Daily Discovery: Kate Diaz, “Locks”

Kate Diaz discovered her gift for music from an early age, starting guitar lessons and investigating the world of songwriting in elementary school. Her talent rocketed her to a variety of guest appearance in her hometown of Chicago and eventually led to her winning a scholarship to Berklee’s Five-Week summer program, where she has continued to study. Her song “Locks” is from her latest album, Horizon.

ARTIST: Kate Diaz

SONG: “Locks“

BIRTHDATE: 1997

HOMETOWN: Chicago, IL

CURRENT LOCATION: Boston, MA

AMBITIONS: I want to form a band and play larger shows.  I also want to continue growing as a songwriter while learning about music production and arranging, and also to continue to learn about environmental science and policy.

TURN-OFFS: brussel sprouts

TURN-ONS:  people with a positive attitude

DREAM GIG: sold out headlining show at Chicago House Of Blues

FAVORITE LYRIC:  “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” -Semisonic

CRAZIEST PERSON I KNOW:  My dad has been crazy and fun my whole life. Every December it’s hilarious to see where he puts the 4-foot-high lighted plastic snowman in our yard.  One year “Frosty” was hanging from way up in a tree, and another year it perched on an old surf board.

SONG I WISH I WROTE:  “All This Time” by OneRepublic

5 PEOPLE I’D MOST LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH:  Paul McCartney, Sting, Ryan Tedder, Julie Foudy, Denis Hayes

MY FAVORITE CONCERT EXPERIENCE: being contacted by K’naan to be a guest performer at his Chicago METRO. He’s so much more than a musician.

I WROTE THIS SONG:  (my song “Locks”)

Last summer, my friends and I took a long walk to explore Boston, since none of us knew the city.  On the way, we passed by many locks that had been attached to a chain link fence on the highway overpass.  People had written their names and dates on the locks and latched them on to stay there forever, and I thought it was a cool symbol and idea.  When we got home that night, I started writing this song about our adventure and passing these locks, and I also found out through google that there are many places in the world that have locks attached to fences, especially in Paris and Russia.  For me, this song is  kind of is a time capsule of the amazing day I had with my friends, and later we put our own locks on the fence the last day of our summer program!