Interview with Ben Christo (vocals and guitar) and Adam Hart (bass guitar) from Diamond Black
I first saw DIAMOND BLACK when they were on tour with LORD OF THE LOST in summer 2023, amidst the LORD OF THE LOST fever that appeared to be gripping the nation. The venue - Brudenell Social Club in Leeds - was packed full and the temperature was akin to that of a blast furnace. The anticipation was building so much that the atmosphere was almost electrifying like the moments before a storm… then, the first act, DIAMOND BLACK, appeared on stage. I knew absolutely zero about them, except they were British. There is always that consideration that the support band will be boring and everyone will be just killing time waiting for the main attraction and - oh boy was I wrong! The minute DIAMOND BLACK, fronted by the very charismatic Ben Christo, appeared on stage, they owned it. Ben’s dynamic vocals pierced the room like a cruise missile, accompanied by Adam Hart on bass and Jan-Vincent Velazco (PENDRAGON, GUS G) on drums.
I later discovered that Ben was already known to many of the Goths in the audience as he is also the guitarist with the SISTERS OF MERCY! DIAMOND BLACK played a blinding set with zinging power chords and a resounding bass - their emotionally charged, dark rock anthems - like ‘Through the Misery’ and ‘Ghost in the Glass’ reverberating across the auditorium. By the third song, they had the audience eating out of their hands and singing the chorus. DIAMOND BLACK straddle the border of Dark Rock and Industrial / Goth with a genre fluidity that makes them appeal to a wide audience. Halfway through the show, I turned to my companion and said that I would happily go and watch this band headline their own show. More recently Ben took a break his extensive touring schedule with THE SISTERS OF MERCY to front DIAMOND BLACK at the Antenna Festival in Leeds. Now, the band are just under a week away from touring again - this time with Japanese rockers: ESPRIT D’AIR. I had the pleasure of catching up with Ben and Adam over Zoom to chat about their forthcoming tour, playing to eighteen people in Huddersfield, old British sayings and an axe guitar (no that was not a typo).
Reflections of Darkness [RoD]: Hello, thank you for joining me today. I know that Ben, you have just finished touring with the SISTERS OF MERCY but are you looking forward to fronting your own band again?
Ben: Yeah, yeah, completely - I mean, it’s such a different dynamic - because with the SISTERS stuff, I have less to do for the band on the show day itself other than just playing, whereas with DIAMOND BLACK, there’s so much for us to do all the time, in terms of every aspect of the day… that could be logistics or sorting arranging PR, or merch. Or we might be looking for opportunities. We are always thinking, “Right, what can we do to promote the band or whatever, in some way?” So, it’s a very different dynamic. There is a recent quote that I think is quite fitting in this, which is: “Happiness is not mostly pleasure, it’s mostly victory.” So, the feeling that we get when we go on stage and do a great show, is so meaningful, because of everything we… the three of us, have done to get that happening that night - whether that be the T-shirt designs… or the song writing… or figuring out how we are gonna get the stuff in the van, or whatever it was - it’s happening because we’ve worked together on it. I think that’s a really amazing feeling and that’s something I’m really looking forward to. I do feel quite nervous about the tour because of the amount of work and the curveballs and things that are gonna come up that we have to deal with. I think what I’m looking forward to the most is maybe that point halfway through - where we’ve got a really good vibe going and we feel confident that we know how we’re doing it - and then there’s still loads of shows to go, so it’s not like the end!
RoD: Yes, because it’s about twenty dates your tour isn’t it?
Ben: Yeah, it’s pretty extensive and it’s a real privilege for a band like us - that are still relatively new - to be going out and playing to these captive audiences. We feel there’s potential for a lot of these people to become fans, too! We saw on the last tour that we did with ESPRIT (D’AIR) that we picked up a lot of new fans, because there is enough cross-over that we appealed to them, but also, we were different so they didn’t just feel like a copy-cat band or whatever. It’s something that is very different but in the same universe of what they’re in to.
RoD: So, you must be hitting the rehearsal room really hard from now until then?
Ben: Actually, we found that whether it’s just that we are really confident in what we are doing or whether it’s because we are experienced as musicians over the last… thousand years, that rehearsals for us are… more like if we want to change things up or if we specifically want to do things different. Usually, we’ll just have a run through - a rehearsal or two before (the tour). This particular rehearsal that we’ve got coming up, is based around that we’re upping the technology. We’re gonna use in-ear monitors for the first time in this band - which is going to give us a lot more freedom, a lot more accuracy and is going to look after our voices a lot better because we’re not going be screaming the whole time. That’s kind of what the rehearsal is about - a bit more of a technical rehearsal as well as getting the vibe right. But we do really like that we’ve had a lot of shows this year, (I resist the urge to remind Ben that it is now 2024) that have acted like the foundation to figuring out what works, what do we want to do more of. We’re quite lucky because Adam’s also been a frontman for many years in his own band, so with both of us at the front, we are able to take on that responsibility of running a show - rather than it be a definitive of one person carrying it. We are quite good at knowing when I’m doing something complicated on the guitar, Adam will come forward and will take over with being more visual - and vice versa. Adam what do you think?
Adam: Well I think it’s like you said, this rehearsal is not about learning the music, it’s more about sorting out the show and trying new things - we’re switching to using in ear monitoring for example, which will mean we can hear ourselves and each other better on stage and therefore perform better and give a better performance each night - A lot of people who went to see us with ESPRIT, enjoyed the show and it will be even better this time.
RoD: Many of the shows are sold out already aren’t they?
Ben: Yeah, which is so amazing for a band like us - such an opportunity for us, cos what can often be the case with relatively new bands is that you have to go out and you slowly build it up and you’re playing to like six people - but with this, it’s literally gonna be…
Adam: You mean like Huddersfield!
Ben: (laughs) Yeah, I was thinking about Huddersfield…. though I will say that the thing about Huddersfield when we played there to about eighteen people, it was eighteen people who really liked us!
RoD: It’s a fantastic little venue, in Huddersfield.
Ben: Yeah, it’s really good, actually one of the best venues we’ve played, but there were people on the front row with DIAMOND BLACK T-shirts - I say the front row - THE row (laughs)! Anyway, they were singing along, they knew all the words. They were super vibed about it and they wanted to get more merch and meet us… and it was good… rather than being a bunch of people who were like, “Who’s this then? I just came up from pub downstairs to watch this!” Instead, they were really into it, which was brilliant. We just need more of this. These people exist.
RoD: Many of the audience who were there at the Brudenell for LORD OF THE LOST were goths. Your music definitely crosses over and appeals to a wide audience, I think.
Ben: It’s interesting that we’re finding now as we go out and do more shows that we just do what we do, in terms of the sound and it’s a sound that we really love.
RoD: It crosses boundaries, doesn’t it, your music. You are not pigeonholing it to just one type of audience.
Ben: Yeah, which is good, as Adam will corroborate with me - cos Adam does a lot of work with graphic design and working with artists, it’s all about, “What’s the message? What’s the brand identity?” It’s challenging when you’re a band like us because you can’t just go - “We’re a heavy metal band or we’re a goth band.” So, I guess it’s something that we’re discovering and I’m optimistic that the authenticity of our performance and our message, is what will appeal to people, rather than, “I don’t know if I should like this because it’s not the genre I normally like.”
RoD: Well, you just played Antenna Festival in Leeds - that was a mostly goth audience.
Ben: Yeah, and as you know, and there were people from all different ages and different backgrounds there and it was good vibes. Leeds has got such a great history in alternative music.
RoD: So, speaking of history, how did DIAMOND BLACK come about? I’m always interested how band origins?
Ben: Well, Adam and I had known each other for a long time on the London scene of DJing together. It was like a ‘ships in the night’ thing - we both DJed at the Electric Ballroom and The Intrepid Fox and a few other places. It was like - he’d be taking over from me, I’d be taking over from him and we’d be spending a bit of time hanging out during the cross-over and we found that we had a lot of shared tastes in music, but also lots of different stuff from each other as well. We also found that we had a lot of shared tastes when it came to say 80s English Comedy - like ‘Black Adder,’ ‘The Young Ones,’ ‘Bottom’ and stuff like that so we often just bond about stupid stuff like quotes as well. So, when it came to forming the band, I was looking for a bassist and I can’t even remember how it came up, but when Adam and I started talking about it, we were like, “This is great you know, we like a lot of the same things.”
Adam: I think I suggested myself as bassist!
Ben: Yeah and I think what I liked about the idea of working with Adam was that we had a lot of cross-over, but he also likes a lot of stuff that I’m not very knowledgeable about when it comes to maybe more industrial stuff or Glam rock. He’s a bit more 70s and 90s and I’m a bit more 80s.
Adam: We used to DJ a lot of Glam and 70s Glam - THE SWEET, T-REX etc. is my thing and 80s Glam was Ben’s, so not only did we have synergy but it made DJing easier as we liked the same music but didn’t play the same songs!
Ben: Yeah, exactly, you’re 70s, I’m 80s and we’re both 90s, but then it’s also good that we both like kind of turn-of-the-century industrial-goth stuff as well as the sort of emo stuff that was happening around the end of 9’s / early 2000s. So, when I put the music together, if I come up with an idea - what Adam will bring to it, always be something that I didn’t think of but I like, cos of that kind of cross-over / difference, if that makes sense.
RoD: Yeah, that is good that you have a mixture of styles.
Ben: Yeah, totally, cos for example: Adam’s way of singing is a lot more… kind of evil and angular, than my way that’s quite melodic.
Adam: (Laughs). It comes together though doesn’t it.
Ben: Yeah, he’s got more of an alternative darkness to it, whereas I’m more poppy and rock, so it comes together quite well.
RoD: I get the feeling that your songs are very personal to you and very introspective. I like how you share that with the audience. I was sitting there making little notes for the review about what you were saying.
Ben: That’s great and I really appreciate that you’ve seen that and we’ve found that quite naturally, that’s sort of the brand identity, if you will. We’ve found ourselves moving authentically into songs about people working through their mental health issues. There are songs about people overcoming problems and… it’s all very honest and that’s what I think is resonating and connecting with people. The fact that you picked up on that having only seen a few songs, is really important to me.
RoD: I think music is really important to many people because of mental health reasons as well especially these days when more people are looking to other means of therapy, rather than traditional methods.
Adam: There’s a lot of positivity in our songs, even though on face value they have dark subjects like ‘Through the Misery,’ but how you get overcome these things. That’s our message.
Ben: Yeah ‘Through the Misery’ is a perfect example. The way that song came about - was that for a while, it was called; ‘The Misery’ and then Adam was like, “We need to call it ‘THROUGH the Misery,’ because it’s about the journey of overcoming that. If you just call it, ‘The Misery’ … well is that really telling the story of the song - whereas ‘Through the Misery’ has more of an ambiguity to it. That is a really good example of something that I had been working on that Adam was able to give a much better framework to from the perspective of going, “Maybe it should be this…?” When we came up with that title, it suddenly made much more sense, because for a while we had been struggling with it, because we were like, “This has got a positive message, but you wouldn’t know it to look at the song title.” Then when it came to doing the T-shirts for ‘Through the Misery,’ I wanted to put one of the lyrics on the back that I thought was quite clever and Adam was like, “No, you should just put: ‘Only you can find your own way through the misery’ (the chorus lyric), that should be the message, cos that’s gonna resonate with someone - even if they don’t like the band or even know the band. That was a really smart thing to do because I was way too close to it, going, (puts on posh accent), “Oh no, but I’ve written this really clever lyric in verse two, that people will be going ‘What does that mean?’ and it’s really clever.” Adam was like “Fuck that, we need something that people can relate to (laughs). That’ been I think one of our more popular T-shirts, because it’s got this really strong message that empowers people and I’ve had a few people come up to me after the show - which I wasn’t expecting. I always say this little piece before the song, which is about how whatever trouble you are going through, it’s really important to have a support network of people around you, but at the same time, the only person who can really get you through this, is you. I had a few people come up to me after the shows who say stuff like; “That was brilliant, what you said really helped me,” and that’s what we want this music to do. We want to help people. We want to create something that does what music has done for us - that for us is the goal.
RoD: Yes, whether that is listening to music or creating it, it can be very powerful.
Adam: Music is the great healer.
Ben: Yeah, and also it creates connection. I’m sure all of us have been at a show sometime where you’re on the front row and you’re singing along and you look to the left and the person is loving it as much as you are. You don’t know them, but you are suddenly like, “Oh my god, I’ve got a connection with this person, who I’ve never met.”
Adam: It’s such a sense of community and then people end up being friends through meeting at these shows.
Ben: Yeah, and we’ve seen friendships form from people not just from different cities but completely different countries, who have met through our band. This is amazing considering that we’ve done - relatively speaking - not very many shows and not released a great deal of music, so it really empowers us. We’re like, “Fucking hell, if we can do this with just a few songs and a few shows, what could we do next year if this grows and grows?”
RoD: And when I saw you last year, there were people lining up to take photos, selfies etc. Do you think it’s important for bands to maintain that personal approach, rather than play on stage and never the twain shall meet? (an old English saying)
Ben: Hahahaha I think that’s a really good point.
Adam: It’s one of the highlights for us as well, going out and meeting people after the show.
RoD: And I think that also when people do meet you and find out that you are really nice guys and down to earth, that’s probably going to endear them to you even more.
Ben: It’s always such a flattering thing if someone wants to take a photograph with you. It’s not that I think “Oh people want to take a photo with me, because they think I look cool or whatever,” it’s not that it’s cos what happened to them that night has been so profound, that - and this is the case with any band - they’ve had a special time, they’ve had a connection. They want something to commemorate it, so they can remember. So, when they take a photo with the band - or with an artist - it’s brilliant because it means the night meant something to them. They want to take something away because you connected with them. As Adam said, it’s one of the highlights for us going out directly after the show, like as soon as we get off the stage, make sure we get over there as soon as possible, because it’s just so nice to hear people’s positivity and just get that energy from people. “Why that was so good, we’d never heard of you before but that was great.” That’s always such a huge compliment because it means it’s not because they saw you in a magazine therefore, you’re cool. It’s, “I just loved what you guys did just then and now I want to meet you and I want to take something away from this event.”
Adam: It’s taken a lot going up to a stranger - even if it’s someone from a band and giving them a compliment or telling them, “I fucking loved that,” it’s a real honour and we don’t take that praise lightly, it means everything to us. So, meeting fans at the merch desk after we play is my favourite part of the day - not coz I need compliments! Haha! - but coz that’s where the rubber hits the road in terms of connecting with our fans so that’s something I’m looking forward to on this tour with ESPRIT.
RoD: And it’s also confirmation that what you’re doing is right - having that impact.
Ben: Yeah, totally, as Adam said, that’s’ something I’m looking forward to on this forthcoming tour is getting out there. It’s just the privilege of being in Leeds one day and then you’re in Newcastle the next day, then you’re in Bournemouth the following day. Getting to do that and connect with people all over the country is fantastic.
RoD: Is there any venue that you are most looking forward to playing?
Adam: I’m looking forward to playing The Garage, but that’s cos it’s in London and it’s round the corner from my house. I’ve never played half these venues before so I don’t them. I’m just happy to play wherever we play.
Ben: Yeah, I think for me again, it’s what The Garage represents to me as a music fan, getting to play there to a full room is… what a milestone. It’s something that if you’d told me when I moved to London that I would ever do… it’s like “Wow - that’s incredible - how could that possibly happen?” There are some other nice ones on the tour as well - the Corporation in Sheffield - which is another great venue. I’ve only ever played there in a covers band, so getting to actually do it in something that I’ve been part of creating, is really important. Also, the Warehouse in Leeds and KK’s in Wolverhampton - because it’s such a good venue as well, such a quality venue and I love playing in that part of the world, because there is so much history of metal and rock and I think the people have a lot of pride about that!
(At this point, Adam had to leave us as he was getting moved out of the bar / restaurant that he was in).
RoD: Thanks for joining us Adam and have a great time on tour.
Adam: Thank you.
RoD: Ben, bit of a fun question - did you always want to be a rock star, did you play air guitar as a kid, listening to other musicians and think, this is what I want to do?
Ben: Well, one of my earliest memories of being really passionate about rock music was being at my uncle’s house and he was playing DEF LEPPARD’s ‘Hysteria’ album. It was the song: ‘Animal’ and I was standing on a chair, with my uncle’s school tie - because he was only eight years older than me, so at this point he was about sixteen and I was eight. I had his school tie wrapped around my head like it was some sort of headband. I was standing on a chair, playing guitar to it [the song], but for some reason he had an axe - an actual axe! He lived on a farm; it was like a little hand-axe. I was playing this, using it as a guitar and I remember my mum came in and was like; “We have to go now!” I was really disappointed that I was going to be torn away from this music and this feeling. So that was definitely one of my earliest memories of being really into rock music and alternative music. Then when I was about ten or eleven, I got really into football. It was around Italia 90; it was the world cup. I was really into football and really into rock music and I remember having this existential crisis at age ten about: “What can I do with my life, I can only do one thing?!” Music won, ultimately, I loved music just that little bit more than football - and after that, I’ve never really been interested in football again! Yeah, it was pretty early on, that I gravitated towards rock music - the sound of guitars, the sound of big drums and the sound of powerful vocals. It’s the passion in the music. Even if it’s in a different language like ESPRIT… I can’t understand the lyrics but I can feel the passion in the music. You might not necessarily know what the words are, but it’s a feeling.
RoD: Yes, I agree, like I’ve listened to some of the Latina post-punk bands, they are all singing in Spanish, and I don’t understand the words but I still feel that emotion.
Ben: Yeah, and sometimes the words don’t translate well and then kind of lose their meaning. There was one incident where I was listening to this French band and I absolutely fucking loved this song. It was so dark and I had it on repeat. It was so brilliant and I said to a French friend of mine, “Can you translate this for me?” and she said, “Yeah.” She went away and she came back and said, “Are you sure you want me to tell you what the actual lyrics are - because… it’s not that they’re not in the right mood of what the song is - it’ just that they are not very good! It’s like they were written by a thirteen-year-old!” I was like, “Actually - don’t tell me cos I absolutely love this song”. (laughs)
RoD: Yes, I remember hearing a darkwave song years ago, with a chorus that went, “Stones break my concrete,” I can’t remember who sang it, but I think it was maybe lost in translation.
Ben: Yes, or probably in the language itself, it was very profound and really meaningful. Of course, there’s different ways - not just the words, but the different similes and analogies that are used in different languages, can be really effective, but when you try to translate it into English, it’s just too literal. Actually, I want to do an album one day that uses a lot of those, cos you know that a lot of 80s rock bands would use the cool sounding ones like, “Off the deep end,” or, “Once bitten, twice shy.” What about all the slightly naff ones like, “Pull your socks up,” and “All in the same boat,” or whatever (Laughs). Imagine like an album but it’s sung really serious like (sings in deep heavy metal voice) “Until the cows come home!”
RoD: Speaking of albums, do you have an album in the making?
Ben: Yes, so we’ve certainly got enough material for it and you are definitely going to be seeing more songs by us this year. We’re just finishing off the mix of another track right now. In fact I was listening to it today - it’s a song called: ‘Dark Anthems’ and it’s a really special song to us, because what we did is we sat down and went, “Who are band and artists that have influenced us and taken us on our journey”, so we took a bunch of song titles and album titles by these bands and made them into a lyrical story… so the lyrics are made up of titles and band names and song names - woven together to make it like a lyric.
RoD: Yes, I loved that song when you played it at the Brudenell, I also liked the message that you gave out at the start of the song.
Ben: Thank you, the thing about ‘Dark Anthems’ to us as a phrase is it kind of conveys the sound - that we’ve got this dark, introspective feel but it’s done in a very anthemic and uplifting way.
RoD: Well diamonds shine through the darkness don’t they!
Ben: Yeah, exactly that - although it was completely unintentional (the name), but it works on a number of levels - some of which were decided at the time and some of which weren’t. It seems that that is something that has become more and more apparent.
RoD: And it’s very hard to break a diamond.
Ben: Absolutely! So, there are all these levels there of hope and of resilience and it sort of - unintentionally, but through the authenticity of what we love doing - become the message and become the mission. Not THE MISSION (laughs), our mission.
RoD: Do you have any advice for new bands just starting out?
Ben: Yes - firstly, once you start working with the other musicians, you get a vibe that you kind of like each other and you’ve got a good rapport going on, it’s really important to just sit down and go, “What do we actually want to do with this band? What’s our mission?” That could be the musical mission or just general progression. “Where do we want to take this?” It’s just understanding of each other’s expectations and boundaries and even limitations. This helps so much when the band starts doing well and starts going somewhere. If not, you end up with people going, “Oh I thought we were doing this, why are we doing that, I didn’t agree to this.” That’s because you never sat down and had a chat about what you were actually meant to be doing, so getting that stuff sorted out quite early on, is huge. All the bands that I’ve been in where it’s essentially ended - it’s because we never had that chat and people’s expectations were different. So that’s really important and then the second part to that is that once you decide what that mission objective is and you’re all happy and inspired by that mission objective, it’s make sure that pretty much everything that you do, leans into that mission objective and… whether that be what artwork you have on the front cover or guitars you use or what venues you play, what bands you play with or whether you use a fucking trumpet on this song… it all kind of points towards that goal. That’s not to limit yourself, it’s to give yourself that focus and identity and keep going with that. With all those bands or artists who’ve gone, “I’ve got this really great album where there’s a folk song and a metal song and a punk song,” who’s going to listen to that? It’s too different. You need to figure out what it is that you love most and do that, because other people will love it too.
RoD: Just one more question to wrap up. How did you end up playing with THE SISTERS?
Ben: Oh, it’s a long story and it’s actually been documented quite a lot on the internet. Long story short, I got a phone call from an unknown number, wouldn’t tell me who it was and was like, “Come to Leeds, we’re an international touring band and we need a guitarist…” so I went along with no idea what I was auditioning for. If you are interested, you can find it online… it’s quite an interesting story.
RoD: Well, thank you so much for the interview and enjoy the rest of your evening.
Picture by Natalie Rook
Website: https://diamondblackofficial.com/
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