Francisco Dias (Progaor / Dyamond Roxx)

Francisco Dias have been in the music business for a long time, started as a Hardcore singer, moving later to the metal scene. Nowadays he manages the label Progaor, and sub label Dyamond Roxx, based in the UK. Before Progaor, he managed the label Blood and Iron Records, and was the lead singer for the Doom Metal band Dawnrider. We had a chat about his past bands and current labels.

Q. - Hello Francisco, tell me a little bit about you, how did your interest in hard rock and heavy metal music start?

Francisco - Hi Paulo, i am from Lisbon, Portugal but moved to the UK in 2014 and married last year living in the beautiful countryside of Suffolk and expecting our first baby very soon. My interest in Heavy Rock music started about 1985/86 when i saw on TV clips from AC/DC and Iron Maiden plus my interest in going to the local record shop where i lived (in the suburbs of Lisbon) the owner was friend of my parents and eventually i saw the very first hard n heavy record covers in his shop. Live After Death was the most striking since i saw it i felt extremely attracted to it. An older guy who lived in my building (only 3 years older but when youre 11 its a big deal a guy with 14 years old it seems a big gap) he was a proper headbanger and he taped me the first stuff...Maiden, WASP, Motorhead. I was already turned on to Queen and AC/DC then came Europe with Final Countdown album and as soon as i started to tune in the Metal/Hard Rock radio shows, it opened me a door to a wonderful new world...Saxon, Priest, Warlock, Deep Purple, Sabbath, Accept and a few more that was i was tuned in in my year zero along with the ones i mentioned earlier. Maiden seemed to be my favourite band of them all. 

Q. - Did you start your activity as singer with Subcaos? How did the band start?

Francisco - With the decadence of Metal (death metal, black metal) i lost interest and started to tune into Hardcore. This was 1990. I already was listening Crossover stuff and i was skating. I was listening to a lot of Thrash, this was 88/89...then i started to try to reach the Hardcore scene. Eventually i ended up singing (screaming) in the first Portuguese Straight Edge Hardcore band. Then i moved on the band finished and i started my own back in the spring of 91: Subcaos. It started as a Punk/Crust type Hardcore band. For me it was like Thrash Metal but more straightforward and with better lyrics (for my teenage mind at the times). Not all thrash metal had silly lyrics Megadeth always had great lyrics. Anyway...those were the days...trying to catch up with the Hardcore scene of the 80s mainly U.S. and UK bands. Initially Subcaos live was quite an experience the first times we played in Lisbon back in 1992: the punk rockers didnt like it. People into Hardcore liked it and slam danced and thrashers were banging their heads in the front row. It was a great feeling for a teenage kid!

Q. - When did you join "Crise Total"? How did that happen?

Francisco - I had these biker punk friends who were friends of the original Crise members. Some of them were thinking in making a return and record in a studio the songs they were playing in the 80s live. They were considered the Portuguese Discharge. As a fan of Crise and Discharge i immediately said i had interest in sing for them and another Subcaos member came with me to try the bass guitar. We got into the band and we performed live in shows with Portuguese and foreign bands plus we recorded in 96 the CD with all the 80s classic songs. A shame that some of our live recordings sounded powerful and better than the studio recording. Try to put a guy who listens to Dream Theater and Steve Vai recording a Punk band and shit comes out.

Q. - How did the idea to create a label came up? Was Blood and Iron Records your first label?

Francisco - I had a label before Blood & Iron but it was to promote my band at the time and a few friend’s bands from the Lisbon area. The No-Counts D.O.M., Brainwashed by Amalia and We were Wolves. I was a bit naive and eventually lost a lot of money and finished the project after two years. But it was great fun...i did a few festivals for the label and it was a great Rock brotherhood we had around the label bands. Carlos from B.B.A. ended up with me in Dawnrider. When i started Blood & Iron in 2005 i already had a bit more experience and some contacts to get the ball rolling. But the label got more serious 3 years later when i started to release a bunch of LPs. This idea of doing Blood and Iron came from the frustration of having had a record shop for 6 years, that youre stuck in a place 7 or 8 hours a day creating a routine that was not exciting anymore. So i decided to start to envision editions for bands i liked that was lacking in the market a reissue of their out of print album or a compilation of unreleased recordings. I would also make on CD version albums that never came out on that format before or the other way round. I tried to add bonus tracks and even some had bonus DVD to make it better than the previous CD editions. This was very exciting for me and was more rewarding for the soul as youre contributing to the Heavy Metal scene with some releases that are going to cause an impact on people. Some of my favourite releases were Place of Skulls, Dammaj, Taist of Iron, Nitro, Tyrant (U.S.), Tytan, Force, and the Black Rose (UK) ones. 12 years, 47 editions. Two of these i repeated on Dyamond Roxx recently (Nitro and the first Black Rose album) but the NITRO one i just envisioned a retro styled cover design more suitable to the band and added the 83 demos that previously had been included in the Lethal reissue made by Skol, but out of print for some time.

Q. - Tell us a bit about the early days of Dawnrider, was it hard to find the right people to play this kind of music?

Francisco - Oh yes, but as i was an underground rat and always meeting people and talking about music so i could find the right people for the project. Not all were full on Doom Metal fans but it didn’t matter as long as half the band was into it, we could do something. We had many line-up changes. We could have done so much more but anyway im glad the band is still going without me. With this recent line up i can say that the band is finally stable and Hugo one of the former members deserves that stability because hes a true underground crusader.

Q. - Dawnrider recorded three albums with you as singer, did you feel support from radios or magazines?

Francisco - Honestly not much from abroad. But we had support from the main Metal radio show in Portugal, Hypertensao from Antonio Freitas. For the third album he made us an interview. It was good fun in the studio with him. Also we had great support from Loud magazine which is the main Metal mag in Portugal.

Q. - How did the idea to create the traditional heavy metal band Leather Synn came up?

Francisco - Well, he had time on our side...i envisioned that project with Ze Rockhard (Inquisitor) as we were partying a lot together drinking and watching Priest shows on dvd and listening to a lot of underground 80s U.S. Metal. Also in 2010 one year before Leather Synn was formed i had a project with Hugo (Dawnrider) called simply Leather. We were trying to emulate this U.S. Power Metal archaic sound of Ruthless, Omen and a few more. It went nowhere so me, Hugo and Ze Rockhard started Leather Synn then Faria (Non Nobis Prod) joined for the bass and finally on drums, the original Dawnrider drummer Victor Silver joined the ranks because it was more his thing because of the Priest influence. Unfortunately Rockhard left and i was shattered because this project was our drunken fantasy we all dressed up leather and studs onstage, swords, axes, fireworks...it was true U.S. Epic Power Metal spirit.

Q. - Was it hard to move to the UK and adapt to a different reality?

Francisco - It was hard in the beginning. But whenever i was visiting London i was doing ok. I have several Portuguese friends there and foreign too. Later, when i moved to the West Midlands, it was rare to visit London i was in Nottingham for a year and it was OK lots of music events to attend on weekends...but when i moved near Birmingham for the biblical studies college that’s when i felt more isolated. But it didn’t bother me that much i had already a different mentality and a different purpose.

Q. - After you moved to the UK did you try to continue as Dawnrider and Leather Synn singer? Do you miss both bands?

Francisco - Before i left i quit Leather Synn. I tried to continue with Dawnrider but it was like 1 gig or two a year. Eventually we all agreed that it couldn’t continue like that. To be honest, being in a band was not so important to me anymore. I’ve been doing it since 1990 and i gave my last gig in 2016: Dawnrider and Ironsword. Double bill in Lisbon. Legendary night!

Q. - And have you tried to find another band since you are in the UK?

Francisco - I did, right before i married...but I’m glad i didn’t found the whole line up. We moved to Suffolk after a year of being married. Now I’m settled here, but I’m busy with my label, holiday rent management and personal life. I still don’t miss it and probably wont miss for the next few years. I’ve been actively 25 years on stage with several bands. That was a lot of shows and parties.

Q. - Blood and Iron Records was a stable label, what made you feel like start a new label like Progaor, instead of continue with Blood and Iron Records?

Francisco - I wanted a more CD based label and was noticing that there was a lack in the market for a label centered in Prog Rock, Pomp Rock and AOR in general (from melodic rock to melodic metal). My initial aim was having a label with a smaller mailorder, no vinyl and mostly based in wholesales and selling via my distributor. But the bands i release are not Journey or Bon Jovi haha so i ended up with a big mailorder, selling second hand again, doing trades with other labels...just keeping busy shooting all directions from Melodic Rock to Prog Power Metal and everything inbetween. On my mailorder i even go beyond that you can find bits and pieces of thrash, hardcore , 60s psychedelia or blues rock.

Q. - Do you feel there's still many "treasures" out there, to be found?

Francisco - Oh yes, definitely! And honestly, sometimes it’s the band's fault the recordings keep in the dark. The band members want money upfront or some kind of great deal that you cannot offer. Its 500 copies editions...they don’t understand how low is the market nowadays for underground music. Some of these bands i release i can’t even move 300 copies. It will take a few years more for me to sell out some releases. But it’s not just the demo stuff that’s unheard of the underground public. There’s many privately released albums that were forgotten in time and there’s a new whole potential audience out there to discover them. I’m sorting deals now with a few of these for the 2020 releases. Incredible bands!

Q. - -Do you use any special standard to sign with a band?

Francisco - As long as i like...i don’t need to be a big fan but most of the cases, i am. Sometimes i just discover a musician or I’m going after someone from the band to propose a release. Several years before the greeks released Medieval Steel and Emerald i was on it, the first never replied me because they wanted to sell their self released CD Dungeon Tapes and the second the drummer wanted to ask the band members if they could record new stuff to make a comeback. I was on the race to Glacier but they said they would not involve the 88 demo i wanted as bonus. Then they licensed to No Remorse, but only the EP,  I presume for a big sum of money. You can do a lot of it selling the box sets but i don’t care about box sets for me they’re a bit useless and a big investment. Another band i really was disappointed that they put me on hold (like Emerald), was Child Saint. But i think they’re waiting for a big bucks contract because of the Megadeth riff polemic. Anyway, i have great stuff coming for 2020 in the area of Pomp Rock. And a great Southern Hard Rock band too. I’ve been wanting to include Southern Rock and this will be the first time after 2 years of PROGAOR/DYAMONDROXX. In the meantime just came out LUST-Hollywood Roxx 1976-80: Studio Sessions CD...this is Keith Deen (RIP) from Holy Terror on vocals waaayyy before his Thrash band. It’s a late 70s melodic Metal band perfect if you like very early Dokken and 70s Riot. The drummer was on Warrior (Fighting for the Earth classic album!) and Rhino Bucket.

Q. - Is there any band that you saw a lot of potential to release, but in the end failed the agreement?

Francisco - Yes a few, Some stories i already told in the question before and let me tell you that i was also sad that i couldn’t proceed with the first SYRIS album (great U.S. Power Metal from the 90s) because the band member in question was being lazy. On PROGAOR i tried a few bands from Canada that gave different arguments. One of them i was close to do..FIST/MYOFIST but their manager didn’t reply to me confirming anything. I would love to do STREETHEART's Quicksand Shoes, an album that doesn’t exist on CD (save for a dodgy cdr version) but the band doesn’t have the rights of the album then you have to try to reach which label has the rights its a bureaucratic process that i like to avoid and deal with the bands directly. I don’t respect major labels. Only independent labels.

Q. - In your opinion what are the main differences between the eighties and the reality of today?

Francisco – It’s all different! The 80s were the times of the tribes on the streets, the times where you proudly wear your outfits, the time of larger than life attitude, the times of buying vinyl when a new hot release just came out, reading paper mags, it was all about physical formats. It would take years in the 80s to learn about 40 or 50 different bands. Nowadays you can become a metal expert in 2 years on youtube and have a huge collection of mp3 in your laptop...and its not real...its just shallow. You dont absorb 50% of the 100% you absorb with the physical objects. And the sound quality...lets not even talk about that, I like to get a CD with photos of the band, a band history and maybe even the lyrics if theyre not silly. We live in the age of information but nothing seems to be deep. And its too much bombardment in a short time. Im glad i still enjoyed a bit of the 80s, headbanging around a ghetto blaster outside school to Slayer, being in a sweaty violent show around guys with patched jackets in the moshpit like if their lives depended on it. It was crazy fun. Everybodys trying to recreate these environments in the new millennium and the good thing now it’s they’re much safer and there’s more civilised people nowadays in the Metal scene than back in the 80s. There’s always pros and cons when we discuss the then and now.

Q. - And are you still a heavy metal fan these days?

Francisco - Oh yes! Heavy Metal Forever! I do not consider myself a Metalhead i am not stereotypical in that sense but i love my traditional Heavy Metal. Specially American Metal.

Q. - Anything more you want to say, to end up this interview?

Francisco - I want to shout out a huge blessing for those who took their precious time to read this interview, God bless you brothers and sisters!

Thank you for your time, and wish you all the best for the future!

All the best my good friend and congrats for the great work with the webzine!