An indie rock singer-composer-songwriter with a quirky, poetic style, Damian Valverde hails from Forest Hills, Queens, home of The Ramones and Paul Simon. Born in Los Angeles, he picked up the drums at age six and became serious about music composition around the time he was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma at age fourteen. In the hospital, a music therapist helped him make a track using a midi keyboard and the sound of his IV drip after Damian commented that the drip sounded like a drum rhythm. This inspired him to pick up the midi keyboard at home and start making electronic music, which in turn led to his writing and performing rock songs and falling in love with the guitar along the way. He likes to describe his blend of electronic-infused rock as playful but serious.
He’s played melodica at Radio City Music Hall and Jones Beach Theater, accompanying a choral group who were playing onstage with the band O.A.R.; written a piece of background music for the Emmy-nominated FX dramatic TV series, “The Americans;” and is currently studying studio production in the Music and Technology program at SUNY Purchase’s Music Conservatory.
Influenced by a wide variety of artists, Damian’s music has been compared most often to Radiohead with shades of Pink Floyd and electronic artists like Boards of Canada.
And they kissed
Beneath a dying world
Circling the drain
They jumped overboard
As the lights went out
They had to escape the pain
Playtime is over
It’s a shame it had to end
He turned to me and said
I’ll see you later old friend
I am just a simple man
I ask for no reward
I guess we truly are friends
I don’t remember being brought on board
You started a family
Of prison bars and snakes
You never do the dirty work
Until the ground rattles and shakes
And they kissed
Under a dying sky
As I stood and pulled the plug
What a way to reunite
Almost pulled apart with love
One person’s reality is another one’s imagination
One person’s struggle is another one’s creation
Transform
Bend the world to your will
Try to keep it stable
Entropy is not your friend
It’s gonna come and get you
I am
I’m not your friend
But I’m not here to kill you
I’m simply doing
The dirty work of a million people
I am the messenger
Between good and evil
Taking a stroll through a violent world
Look around now it’s so peaceful
Transport vehicles
Carrying goods and evils
Submarines carts and shuttles
And one way magic portals
And they kissed
like a pair of teenage castaways
locked in an anxious embrace
rebelling against the the forces
that put them there in the first place
their world slowly drifting apart
like beachside pool toys drifting away
life’s forever changing
When you have the power to create
And I missed
Growing up with this world on my lap
Yeah it’s too late
The ground opens up and I fall into the cracks
While the whole world shakes
One person’s beginning is another person’s ending
One person’s enemy is an asset for befriending