Di Ivories

Photo by, Nicole Miller

Meet Di Ivories

I love the uplifting flowery powerful force that is Di Ivories. There is a lot to love about the world right now and this musician is one of them. The psychedelic electro-indie pop project is helmed by Diego Martinez. Their 2020 single “Somewhere In The Distance” combines sweet melodies with the iconic sound of a Rolland 909 for fantastic results. Give it a listen and get to know the artist in our latest interview.

“THE PROM” A fill in the blank by Di Ivories

Our class went on a field trip to a MOIST observatory. It was located on top of a WATER, and it looked like a giant ISLAND with a slit down its CLOUD. We went inside and looked through TIME and were able to see WAVES in the sky that were millions of SHADOWS away. The men and women who DROWN in the observatory are called FIELDS, and they are always watching for comets, eclipses, and shooting TAPESTRIES. An eclipse occurs when a NIGHT comes between the earth and the WHALE and everything gets SLEEPY. Next week, we plan to FLOAT to the Museum of Modern DRINK.

Would You Rather

Whose face would you rather have on the back of your head Shia Lebouf or Martha Stewart?

Shia as my Voldemort. Although Martha would probably be my voice of reason, Shia would flat out tell it like it is and fire me up. "Diego, this isn't your dream, you're wasting your time on this NONSENSE." "..So sorry Shia, you're right again please don't be angry." He'd call me out on all my distractions and keep me motivated. I'd also probably get into way weirder things and find myself becoming more and more like Shia every day until he completely takes over my body and I become the head in the back, but honestly, I'll take that lifestyle.

Some Questions with Di Ivories

When you go on youtube what kind of videos do you gravitate towards?

My youtube page is a melange of live performances, soccer/basketball highlights, local band videos, celebrity interviews, SNL clips, and Cuban overdub videos. I like jumping between different moods and genres, but just now I noticed while looking through my Youtube history that I've taken from a whole lot of these videos—even small details— in ways that I act, perform, and joke around these days. Right now I entered this Matty Matheson phase thanks to my roommate binging his show 24/7 in the apartment, so I'm learning how to cook better, subconsciously.

Can you tell us more about the origins and meaning behind your artistic persona?

Di Ivories is an odd character, and I think the persona really grew when I found the glasses.  A couple years back we played a set at the recording studio in Coral Gables (Animal Sounds Music) where I recorded my first LP; it was actually my old band's last show as a group. The following day I went in for a session and the engineer told me that someone had left a pair of heart-shaped glasses at the show. Sparing the detective work, I offered to hold them for the time being. We were tracking a Di Ivories song that day and the whole time I wore them. It felt euphoric to experience this world of color I was trying to create through these fuchsia tinted lenses, and I knew that day these glasses were going to be part of the persona I was making with Di Ivories. It was the cherry on top to the character of Di Ivories: Someone who lives a symphony of chaotic wonders, always bursting with electric energy and overflowing with emotion. Di Ivories exudes a whole spectrum of sound and color, and heart-shaped glasses are the ultimate kaleidoscope to this experience. 

When and why did you begin to pursue music?

So I did a school recital in 8th grade where I covered Piano Man (also Hey Jude) and I remember that was the first time anyone asked me to play in a band. I embraced the role of being a frontman keyboardist and it just so happened that I played in that group for the next 8 years. Having that experience really taught me how to mold music around my emotions and vise versa. It can be very intimidating to join the music scene at such a young age, but I reveled in living it, and playing live shows changed everything. It was the culminating fervor of releasing your passion onto the crowd and receiving it back like lightning; an eruption of energy rising through the room that was palpable and nothing like you've ever felt before. I began working to chase this feeling, and that's when I started seriously pursuing music. 

I had a very cathartic solo session in the summer of ‘17. In the chaos of that time period, I felt challenged to make my next band something wholly representative of myself. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do this on my own and grow as a songwriter by making a project where I could use my own experiences and emotions as a composition vessel, which still propels me to pursue the music I make nowadays.  

Do you remember the first album/CD/tape you ever bought? Has it had any impact on the music you are making today?

I bought a mixtape from my uncle in Colombia for $5 during my time visiting when I was 13. In that mixtape I was introduced for the first time to the following songs: Aerosmith - I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing, Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart, AC/DC - Highway to Hell, Kiss - Rock, And Roll All Nite, and Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen. I specifically remember those 5 tracks because I was so hypnotized by the singers' voices. I would listen to that mixtape about 100 times a week, trying to sing like Steven Tyler and Bonnie Tyler, which I absolutely butchered in doing so, but I feel like it inspired me to find my own voice and not be a shy singer. I wanted to dazzle with my voice like they all did, and now I feel like I have a solid groove in my range.

Who was your most influential family member growing up? 


I'm an only child, so naturally, both of my parents wanted to share their influence with me, but by far the most intense was my mothers. Raised up in very strict, Colombian values she would always pry and push me not to half-ass anything. It was incredibly annoying but very effective. She would go absolutely nuts at me whenever I half-ass did anything: made the bed, did my laundry, washed dishes, practiced piano, dusted the rails, made iced tea. If the dishes were out in the morning she would call me at school lunch and yell at me from the office. Yup. Every time I lost something in the house she would do nothing to help me, she would order me to look again and "properly search." It was very difficult to get away with mediocrity in the house, my mother would simply have none of it. All along she wanted to instill in me her immovable drive for doing tasks whole-heartedly, working to perfection, and solving problems logically. In her professional career, she's owned/managed all the businesses she's worked at. A self-made woman, that's something I totally admire.

Starting off in Miami, and now in Brooklyn, how have the two cities influenced your work?

Miami brought all these different types of cultures into my ears. The city itself is a cluster of different musical niches: Everything from Hip-hop, Punk, Noise, Hardcore, EDM, Reggae, Reggaeton, Latin Music, and Indie Rock all the way at the bottom. These scenes often overlapped within one another, so it was a bit overwhelming at first playing genre-mixed shows and trying to put together lineups that all revolved around a similar flavor. The biggest challenge I had was sticking to a sound that worked within the scene I was a part of. I wanted to be sonicallty consistent. Then after firmly establishing myself into Miami's indie scene, I felt I had more drive to utilize the city’s diversity and attempted adding reggaeton beats to bubbly, tropical melodies. I also began working more with digital and analog synthesizers. The result was a brand new sound that made sense to me and I just ran away with it.

Arriving in Brooklyn I felt like the ecstasy of NYC, a city I had never been to, take over me. My initial approach was very wide-eyed (or heart-eyed) to say the least. At the time I was ready to release the first LP that I had recorded in MIA but was also working on a brand new string of songs. Going out to museums, art galleries, Brooklyn parks, Bushwick events, and DYI shows sparked this magical sense of theatre into my head.  The city and the Brooklyn scene revitalized my mood to want to create a band that is daring, comical, theatric, dynamic, shock, and awe altogether. I realized how high the bar is set for bands around here; I figured if I'm going to songwriter in Brooklyn I best make it sound HUGE so when it's time to perform, I can go ALL OUT in fashion, execution, and aura. Since then, I've stuck to trusting my intuitions and believing in my art just like all Brooklynites, and it's never failed to let me down.

What was the creative inspiration behind your August release "Somewhere In The Distance"?

Somewhere In The Distance was an homage to the summer that I wanted to have this year. It was my escape away from living in a tiny room of a small apartment during the quarantine. It was one of those days where I woke up and felt a warming beam of sunlight coming from my skylight caress my face. It kind of reminded me of somewhere I've always wanted to be, but also had never been. It urged me to draw out memories of the many locations I've visited on this planet and try to visualize the ones I'd go to if I could go anywhere right now. That restless nostalgia blended nicely with the radiant happiness that Summer brings, so I was drawn to write a song about it. SINTD brought my spirits up in hoping there will be brighter days ahead, while also reminding me that the greatest ones live eternally in our deepest memory banks.

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

I'll be shooting a music video next month for my next single in a very exciting location at Hudson Yards. The concept is inspired by James Bond and Charlie's Angels. The song is titled 'Offer My Spine' and it's going to be the catalyst to a brand new EP to be announced at the end of the year if we're still alive by then. I'm looking forward to the prospect of aliens in the future, and hopefully, a high-speed railway that takes me from NY to MIA in record time. My top three fruits are strawberries, mangoes, and cantaloupe. If I could reincarnate as any animal I would choose to be an Octopus, for obvious reasons.