Filipina singer-songwriter dia maté returns to her musical roots with her new single, Ocean of Emotion. Out now on all music streaming platforms, Ocean of Emotion is the singer’s retelling of a failed relationship and the regrets that came with its end.

Plunging Into an Ocean of Emotion

“The song is about a past relationship I was in. I was young, naive, and very in love at the time. But when the breakup happened, I was broken,” dia shares. “I wrote about how sometimes situations like these are truly out of our control. People change and can grow apart, especially because of the long distance. That’s what this is about: owning my truth, my feelings, and my mistakes, and then writing them down on a piece of paper. I was longing for something that wasn’t meant to be anymore.”

True to its title, Ocean of Emotion cleverly uses the motif of water and the sea to illustrate the singer-songwriter’s long-distance relationship as she processes its unfortunate end. “Separated by sea,” dia begins the song, citing the distance as a reason for the relationship’s demise.

The chorus starts with the singer-songwriter ruminating about her could-have-beens, through the lines “In the ocean of emotion, the feeling of devotion, I wish we could have last.” She ends the chorus on a somber note, repeating the chorus’ first line but revealing that “my heart has crashed.”

As the song progresses, dia expounds on the silence that worsened the already-distant connection, ending it with her last message (“Boy, you took my heart from the very start; please keep it at bay”) to her now-ex lover.

Off the whole song, dia reveals that her favorite line comes from her second verse: ‘Silence kept us apart, I was stuck in the dark. Pain was my anthem, anything could’ve happened.’

“This line represents the difficulties of long-distance relationships in a nutshell. When everything goes silent, it can be so painful. The only form of communication is texting and calling, there isn’t a physical connection. So when it goes silent, the pain creeps in on you—especially when you don’t get the closure you need. Pain becomes something you live with for a while, and any scenario can occur after that. It’s what you do with that pain that makes a difference,” she explains.

Diving Into New Sounds

Sonically, dia maté describes Ocean of Emotion as “very different from my whole discography. I wanted to dive deep into who I truly am as an artist, someone who is raw and authentic. So I went for a more indie and folk style with a touch of pop. For the lyrics, I wanted to tell a story and be poetic.”

The result is an atmospheric song that sounds more subdued compared to the rest of her discography, but nonetheless immersive. She masterfully mixes strings and synths with the sounds of conversation, creating a contrasting backdrop to the silent treatment that’s conveyed in the song’s lyrics. Adding to the fresh yet familiar sound of the track, dia employs the jazzy vocal performance that she’s known for, crooning poetic lyrics with her soothing voice. As it ends with the sounds of ocean waves, Ocean of Emotion entices you to immediately press replay and enter its universe again.

“It felt like I was going back in time working on this song. Throughout my journey as a musician, I tried different genres and new writing styles. In this process, I learned so much about myself, especially the things I like and don’t like,” dia describes her influences for Ocean of Emotion. “I realized that my true sound originates from my roots and the music I listened to at a very young age: folk music, modern jazz, indie acoustic, and rock were my main influences growing up, so I wanted to honor that in this song.”

Producing an Ocean of Emotion

Since Ocean of Emotion felt both like a homecoming and a departure of sorts for dia maté, she reveals that she took her time in crafting the song–four years, to be exact.

“It’s a song that’s been a long time in the making, since I wrote the demo back in early 2020 at 18 years old,” she recounts. “This was the first time I truly wrote something so vulnerable. I wanted to use music as my therapy, so I found some chords, played my guitar, created a melody, and then wrote down lyrics. It was simple, but the most effective for me at the time. Then in early 2021, after learning how to produce, I made the first demo.”

While the song speaks of being alone after losing a treasured love with dia herself at the helm of its creation, finishing the song took a lot more help from her newfound connections.

“The song actually sat in my music bank for a while until it resurfaced when juan karlos offered to co-produce it,” she divulges. “The resulting production of the song is a marriage between mine and juan karlos’s production style. It was acoustic and upbeat, but with a dramatic electronic touch. After working on it with juan karlos, Xergio Ramos came in to help finish producing and mixing the song.”

Moving Into Other Shores

As a rising artist in the local music industry, dia is excited to constantly try new things. While she got her start through the song covers she published on Soundcloud and YouTube, and then ventured further into music with her original songs, dia is now stepping into a new industry altogether–pageantry. Though wildly different at first impression, dia believes otherwise.

“Both pageantry and music are forms of art, they are just executed in different ways. I can express my thoughts and feelings freely through songwriting and music production. Music has always been a big part of my life and has gotten me through the toughest of times. With pageantry, I can advocate for the things I fight for, and use the platform to inspire others.”

Competing as Miss Cavite for the 2024 Miss Universe pageant, dia doesn’t forget to take music into her foray as a beauty queen, sharing, “Music therapy for mental health has become my advocacy. I want to share with the universe that music isn’t just something we listen to, but also a tool we can use to aid our mental health through self-expression. When I can, I teach music to the girls at Cribs Foundation, a rehabilitation home for sexually abused girls.”

While dia cites pageantry as “a new passion and dream that I am gratefully pursuing right now,” she is firm that music is a continued path for her. After all, she’s just getting started.

“I am excited for people to see what I have in store for this year. I can’t wait to release my new music with my newfound sound. The direction of my music is different from what I have now. It will be more raw and authentic to who I truly am. Instrumentation will be more traditional with electric-modern touches. My storytelling will be more poetic and personal.”