Yo!! ZZISCO here–thanks for stopping back by! I had the pleasure of sitting down with the lovely Diana Chow! I originally met Diana during quarantine at Hyperflow and luckily for us–we’re both chill peeps!
Nevertheless, Diana Chow has got it going on! She use to be a software developer where she worked at Garmin as well as Twitter. Now she’s living in LA as a full-time artist, producer, and audio engineer. Enjoy!
Diana Chow-who is she?
What’s your vision with your music career?
It’s fairly broad–I want to continue to put out my own music and develop my own material and feel like my craft is improving. Something constant in my tracks are chill beats, vocal layers and harmonies, and synthesizers. I like playing with sounds that are atypical for certain genres. My released songs tend to be about my dating/love life or relationships. I find that when I work on my own music/songs, it becomes an outlet for me to tap into parts of myself that I don’t necessarily express in any other place.
What are the values within your brand?
Authenticity, unpolished/DIY, quirky, and humorous. For example, with my newest single Undone, I find it to be humorous. The topic may be serious, but part of me writing that song was making light of it. The feeling of desire sometimes can push you over the edge and it can be kind of funny.
My intention was to carry over that humor in making the visuals for Undone, which was a really fun process for me and the first time I’ve spent a substantial amount of time (with the help of my friends–shoutout to Stephen, Maria, and Mat!) on visuals for my music.
What’s your perspective on past-lives?
I’ve never really been a past-life believer. Although, I am open to the possibility that it exists. But I guess I have never personally identified with it. I’ve never had the thought, “Oh I must have or might have been this in my past life,” as I’ve heard others do.
How would you combine your tech background with your music if possible?
That’s a great question. I haven’t spent much time thinking about it, but I have had passing thoughts about making a tool for artists/producers. Something that interests me is helping creative people, so maybe a tool or a service to help that community. Whether that’s software, an app, or maybe a plug-in/VST, or something else entirely, I’m not sure.
Something I have reflected on though is that a lot of what I learned working in tech was not necessarily the actual coding/technology itself (there was a lot of that too though!), but other skills as well like managing projects and executing them, working and communicating with others, managing my time, and learning new things. Those are all things I carry into my music projects as well and will probably help me with anything I’m working on.
Who’s your favorite backstreet boy?
Nick Carter
What’s your perspective on psychedelics?
I’ve read that a psychedelic experience is what happens when your brain isn’t inhibited by the world or society, and causes you to “free your mind” as they say.
Did you like video games when you were younger?
Yeah! Thanks to my older brother John. We had a Playstation, N64, Dreamcast, Sega Genesis, even an original NES really early on, so I was pretty into video games. I remember liking Tony Hawk, Crazy Taxi, and Super Puzzle Fighter the most. I also loved this arcade game called Beatmania which is like DDR but uses a turntable and 5 piano keys.
Diana Chow’s Extracurricular Activities
How did your involvement with Hyperflow start?
I started going to Hyperflow since I moved to LA 2 years ago. I go every month, it’s a commitment I made to myself because I love it so much and I haven’t missed one since. At some point I reached out to Tomas and Johnathan to offer to help out and have hosted it twice now. My favorite part of Hyperflow is the listening party at the end when everyone plays their finished song because you get to see how the same creative prompt results in so many different styles and directions from different producers.
How did the podcast come about?
My friend Maria and I had lunch one day and she had the idea of starting a podcast where we casually chat about a specific topic each episode and involve snacks, asked if I’d be down, and I was like hell yeah. It’s mostly for the fun of it. We also wanted to support or add to the diversity of voices within podcasting, and it’s been a fun learning experience for me co-producing and editing a podcast for the first time.
In your podcast, Maria said she had a shrine of Orlando Bloom, if you had a shrine of someone who would it be?
I didn’t have a shrine of anyone when I was a kid though I did have celeb crushes. Right now I also don’t think I have anybody for that. Maybe a shrine of some cute animals like a red panda just to brighten my day whenever I see it. Shrines aren’t really my thing I guess.
what do you prefer more between being an artist or being an audio engineer?
I’d say I take more personal gratification from the artist route (e.g., singing, songwriting, and producing my own material). I really enjoy producing for others as well, am honored to be a part of the creative expression of others, and like contributing my creative ideas and seeing what happens.
The artist route is especially gratifying for me though because it’s an outlet of my thoughts, emotions, or whatever I’m going through at that time. It’s a deeper layer of relating to the creation if that makes sense. It’s been interesting for me to also discover how the songs my collaborators write often resonate with me too or have in the past in some way.
Diana Chow’s Newest Release, Undone
Walk us through the creative process of how you made undone?
This song had an interesting path. Most of the songs I’ve released or plan to release were started in workshops like Hyperflow. For this song, I started it in Charlie Puth’s Monthly class and after the course ended, I kept working on it. Then I took it to a songwriting class at UCLA with Jameel Roberts who wrote with Ariana Grande on thank u, next and it was really helpful and motivating to get his feedback on it. He’s an excellent songwriter and instructor, and an inspiring person in general.
So yeah this song took an interesting journey compared to my other tracks, which tend to mostly stay within my home studio until they’re released.
What emotions and thoughts were you trying to convey?
It was inspired by events that happened in my life at the time. It’s not a story I made up. I may have exaggerated some parts of it but it definitely was sourced from stuff that happened to me in a previous relationship and how I was feeling.
What’s the vibe of your new song? What do the lyrics mean?
It’s about the feeling of desire for somebody who temporarily leaves and you know they’re gonna be back but you still want them–it’s that moment.
Is there a significance with the lyrics and the visuals that you’re doing on social media with Undone?
My friend Stephen Ettu and I were brainstorming ideas for video visuals and we latched on to the idea of juxtaposing opposite things. That’s what we were going for with the visuals. You think this character is prim and proper but she can also be rough, messy, and dirty.
The burger eating was also a reference to the line “I’m hungry and I need your lovin’” in the song. We also wanted to inject humor into it as I mentioned earlier since the song playfully pokes fun at this kind of desire.
Diana Chow’s Personal Philosophies
What advice would you give to someone who’s a hater?
I would say there’s probably a better place to put that energy. I think that’s all I would say. Also I would only give this advice to a hater if they asked, otherwise I don’t think it would matter what I said.
Tips for being self-disciplined from a full-time artist perspective?
Learn to focus well and take breaks. If you’re good at staying focused and go overboard with that, it could be bad for your health, which is where the breaks come in. For me, I find 90 minutes of focusing and then taking a 20-30 minute break to be my personal sweet spot. Find what works best for you.
What helps you to be a good person?
Doing my morning routine. Every morning, I go outside and do some meditation or breathwork and positivity journaling, which is writing down positive aspects of a few different topics, whatever comes to mind that morning. I also use the Calm app, which has an emotional check-in and allows you to journal about that as well.
What advice would you give to someone who complains?
I would encourage that person to try to come up with something positive instead, and if they can’t or if that doesn’t work, to think about something else or I would completely change the topic on them if we were conversing.
How would you define spirituality?
I would define it as identifying or putting attention on things that are not physical, but instead have energy.
What’s Diana’s 5 life tips for being happy?
In no particular order:
- Make positivity and gratitude a regular thing
- Be in the present moment as much as you can
- Prioritize sleep
- Be mindful and deliberate of what you feed your brain (media, news, topics) and your body (food and drink) and how those things affect you
- Do things that are fun for you
Dive Deeper into Diana Chow’s Mind
Have you been thinking about anything recently that’s weird or interesting that you haven’t really shared with anyone?
I was recently recommended this book called, Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz. The author takes math and probability concepts and explains them in layman’s terms by relating them to real-life scenarios or how they could play out in the real world. He also writes about chaos theory and the idea of infinity. For example, how there are different sizes of infinity, which is an idea I never considered before reading the book.
In my mind, there was only one infinity “size” and it represents an endless amount. But he challenges that and explains it in a way that’s understandable. One of his examples involves a gigantic barrel and an infinite number of balls but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t explain it well so I’d suggest reading the book if you’re interested. So this is what’s been on my mind recently.
Newest non musical inspirations?
People who come to mind for me lately are self-improvement and/or spiritual teachers. I follow some of their content, don’t subscribe 100% to their theories, but I take the parts that resonate with me and that I feel help me in my life. Some examples that come to mind are Eckhart Tolle, Abraham Hicks, and the I-Ching.
How many genders are there?
Maybe infinite, maybe none.
Water parks or amusement parks?
Amusement parks with water rides.
Rapid Fire Questions (it’s either this or that)
- Aliens or Humans? Aliens
- Tech-House or Miami Bass? Miami Bass
- Your Grandma or a Newborn Baby? I can’t (lol)
- Life or Rebirth? Life
- Hong Kong or Taiwan? Taiwan
Thank you so much for reading! Check out Diana’s links:
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/dianachow
IG: https://www.instagram.com/dianachowmusic/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/17nCZHaF4zaxkMmqxRmycU?si=MbXsBksUTwy8TU87lbxvsw
Top site ,.. amazaing post ! Just keep the work on !
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