[Music Is My Therapy S2] Episode 5 ft. dia maté

dia maté, is a young singer, songwriter and producer from the Philippines. She is the next artist being featured on Music Is My Therapy Season 2.

The artist is paving the way for women in a male-dominated music industry. She started posting song covers on her Soundcloud and YouTube accounts years ago and in March 2021, she released her debut single “Heart Hates Me” under her label Island Records Philippines. Her sound is described as such: “with influences of neo-soul and a mix of r&b and indie-pop paired with her classic jazzy voice, her brand of music is fresh yet familiar.”

For the 5th episode, dia maté performs an acoustic version of her track, “Faded.” The track was originally released through her debut EP Don’t Quote Me.

About dia maté

“Music is my therapy,” dia maté says. Her emotional experiences, especially sadness, find their place in her music. “When I’m sad, the best music comes out of me.” Much of her music to date comes from that place, and her first single, “Hearts Hate Me,” is one good example.

The sound of this song, produced by CRWN, betrays those emotional currents. Over a gentle ¾ rhythm, the song paints a picture of love forsaken, and as the chorus builds to its climactic lyric: “my heart officially hates me,” there is the sense that she wants us to feel the pain with her. As it abruptly ends when we expect to hear a resolution, we feel the sense that the story is not quite over.

dia started her musical journey thanks to the influence of her mother’s side of the family, who often performed music. At the age of seven, she persuaded her mother to enroll her in piano lessons. She was envious of her friends, who would often come up and play the classroom piano. She continued learning the piano up until high school. And when the ukulele craze came about, she began to learn that instrument. She then ended up learning the guitar after that.

dia’s first public performance was at a mall recital, where she was asked to sing. The song was “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt. She felt a great deal of stage fright on that occasion, but she eventually overcame her fear of performing. She realized that performing itself would help cure the fright. “I just need to go on the stage and sing,” she says, and the terror would go away.

Two significant sets of influences drive this musical journey that dia is on. Her primary genre of choice is R&B, and she is very fond of the music of Frank Ocean, Daniel Caesar, UMI, SZA, and H.E.R. She also finds value in indie pop and rock thanks to her father, and two of the biggest names on her list is Dave Matthews (and his namesake band) and Norah Jones. dia says that she couldn’t sleep without Jones’ distinctive, soothing voice serenading her when she was very young.

It is the lyricism of R&B that has the strongest influence on her music, dia says. “You don’t really have to listen to the lyrics to feel the emotion in the song,” she says, “If you listen to the instrumentation, some of the words, the melodies, you know what they’re going for. And that’s what I really want to put out in my music as well.” However, like another young musician, Billie Eilish, she does not want to be pigeonholed into one genre or another. Her music aims to draw as many people as she could into the emotional palette she paints. “I just love making music that’s music,” she says, “as long as it sounds good.”

It is, therefore, not hard to find that common thread between dia’s music and the art and fashion in which she also has some interest. She became interested in fashion and art in her middle school years, where she started drawing and sketching. The reality TV fashion competition Project Runway was also a big deal for her, which whetted her interest. She met her best friend through a drawing class they took in a fashion school together. However, when she had to choose between art and music as she completed her International Baccalaureate diploma, she chose music.

Apart from fashion and music, sports and fitness are another passion dia has. She has pursued many sports over the years, including tennis, volleyball, figure skating, snowboarding, and most recently, surfing. She began, however, to consciously pursue fitness training through the popular fitness regimen CrossFit, and she says that she found the people she trained with at the Habitat Fitness gym supportive. “They really push you,” she says, “and you can’t slack.” Fitness is another shared interest she has with her father, to whom she is quite close.

[dia releases her music through] Island Records Philippines, and she praises the label for letting her pursue her musical journey on her terms. “Island’s a very pro-artist label,” she says, “they really support the music that I want to make. They don’t force me to sound a specific way.” As local music’s next It Girl, dia says, “I just hope that…people will enjoy my music, and add it to their playlists, and just really connect. That’s important. I want them to connect with what I’m trying to put out. And for them to relate with me. Because I think of my music as raw, and relatable, and real.”