Photo Credit: gillat
Diane Birch is a young woman who has caught my eye. Sure, she’s beautiful, talented and extremely photogenic but I spent 30 solid minutes learning more about her, her life and what drives her and I’m dying for an interview. There’s something captivating about following a young person as they aim high and land on target. This is a driving force for my efforts with young people. I love spending time with young people who have high hopes and aspirations and I do all that I can to help them achieve those dreams no matter how hard it might seem at times to make it in this world. Here’s an excerpt from her About Page on Myspace:
With a childhood spent on the move, as the daughter of a preacher, living between Zimbabwe, South Africa and Australia, before her parents finally settled in Portland, Oregon when she was in her early teens, Diane Birch absorbed a unique and very cosmopolitan perspective on life that shines through her music and makes a simple categorization of it impossible.
Trained as a classical pianist using Suzuki methodology (playing by ear at a young age following Suzuki’s theory of language acquisition, where a child learns to speak before learning to read), Diane rapidly moved away from any confines of tradition, cultivating a very individual style and composing her own material. With an obvious abundance of talent and a passion for performing, it wasn’t long before she realized that if she wanted to pursue a career in music she would probably be better served in Los Angeles, where both the film and record industries could be explored.
Working by day, making ends meet playing piano in up-scale hotels and bars, and then by night performing her own material in muso joints across the city, Diane rapidly attracted the attention of Hollywood’s ‘great and good’, and before long the invitations had started to pour in to ‘jam with Prince and his band at his house’, ‘write a piece of music for a movie’ or ‘perform for various top studio executives’. And as this started to unfold and her desire to communicate with her audiences grew even stronger, Diane discovered that not only did she have a strong feel for melody and musical composition, but also that she had a natural ability to capture her stories in words, and a voice to carry them.
As the buzz grew, even more opportunities began to present themselves to Diane, one of which was an invitation to come to England to focus in earnest on her career as a singer-songwriter, where very quickly she acquired a global publishing deal with EMI and started to garner rave reviews for her performances. Of one of the first of these, the UK’s industry bible, Music Week, said “Diane has a voice and songwriting ability that will connect with truly global audiences.”
Before long, Diane had been signed by Steve Greenberg’s S-Curve Records and had returned Stateside, to New York, where she is currently completing work on her debut album, ‘BIble Belt’, which is slated for release this spring.
WOW! Her story is beautiful, inspiring and wonderful. How did I discover Diane? Well, I was at Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop Party last week at SXSW Interactive and she was one of the performers. A seemingly shy girl sits down and says into the microphone, “This is my first performance in Austin and I hope you like my music.” Spoken like a true artist. Modesty, humility and honesty were expressed in her words and then she sang.
I was lost in song and my love for music was renewed just as if I had taken the first bite of an exotic fruit and I knew that I wanted more. On the way out, I asked, “who is singing?” and they replied, “Diane Birch.” Please check out Diane and follow her music. She’s going to be a star some day so get her autograph now. Now excuse me while I play her music, pour some wine and fall in love with the sound of love.