We are super excited to welcome back Diamond 6 for an interview. Gavin Ho, Matthew Urquhart and Peter Gardiner perform together as Diamond 6, a hard rock band based in Hong Kong, and we wanted to catch up with them to see how things are going on their side during lockdown.
PW – Hey guys, welcome back to Pastel Wasteland. For those who aren’t familiar with your work quite yet, how would you introduce both yourself and your sound?
[Gavin] Hey, thanks for having us again. We’re a 3 piece rock band from Hong Kong – people have described us as: alt Rock, grunge rock, stoner rock, psychedelic rock. We like to make things groovy and interesting, without getting too fancy.
PW – What can you tell us about what you’ve been up to since you spoke to Ryan over here last year?
[Pete] A little recording, a little bit of songwriting, but most of all: practice and refining our sound. I think we managed to get one live show in since then too.
PW – New single ‘Far From Home’ is among your very best work, what can you tell us about the project and how it came about?
[Gavin] We wanted to try something a little different from the previous songs written. We wanted a different tonality, vibe, and to really focus on songwriting rather than the previous numbers that were mainly riff driven. The intro is a descending chromatic riff, with chord changes at the pre chorus. The chorus’ vocal melody is repeated twice, but the chord progression is different between the first and second. We also added Brazilian “samba” beats in the musical breakdown with some hypnotic female chanting.
PW – 2020 was tough in several ways. What has the last year taught you in terms of both your career and life as a whole?
[Matt] Thankfully for us here in Hong Kong, things weren’t as tough as in other parts of the world, but we definitely learned a few things. First thing on my mind just how important consistently practicing is. We did two live-stream events in 2020 – one at the beginning of the year, and one at the end. The difference between them is huge. Career lesson and life lesson: Don’t give up, stay humble, and keep working on your skills!
Another thing we realised is to continually improve even the songs we think are done. Once we’ve recorded a song, there’s a temptation to leave it the way it is and play it like that forever. After reviewing footage from our gigs and own practices, we often spot places where we find and more improvements, such as adjusting dynamics or tweaking vocal harmonies. Taking the time to review what we’ve done has always been a thing for us, but I guess we had just a little more time to do it in 2020.
PW – What is your favourite way to relax away from making music?
Gavin gets out on his old school BMX, Matt plays video games, and Pete writes, and samples his extensive collection of cologne. We’re easily the best smelling band.
PW – What do you have planned for 2021? Any new releases you can tell us about yet?
[Gavin] Continue doing what we did in 2020, Releasing new material, honing our craft, growing as songwriters and continuing to learn. A song called Tarantula will be our next release.
PW – And finally, where would we find you on social media, and do you have anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks for supporting original music!
FB: https://facebook.com/diamond6band
IG: https://instagram.com/diamond6band
YT: https://youtube.com/c/Diamond6
