Art & Life with Discovery of an Afterlife

Today we’d like to introduce you to Discovery of an Afterlife.

Discovery of an Afterlife, aka ‘DoaA’, is an emocore rock band from Phoenix, Arizona, officially founded on August 20, 2015. The band was started by guitarist and songwriter Leon Valdez with the help of singer and lyricist Jonathan Brophy. The two met after Valdez replied to an online ad Brophy had posted looking to start a band. Valdez had lived in the Phoenix area for much of his life and was ready to get back into playing music, and Brophy had recently moved from California to start a career in the music festival industry.

When they originally met the two immediately hit it off and spent hours in a local pizza shop talking about music and what kind of band they wanted to create. Both were heavily influenced by many different genres under the broad spectrum of rock including pop punk, emo, metal, alternative, and everything in between. They wanted to incorporate all these genres into their music but didn’t want to have to be married to just one style. Furthermore, growing up the two had both been social misfits and wanted to create a community free of judgement and arbitrary standards. They wanted to create a band where they could just have fun playing music, something that was bigger than themselves.

The duo began playing with various local musicians for about a year but continued to run into obstacles with members moving away, going to prison, or plain disappearing. Just when it seemed like a real band would never happen they met bassist Dan Adams and drummer and producer Josh Kneisler. During the very first jam session there was an immediate, undeniable chemistry and a renewed faith in the project. While searching for a lead guitarist the new group came across the raw talent of screamer Conner Posz and he was quickly added to the roster. After recording their debut album, the band’s original lead guitarist was replaced by the incredibly talented Jayne Clark in July of 2017. In May of the following year, Posz would abruptly leave the band in the middle of recording the ‘Mistakes We Make’ EP and the remaining members would make the decision to move forward in its current five-piece form.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
Our art is expressed through the medium of music. We write and record original songs to play in venues around the Phoenix area and hope to eventually tour the country. Usually, our writing process begins with our guitarist Leon coming up with an idea for a song on his guitar. Once that is recorded the rest of the members will write their own respective parts and a new song is born. Our drummer Josh is also an extremely talented self-taught audio engineer and records all of our parts in his DIY home studio. Together we create aggressive music with a pop element in the form of catchy vocal melodies.

Although we have been told that the album format is dead we still like to create album experiences because that’s what we all grew up on and are inspired by. Each member has their own taste in music but we are all united under the broad spectrum of rock and we each have a burning desire inside to create music. Even if we never see any mainstream success many of us will be creating music until the day we die.

Our vocalist Jon is also our main lyricist and writes about themes surrounding life and death. Our first album ‘Something More Than Us’ is loosely a concept album based on death with each song representing a different type of death. The track ‘Road to the Epilogue’ is about believing that everything is going to be okay in the end; the death of fear. Fan favorite ‘The Meadow’ is about a close friend that was lost to suicide and how it affected those around the experience.

For our upcoming EP ‘Mistakes We Make’ the songs are about mistakes that we as a society and as individuals make in life. ‘PantsOnFire’ is about pathological liars and how society allows them to climb the social ladder and do things like become president. ‘Lapis Lazuli’ is about the struggles of depression and ‘Prescription Addiction’ tackles the opioid crisis and the colossal failure that is the war on drugs.

What we hope that people will take away from our art is the idea that you don’t need organized religion to have morals or believe that there is something more beyond death. With songs like ‘The Meadow’ and ‘A Tragedy Until We Forget’ we hope to open a dialogue on suicide and end the stigma associated with it.

What responsibility, if any, do you think artists have to use their art to help alleviate problems faced by others? Has your art been affected by issues you’ve concerned about?
We don’t feel like the role of artists has changed much from what it’s always been. To us, the role of an artist is to somehow create meaning from the seemingly arbitrary experiences of life. Art can take many forms whether that’s music, poetry, visual media, or a myriad of other mediums. Art is also subjective so what one person might consider art another person may completely disagree. We think that if an artist can create something that speaks to even one person in some way, helping them to assign some meaning to their life (even if that meaning is completely different from what the artist originally intended), then it’s art.

Local, national, and international events directly affect our music. Our singer and main lyricist Jon has a background in Sociology and often pulls from that when writing. Our song ‘Global Mourning’ is a direct response to the climate change crisis and how, especially in the US, we are allowing corporations to literally destroy our planet for short term profits. Our song ‘A Tragedy Until We Forget’ is about Leelah Alcorn, a transgender teen we lost to suicide in 2014. Like many transgender teens, she faced unique challenges including a lack of family support, social rejection from her peers, and no access to trans-specific healthcare. A 2015 survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality estimated that the rate of transgender suicide is nine times higher than that of the overall population. Our fan favorite song ‘The Meadow’ is about a close friend we lost to suicide and how that event affected friends and family. Suicide rates have been on the rise in the US for the past 20 years and we believe this is an indication that something is terribly wrong with our society. Many times obituaries won’t even mention that a person was lost to suicide or depression. Through our music, we hope to help end stigma surrounding suicide and open up a dialogue on the subject. We feel that if more people would open up and discuss their thoughts of suicide those affected by them would see that they’re not as alone as they feel and be more open to seeking help before it’s too late.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
If you would like to see us perform live we play shows a few times a year around the Phoenix area at various live music venues. Our next show is our Mistakes We Make EP release show which will be on Saturday, May 25, 2019 at Joe’s Grotto up in Northern Phoenix. You can contact us on social media – Facebook, Instagram, twitter – for $10 presale tickets or pay $13.00 at the door.

If you would like to listen to our music, you can do so online for free at our official website www.doaaband.com or any major music streaming service. Our music is available on iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon music marketplace. We also have an active YouTube channel so if you simply google or YouTube search for Discovery of an Afterlife, you’ll be sure to find us. As mentioned before we’re also available on all the major social media channels – Facebook, Instagram, twitter, etc.

You can support our work by telling your friends and family about our music if you like what you hear or by coming to a show and buying some merch from us. Leaving an honest review of our music on iTunes or Amazon is extremely helpful as well. Also, feel free to reach out and tell us how you feel about our music because we love hearing from people!

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.doaaband.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doaaband/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/discoveryofanafterlife
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/doaaband
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAs8iRs-wCFqR-N3JWnuLlA

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