Las Vegas screamo-progressive six-piece band Eyes Like Diamonds ended their first ever two-week tour at Jerry’s Pizza on the night of Sept. 18. The band co-headlined with Tragic Hero Records label mates, Lions!Tigers!Bears!
“We did this to get our feet wet with awesome label mates – Lions!Tigers!Bears!” said lead vocalist Diego Perez.
Perez talked about breaking into the music scene and touring.
“It’s actually our first tour as a band, so we haven’t been doing shows up here yet.”
He added, “Bakersfield is brand new to us. Jerry’s Pizza was pretty much [put together] through our booking agent. I’ve actually played The Bakersfield Dome before, in another band [Las Vegas alternative pop rock band Fletch]. Great city, though – I love the crowd response.”
Formed in 2006, Eyes Like Diamonds consists of Perez, guitarists Mason Wright, Aaron Aufman, bassist Tony Pell, keyboardist Danielle Lynn and newly added drummer Matt Marquez. The only members that do not contribute vocals are Marquez and Wright. Wright and Aufman played previously with metalcore Vegas band A Dying Fate.
How the band got their name came from a brainstorming session at a popular restaurant chain.
“It actually came from Tony [Pell]. We were sitting at Denny’s, and we looked up at a jewelry billboard. We actually had a notepad talking about band names. It was catchy.”
Early band member changes, which added vocalist Perez and keyboardist Lynn, changed the band’s sound. As Perez explained, it changed “ten-fold because we’ve been able to open up with each other and sit down and write.”
He added, “When I first came in the band [in 2007], I felt my job as singer was to keep building the fan base they already had and stick to their plan at that time. Then coming into this next record and re-developing.”
On April 30, Eyes Like Diamonds signed with Tragic Hero Records.
When asked of band influences, without hesitation, all of the members agreed on one band: Tampa metalcore/post-hardcore group Underoath.
However, Perez added, “You’ll hear out of our mouths a lot, Linkin Park. I can’t say we always stay mainstream just because it’s that. Some of these bands obviously develop something that is appreciated not by not just one audience but by a lot of audiences. That’s something that this band wants to do later on.”
Bassist Pell talked about the reason for their short two-week tour.
“It’s mainly for exposure since this is our first tour as a band. Reaching out to kids and getting in their face, showing them we can break the table when it comes to live performance because we feel our music is dynamic – you have to feel it and witness it; feel the emotion.”
Perez said about the hardships and positive outcomes of touring, “We enjoy it. Your first tour is going to be your first hard struggle, but it will help the band that much more. We see we can rely on each other. This is our life.”
When asked how their music differs from other bands in their genre of screamo, guitarist Wright responded, “Mainly our music is based on emotion – we write off of feeling. I think that’s what most bands lack, not in a bad way but that’s what we portray with our music.”
Perez added, “We write off pure raw emotion at all points in time. When we get into the studio together and write, I look up and see these guys and see it flowing through them. This is the best example – there is a song called ‘Waves’ on our record that was our new drummer’s fourth or fifth day with us, and we wrote that song in literally four or five minutes, just feeding off each other.”
Perez is confident in the band’s future.
“We’ve always been a band that shoots super high, but we manage to attach a string to our belt. In five years, we will be on big circuit tours and in ten years, we will be headlining big circuit tours and we will make sure of that.”
He said about the band’s motivation, “Right before we went to record with this record was when we all really sat down and got to look in each other’s eyes and realized this is exactly what we need to do for the rest of our lives, because nothing else makes sense at all. That’s the best way to put it.”
In November, Eyes Like Diamonds will tour with Chicago post-hardcore band Rosaline.
“What we want to get out of this next tour is to show the true colors of Eyes Like Diamonds when it comes to our live show and our attitude,” said Perez.
He added, “We’re working out the kinks in our live show at the moment which is sort of why we like to do this small tour and really help us come out with a bang.”
Eyes Like Diamonds’ first full-length album, “Frequencies” is already recorded and due for release early next year according to Perez.
After Eyes Like Diamonds’ first performance at Jerry’s Pizza, Perez talked about the response.
“I had a blast – everyone else seemed to have a blast.”
“Most of the kids actually came up and talked to us before and they said that they came out for us, which was cool, knowing that it was our first time coming into town. I think they enjoyed it.”
“We’ll definitely play here again,” he said.