Daiela: In Illuminating Conversation

Luxurient harmony stacks, sonic panoramas that teem with infectious grooves, and a voice delivered directly from the Cosmos. Such is Daiela. Fresh off the heels of her latest release "Joke", the ascending songstress continues on a steady trajectory to becoming one of the most captivating and cutting-edge artists to usher in the next generation of R&B.

Born and raised on the west side of Los Angeles, Daiela has spent her entire life training for this. In fact, she was born for it. Brought up in a household of incredible musicality, her musicianship basically began in the womb. Nurtured by the talents and guidance of her family, her artistry has blossomed into what it is today: an enthralling amalgamation of neo-soul, funk, R&B, and hyperpop influences. A singer, song-writer, producer, and creative director; Daiela is undoubtedly a true force of nature to be reckoned with.

Balancing her energy between her rapidly accelerating musical ascension and majoring in complexative studies at Brown University, Daiela sat down with Pookie over Zoom to discuss what went into the making of her latest single "Joke", the importance of family ties, her first headline show, and tips for scatting. Read our conversation below.

Hey Daiela! Stoked to chat with you today. How’s everything going?

Everything is good! Thank you for having me!

You’ve just released your latest single “Joke”, how are you feeling now that it’s out in the world?

I’m really excited that people finally get to hear this song. I’ve been working on it with my brother for so long! I think we started it 3 years ago and put it to the side, but it’s always been in the back of our minds. And then I was like, "I think I need to put this out". So I’m really excited that people can hear it.

Can you share the backstory for this track? What called you to make it?

I think originally we were writing for a different artist, and the more we worked on it, the more we both liked it. My brother was like, “You should just keep this one” and I was like, “Okay, yeah”. So the story is basically made up, but it’s just a super silly fun relationship song. I did pull from experience and friends’ stories, but I don’t have anyone to call out.

What’s the first joke that comes to your mind? What’s something that made you laugh recently?

I have a really stupid joke. You ready? I don’t even know how you would write this. Maybe you’ve heard this:

What is a DJ’s son’s name?

Er-rick.

(Pookie laughs)

I’ve also been watching a lot of Rick and Morty, and I think it’s the best show in the world and I just love it. It definitely makes me giggle.

Your vocal ability is insane, your technique is impeccable, and there’s a richness to your voice that is so captivating. How long have you been singing and who are some vocalists that have inspired you?

That’s so sweet thank you so much! I have been singing really since I could talk. My whole family is musicians, so they would kind of just make me sing. My dad’s side of the family grew up in the church, so sometimes we would visit and it would be a gospel choir situation. Some artists that really mean a lot to me would be Ella Fitzgerald, on the jazz side of things. I take a lot of inspiration from scatting and jazz themes and stuff like that. We love Jasmine Sullivan, her runs are amazing. I love Chaka Kan, Lauryn Hill I really love, and my mom is the person who taught me how to sing so I also love her voice so much.

Your entire family is musicians, your mom specifically being a vocal coach and producer. What practices for maintaining a healthy vocal have you learned from her?

Yeah! Good question. So my mom is a vocal producer, and she’s been teaching voice lessons around me for a long time. I think literally while I was in the womb, like, scales were already on my mind. Like, I was ready to learn how to sing certain vowels (laughing). She definitely taught me how to keep my voice healthy in terms of where to sing from, and how to support myself. And things like how to scream correctly if I want to really go for it, or if I wanna whisper-sing, how to not strain my vocal chords. Just a lot of different techniques. I’ve definitely had a lot of vocal lessons from her, and now I feel like I’m at the stage in my vocal experimenting where, I’m doing less technical singing and more just singing from my heart. Seeing where my sound really comes from. Because I think that I’m inspired by a lot of people, and I love that I can feel those influences within my voice, but I’m really excited to find the sweet spot that’s like, oh that’s MY voice. You know what I mean? Yeah, it’s a process.

You played your first ever headline show in Rhode Island last week! Very dope. As an up-and-coming artist, these are the little milestones that begin a career. How did the night go? What is your favorite aspect of doing live shows?

The night was really fun! I was super nervous, but just from a place of caring a lot. And also, being shocked that it was a show where people showed up for me and it wasn’t like I was opening for someone. And I obviously know that’s what headline show means (chuckling). But it’s just a crazy concept that I'm really just putting music out, and people are really enjoying it. That's what is amazing to me. I think that being up there, and getting to spot the people that really do know all the words is the best feeling ever. Just making eye contact with them, and creating those connections feels super special. I’ve always loved live music, I also play the drums, and at that show I got to drum on stage. It was so much fun. I’m excited and I have lot of ways that I want to improve. Hopefully as my career grows, I just get more access to cool instruments, cooler spaces, better lighting, and all of these resources. I'm just really excited to dial in and get a really good show. I'm deeply grateful for every opportunity I’m getting to perform.

That’s fantastic. Are we going to be seeing any drums solos or singing while drumming from you in the future?

For sure. Yes, I really want to do that, Like some Anderson .Paak moments for sure.

Who are some drummers that inspire you?

Do you know who Tony Royster is? He was Jay-Z’s drummer for a little bit. You know that song "Show Me What You Got?" That era of Jay-Z. There’s a bunch of online videos of Tony Royster going off during the concerts and that was so sick to watch. But there’s some cool girl drummers like Sheila E and Cindy Blackman Santana. There’s a lot of drummers that inspire me.

You covered Solange’s “Cranes in the Sky” during your set, what do you love about this song?

That song is so interesting. I think that she found a really cool pocket with the simplicity of the drums-bass-strings element. And the way she sang on top of it feels super unique, and I think that it's cool to be able to take a song that I love so much and just tweak it a little bit and make it my own. I’m a huge Solange fan so I was like, I gotta do one of her songs.

Off the top of your head, what’s your dream collab if you could work with any artist?

There’s so many cool artists. Ah! I think a collab that would be super dope would be me and Tame Impala, I feel like if I got to do cool ass harmonies over Tame Impala type music, that would be the craziest psychedelic shit ever.

And scatting on that! I feel like I’ve never heard scatting in like a psychedelic trippy context before.

And it is a really strange trippy sound if you think about it. What bee dop boo bop? I’m gonna try to get to Tame Impala (laughing).

Congratulations on your song "HYPER DAI" hitting 500,000 streams on Spotify! As a rising artist, how does it feel to have your work received like this? Would you consider yourself to be a hyper person?

It has been so cool to have that song specifically do well, just because that was one of the first songs that I really finished producing myself. From start to finish, I fully wrote and produced it all by myself. It definitely was one of those moments where I was like, "oh wait I can do this." I love collaborating with people and that’s a huge part of my life, but it was reassuring to know that something that I made, that I didn’t have to second guess myself on was received so well, and I think that it shows my creative abilities really well. It just touches so many genres, I feel like it's a super special song and I’m glad that people are listening because I think it’s just weird and fun. And I think I'm a mix, hyper and chill. I think sometimes there’ll be moments where, before I go to bed, all of the sudden my brain turns back on and then I’m like, "wait I have so much to do". I get the zoomies. I need to paint or do something before I go to bed.

How do you put yourself into the right mindset when you’re doing shows?

I really have found that I like getting ready alone, and I like having a few moments. If I don’t have that much time to meditate, then just taking a few deep breaths with my best friend JD who’s my bass player as well, he’s super good at reminding me to meditate before we go do shows. But I swear, we’re like connected in another musical dimension or something. Whenever we meditate together, it's really nice to get on stage and be like, "Okay, we do this all the time for fun, we’re just sharing this with the audience and its gonna be a whole vibe".

It’s so important to have people like that, who can be there to make sure you’re taking the time for yourself.

People to hype you up and people to keep you grounded, it's a balance completely.

Scatting is clearly a passion of yours, who are some scat jazz singers that have inspired you?

Like I mentioned earlier, Ella Fitzgerald, by far is my favorite singer ever. I've spent so much time memorizing her scats, and then harmonizing her scats, and then trying to play all the instruments to her songs so I can scat with them (laughing). I just love her mind so much. Newer artists, I love what Samara Joy is doing, her sound is super dope. And Lalah Hathaway is another singer whose scats I love as well.

How do you get yourself into the right headspace/mental flow to execute a freestyle scat solo?

Since I’ve been around my mom, dad, and brother with music so much, different scales and different chord structures feel very natural to me when I sing them. I’m not the best with music theory, I feel like it's really in my bones and whenever I’m not judging myself the best things happen. I think with scatting, it's one of those trust yourself moments because it's pretty silly. So if you’re second guessing all of those little weird things, then you’re like, "Okay yeah this sounds bad, this sounds weird" but I think that sometimes, the music just kind of moves me. So it feels really good to explore all of those chords and all of those scales. Usually I freestyle for maybe like 3 takes. At least for "HYPER DAI" I free-styled three takes, then I took the best from one section and the best from another. Then I did one last take after I figured out how I needed to map it.

Your brother is producer Leven Kali, what’s one of your favorite things about working together?

I think the trust and the honesty is the best part. With new people when you’re collaborating, I always try to be straight up, but it's harder to right off the bat be like, "I'm not vibing with that, let's try that", because I don’t want them to think I’m rude! (laughing) So with my brother, I know that he has my best interest and I have his best interest, and we’re gonna make something that we both really love. And I think there’s something really really special about family singing and family doing music, I think literally, genetically, something happens. It feels really good when I sing with my brother. We just started writing a book, hopefully in like 4 years we’ll do a book and album release. The vibe is about how we think through the idea of existence, and all the correlations between religion, numbers, nature, music theory, and how all of those relate to sound and color. Basically a book about the universe.

We’ve got a few months left of 2024, how do you plan on closing out the year & what’s next for Daiela?

Well 2024 has been absolutely crazy and has gone by really fast! A few weeks ago I finished my EP so now I’m starting to roll out all of those songs, so hopefully early 2025 it releases? I’m really excited, "Joke" was the first single out of the rollout. So I’m just ready for people to hear.

The official music video for Daiela's latest track "Joke", out now.