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Diary of Dreams started in 1989 as the project of Adrian Hates, who took the name from a little composition for classic guitar called “Tagebuch der Träume”. Hailing from the West German city of Düsseldorf, Adrian’s musical education had been exclusively classical, and when he first heard electronic music on the radio, he was transfixed. Therefore, his own musical development was very distinctively influenced by the combination of the electronic sounds of the 1980s and his own classical background, culminating in the desire to merge both worlds in his very own, personal way.

He started to play classical guitar at the age of nine, and a few years later, his first electric guitar opened a wealth of new possibilities for him. Music became a substitute world. At the age of 15, he decided he also wanted to try his hand on the piano and took lessons, and only a little later, his sound spectrum was expanded by drum machines, keyboards and the first Atari computer. He worked on his own, not by choice but simply because it proved nearly impossible to find musicians sharing his own musical vision. In the end, necessity became a virtue: From the early days, this mode of operation determined the unique and extraordinary character of Diary of Dreams.

In 1994, after a number of demo recordings that all failed to satisfy Adrian’s high musical standards, Diary of Dreams released their debut album Cholymelan. It received enthusiastic press reviews and conquered the hearts of many music lovers with a penchant for darker sounds.
Soon afterwards, Hates decided to launch his own label, Accession Records; the workaholic felt a deep mistrust towards the music industry, and the urge to control every little detail seemed vital to him at the time.
Two years later, Diary of Dreams’ second album, End Of Flowers, was released indeed on Accession – just as every other Diary album until the present day. By now, Diary of Dreams look back on 26 different releases, among them a DVD, a few singles, two EPs, a critically acclaimed acoustic album and 12 regular studio albums such as the seminal Nigredo with the legendary photo shooting on Iceland, or the enormously successful latest release, hell in Eden.

Held in high regard by his fans also for his lyrics, Hates is well-known for his metaphorical language and the expressive and ambiguous descriptions of the matters on his mind. He writes mostly in English, but sometimes also in German – the language of choice, he says, tends to be determined by the song itself.

While Diary of Dreams’ line-up has undergone a number of changes, mastermind and singer Adrian Hates has come ever closer and closer to his vision for the project, and thus, to his dreams.

Since the first note rang out of the Diary, the band has been playing about 500 concerts in almost 40 countries, with no end in sight. According to Adrian, it will be the last thing he ever does in his life.

A life with and for music.