Signed to Fearless Records and blazing a trail through the new emo underground, The Requiem are the band giving flowers to everyone who came before them. Frontman Damien sits down with guitarist Felipe and producer-bassist Salem to talk dark poetry, theatrical influences, and why A Cure To Poison The World is just the beginning…

Words by Cheryl Mann (@bubbarocksmedia) | April 06, 2026

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The Requiem are a blend of gothic, emo, metal with their own unique theatrical flare. Their songs are poetic and powerful. Signed to Fearless Records and hailing from the USA, they are trail blazing the new emo wave of bands right now. I caught up with Damien, Salem and Felipe while on tour, to chat about the album A Cure To Poison The World, dark poetry inspiration and hopes of becoming a gateway band for others. 

For the new fans finding you now and also new musicians starting out tend to find this useful, how did it all begin for The Requiem? 

Damien – “Well, I think I started the band around 2020 and then I needed a producer so I met Salem at his house. I knew him for like a little bit but I never really worked with him before that. And I think, yeah, after the first time of me tracking vocals at his house, he was like, I’m impressed by this and I like it. And I had a full lineup for the band already back then but the members, they just weren’t trying to do it as much as I was. They didn’t even have their instruments or anything. They had their bass but they didn’t have their bass amp or anything. So Salem was like, just let me join in bass and we’ll continue from there. And then he put me in contact with Felipe because Felipe had worked with him in the past. And then Felipe came over to my house one day to show me some of the stuff that he was working on because he wanted me to do vocals on his stuff. And then I remember I brought up the idea. I was like, yo, this is incredible. Why don’t we just work on this together? And we put it under the band that I’m doing. And so I think from then on, we continued to write the remaining singles that we had at the time. And then Fearless Records found us within a year and a half. And since then, we went into working on the record and it came out last year in February. Just like that.” 

Your song Cursed is incredible, I was blown away when I heard it, can you tell me the story behind that song? 

Damien – “It’s a song about yearning for something, you know, it’s not meant for you, but somehow in the back of your mind, you still ask, you just continuously, stubbornly run towards it. So I thought it was cool. I liked it. And when I took it to Felipe, I think within the first 10 minutes of working on it, when he added that lead, I was like, yeah, this is going to be cool. And by the time we had the chorus done and we started on the bridge, it was like one of the most fun that I’ve ever had writing a song because we were just geeking over every little thing that we were adding. That song came together like super quickly. And I think it was just like two days of us working and probably a total of like four or five hours. I think it just happened so quickly and we were so excited that like I remember listening back after we had just a rough session, like we loved it so much.”

Who are you guys fans of that has helped to create your influences for the sound of the band? 

Damien – “I think we all have very broad music tastes, but we do have a lot of similarities between us three. And I think that whenever it comes to writing up until this point, we’ve all kind of brought those similar tastes into what we do. I think that because of my vocal style, whatever comes out from what we do will kind of have that reminiscent early 2000s sound to it. Because that’s how I learned how to sing by learning to sing all those songs that I grew up loving. But when it comes to instrumentals, like, yeah, no, there’s certainly lots and lots of, I guess, more theatrical influences. And I think that comes from all of us liking a lot of the theatrical stuff. Personally, I love MCR (My Chemical Romance). For Salem, he loves Panic at the Disco and a lot of the gothic stuff. So some more OG shit like The Cure and whatnot. And for Felipe, I feel like one of the things that he’s brought that has been really cool is some of the punkier stuff that I also grew up on, some of those songs that feel very early 2000s, like they would be in a video game like Burnout or Need for Speed. So it’s really cool to see how those influences that we have in common have been put in the music fairly well.” 

Yeah, absolutely. It really does. And actually your lyrics too. I like a good poetic lyric that’s intelligent. And it actually reminds me of one of my favourite lyricists, Ville Valo, of HIM. I haven’t come across this type of lyrical depth in a long time. And I’m curious, do you guys read a lot of poetry? Where does the inspiration come from?

Damien – “I do. I mean, I’m really glad that people see it, because I’ve only done so like little bits and pieces here and there that I’m actually proud of. But there’s certainly going to be a lot more of that in the newer stuff. Like I’ve been trying to really put my influences as far as lyricism go, because at first I was just trying to go for what was simple, something that was simple and catchy. That’s all I want to do. But now I think that it’s, you know, I don’t know how many more records I’m going to make, so I want to put all of it into it. And some of my influences are Arthur Rimbaud, Baudelaire. I like William Blake too. A lot of, yeah, a lot of very dark, almost apocalyptic type poetry. I’m very into that. And when it comes to music, I’m mostly inspired by lyricists that are outside of the heavier realm. Like, I really love Jeff Buckley. That is like my icon. And his lyricism is so dark, but it’s just in a way that if you didn’t read it, you won’t get it. And I like that. Obviously, you know, some of the more new age and gothic lyricism too. I love The Cure’s lyrics. And yeah, I love older bands like that. David Bowie, another big influence when it comes to lyrics. And then with the earlier emo bands too, I mean, there were a lot of screamo bands. I really, really, really, really love their lyrics. Like Moonraker, they have incredible lyrics. There’s that other band, Page 99. Page 99 has incredible lyrics too. A lot of those, I guess, were very influential to some of the stuff that is on the record that we’ve put out.” 

Your song I’ll Be Late For My Funeral is amazing, I noticed on the album A Cure To Poison The World that it is on twice, one’s a demo, one’s an album version. Was that done deliberately? Was there a reason behind it? 

Damien – “Yeah, exactly. So when we put out the new version, so many kids were like, you know, this kind of sucks. Bring back the old one. We were very perplexed. We’re like, there’s no fucking way that these kids are thinking that this one does not sound better than the other one. But alas, like, people will like what they like, you know, and I do agree, it did have some more like raw essence to it. And so now we were appreciative of it as much as we didn’t

agree. So when it came time to have the choice to put it back in the record as a demo, we did.” 

And I noticed on Instagram as well that you did a cover of Last Night by The Strokes.

Damien – “Yeah, that was Salem’s idea.” 

That was bloody brilliant, Salem. Do you guys plan to do anymore covers?

Damien – “I’ve been thinking about doing some covers for a live set. But we’ve done that in the past. And as much as it was fun, I do feel like whatever we do, I would want to do it in a way that we kind of make it our own. Kind of like how a lot of the artists that we liked did covers. Me and Salem are really big fans of Marilyn Manson. And as you know, his covers became his own songs at the end of the day. And like he truly revolutionised and gave them a new life, which is what I would like to do with a couple of songs that I have in mind. And, you know, the same way that Guns N’ Roses did it, too, with some of the songs that they covered. But I’m sure we’ll do a lot more other covers here and there, like smaller things like the one for social media and for content purposes. I personally want to do that on my TikTok and whatnot, but we’ll see. I mean, there’s so much stuff to do that I feel like it would be cool to associate ourselves with a little more to like having people make those connections in their heads as well.” 

I want to talk about your vocals as well. Who has helped influence you to want to be a singer and do you have any tips for kids starting out that can help them develop their vocals? 

Damien – “The first band I ever started singing to like, trying to see if I could really sing, was when I was very, very little. But I don’t really count that one because I sound nothing like what I was trying to sound like back then. And I was only doing it to like, entertain my grandma and my aunts and my mom. Like, it wasn’t like anything serious. But when I really tried to take up on a style of singing, I think it was Gerard Way and Ollie Sykes. Those were my two biggest influences. Like, Bring Me The Horizon became my very first, teenage band. Like I was so into every record. I watched every compilation of videos that they had. I used to watch that shit all the time. And I think their sound was just so different from record to record that it always inspired me like, Oh, I want to learn how to scream how he screams on that record now. And you know, but for singing, yeah, it was definitely Gerard Way. And maybe 30 Seconds To Mars too, like Jared Leto. Like I used to cover his songs when I was like 15 in my bedroom. But as far as tips for other singers, I don’t think I have any. I genuinely hate like, still to this day, the way I sound because I feel like, if I practised, I could sound a lot better. But I’m not like, trained vocally enough to learn like, when I’m really doing it right and when I’m not. So the way I look at it, it’s just like, if it feels cool to me, I’m sure it’ll feel cool to someone else. And so when I go in the studio or when I sing live, I just try to like, give it my all with how it feels. And if it feels right, I’m sure that maybe it won’t sound the best, but it’ll seem really cool and it’ll, you know, evoke, you know, maybe a cool reaction in people. So yeah, for screams though, I do have definitely a tip. Watch Phil Bozeman’s 10 Tips tutorial video.” 

Let’s go back in time a bit, do you remember the first time you ever performed in front of people? Did it go well? 

Damien – ‘I think I always constantly knew it. My family was into music. My dad used to promote shows. He used to manage his friends’ bands growing up. So I grew up around a lot of that, but it was very different. I was more into the heavy metal, new metal, hardcore world.

But looking back on it, my mom actually showed me a couple of home videos before I moved out of my house. She was like, I found these, you remember? And it was like a video of me covering an Iron Maiden song. I think it was Brave New World by Iron Maiden. I was like seven years old. And I was like faking English because at the time I didn’t speak English. It was me who was mouthing fake words. And yeah, that just made me realise I was like, shit, like maybe it was always meant to be. I just didn’t know. Cause it was definitely like the majority of my life, I did not know I was going to be doing anything like, especially music. I didn’t have it in my head.” 

What about you, Felipe? 

Felipe – “I don’t know. I think from a very young age I also grew up very involved in music. Cause my dad had a couple of different things like music work that he would do. He was a drummer as well, but I also was always put into performing arts programmes. And so I’d perform through that. And I don’t think I ever saw myself, you know, doing music in the way that I do now, but it just happened because it’s what I know how to do best, I think. And yeah, it just, I think there’s never been like a moment that was like, oh, this is like it, like it kind of just fell into place. It just happened. And it was in a way also always there.”

Born to do it. What about you Salem? 

Salem – “My first memory of performing, I was in my first band. I was like 17. It was called Deviant. It was terrible. But it was a fun show. I was super nervous. I remember that day. I was super nervous, but it was, right before I’m like, fuck. And then there’s like two songs left. And I was like, that felt like three seconds. Now I have to like, try to enjoy the rest of the set, which is fucking hilarious because like the entire day you’re waiting for the set and then it goes by in like three seconds and then you’re done and you’re like, all right, I guess it’s over now. Let’s try again tomorrow. So, but yeah, first show. Yeah, I remember it was in this place called Anonymous Guitars. And it was, yeah, it was my band Deviant and we’re opening for, I couldn’t, I couldn’t even remember the name, but it was, it was an okay show. People were moshing. So it was fun.” 

All right. We have another fun question for you. This one is if you could take the Requiem back in time, what decade would you go to, to perform in?

Damien – “I feel like the eighties cause we’d get to hang out with all the best bands that ever existed. And also we would get to be ahead of the curve by like fucking 20 years. I would be like that guy from the movie, the hot tub time machine.” 

What do you hope fans take from your music? 

Damien – “I would love to eventually become a gateway band for people to find all the bands that inspired us. I don’t want to say we are reinventing the fucking wheel here or anything, just trying to show up and give flowers to everything that made me interested in this and by doing that we will be able to do this for other kids in the future and other bands that want to do a similar sound we are doing. For me there were all the bands that influenced me and I hope to be that for another band one day.” 

Finally my favourite song of yours is Diary of a Maschochist, it is incredibly well done, that piano piece in it is genius! How did the composition of this song begin?

Damien – “For the Composition we had the basic idea of it and Steve was like there is a lot in this song, the instrumentals were just Steve, Salem and Felipe going full beautiful mind on them, especially the bridge. When I was in the room for that, I didn’t have much input on the bridge, but I was like, yeah this is going to be so good, then when I finally got to put vocals

over it, the instrumental was just so good that, that I barely had any lyrics for it, and they were just pouring out so easily. I remember coming up with the idea of making it about puppets, and Salem was like we should do it about puppets who are being controlled by this character but then at the time I had just read up on and watched 3 different movies about Elizabeth Bathory, and so I wanted to write more like about that. This is such a weird creepy concept and I was going to make it from her perspective, like being in love and then eventually killing them and doing what she did. The lyrics and the bridge are the highlights of the whole record for me. The idea of the piano, we were like that has to be in it and Steve went to the piano and had us 3 record him and yeah that is how it happened.” 

A Cure To Poison The World is out now via Fearless Records