Interview with Diamante
February 1, 2022
By Mary Andrews
Diamante is a rising star on the rock music scene and is described as a siren bringing new fire to rock and alternative music with a show stopping voice. She released her sophomore album, American Dream, in the middle of the pandemic. Diamante’s fearlessness sets her apart from other women in music today. She is on tour and she took time out to speak with Unrated Magazine. Here’s what we learned.
Mary Andrews: How do I address you? Do I call you Diamante?
Diamante: You can call me Diamante or you can call me Dee.
MA: Are you in Tucson or still in California?
Diamante: I’m actually in Las Vegas. I will play in Las Vegas tonight and in Tucson tomorrow night.
MA: I read online that you were born in Massachusetts. Were you born in Massachusetts or California?
Diamante: I was born in Irvine, California. I grew up in Boston and I came back to LA. I feel like I’m half and half. I went to elementary school in Boston. I spent high school in California. I feel like my heart is in two different places.
MA: Were your parents into music?
Diamante: They’ve always been into music. I know my dad would always listen to music, but as far as singing capabilities or playing instruments, they don’t really perform. It’s always been a bit of a mystery where my singing came from. Maybe from my grandfather who loved classical music.
MA: How did you get into music?
Diamonte: For me, it started with me just singing in my room. I spent hours and hours (singing) to Disney Movies. I loved to sing. I think my parents realized how much I would sing every day. They put me in musical theatre. That’s how I discovered how I loved being on stage. I loved to perform. I just kept doing it. I kept doing musical theatre productions. When we moved out to LA at 13, I did school of rock summer camp. That’s where I discovered rock music. I love to perform rock music and it’s been that way since.
MA: Do you play any instruments?
Diamante: I tried picking up guitar when I was younger. Now I’m really trying to learn the piano. I learned piano on one of my songs, “Lovable,“ recently for a music video. I found that I really liked the piano, so I’ve been practicing every day trying to get the point that, hopefully, I can get up on stage and maybe play a song on piano one day.
MA: Do you write all of your songs?
Diamante: I do. I also cowrite with a lot of writers and on my first album there was a ton of writers. On my second album, I honed it in to about five people that I really liked writing with and who I thought I would get my best material with. I may come into the session with an idea already or a cut, title, melody or some type of concept. Or maybe I’ll have an entire verse and chorus written and I just need someone’s help to guide me to the finish point. It’s always something collaborative. Every song is different.
MA: I noticed you have been working with Breaking Benjamin. What was it like to work with them?
Diamante: They are an awesome band. They are very nice guys. They always treated me super well, super respectful. I’ve known them now since 2018 I’ve opened with them three times. They’ve been really great. I did a song “Ben” from Breaking Ben not too long ago. We did a cover of “Iris” that was so awesome. I was so honored to do that song with them.
MA: How has the pandemic affected your work?
Diamante: It presented a lot of curve balls that we’ve all had to deal with. Especially when it comes to making an album, when it comes to touring, I’m on tour right now and even putting this thing together is so much more complicated than normal because logistically you have to think about an entire new layer of things than you had to before. With the album American Dream, it was supposed to come out in 2020. When I was in the shut down, I thought okay let’s pause for a minute, let’s put out songs one by one. We’ll see how they do. Then May of 2021, we decided it’s time now. The pandemic shifted a lot of things
The album came out in May and could not just sit on it any longer since I’ve it ready for two years. I wanted the fans to hear it. I wanted to show it. I wanted to share it. So I decided to release it and see what happens.
MA: A lot of performers have released albums during this time. They have had more time to write new music. Who knows how long the pandemic will be around.
Diamante: I always try to see the silver lining in things.
MA: If you have to live for an entire year with only three albums to listen to, what would those albums be>
Diamante: Laughing, that’s a good question. I think Appetite for Destruction (Guns ‘n Roses) would have to be one. Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt is another. Maybe a pop album to break it up for the third, Let Go by Avril Lavigne.
MA: What music are you listening to in your car now?
Diamante: These days I’ve been listening to a lot of Muse. I like a new band called Maneskin. I like a band called Nothing But Thieves. I’m listening to newer alt rock bands.
MA: Dead or alive, who would you like to meet?
Diamante: I would love, love, love to meet Joan Jett because she has always been a personal hero of mine. I’ve never met her. I would love to be able to tell her how her perserverance inspired me to also perservere and how I think she is so cool.
MA: Dead or alive, who would you like to see perform?
Diamante: She (Joan Jett) is definitely on that list too because I’ve never seen her live. I would really like to see the band Nuse because Used videos seem to be insanely good live and I love a lot of their music. I love a lot of their songs.
MA: If you weren’t a singer or musician, what would you be?
Diamante: I’ve thought about this and I think I would be a multitude of things. I would either be a secret spy agent or a professional food critic who gets paid to just eat food. I would be a travel journalist because I love to travel. Or I would be something where I would work with dogs every day.
MA: Did you bring your dog with you on tour?
Diamante: Not on tour. He’s at home.
MA: Who is your biggest influence?
Diamante: Musically, I would have to say overall, the women of the 80s. When I discovered rock music, it was classic rock. That’s how I found Joan Jett, Pat Benetar, and Stevie Nicks and Debbie Harry. I love the grit in their voices. Even though they were stylish on stage, feminine and beautiful, they still had this grit in their voice. I always loved how they sounded. Consciously, I kind of emulate that to this day when I sing.
MA: You mentioned that you would be a food critic. Do you cook?
Diamante: (Laughing) That’s the funny thing. I’m a terrible cook. I’m just a really great eater.
MA: What is the most fun album you have ever worked on?
Diamante: I think this last one, American Dream, has to be the most fun. I didn’t have a label telling me exactly what the album had to sound like or who I needed to be. I really got to make so many decisions on this last album and it really felt like me. It’s 100 percent Diamante. To me, that is the most fun because I had all the freedom in the world to do it.
MA: What is the worst job you’ve ever had?
Diamonte: I was 16 and it was my first job and I had to chop salad. Chop salads at rapid speed for people. Not too bad.
MA: If you had a super power, what would you want it to be?
Diamante: If I had a superpower, I think I would want the ability to fly. I would also like to add the ability to teleport so I could be in Rome and then in Tokyo and then be back in LA. I think that would be amazing.
MA: Burger or Tofu?
Diamante: Burger all the way. Definitely burger.
MA: Boiled or fried?
Diamante: That depends. Nine out of ten times I would go with fried.
MA: If you could star in a remake of any movie, what would that movie be?
Diamante: I would love to be in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. A character who rides a horse and fights with a sword. That would be amazing.
MA: Do you have a dream you would like to come true?
Diamante: I do have some bucket lists. Winning a Grammy is up there. That would be an incredible thing to happen. Also, I would love to play Madison Square Garden. That would be incredible. I would love to have a full-on world tour would be the peak of everything for me.
MA: That may very well happen sooner than later. What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
Diamante: Trust the process because the music business can be very frustrating. There is a lot of hurry up and wait. There is a lot of waiting and you have to be patient. Sometimes, timelines don’t happen the way you want them to or things don’t happen the way you want them to, but it always works out in the end. When I look back on my life, everything happens for a reason. So now I go with the flow. Just like with the pandemic, things don’t happen the way I would like them to and you have to work around it. You must remember why you started it in the first place because the industry can be so frustrating. I try to remember the passion of why I did this in the first place and that is because I love music. I love to sing. And that is really what matters at the end of the day.
