The serenity of Los Angeles-based Diva Dompe is the most noticeable and transferable qualities between her various projects. Projects ranging from meditation to pure pop to monthly Dublab transmissions, Diva has been working hard the past few years on everything in her power to bring peace to everyone she can on Earth. Shoot, she’s even had a baby and joined unions with Matthewdavid, moved between two labels, and continues to work toward future releases.
But let’s not get too ahead here, because her newest LP, Divinity In Thee, just dropped this year (including collaboration with Adam Ferriss on the album’s interactive divination system website based on the release’s tracks); the bass-walking, tranquility-slanging, and good vibes pleasantly engulf listeners like the warmest blanket on a chilly day.
Tiny Mix Tapes reached out just before she and her family left for a beach trip. We got her talking on astral projection, sleep paralysis, becoming a mother, and various other surprises. (Photos by Logan White)
First off, fun fact, Matthew was my first interview for Tiny Mix Tapes.
Oh cool! That must’ve been before the European tour we did together. Prior to that, we met a few times, just around town, going to shows in the community we play within. But it wasn’t until we went on this tour together with M. Geddes Gengras and Sun Araw — about a year before that European tour — all in a van. And we fell in love on tour.
Aww, awesome. Yeah, my interview was just before he began singing, and you both have a very similar vibe in lyric writing.
Yes! We inspire each other creatively.
How is it staying creative since the baby’s birth?
It is definitely a struggle trying to stay creative as a mom. A lot of my creative energy is going into helping this new human thrive, and I just need to find the healing path for me within motherhood that once served me through art. Matthew and I have taken on more traditional roles and there is so much responsibility that comes with having a family. It’s such a beautiful and tender life, but it teaches you a lot through challenges and I definitely feel like I’m constantly trying to figure out the balance between being an artist and a mother. My creative process has always been reliant on solitude. I’ve always been a reclusive sort of person, which is my natural tendency, so I thrive creatively on alone time and day dreaming. Now having a daughter, even when she’s napping or something, my consciousness is partly with her; it’s hard to go completely and 100-percent into my own consciousness travels.
Love is a hot name for a baby!
[Laughs] Thanks!
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So you’re mostly home teaching Love about the Yialmelic Transmissions? Yee-all-malac? I’m a class-act mispronouncer of all words.
‘Yialmelic Transmissions is correct, yes. It’s a hard one to say. Its probably hard to translate from what it sounds like on Yialmel to what it sounds like on Earth. I’m sure Love knows all about inter-dimensional travel.
Did you use your meditations as a holistic method while you were pregnant?
Meditation is a really great tool for pregnancy and preparing for birth. I did use it a lot at this time, but the main reason that got me into meditation was a self-healing process that started before pregnancy. I’ve always had these visionary experiences, since I was a child, and then strongly as a teenager. These experiences were like what many people would call hallucinations, so it scared me. I thought I was maybe mentally ill. So even though these experiences would still fuel my creative life then, it was a broken relationship. Later on I was able to come back and embrace this visionary world after finding a supportive spiritual community and learning about occult and esoteric perspectives. The guided meditations are a way for me to explore that world and those visions.
Most pop songs are love songs about finding or losing love, and we put that in this context of love in another person outside of us, relationship love. But my perspective is that they are really all about cosmic love on a subconscious level.
Do you draw from a specific text or religious-based practice? Or is all of this very purity of a free-mind type of practice?
Most of it is from personal experience. The meditations are all directly channeled and help me explore the Yialmelic world, but also express love through myself to other people. I had a lot of sleep paralysis as a teenager, so I’d talk about it with other people, and came to the understanding that other people also experienced this, as well. Through my astral projections and readings, I’ve used it as a gateway to exercise energy work and meditation, so sleep paralysis gave me a window into this esoteric practice. But I also enjoy theosophy and have really got into reading books by Dion Fortune. I don’t get to read as much now that I’m a mom, but I love to get into all that sort of thought process.
I’ve always had these visionary experiences, since I was a child, and then strongly as a teenager. These experiences were like what many people would call hallucinations, so it scared me. I thought I was maybe mentally ill. So even though these experiences would still fuel my creative life then, it was a broken relationship.
I know y’all are a big moon family too. How does that affect your astral projects (aside from your title and lyrical inspiration)?
Lately, I’ve been really affected by it, actually. All last season has been weird. I think that post-pregnancy and the role of a mother, I believe, makes you more sensitive to what’s going on with the moon. But sometimes I feel like I have to pull back from these things too, like what’s going on astrologically; it can get a little obsessive, trying to put my own experience into this astrological perspective sometimes and losing the bigger picture.
Is it more of the social community in astrology you can’t become too a part of, or is it much more personal?
I do see it on both sides, but more-so when every post on my Facebook feed is linking the different things going on astrologically. Or with people. But I just naturally over think things anyway. So I feel like all that stuff is a tool. When it gets to be oppressive, it’s not fulfilling its purpose for me. It’s just a balance between absorbing and simplifying.
When you’re doing the guided meditations, do you also take this balance into consideration? Like, do you make the music being played while transcribing the meditation? Is it live?
Yes, I make all the music heard on Yialmelic Transmissions, but i don’t do it live at the same time I’m also leading the meditation. That balance comes through because I make the recording its own thing before the meditation, so when I do the speaking, I can really go there in my consciousness, obtaining a trance-state. Having my mind clear rather than processing music at the same time.
Yeah, I guess you do this well too while differentiating between your transmissions and pop projects. Especially considering the different titles used for each project. Is Diva your real name?
Yes.
So, how do you perceive this balance between the two projects, aside from the obvious involving genre?
The difference between my Yialmelic Transmissions and the newest album Divinity in Thee is — hmmm. I wrote that album before I was pregnant, and then when I was expecting, it took a long time to master and mix and put time toward it. Being pregnant and then having a young child just put me in a slower pace, so doing the meditations and ambient music came more naturally in that state. I’m also still writing pop music. To me there is not much difference between pop music and ambient, healing new age music. That’s why I like to bring them together. I feel most pop music is healing music too. Most pop songs are love songs about finding or losing love, and we put that in this context of love in another person outside of us, relationship love. But my perspective is that they are really all about cosmic love on a subconscious level (because that’s really what relationships are about too).
That is a very impressive aspect of this balance: how much they represent each other on both angles — peaceful tones and written-vocal content — while remaining two completely different mediums.
Though, I really just like going as Diva, in all my works. Diva In Paradise is just another website name I could use because you can’t just use Diva.com [Laughs]. Everything is always an influence on my music and it’s all coming from the same source, just my mediations are more a stream of consciousness access to paradise. So, with my guidance, their paradise awaits, and it’s in them to listen and pursue it.
Do you feel Love experienced this paradise during your pregnancy-era meditations?
Yes! She is definitely in tune with me and understands what I’m feeling. I feel like when babies are in the womb, they’re right on the threshold of having a strong connection to the spiritual plane, as well as learning how to come-to-being in their physical form. So I definitely feel like her consciousness is able to travel to these places with me, in her own way.
Is there an astrologer that helps you with your transmissions?
No. I wish! Maybe if I could afford it. Luckily, I have a lot of friends within the astrology community, so there are people who understand that I can talk to about it. My friend, Maja D’Aoust (White Witch of Los Angeles) does readings, and those have always been really great. She used to do a monthly esoteric lecture program, but since she took a hiatus, she’s been building a new program called “Well Wishers,” having just got nonprofit status with that, and beginning to start events. It’s all in part to give people tools like meditation or qigong. The whole community is very magical in helping me and everyone they reach explore all this stuff. Really just so the world can be a better place. [Laughs]
And you! You’re still doing the once-a-monthly Dublab ‘Yialmelic Transmissions?’
Yes! That was supposed to be today, actually. But it’s Labor Day, so they’re closed. Though, with my current parental responsibilities, I’ve been recording it at home and sending them in. Every once-in-awhile I’ll do live meditations too, at different events. I have a gong too, so I’ll do gong baths.
What’s crazy is that you do have an opportunity to forego building community through music PR, as the extent of (half) your art is also a whole separate medium. So seeing Divinity in Thee get some healthy promotion through Brian Foote and on Stones Throw Records seems like an awesome opportunity. Is this Circle Star Records’ first full LP?
They actually released a Dâm-Funk seven-inch years ago, and a Jesse Hackett LP just a month before Divinity in Thee. Circle Star Records is curated by Peanut Butter Wolf, who has diverse tastes in music, so the release discography has a wide variety. Circle Star is distributed through and supported by Stones Throw, but expands maybe to different audiences. And it’s creating a very positive community and outlook. It’s giving this music another world to live in.
A lot of my creative energy is going into helping this new human thrive, and I just need to find the healing path for me within motherhood that once served me through art.
How did you meet up with Peanut Butter Wolf?
I’m pretty sure Mark McNeill (one of the co-founders of Dublab) turned Peanut Butter Wolf onto my first album The Glitter End. Then I was asked to play a Stones Throw event, so from there, Peanut Butter Wolf just kept signing me on to play shows, until I finally signed with him. I also had this goth night I used to do called Bloody Mess with my friend Megan, and FOLERIO (Peanut Butter Wolf’s alter ITALO ego) came and DJ’d. He has many different dimensions.
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Who did that intricate artwork for the Divinity in Thee cover?
My really close friend, Ron Regé, Jr, who’s an amazing artist who also does comic books, and was also a big influence on me getting more comfortable with exploring the Yialmelic world through astral projections. He put out this great book called Cartoon Utopia, where he illustrated all the notes he’s taken at Maja’s lectures. So these notes would lead him into different energy works and esoteric concepts, which he turned into this book.
How has it been transferring from your previous label Critical Heights, considering it was a UK label?
Critical Heights are based in London so I didn’t have a much of a close relationship with them as I am able to have with Stones Throw. The office is five minutes away from our home. So many people in our immediate community are involved at Stones Throw. Considering Matthew’s job there and Divinity in Thee, Stones Throw has become a big part of my life.
[Cooing] Love is really excited because we’re going to the beach now.
Aww. Are y’all planning on touring with Love, or maybe a collaboration?
[Laughs] Yeah, she and I jam a lot at home, which I’ve been saving on a file. Thought it’d be nice to just have, and maybe to compile and mix in a weird way. Someday.
Y’all chill with other musicians/labels who’ve recently become or have babies?
Just a couple. It is a little challenging. When I became pregnant, I had nobody else around that was also pregnant in our community. It’s still kinda like that, but like Brian Foote and his partner have a baby. And Aaron and Indra who are in Peaking Lights have kids, although their kids are older than Love, they have been really supportive and inspirational as parents to us.
Before y’all get feet wet, just two more questions looking toward the future of Diva. The first, I’ve heard you and Matthew have a long-form new age collaborative release coming soon? Something about pulling stuff from a wedding tape? Sup with this gold?
Yes, we made a collaborative ambient piece and put it on cassette as a present to all our wedding guests in 2013. We have collaborated on a few more pieces as well and plan to put these together in one release. Its just such a slow process with everything else going on in our lives but it will definitely happen when the time is right.
When do you plan on dropping your next Leaving Records release? Will it be part of Yialmelic Transmissions or a solo gig or something involving the current New Age series (currently Matthewdavid and White Rainbow) or all-of-the-above?
I will probably be releasing some of my meditation instrumentals on the Leaving Records new age cassette series. We would like to use some really early ones that I made on my eight-track cassette recorder, I’d like to pull each track separately into the computer so i can mix it digitally. I am also working on another pop album, but will probably be a while until it’s completed.