We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Via Diocares. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Via below.

Via , appreciate you joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

My dad was pastor when I was growing up and so I spent most of my childhood at church. Church and music often go hand in hand. The musical instruments were always available for us kids to use and play with and everybody was always encouraged to sing and perform with no shame. Kids should be able to make as much noise as they want if I’m being serious. It was really nice, honestly. Like, I don’t think a lot of kids get to experience that sort of access and exposure to musicality in that way and at such an early age.

Along with that, my mother was a music teacher for many years and so as soon as I could hold myself up as a child, they put me in front of piano. Every year, she would have two piano recitals for all of her students and wanted to make sure I was included. There’s video footage somewhere of me going up to the piano in my little dress, doing a curtsy, and then playing whatever I wanted to play as a four year-old. My parents titled the “pieces” I played “Anything” and “Whatever” and laugh about it whenever it’s brought up in conversation. Eventually, I learned how to read notes and perform actual and written pieces of music but yeah, I think one thing that my parents did right was allow me to perform music no matter what circumstances. It’s really nice that they encouraged me from a young age to just do things without expecting perfection.

I don’t know who I would be had my parents approached music and performance any differently. Honestly. I think growing up with my parents’ methods and attitudes toward performing and music learning really allowed me to build a healthy relationship with performing because now, I don’t really get stage fright, which is something I am super grateful for., considering I do struggle with anxiety and I think the last place I’d want to panic is on stage. Like if anything, I’m almost itching to perform as regularly as I can because I’ve been performing in front of people for so long and I can’t think of anybody else at that stage in my life that would have given me that pathway and opportunity.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Via Diocares and I’m a singer and songwriter from Covina, California. I am 23 years old and I like to write songs that are an honest uncovering of the subconscious. There’s so much that gets pushed down from our awareness as we go about our day-to-day and so I found songwriting to be so therapeutic and grounding for me. It’s a creative process so what that means is whoever I am when I start writing a song is a very different from the person that gets to perform the finished song in front of people and even after that, I’ll be different. I believe that I got into songwriting to make sense of the everyday disarray that occurs and to store the plethora of feelings that can occur in a moment in time neatly into a box.

Music has always been sewn into the lining of my life. I had written so many songs since I was so young that had nowhere to go and it wasn’t until I was about 21 years old that I set my foot down for myself and cried from the innate need to have my songs out in the world. There was this level of optimal frustration that needed to be and occur for me to finally be brave enough to release music and perform it. Even if it’s been about 2 years of performing under my own name, it still feels like an act of bravery every time I take a step forward with this project.

Truthfully, I don’t desire at all to be famous. I would however, love for my music to resonate with people, that whatever meaning I’ve found for myself can translate over to others. I’m really proud of the tenderness that’s come out of my music, whether within myself or from what I’ve received from other people. People have been so kind about my music and it’s always a novel feeling, something new every time. Yea, honestly, it never gets old. I also feel like I owe so much to music, so, it has nothing to do with fame.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is that I get to make music with my friends and that is the best part about all of this. Like I get to share this process with people and it’s not lonely at all. While the writing component of making music is a pretty solitary process, the production and performance of it is not and that is a very wonderful thing.

I have my friend Dani Lasmarias, who plays drums with me and does most of my production as well as James Russell who’s an amazing guitarist and they have been alongside me in every step of this project. It’s been incredibly rewarding watching us grow as people and musicians together, refining our chemistry and camaraderie with one another. I love them both so dearly. Like I can’t help but gush about these people. I know there’s this stereotype of musicians carrying heavy egos that make it hard to work together so I consider myself super lucky that I get to work with such wonderful people who also happen to be fantastic and talented musicians. So yeah, while I adore performing and releasing music, surrounding myself with good people the most rewarding aspect of all this. No question.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

As a society, I think it’s important to stay curious and connected with one another when it comes to supporting artists and creatives. Stay curious about smaller artists and dig deeper into their discographies and maybe even make it out to a show when they come into town. Don’t gate keep and be enthusiastic about smaller artists to your friends. Listen to playlists made by people. Listen to the music someone says they think you would like. Buy merchandise and music in physical forms. Allow yourself to be impressed by creativity and don’t wait for the algorithm to feed you something good. Trust that there’s so much good art out there that requires curiosity to be uncovered.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @viadiocares
• Youtube: @viadiocares9061

Image Credits

Quentin Reynera
Alec Escarcega
Brandon Le