Name: Diana Goldberg
Nationality: German
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current release: Diana Goldberg's new single “Alleviate” is out via Golden Tape.
Recommendations: I want to recommend a movie I saw recently called In The Names Of Love. I am completely fascinated by it! The colours used, the plot, everything - it really moved me a lot!
And I also want to recommend The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - it’s my favourite book.

If you enjoyed this Diana Goldberg interview and would like to keep up to date with her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, and Facebook.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

This is such a cool question! I see music in colours and most of my music can be categorised in purple, it’s my favourite colour and it summarises all my music.

For example, with my song ‘Dripping In My Blood’, you might think the colour association would be red but it’s actually blue. This is because the message is that, no matter how many times you fall down or want to isolate yourself from the world, there’s still strength in that.



I can fall 100 times, but I’ll stand up 101 times. This fits with blue because it’s such a strong colour for me.

Another example is my new single ‘Alleviate.’ I associate blue/green with this song because it’s such a raw, vulnerable yet empowering song and blue/green signifies hope for me.

I always try and incorporate the colours into the track artwork.

Do you listen to music with eyes open or closed?

If I really want to feel the song, I listen with my eyes closed.

But generally speaking, music is so powerful to me that my dopamine levels are so high no matter if my eyes are open or closed!

Entering new worlds and escapism through music have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to listening to and creating music?

I really love gaming and reading fantasy and fiction. Music has always been a world that I can escape into - a fantasy world that I built for myself to feel empowered. So whenever I feel less confident or something is weighing down on me, that’s the world I jump into.

With my music, I don’t want to just write lyrics but I want to create music where each song or project has its own cosmos. When you close your eyes, you can see yourself in that world. Where you feel like the main character and brave enough to go after what you want.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience?

I started my music journey in 2020 and released my very first song at the end of that year, and so many amazing things have happened since then!

I’ve always wanted to pursue music, and my partner at the time really encouraged me to go for it. I released my first song, and one week later one of the biggest newspapers in Germany named me as their ‘Artist of the Week’, and put me forward for ‘Artist of the Year’ and I got in the Top 3 - with only one song released! Lots of radio stations then started playing my music, especially in my home town Munich.

I’m so grateful, and it still feels so surreal to me. Since then I’ve played huge festivals like Reeperhahn and some amazing support slots. I still have more amazing dreams that I want to reach, so stay tuned!

In terms of gains, these experiences have helped me grow a lot as a person. There were many people that wanted to stop me from pursuing my dreams. But in the end, that just made me want it more and I’m stronger for it.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

Honestly, this question resonates with me so much! At that age I really felt so alone, I felt like I didn’t belong in this world and that there was no place for me.

I’m a highly emotional person, I really feel my emotions to the extreme. Precisely during these years, I played classical piano to a very high level. I didn’t particularly enjoy it, I mainly did it to please my parents. But when I was around 10 or 11, I discovered that singing was my safe space.

I started a band with my brother and we played a lot of open mic nights, and that’s also how I learned songwriting. I would sing my own lyrics to well known songs, and I still do that to this day with my own songs at my live shows! I love to flourish in the unpredictable.

How would you describe your own relationship with your instrument, tools or equipment?

I really am such a huge nerd! I love to geek out with people about chord progressions, riffs, singing top lines - I could speak about it all day!

For my own live shows, I like to be independent and at the same time I love to learn. So I’m confident that if we had any technical difficulties, I would know how to fix it.

I’m very interested in the technical setup and stage equipment.

Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

If you’re in a relationship with me and you mess up, you better know there will be a song about it! So personal relationships play a huge role in creating music for me, as well as people I meet or things that I process deeply.

Coming from a Soviet background, I grew up in a family where we never talked about our feelings, it was very taboo. Tough feelings were never discussed and there was absolutely no space to process them. Music really saved me.

My parents didn’t speak English. So I used to write and sing my songs in English because it gave me the space to process my feelings. I felt so relieved in those moments - music really unlocks my heart!

Are you acting out parts of your personality in your music which you couldn't or wouldn't in your daily life? If so, which are these? What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music?

I’m very much an open book, and my key idea is to allow myself to feel, no matter how extreme it might be. That’s what I want to inspire in others with my music.

If music is a language, what can we communicate with it?

Music is totally a language and what I can communicate with music is my emotional state and emotional well-being.

Music is so universal that even when it’s in a language you can’t understand, good music always makes you feel something, it’s very healing.

Making music, in the beginning, is often playful and about discovery. How do you retain a sense of playfulness and how do you still draw surprises from tools, approaches and musical forms you may be very familiar with?  

For me, any time I sit at my piano to write or work on a new song, it’s always connected to playfulness and discovery. I’m naturally a very curious person and I’m fascinated even by the smallest things.

I also think I get so caught up in life with calls, meetings, shoots that the moment I block out my calendar to make music - it’s so precious to me because it’s become so rare.

I really am like a little kid when I’m at my piano, and I think that will stay forever.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

This is again so interesting because I love to hide easter eggs in my songs for my fans to discover!

For example, if I hear an interesting bird noise, I’ll record it on my phone and then incorporate it into a song as a snare sound or drum rhythm.

It’s so fun to play around with this and if my fans are listening to my music, they know to be on the lookout for a treasure hunt!

There seems to be an increasing trend to capture music in algorithms, and data. But already at the time of Plato, arithmetic, geometry, and music were considered closely connected. How do you see that connection yourself? What aspects of music do you feel can be captured through numbers, and which can not?

I think the recording process is a highly technical and mathematical process. The timings, the layers, everything is mathematical and they need to work together to get the outcome you want.

I think because I am a huge perfectionist, I really encourage myself to let go and accept the imperfections. I like to expand my mind of what’s possible and that really intrigues me.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

Yes 100%! Music completely changed my way of living. For example, if we have an issue or conflict, I’m a very honest and direct person and music really empowers me to speak my mind.

We live in a day and age where you can get cancelled very quickly and you need to always be mindful - which of course I think is very important. But sometimes, I think we’re so overly polite that we don’t say what we feel.

Music has made me very direct and it’s something hard for people to deal with, but I’m very grateful for it.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

After a live show, I love to sit in silence to process everything. I cherish it so much because I feel like in life, we are never silent.

There is always so much going on around us, and in our minds so giving myself the space to be in silence, especially after the rush of a gig is so important for me.

Do you feel as though writing or performing 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?

This is a very interesting question! As a coffee lover, I think there is real magic in creating an amazing cup of coffee. I think that about craft in general, if you put your love and heart into something, it doesn’t matter if it’s coffee or music or something else, it’s always special.

As humans we have so many amazing talents so I wouldn’t say there is a difference in making music or  making a cup of coffee, it’s a way of sharing your personality.

I also think because I’m so familiar with making music, I really love learning about other things!

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I think music has the unique ability to unite people, especially now looking at the world that is bleeding with so much hatred and disparity. I feel that music can unite us to make people kinder and more confident, especially when it comes to political leaders. We might enjoy the world a little more, take care of one another and of nature, and enjoy our time here on this planet.

I’m also grateful in terms of developments for women in music, but we still have a long way to go. I would like to see more opportunities for women to headline huge festivals like Coachella for example.