Name: Diane Gentile
Nationality: American
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, guitarist
Current release: Diane Gentile's The Bad and the Beautiful is out via Velvet Elk. The album was recorded with her band The Gentle Men and features Alejandro Escovedo on the song "Walk with Me."

If you enjoyed this Diane Gentile interview and would like to stay up to date with her music, visit her official website. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you?

The mind is the creator. The mind creates everything. The impulse to create, for me, could begin with an emotion or feeling that triggers the mind.

Sometimes it is not an emotion, just a scene or a vision that plays in my head.

What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

Politics, personal relationships, and art do play roles in my work, but I like to keep my lyrics honest to my heart.

Recently I was sitting in an office in Buenos Aires and the painting on the wall was super captivating overflowing with an exceptional love of mother and child. It came through the shapes of the figures and the gentleness of the color palate. This will show up in a song somewhere along the way.

I would love to be able to write about politics precisely, but I get caught up with my own frustrations. I wrote a song called "White Wash Path of Glory", when that jerk was still in office, which was suggested to me by Chuck Prophet. Not sure if I got to the point lyrically. I am a real anti-gun person, and I wrote a line in this song that says "put a sticker in your SUV for the NRA." That wasn't really getting to the point. It should say "put a sticker in your pickup truck for the NRA." That's more to the point. The music sounded great. I will rewrite the lyric at some point.

We have so many issues to write about today. The world is topsy-turvy. In Buenos Aires they have a money market that is a black market and then there's the legal market. Everyone works in the black market down there. It's so confusing and the economy is a mess. How can people live on 2 currencies within the same economy?

I work on studying the greats - Bob Dylan, Billie Bragg, Bob Marley, and the like. I pray to write something great that will make a difference in this world, like Lennon's "Imagine".



But you know, it's been 40 years, since Lennon wrote "Imagine there's no country, it isn't hard to do, nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too" and humanity still hasn't gotten it! That's damn heartbreaking.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

To be honest, I don't really plan anything regarding writing. I just sit down with the guitar, and if I am in a writing frame of mind, all sorts of things can happen. Ideas fall onto paper, words take on new meanings, I might have a revelation. It's all very personal. It really all depends on what's stored up in the creative "box" of my heart, my head and my subconscious. After I record, I either like what I've got or don't.

Sometimes a mixer can make a huge difference to me liking one of my tracks or not.

Either the songs work emotionally when listening back or they don't. I recorded 17 songs for the Bad and the Beautiful and only 10 made it onto the record.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

I record the first drafts of my songs onto my notes on my phone. Then I take the song into rehearsal with the band. Then we run down some different approaches. I record each approach. I listen back and decide whether to move forward.

I usually keep my phone or computer next to me for quick references on names, titles, dates or places if need be. I keep my dictionaries - my rhyming and synonym dictionaries, close by. But usually, I'll be able to write a first draft of a song with lyrics and melody and once I am solid on the subject matter, I'll revise the lyric. Again, that can change.

I wrote "Motorcycle", my first real single, in 10 minutes, and never changed a word.



Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

None really. Maybe a cup of coffee, if I write in the morning. Maybe a glass of wine if I write in the evening.

I went to a Halloween party one night last year and was dressed with a big Ronnie Spector type wig on my head. When I got home, I wrote “Sugarcane.” I was really tipsy.



Writing happens when it happens, under any circumstances. I do prefer writing at night.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

If I don't have the first line, I have nothing. The first line has to come with whatever the new chords or chord structures I happen upon.

I've heard some other writers say they sat down to write a song with the intention of writing something in the vein of Petty's "Wildflowers" or Tom Waits "Mad Parade", etc. I haven't really tried to do that.

When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

I get a groove on the guitar with a few chords. Once I start to play, I usually hear a melody and the words accompany that melody, to start. Sometimes it is a chord that strikes a melody. It all varies.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?

We all know the great lyricists - they are people whose words move us because their words speak to us. It's important to me to be a good lyricist, to move people somehow.

Honestly, I really feel I have to work much harder to get to where I would be personally proud of my output.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

I have discovered my creation of the idea.

From your experience, are there things you're doing differently than most or many other artists when it comes to writing music?

I wish. Original melody is possible, but difficult, especially because I listen to so much music. So sometimes, it's important to not listen to any music for a while and allow your own melodies to develop at their own pace.

I hate doing it because I love listening to music, but I get overloaded so a good long break sometimes clears my imagination. I need to stay quiet sometimes.  

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

There are definitely certain things that come that take me on a journey I didn't anticipate going on. However, at the end of the day, I am in control over where I go.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

When new ideas and alternative roads push and pull me into a different direction, I fully embrace them. I wish for that to happen moreso.

Always allow yourself to go to the uncomfortable place - that's where you could find gold.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

Writing is just a necessary thing that I do. It's spiritual but it is work.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practice?

I always let my songs lie for a while - 3 months maybe. Then I go back.

Fresh ears in a displaced time can give one a completely new understanding.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

Mixing is the most important to me. I get involved if I need to be I tend to know what works and doesn't work and make the final revisions and decisions.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

There is a crash for me for sure, but playing live seems to help get me through it.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I can express loss, love, lust, fear, desire, trepidation, happiness, melancholy, pain, etc. But the end goal is not about using writing as a therapist. "My" loss or "my" love is not important to anyone but me and writing about it doesn't make me feel any better about the issue. It only makes me feel satisfied about having written a song I like.

The end goal is to write something that satisfies my ears and my soul and maybe someone else will relate to it or enjoy it. Maybe not. But the song was written and that's my work.