The truth that lives in folk music doesn’t come out as a drastic scream, but instead, it flows out as emotional documentary of the voices that beg to be heard. Having built a career in the film world, Diana Silvers never intentionally pursued a career in music, but a plane ride in September 2024 became the catalyst to what later became her debut EP From Another Room.
She was flying from New York to Calgary, Canada amid the filming of Netflix’s The Abandons when she watched a man becoming increasingly irritated over a baby girl’s crying. For the first time, she felt like she had something she wanted to say.
“Airplane,” the second single she released from From Another Room, is about the fears and the unfair treaments women have become too familiar with as they move through life. The reelection of Donald Trump, the violences against women she’s read about in non-fiction, and her relationship with her father — there was a real desire for her to speak up.
Though part of From Another Room came from rage and centuries-long repressed emotions, the strummed guitar and her soft, ethereal voice became the form that carried her voice. On “Airplane,” she sings her truth, “I was only 15/ And now I’m scared… I fear what I feel/ I fear what I feel/ I fear what I feel.”
On “For Dad,” she softly confronts the silence that has played a huge part in her life since she was a child, “I watch the children get older/ I watch my neighbors grow colder/ I watch the leaves fall to the ground/ I watch, I-I don’t make a sound.”
Press Q&A with Diana Silvers
Q: You mentioned finding your truest inspiration in the moments away from the spotlight, giving the high pressure, collaborative evironment of an EP production. Can you describe the ultimate setup where From Another Room was written?
Diana Silvers: I’m a Scorpio. I’m one of those people who really like to go inward to figure out how I’m feeling. Through being alone in my own time and going inward and going deep is how I have clarity on my problems.
Q: You’re a photographer. How do you use your photographer’s eyes to capture the emotional atmosphere of music videos?
Silvers: When I hear the music, I see images and they have different colors. When I was listening to the songs, certain colors came into my head. From the colors comes images, and from the images comes framing. It just comes from spending a lot of time alone.
Q: Having started your career in the film industry, have you alwayas wanted to go into music?
Silvers: Honestly, I don’t know. I feel like I had a dream to make a record at some point in my life, but I never intended to expand my career to (music). It wasn’t my intention. When it started, it made so much sense to me. Getting to sing and be here in a room with people and communicating with people in that way is so fulfilling and feels so good. I was like, wait, I should keep pursuing this.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about how having that kind of control over your art as a producer and being in charge of the writing process?
Silvers: When I first stepped into the studio, I felt like I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. It was interesting how quickly something else took over. How the music itself and how music wanted to be and sound dictated what intruments I would play and how well I could play them. It was really fascinating.
Q: When you write, are you imagining films or visual mediums that could accompany the music?
Silvers: I love soundtracks. I think all of my favorite movies, their soundtracks are so synonymous with the films. You know what I mean? You can’t, like, separate Almost Famous from its soundtrack. You can’t separate the Royal Tenenbaums from it. Like, those needle drops are, like, so important, and the movies would be so different if there were different songs in them. Like Lady Bird, too. Like, that trailer for Lady Bird, that monkey song. I hope my music inspires other people, too. That’s the power and the beauty of putting art into the world, you know, you just never know, like, what it could trigger.
Q: How music from the 70s in general, inspired you?
Silvers: I listen to so much. I love Cat Stevens and like that needle drop with the wind, with Penny Lane dancing on the stage after the show, and there’s like the rose and flower petals on the stage. I remember that had like an impact on me when I watched it, and just like, I love that soundtrack, I listen to it all the time. Like, Tiny Dancer, I mean, it’s so good, Waiting for the Man, it’s such a great soundtrack. That’s the way, like Led Zeppelin, I mean it’s actually so perfect, but I think, I think like, you know, what you kind of consume, or like what you listen to, or what you watch, all those things kind of, they seep into you. And how they like come back out. I’s like what you breathe in is what you breathe out, right? I wasn’t like trying to make a certain record, it’s sort of just like, as I was making this record, I think all these things that have influenced me and been a part of what I, that are just part of my everyday life, and like what I take in, it’s going to find its way in what I put out, whether it’s like intentional or not.
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