Charlie Parra del Riego

Charlie Parra del Riego
Birth name Carlos Parra del Riego
Born (1985-03-05) March 5, 1985
Lima, Peru
Genres Power Metal, Alternative rock, Hard rock, Indie, Heavy Metal
Thrash Metal, Groove Metal, Punk
Occupation(s) Musician and guitarist
Instruments Guitar
Years active 2000–present
Associated acts Difonía, Serial Asesino, M.A.S.A.C.R.E, Kobra and the Lotus, Pellek, The lost Rockers
Website charlieparradelriego.com

Charlie Parra del Riego (born March 5, 1985 in Lima, Peru) is a Peruvian guitarist and composer.[1] He is also known as Charlie Parra.

Early life

Charlie was thirteen years old when he started to learn his first instrument, which was a Peruvian Cajón.[2] Spending a lot of his childhood playing games and not being a great student, his parents were told by a school therapist that he ought to learn an instrument in order to focus his energy on something.[2] This led to Charlie picking up the guitar.

Style and influences

Charlie has been influenced by Slash, Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Marty Friedman, Kirk Hammett, Robbin Crosby, Dino Cazares, Dimebag Darrell, Johnny Ramone, Gonzalo Farfán and Joaquín Mariátegui.[2]

Bands

Difonía

Charlie started Difonía with a few friends (Ricardo Mendez, Sergio Guerra and Nachi Benza[3]) in year 2003 as a hardcore punk act with heavy metal influences.[2] With this band he composed and recorded the guitars of their 3 albums: “Camino Difícil” (2004), “Tarde o Temprano” (2007) and “Génesis” (2010).[4] As a member of Difonía, Charlie took part of several festivals in the independent rock circuit of Perú and shared stage with international bands as “Silverstein", "Alesana" and "Tres de Corazón".

In 2009, Difonía played the Banda Ancha de Medellín festival Colombia.[2]

In 2010 they played in the Colombian festival "Altavoz Festival 2010"[5] at Medellín, together with "The Skatalites", "Robi Draco Rosa", "Dante Spinetta", "Reincidentes" and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Medellín. There was an audience of about 25,000 people.[2]

In 2012 Charlie quit Difonía due musical differences and to pursue a solo career. Difonía eventually disbanded.

Serial Asesino

Charlie was member of the New Metal band Serial Asesino from 2005 until 2009.[2]

M.A.S.A.C.R.E.

In year 2009, Charlie was recruited to be a part of the band as a replacement of their lead guitar Jaqo Sangalli.[6] This was a great honour to Charlie, since he was a huge fan of the band.[1] With M.A.S.A.C.R.E, in 2009, he opened the concerts of the Argentinian bands "Los Violadores" and "Rata Blanca" in Lima, Peru. Charlie left M.A.S.A.C.R.E in 2012 to join Canadian band Kobra and the Lotus. His last concert was at the first Lima Live Rock, in front of more than 20,000 attendees.[2] However, he rejoined M.A.S.A.C.R.E on October 2013 for their first international tour.

Solo career

In the year 2010 Charlie starts his solo career uploading a first series of videos in his YouTube channel, including a heavy metal version of Peru's National Anthem, the first version of this song in heavy metal style. This version was covered in TV, radio and local newspapers.

In January 2011 he released his first solo album "Procrastinación/Procrastination", together with another series of YouTube videos. These videos got different YouTube awards, including "Most viewed" and to this day is the most subscribed musician from his country. By this time his videos got more than 30 million visits and his channel subscribers passed the 200,000.[7] After the release the disc was sold out in a few weeks due to the high international demand. His singles "Speed F*cks" and "Punk vs Metal" have been covered by several guitar players around the world. In 2011, Charlie wrote music for the UK gaming commentator TotalBiscuit,[8] Call of Duty figure Sandy Ravage[9] and Swiss game commentator Diablox9.[1][10]

After the breakup of Difonía, Charlie continued on with Oliver and Jeremy Castillo and performed some shows playing tracks from the album "Procrastination / Procrastination".[2]

Charlie has continued his solo career even after joining Kobra and the Lotus. His latest album is a collaboration with Oliver and Jeremy Castillo and is called "Organic I". It was released on November 17, 2013.[11] In January 2014, Charlie traveled to France to record guitars for French project "The Lost Rockers".

Kobra and the Lotus

In 2012, Charlie announced he was not playing with Difonía anymore to focus on his next solo release, but instead joined the Canadian heavy metal band Kobra and the Lotus in the beginning of their European tour with Steel Panther, playing in Finland, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. After that, they toured United Kingdom supporting Buckcherry and Sonata Arctica in United States. In 2013, Charlie joined Kobra and the Lotus again, this time supporting Fear Factory and Amaranthe for most of the year. After the touring season, he recorded guitars for the band's following album "High Priestess", to be released on 2014. The album was produced by Johnny K. On 2014, weeks prior to the release of Kobra and the Lotus third release and a new tour supporting KISS, Charlie was unable to join the band due to visa issues related to a pretour in Europe and was replaced by Jake Dreyer for the KISS tour and subsequently left the group citing management and visa issues in a recent interview. The group lists Charlie as a special guest on their album "High Priestess".

Discography

Difonía

Serial Asesino

Solo career

Guest appearances

Controversy

Although the Heavy Metal version of Peru's National Anthem was successful, it also got detractors, mainly because it was done in a non-Peruvian musical genre.[12]

Other information

Charlie has done, in his style, Salsa, Cumbia, Pop and Classical Music songs. He also played a guitar solo with the pop band Adammo in the release of their album "Amber" (2010).[13]

Charlie is currently sponsored by Kramer Guitars,[14] EMG Pickups,[15] Dean Markley Strings[16] and Razer.[17]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Charlie Parra: About me (something like draw my life)". Charlie Parra del Riego. Retrieved 2013-11-13.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "BIO – Charlie Parra del Riego". Charlie Parra del Riego. Retrieved 2013-11-13.
  3. ↑ http://www.krmusic.pe/bandas.detalle.php?id=68
  4. ↑ http://charlieparradelriego.com/discography/
  5. ↑ "Charlie Parra, el rockero de las Redes Sociales".
  6. ↑ es:MASACRE (banda peruana), Retrieved 2013-11-17
  7. ↑ "Charlie Parra del Riego". Charlie Parra del Riego. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
  8. ↑ "The TotalBiscuit Ballad Full Version (WTF is song)". Charlie Parra del Riego. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
  9. ↑ "Sandy Ravage theme song". Charlie Parra del Riego. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
  10. ↑ "Charlie Parra del Riego – The Diablox9 Theme". Charlie Parra del Riego. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
  11. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/charlieparradelriego
  12. ↑ "Rockero peruano Charlie Parra, creador del Himno Nacional en versión metal: "Creen que mi tema es sacrílego"". Luis Santolalla @ peru.com. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
  13. ↑ "ÁDAMMO (AMBER FEST) y Charlie Parra del Riego.MPG". harumisgabriela. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
  14. ↑ https://twitter.com/KramerGuitarsUS
  15. ↑ http://www.emgpickups.com/artists/featuredArtist/730
  16. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/Dean.Markley.Strings.Fan.Page/posts/10151894483376480
  17. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151861459607576

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, March 17, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.