Diana Anaid released 'My Queen' in 2017, an album that took seven years to write and was recorded in her local town Mullumbimby.
“It was really nice to be able to use local musicians that I've admired and watched and listened to for so many years,” she says. “And obviously I've always recorded in Sydney or Melbourne or overseas, so it was really relaxing.
“The songs seemed to go through a real transformation while I was in the studio as well, so the songs kept getting reworked and rehashed and chucked out the window and then brought back in.
“With this one, I knew that Steve James was a rock & roll producer so I kind of grabbed more of my rockier songs to bring to him. And interestingly enough he was able to take some of the folk-y and grunge-y attitude and put a bit more of a sheen on it.
“So it still seems really raw and honest like my earlier work, but it has this sound that just seems to cut through more.”
Diana recently released 'Better Girl', the second single from 'My Queen'. “That's a homage to my mum who died when I was a baby, and to the women who looked after me as I was growing up or took me under their wings.
“I have a sister now. My sister has gone through gender reassignment, so that's really special for me as well to have her as one of the strong females in my life since the very beginning.
"Especially having grown up without a mum, in a very masculine-oriented world I really do feel a real connection with the women of the world. And even with mother nature and our earth, which has such a healing, wise, strong, womanly energy.”
A belated album launch for 'My Queen' will be held at the Nimbin Bush Theatre this month.
“It has a really warm place in my heart. It was where I released my very first album, and I coincided it with my 21st birthday party. So who doesn’t want to have a raging 21st and invite everybody and say: 'Hey, this is also the first CD I've ever recorded and this has taken me years to do and it's the best songs I've written in my life'.
“Also, I recorded my first ever song doing work experience there at the Bush Theatre. So for work experience, I spent a week learning the ropes of the recording studio and they were so nice that they were like: we'll put a day aside to record your original song and we'll get in local musos and they'll do it all for free.”
Diana is set to play the upcoming Rockin' 4 The Homeless charity event in Redcliffe. “Coming from a place where I was homeless when I was ten on the streets of Nimbin, and I was homeless with my dad when I was like six and seven; it is a cause close to my heart.”
Rockin' 4 The Homeless donate their funds to Redcliffe's The Breakfast Club project, which offers free meals, information and referral to local services and agencies for the homeless.
“[Rockin' has] been going for a few years. I can't remember how many multiples of thousands of dollars they raised at the last one, but it was such an incredible figure that I was bowled over,” Diana says.
Diana Anaid Tour 2018
Fri 20 Apr - Nimbin Bush TheatreFri 27 Apr - Eumundi Hotel
Sat 28 Apr - Rockin' 4 The Homeless @ Redcliffe Leagues Club (Brisbane)
Fri 4 May - The Milk Factory (Brisbane)
Sun 6 May - Stones Corner Festival (Brisbane)
Fri 18 May - Caravan Music Club (Melbourne)
Thu 24 May - The Cambridge Hotel (Newcastle)
Fri 25 May - Smith's Alternative (Canberra)
Sat 26 May - The Factory Theatre (Sydney)
