Charlie Parra del Riego

Early life

Born in Lima, Peru, Charlie was thirteen years old when he started to learn his first instrument, which was a Peruvian Cajón. 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. 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.

Difonía

Charlie started Difonía with a few friends (Ricardo Mendez, Sergio Guerra and Nachi Benza) in year 2003 as a hardcore punk act with heavy metal influences. With this band he composed and recorded the guitars of their 3 albums: “Camino Difícil” (2004), “Tarde o Temprano” (2007) and “Génesis” (2010). 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.

In 2010 they played in the Colombian festival "Altavoz Festival 2010" 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.

In 2012 Charlie quit Difonía due musical differences and to pursue a solo career. Difonía eventually disbanded and Charlie left Peru to join Canadians Kobra and the Lotus. After leaving Kobra and the Lotus, Charlie re formed DIfonía on 2015.

Serial Asesino

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

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. This was a great honour to Charlie, since he was a huge fan of the band. 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. 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 that led his channel to one of the most viewed of the year. 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, Call of Duty figure Sandy Ravage and Swiss game commentator Diablox9.

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

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. In January 2014, Charlie traveled to France to record guitars for French project "The Lost Rockers".

In 2015, Charlie became the first South American artist to have a signature guitar by Kramer Guitars USA and the Gibson corporation, leading this to a NAMM performance on January. Back in Lima, his band featuring the Castillo brothers supported Slash during his South American leg of the tour and this performance became the live Blu-ray Charlie en el Parque 2015. Charlie performed as a solo artist in the Hellfire Tavern, at Hellfest 2015 in Nantes, France.

In February 2016, Charlie performed with the Bicentenario Symphonic Orchestra at Gran Teatro Nacional. It was a sold out concert. Charlie also toured in Germany and Mexico to perform as a solo artist in World of Warcraft expansions release parties and at the Overwatch release. He also worked on the music for a Duke Nukem release trailer.

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".

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.

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).

Charlie is currently sponsored by Kramer Guitars, EMG Pickups, Dean Markley Strings and Razer.