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.