Joel Valdez was born on the 12th of August of 1974 in San Antonio, Texas. His father was in Human Resource Management, his mother was a Surgical Nurse and always played music in the house while he was growing up. Albums that would be played in the Valdez household ranged everywhere from big band swing to movie soundtracks to country and western.

Joel grew up around the Texas blues rock influences that were ubiquitous in South Texas, but his older siblings and friends in the neighborhood introduced him to bands like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest at a young age.

Joel started playing drums at the age of 11 in middle school. His early musical influences were Dave Lombardo, Charlie Benante, and Neil Peart almost exclusively. He spent countless hours playing through cassette tapes to his favorite bands in middle school.

In 7th grade Joel met the late Shawn Terry (guitarist from Guilty Strangers) as a classmate. Joel and Shawn started Bastard Squad and they began to record cassette tapes of songs they would write at school.

Joel has played in the following bands:

Bastard Squad

Idiosynchracy

Dead Friday

The Carls - Rush Tribute

Fallen Under

3rd War

Sever the Ties

Night Shift

Armed and Dangerous - Anthrax Tribute

Stricken - Disturbed Tribute

Spitfire

Laid to Rest - Lamb of God Tribute

Blood Moon

Chillfactor