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[Photo via YouTube]

Diamante shares the inspiration behind her hair and its importance—watch

If you asked Diamante if she ever thought touring would mean rescuing stolen animals, she probably wouldn’t have believed you. But one time before a show in Minneapolis, she and her band saw a dog get thrown out of a car on the freeway. They immediately knew they had to stop their van and get the dog to safety. After taking the dog with them to the venue, they couldn’t believe what unfolded that night.

Alternative Press caught up with Diamante to hear more about that story, her musical inspirations, who she wants to collab with and more.

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At first glance, her hair may be the first thing you notice about the singer. Strikingly blue, it actually holds more meaning to her than you might think. She drew inspiration for the color from her middle name, Azzura, which means blue in Italian. With both Mexican and Italian roots, her ethnicity is an important part of her identity and her name. 

What does your name mean?

One of the questions I probably get asked the most is: “Is Diamante your real name? What does your name really mean?” I’m going to put it here on the record straight that yes, Diamante is my real name. It is Italian and Spanish, and it means diamond. My parents told me a story that when I first opened my eyes, they shined so bright like diamonds. They also had to come to a compromise ’cause they wanted both a Spanish and Italian name, so that’s why my name is Diamante.

How many languages do you know?

I speak two-and-a-half languages. I speak English and Spanish fluently, but I only understand Italian. My dad would always speak to me [in] Italian, and I would only respond back in English. I don’t know why that happened, but I can completely understand it. I’ve just never really practiced it. Spanish, though? I got it down.

What was the first record you ever bought?

Well, I didn’t technically buy it—my parents bought it—but I was 6 or 7 years old in Boston, and it was the first album by Avril Lavigne called Let Go. I blasted that album every day in my room for years. I would literally just sing in my room for hours, and it shaped so much of my music today, so I feel like that’s really my first album. 

Who were the first bands to inspire you to get into music?

I was 14, and that’s really when I was first really exposed to rock music. I did a School Of Rock summer camp, and I got to cover bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath [and] Blondie. I just remember being on that stage and playing this rock ’n’ roll music with all this energy. That’s when I knew I had to make this music and this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. 

Outside of music, what would your fantasy job be if you could choose any occupation?

That’s hard because music is my fantasy job, and I’m living it! But I’ve always wanted to be a secret spy agent. That’s just been something I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid. More realistically, I think it would be really cool to be a food critic. Just travel the world and eat a bunch of food ’cause I’m a huge foodie. So to be paid just to eat food, I think, would be awesome. 

Do you have any memorable stories from being on tour?

One of the most memorable stories that I have on tour was actually the time that my crew and I rescued a dog that we saw get thrown out of a window of a car right ahead of us. We were on the freeway, and we were so confused like, “Did this dog just get thrown out of a car and the car just drove away?” So I told my tour manager, “Stop the van! Stop the van!” and my drummer and I jumped out of the car, grabbed the dog and put him in the van so he wouldn’t get hit by any cars. 

We ended up taking him with us to the venue in Minneapolis. We couldn’t find any shelters to take him in or the owners, so we ended up having him hang with us backstage during soundcheck. We all grew to love the dog so much that we secretly wanted to keep him. But through the power of social media, which is so nuts to me, the original owner ended up being able to contact me. She was like, “You found my dog! This is our family member that we’ve been so devastated [about] losing.” So I told her, “Come to the venue after the show and we will reunite you with your dog.” Apparently the dog had been stolen by somebody else, which is crazy. 

If you could collaborate with any other artist, who would you pick?

My all-time artist would be Joan Jett just because she is my biggest idol, and I look up to her so much. It would also be super cool to collaborate with artists like Lady Gaga, Brendon Urie [and] twenty one pilots. I listen to all different kinds of music, so it would be cool to also collaborate with someone who’s maybe not [in] my genre of music.