diyetmusic.com

Up Here Magazine, Whitehorse, Yukon
Sarah Lindstein

April 29, 2010

Kluane-born singer/songwriter Diyet is perched on the cusp of local — perhaps national and international – stardom, and yet remains playfully demure.

Her newly released album, The Breaking Point, is an eclectic mix of contemporary rock, R&B, country and a touch of roots.

Diverse, too, is her band of musicians, culled from her surrounding Yukon as well as reaching out to the big music scene in Vancouver.

On this album, Bob Hamilton is on the electric guitar, Goby Catt, the bass, Robert VanLieshout is on drums, percussion and electric guitar, Annie Avery is on the organ, and Darryl Havers joins Avery on the organ and piano.

“I owe this album to the fantastic and talented musicians who joined the band,” comments Diyet.

And what of her influences?

Diyet recounts studying music from age 12 onwards, graduating from the University of Victoria with a degree in classical voice. “I found out after school that opera wasn’t really my thing,” she laughs.

“I started songwriting, and discovered that I was actually pretty good at it.”

Diyet debuted in the music world songwriting for an assortment of professionals, from game shows in Japan to the Swiss version of American Idol.

After writing for others for a number of years, Diyet returned to her roots – home in Burwash Landing.

She began writing for herself, and slowly developed the songs featured in the album recently released.

“It was new, writing for myself. It took me a long time to get everything to come together, but now that it has, it’s wonderful,” she says.

Letting go of her music and trusting the band was also important for Diyet, and the creative process has helped her strengthen and grow.

Traditions of her family, First Nation, and close-knit community echo in her words and in her album.

She hopes to keep her association with Old Crow Recording, rather than seeking large record companies.

“I want to keep true to my roots, at a level myself and my family are comfortable with,” she says.

Themes of hope also resonate in the album, and Diyet has received comments on the positive and uplifting nature of the songs.

“The album faces a lot of issues, including the idea of coming home, the struggle to become self-governing, and learning about independence,” she says.

She also emphasizes that the sound is for general audiences and hopes to keep the appeal universal. Despite keeping the album release slow and careful, she’s still motivated to tour and promote her album and music — she just makes sure to keep the important things close to her heart.

Diyet will be commencing a Canada-wide tour as early as this upcoming year, and is planning a European tour shortly afterwards. Locally, she will be performing at the Yukon Arts Centre on Saturday, May 1 to release her new CD, The Breaking Point, and at the Haines Junction St. Elias Centre on May 8.

For upcoming tour information and to see Diyet’s blog, check out www.diyetmusic.com.

DISCourse: Diyet’s Poetic Lyrics are Heartfelt and True

April 29, 2010

“Our house is broken, but we’re still standing strong.” With these lyrics from Home, the opening track of Diyet’s debut album, The Breaking Point, the singer/songwriter from Burwash Landing sets the mood for this CD. She reflects on her hometown, a tiny, remote First Nations community, with its beauty and its struggles. Her community has a tie that brings her back, and is a source of inspiration and hope for the future. “Don’t leave it this way/Don’t turn your back and walk away/This old dirt road still knows the way back home.” Diyet’s poetic lyrics are heartfelt and true, full of hope and inspiration for positive change in her community. They are matched beautifully by the music, written by herself and her husband, Robert van Lieshout, who also provides drums, percussion and acoustic guitar. Moments of Silence is a good example of this, a rock ballad in which she sings: “In these moments of silence that reveal the truth in us/We don’t have to say or look the other way/All the world is dancing in your eyes/And I know for sure that I am going to stay.” Another song, Luanna, seems to be a love song written to Kluane Lake. Diyet sings of wanting to leave Burwash to study music at University of Victoria, but being drawn back again. “I was a girl I dreamed of anywhere but here/I was on the road when I was 18…All these roads lead to your shores/I hear my voice, I hear it in yours.” Diyet’s voice is clear and controlled, often sounding like a cross between Jann Arden and Leela Gilday, and is perfectly suited to carry the emotion and the meaning of her lyrics. Recorded at Old Crow Recording, and produced by Bob Hamilton and van Lieshout, Diyet is backed by van Lieshout, Bob Hamilton’s guitars, Annie Avery’s keyboard, Australian bass player Goby Catt, and backing vocal from Hamilton, Catt, Emma Purser, Sarah Hamilton and, in duet, Sophisticated Cavemen’s Lara Lewis. Darryl Havers, of the Vancouver band Brickhouse, provides additional keyboards. Avery and Havers’ keyboards stand out as support for Diyet’s emotional vocals, particularly on Come with Meand Moments of Silence. On iTunes, this album is categorized as World Music, but the songs draw more on radio-friendly folk rock and pop, with some traditional aboriginal elements, such as the drum and chant near the end of Home. Each song has its own style and influence: Trippin, is a funk jam, and the lead guitar riff on The Breaking Point is reminiscent of African jive. The only thing missing from the CD is a lyric sheet. Despite Diyet’s skill as a lyricist, Diyet doesn’t provide them on her websites either. Her audience will just have to listen harder and pay closer attention. They’ll be well-rewarded for their efforts. Diyet’s The Breaking Point is available from her website, diyetmusic.com, CD Baby and iTunes, at various locations around Whitehorse. Standout Tracks: The Breaking Point and Luanna This column reviews and discusses Yukon CDs. If you are producing one, please contact Barry “Jack” Jenkins at melford12@hotmail.com .

Musicology: Diyet Keeps True to Her Roots
Sarah Lindstein

April 29, 2010

Kluane-born singer/songwriter Diyet is perched on the cusp of local — perhaps national and international – stardom, and yet remains playfully demure.

Her newly released album, The Breaking Point, is an eclectic mix of contemporary rock, R&B, country and a touch of roots.

Diverse, too, is her band of musicians, culled from her surrounding Yukon as well as reaching out to the big music scene in Vancouver.

On this album, Bob Hamilton is on the electric guitar, Goby Catt, the bass, Robert VanLieshout is on drums, percussion and electric guitar, Annie Avery is on the organ, and Darryl Havers joins Avery on the organ and piano.

“I owe this album to the fantastic and talented musicians who joined the band,” comments Diyet.

And what of her influences?

Diyet recounts studying music from age 12 onwards, graduating from the University of Victoria with a degree in classical voice. “I found out after school that opera wasn’t really my thing,” she laughs.

“I started songwriting, and discovered that I was actually pretty good at it.”

Diyet debuted in the music world songwriting for an assortment of professionals, from game shows in Japan to the Swiss version of American Idol.

After writing for others for a number of years, Diyet returned to her roots – home in Burwash Landing.

She began writing for herself, and slowly developed the songs featured in the album recently released.

“It was new, writing for myself. It took me a long time to get everything to come together, but now that it has, it’s wonderful,” she says.

Letting go of her music and trusting the band was also important for Diyet, and the creative process has helped her strengthen and grow.

Traditions of her family, First Nation, and close-knit community echo in her words and in her album.

She hopes to keep her association with Old Crow Recording, rather than seeking large record companies.

“I want to keep true to my roots, at a level myself and my family are comfortable with,” she says.

Themes of hope also resonate in the album, and Diyet has received comments on the positive and uplifting nature of the songs.

“The album faces a lot of issues, including the idea of coming home, the struggle to become self-governing, and learning about independence,” she says.

She also emphasizes that the sound is for general audiences and hopes to keep the appeal universal. Despite keeping the album release slow and careful, she’s still motivated to tour and promote her album and music — she just makes sure to keep the important things close to her heart.

Diyet will be commencing a Canada-wide tour as early as this upcoming year, and is planning a European tour shortly afterwards. Locally, she will be performing at the Yukon Arts Centre on Saturday, May 1 to release her new CD, The Breaking Point, and at the Haines Junction St. Elias Centre on May 8.

For upcoming tour information and to see Diyet’s blog, check out www.diyetmusic.com.

YUKON NEWS
Friday April 30, 2010
By Vivian Belik
Photo: Ian Stewart/Yukon News

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Burwash-based singer songwriter Diyet celebrates the release of her first album, The Breaking Point, with a concert at the Yukon Arts Centre on Saturday.

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After years of writing music for up and coming artists, Diyet van Lieshout is finally singing her own music.

Van Lieshout used to compose music for Canadian Idol singers and pitch songs to pop princesses like Mandy Moore.

But the classically trained musician was pining to make her own music instead.

Five years ago, Lieshout moved from Vancouver, where she worked for a music publishing house, back to Burwash Landing.

“I had an overwhelming need to go home,” she said.

“If you’ve been raised in the bush it becomes a big part of who you are.”

Living in Burwash eventually became a source of inspiration for van Lieshout, who says she never would have written her most recent album, The Breaking Point, had she not been living there.

The 32-year-old singer has been playing music for the past 15 years.

Her grandmother was an opera singer and van Lieshout discovered at a young age that music was in her blood.

“I was a pretty shy kid and one day my friends and I were playing around and singing some songs and all of a sudden I opened my mouth and this really big voice came out,” she said.

“It totally shocked me, I didn’t realize that was in there.”

But not until van Lieshout moved to Vancouver for high school did she begin to train musically.

She went on to the University of Victoria where she studied classical music and opera. However, she soon realized she “wasn’t disciplined enough” for either style of music, she said.

Her focus turned to more contemporary styles, like R&B, pop and roots – all elements van Lieshout has woven into her latest album.

After university, she was hired by a music publishing company that peddled music to up and coming artists in far-flung places like Japan and Switzerland.

Few of them are out in the mainstream now, but there is one singer, a “really strange Japanese pop personality” that sticks out in van Lieshout’s mind.

“We wrote a pop-punk song (for this singer), something that Avril Lavigne would sing, and it got translated to Japanese,” she said.

The song was supposed to be about bad boys.

“The recording that came out was way worse than the demo that we did – it translated into a song about a butterfly tattoo and I was thinking to myself, ‘Umm … totally different.’”

Working with artists who had no control over what they were singing and how they were presented to the world left van Lieshout uneasy.

“After seeing that, I realized my music was something I was never willing to compromise,” she said.

Van Lieshout spent 10 years working on her first album. A self-described perfectionist, van Lieshout wanted to be sure her album was just right.

When she wasn’t writing, she focused on raising her family and working for the First Nation council of Burwash Landing.

Now that van Lieshout is living in Burwash again, she can’t see herself living anywhere else.

There is no doubt life in Burwash is different than it was when van Lieshout grew up there in the ‘70s, she said.

“I was raised in a traditional lifestyle out on the land and learned the old ways from my grandparents and elders,” she said.

“I had the best childhood.”

Community residents were always supportive. But that can come with drawbacks, she added.

“The sad thing about encouraging people to follow their dreams is that people leave and they don’t often go back home,” she said.

Since she left Burwash, the community shrank to about 70 people from 100. But there’s still a strong and vibrant community, said van Lieshout.

“Some of the younger girls in Burwash want to start a dance and singing group and I’m trying to help them out with that,” she said.

Now van Lieshout is the one doing the encouraging.

Diyet performs this Saturday at the Yukon Arts Centre at 8 p.m. Her album, The Breaking Point, is on sale throughout the Yukon.

Contact Vivian Belik at

vivianb@yukon-news.com