Diving Dame is the creation of artists Freddy Avis and Zach Moses, and they’re taking the world by storm with their debut single, “Good Life.” It’s a force of nature that’s rocking and rolling in new fans’ ears. In a time when the past year (an arguably dark and difficult one) has inspired otherwise more somber and thought-provoking pieces, Diving Dame sought to brighten up the place with a piece full of noise, energy, and light.
As a self-described “juggernaut-pop” band, Diving Dame offers a little bit of a mix of things. It’s a moment of rock meets punk meets EDM, with a touch or so of jazz and disco. With all these styles combined, there’s a guarantee of enough energy to go around. You can’t help but dance and jump and groove to the hyped-up rhythm and contagious liveliness of the band members. There’s a fresh new feel to the mix, and it fills a room with a spacey, fever-dream-like atmosphere. You feel motivated to go out and do that task or accomplish that goal or change the world. It could be that Diving Dame aims to do just that with their music: change the world, make people happy and hopeful, flip a switch on the discontentment and burdens that everyone is feeling.
Due to the combo of rock-punk-EDM, there’s a wonderful conglomeration of instrumentation from these three genres. You have the classic drums and electric guitars that elicit the pop rock vibe, not to mention some absolutely fantastic guitar riffs that just light up the song. The keyboard also offers some pop rock vibes, while synths and other electronic sounds incline towards the EDM. It’s all thanks to the amazing mixing talent of Zach Moses. His ability to combine these instruments and sounds (and, consequently, genres) into such a cohesive product is noteworthy. Though not often unusual styles to combine, there’s just something different and special about this piece. Perhaps they might just kickstart a new way of thinking about these styles as a whole.
There’s a simplistic art to the vocals. While not overly processed, which allows you to hear and appreciate Freddy Avis’ lead vocals in their pure form, Diving Dame adds a touch of synthesizing to give that electronic edge. For a majority of the song Avis hangs out in the higher range of notes, all excellently produced. It’s mostly just him, and the few harmonies that exist happen on the occasional word (like “goes by” in the chorus) and in a “hype man” way, as if the background vocals are the singer’s personal cheerleader, boosting him up and cheering him on. The singer moves effortlessly across consistently changing notes, smoothing out the transitions to a flawless execution. He pushes his voice just enough to sustain that rock sound without overdoing it. Just like the instrumentation, it’s all a gloriously cultivated mixture.
The song is like an anthem, calling upon us to get up and do something with ourselves. As the singer refers to himself, we can easily slip into his shoes and imagine the same self-reflective musings.
Maybe I’m just worn out from the sound
I need to hear something profound
Look around
There’s a bit of darkness as the singer reflects on how the fantastical “good life” wanders by, and upon this discovery, he begins to slip into a kind of reality check.
Otherwise I’m empty all around
And I found out
I fantasize about the good life
But there’s no need to let the song get you down. Let the reverse-psychology kick in. If you’re in need of some purposeful escape, go out and find it. Just like the band’s namesake does (according to their Spotify bio), “recycle nightmares into fever dreams.”
