Alchemy Heroes founder, Kurtis Berger was an impressionable kid in third grade the first time he saw the Beatles moves A Hard Days’ Night when his obsession and passion for music and drums got a hold of him. Like most small kids with big dreams, Kurtis was air drumming or banging homemade drum kits out of buckets and construction paper cymbals attached to firetruck ladders and Lincoln Logs as cymbal stands. Dare we venture to discuss his creative mind streak now? High School didn’t disappoint in firing a budding musicians’ passion.

 

“I always wanted to be in a band, and I always wanted to achieve the highest success possible with my instrument. It became something where if I didn’t give it an honest go, then I would always wonder; and I knew I genuinely couldn’t live without knowing I really did all I could to try and make this happen.” ~~Kurtis Berger

 

Alchemy Heroes started in the Berger Brothers one bedroom Hollywood apartment, soon morphing into a trio. The writing process began in 2007 with the band evolving through a number of players coming in and out of the lineup. A mutual friend introduced Kurtis to Lucas Holter in 2013. Lucas was the front man of Midwest rock band, Starving for Gravity, which had just split and Lucas was trying to decide if he wanted to jump on a new horse or take his life in a different direction. Lucas put his wager into Alchemy Heroes and brought along his friend Ben Jindra, who had just left the successful band, Angels Fall. At the time, Alchemy Heroes had a couple of gents on guitar, the talented Steve Stout of Blonde Fire acclaim and Timmy D, front man of the national touring band, Pullman Standard.

 

Alchemy wrote and recorded material through Spring 2014 before Steve and Timmy hit the road with their bands, leaving Alchemy’s lineup in flux. A few months later, Steve rang Kurtis to tell him about an “awesome guy who is one hell of a guitar player I think you should meet.” Kurtis call Awesome Guy, who turned out to be Joe Devenney, who patiently endured Kurtis’ pitch through multiple dropped calls thanks to Hollywood’s Laurel Canyon. The “stick to itiveness” of that/those phone calls brought Ben, Lucas, Joe and Kurtis together later that week and it clicked!

 

Like every band means a lot of things in a lot of ways, Alchemy Heroes pays homage to the grand question of the ages: WHAT IF?! There is an underlying focus on all that you can’t ignore inside yourself when everything seems to be falling apart. More than anything, Alchemy Heroes plays the music they wish they heard on the radio. Dave Grohl once described the term “Populist Rock,” which is where Kurtis feels Alchemy Heroes is at. They just do not identify a specific demographic or the overall general public t play to. Instead, they play what they feel and what they like with the hope that it may resonate with others and perhaps be reason enough to listen again.

 

We are Alchemy Heroes, and we hope you will share joy in being part of this wild ride that we are on.