and art in general. Motivation was never a problem for me. I always lived inside a fantasy world of good and evil.

I never grew up. But it took a dark time, filled with serious depression and grief and loss… for me to wake up and look in the mirror at that person who had sold himself out for other things…. It was then that I started having strange dreams that were telling me in some way to create this record. Everything about Diamonds Hadder came from various dreams and visions I was having during this stretch of my life including the name of the project. This is the very short version of this story. Let’s just say there is a real story underlining the breakers record to some degree and that it all came about shortly before a fire burned down a home I lived in. I should add that that story continues today and that the next record is part of this same story. On that note I don’t really consider diamonds hadder to be a music project, more of an alternate universe of my existence. 

TheNwothm: And why the name Diamonds Harder? What does it mean?

D.H: It came from a dream. In time I realized that “Diamonds Hadder” was a person named “Johnathan Hadder”. Shortly after the fire I somewhat became obsessed or possessed… not quite sure what the difference is.. but let’s just say that I started to see visions of a story called diamonds hadder and I started writing a novel about it. Somewhere in the middle of the breakers music and this obsession… things became a little blurry for me. I seemed to be embodying this character and I wasn’t always happy about that, but I did my best to stay the course and keep things fairly sane enough to complete the vision. What does it mean, well, to me it represents that moment of time when I needed to wake up to who I was. It was a word that more importantly carried a message to me from the dream world at a time in my life when I really needed a message. 

TheNwothm: And how would your describe your music to people listening to you for the first time?

D.H: Its kind of like sifting through an old record bin in the “Misc D” row of records at the Heavy Metal imports section hidden away in the corner of the store, and seeing a cover that makes you grab the record and lift it up to flip it over. When you play it at home, the lights start to flicker, and you soon realize this is no ordinary record. It’s possessed and it talks to you… it asks, “Who are you? What are you doing with your life? Do you remember when? You turn off the lights and close your eyes and maybe you start to see things too… as I did. It sounds old, like it’s always been there… marshall amps and a real drum kit… hmm.. orchestrations and classic metal vocals… without glitches and sub bass… without constraints and click tracks… without eq notches and automatic this and thats… it’s real and big at times with delicate moments… small waves and tsunamis as well…Perhaps it inspires you to look at things differently when you wake. To dust off that box you hid under the bed and pull out those wires you had connected before. And maybe… just maybe.. Perhaps Mr Evermore visits you as well while you’re under the spell of the record and you never see things the same again. Who knows.

TheNwothm: What can you tell us about your live band and how you came to work with each of them?

D.H: There is no live band at the moment. I plan on assembling one for a tour next year, but for the time being…  it’s just me, Mr Evermore, Johnathan, Ke Ke, Mattix, Klipso, Lord Zabble, Ezra, Slylark and Master Medlin hanging out in the tower building shiny things and drawing diagrams for the “Breakers” tour.

 TheNwothm: Your with No Remorse Records who many of us know, so do you think your partnership has helped you go to greater heights as a musician?

D.H: Yes, I’m with No Remorse. They contacted me out of the blue really. I was planning on pressing vinyl myself so when they reached out and offered to help, it was nice blessing. I see what they’ve built and what they care about and for me, that’s what I care about. Working with good people who are genuine and real is all that matters to me. It’s a long road and I’m looking forward to the partnership. I hope I can help them succeed at whatever they dream of as well and I’m forever grateful they decided to help me. Things can be that simple.

TheNwothm: Let us talk about your music starting with “Evermore.” What can you tell us about that first EP that you released in 2021? 

D.H: The first EP really wasn’t a release, it was me writing the breakers record and some things leaked out into the world during the long process of this record. Some of those songs were songs never really meant for release, as the breakers record was really whittled down from about 12 songs or so. Maybe Mr. Evermore was cooped up a little to long and maybe he just wanted out with some of his early friends. My intension was always to release a full record as it was done in the past. 

TheNwothm: And now that a few years have past would you go back and change anything?

D.H: Dear lord, what a heavy question. Would we change anything in life my friend? No. There is nothing to change. We are what we are and we’ve done all we could with what we had when we had it. Looking forward to today and the next record. 

TheNwothm:  And can you tell our readers a bit about yourself? Were you born in LA and did the scene for instance help you to find yourself as a musician?

D.H: I was born in new England. My dad worked in a textile mill and my family life was shattered when I was 6. I dreamed of being a singer from my earliest memories but my life was a mess and I didn’t really have the support for dreaming, and so I dreamed when I could on my own and muscled my way along as a singer. I had no formal training when I was young and to be honest, I wasn’t any good. My first high school singer gig was bad, kind of like the first time you go to a gym, I just needed a lot of time to learn how to sing. And so journey started… the first years were rough as I was just a punk form New England who maybe had some promise because I fortunately had a full tenor voice inside of me, but unfortunately I hadn’t a clue how to control it.

So I started with opera lesson and sang for a local band for about 8 years.. I wasn’t that good but quietly and secretly… my vocal cords were finally developing, rather inconspicuously I might say. I practiced a lot for years but to only very incremental gains… years came and went as I arrived in Los Angeles, leaving my band and friends and family behind…  defeated and depleted of old passions. I changed my voice style and vocal approach several times, reaching for new ideas and new ways of finding who the fuck I was as a singer and song writer. There were amazing times and dark times in LA. I toured the world doing other things, signed some record deals and crashed some cars along the way, even retreated to new England only to do it all over again. All the while my voice was quietly growing stronger. It happens so slowly that you don’t even notice, that’s life I suppose.

One day I awoke in house in the hills of Malibu, about 2000 feet above the pacific, in a small rustic A frame dwelling, overwhelmed with depression and the feeling that I failed at my childhood dreams. I felt dead inside. That’s when the dreams started. In my life, it was time, time is what I needed. Not some place or magic thing. No book, no teacher, no promises, or entitlement to succeed. Did the “scene” help me find myself as a musician? I was never scene material. I know nothing about scenes as I could care less about any of that, but I was visited in a dream one night on that hill by some version of myself and I think he was sent to wake me up from my long sleep. As awake as I am now, I would hardly label myself as “Found” or attribute anything other than the persistence of time and effort as the reason for inevitable growth as an artist. This is just another chapter in a long story of me as a singer and songwriter. The breakers record is really just something I wish I had the skill and know how to make long ago, but for some reason decided only by the fates and time,  I didn’t until now.

TheNwothm: What have you got on your playlist right now and is it shaping future music?

D.H: My playlists consist of old heavy metal, some opera and classical music. I love old sounds and old music and I think yes, that does shape my music. I sometimes listen to Gary Clack JR and Aaron Jones as well as I like blues guitar and vocals as well. I know nothing about modern heavy metal music as I fell asleep under a tree for many years. As far as the future goes though, I have no desire to make diamonds hadder sound any different than it does. I’ve hardly scratched the surface of diamonds hadder and I’m looking forward to continuing the breakers story on the next record in the same style and sound. 

TheNwothm: Since your initial EP you have released a load of singles so out of all of those do you have any favourites or ones which are close to your heart for instance?

D.H: Aside from the leaked EP, I had a few singles I did with a friend here in LA. I was running ads and auditioning musicians for Diamonds Hadder at a famous rehearsal lock-up facility here in LA and this guy by the name of Scott Ramsey sent me some songs he recorded. I liked the songs so much, I asked him if I could sing on them. This was while I was tracking the last few songs on the breakers record. It was kind of unplanned and a happy accident really, I tracked vocals and keyboards on these three songs, each taking about 4 days or so to complete and we sent them adrift on soundcloud as DEMO versions without guitar solos (which we did later but haven’t released).

After the third song, I realised that I better get back to the breakers record and focus on completing it, so me and Ramsey just stopped working on that other project. I have other songs from him as well, ready for vocals. I really liked working on his songs as he was an amazing guitarist and songwriter. I actually met him a decade before when I saw his band play on the sunset strip. Great guy and a great guitarist. I enjoyed just singing and adding some brush strokes to his paintings. Perhaps we’ll finish a full record of that material in the future. It’s different from Hadder, modern almost, but somehow the mix of us together seems to work in a dark orchestral doomy kind of way. You can find those tracks out there if you search Ramsey/Evermore. Fun stuff. 

TheNwothm: And had any of the ideas for those songs been sitting around for a while or did they come to you kind of in that moment?

D.H: All of the songs on the breakers record came directly after I had the dream about Mr Evermore. Songs like master of illusion were hardly written, almost more so just played and recorded on the fly. Others like “ballad of the dead Rabbit” were sculpted over time, as needed. They came in this order. Evermore, Master Of illusion, (Ballad of the Dead Rabbit – original DEMO), 200 North, City of Fire, Rivers End, Long is the Road, Ballad of the Dead Rabbit (final re-write)

TheNwothm: Imagery can play an important part for any band or musician so what can you tell us about your image and artworks. What does it mean to you?

D.H: Imagery is important to me. I see things when I write. Words are attached to images for me. Songs are places and things. Images were important to me growing up with records and it carries over with me. I still look at record covers and lose myself in the paintings while listening to the music. Music is one part of it, painting the picture the best we can with all the senses is what I’m striving for, including video if I can. The story of Diamonds Hadder is a world of its own and my goal in time is to bring it to life the best I can visually and musically.

TheNwothm: Last year you put your out your first full length album “Beyond The Breakers.” Can you tell our readers a bit about the writing and recording process and how it differs from what you have written before?

D.H: The breakers record is a classic sounding heavy metal record. It took a long time to finish it. The songs on the record were selected from about 12 songs or so that I recorded for this record. It was recorded over a period of time in my life when I was displaced from a fire that took my home. Because of that, the record was recorded in about 3 different places. It was intentionally recorded in an old school way, simple processing, simple vintage drum recordings, Marshall amps, sure 58 vocal mic, and direct bass input. Standard tuning. Over the years I dabbled in music production and engineering, and it was a very conscience choice to try to avoid all the new music production tools available to some degree.

I went back to my favourite records and thought about how they were recorded. There is a reason why old records sound the way they do and I spent some time thinking about those variables and instrument relationships. Including vocal performances from the past. Vocal timbre, octave positions, guitar and vocal movements and keys. In addition to that, I was also aiming for real authentic “takes” and relationships between the parts inside of these variable constraints, even if they were off time a little. Along the way I realised that I preferred the takes created on the fly and not written ahead of time, as I found those takes to contain the most spark and magic, and so I worked that way when I could. Above all, what I was recording took “all” precedence over how proper I was recording it. In the end, the breakers record started to appear in the speakers. Mostly it sounds the way it does because of what I took away and not what I added. Stripping things down to the essentials suddenly started to ring that sound I love. So how is it different from what I’ve done before? hmmm.. I’ve never done anything before. I was asleep under a tree. 

TheNwothm: Did you write everything yourself or did you have any one else involved in the album?

D.H: “Take this heart I offer it to you, but don’t you stop until it all burns down”

The only person who truly wrote “Beyond the Breakers” was a ghost that came to me in a dream just before my home burned down. My voice and fingers may have played the notes on the record and my fingers nay have scribbled the words, but it was him, Mr Evermore, who has been steering the Diamonds Hadder ship from day one, I simply listen to his whispers.

TheNwothm: So thinking to live shows what have you got planned?

D.H: I’m hoping for a tour next year. I’ve been offered some festival shows and a small tour but logistically, it really just hasn’t come together. If it happens great, if it doesn’t, I’ll just be working on the next record and making music videos until the time comes when it makes sense to pull that trigger.

TheNwothm: Where can fans buy your music and merch?

D.H: Vinyl and CD can be purchased through

No Remorse website: https://noremorse.gr/el/products/diamonds-hadder-beyond-breakers-cd

The digital release of the record is available in the iTunes store. 

Free Mp3’s are available on the official Diamonds Hadder website.

Merch is available there as well, including t-shirt designs. 

www.diamondshadder.com

Google will kindly direct you to anything you need Diamonds Hadder related.

TheNwothm: Anything else you would like to mention?

D.H: Just a thank you. I appreciate the interview and your efforts to bring new heavy metal music to the world. It’s great to see all the new music you share and I’m a fan of your channel.

Thanks for all the support.