PipemanRadio Interviews Diamond Rowe the 1st Female African American Jackson Signature Guitar Artist

0:00 Hi, you have done to censure? Wow? Pray you? Whycoume America. It's time for the Adventures of Pipe Man. I'll w four c HY dot com. West Pompeas is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the pipe Man, never running me U.

0:50 From me for. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man w por C Y Radio. And I'm very excited because I have a return guest from one of my favorite fans, and we have some very exciting news to share. So let's welcome Diamond from Tetrarchs. How are you. I'm doing awesome. How have you been. I've been great, you know, I just actually I just got done being on tour of festivals since like April. Nice that is the best thing to be on, so right, I'm jealous, honestly. Yeah. Now, I thank god I have the interviews remotely today or else I don't know what. I wouldn't know what to do, you know how that is? You know, you get you get off of doing that, and it's like you get home and you think, oh, I get home and I can relax, and then you're like, what do I do.

1:46 Exactly? But hey, I feel like you would figure it out. So, yeah, there you go. I'm glad you get some time at home. There it is so Jackson Guitars. Wow, that's it for exciting And there you are right behind me, you know, So tell us how this happened. How, first of all, how did you connect with Jackson Guitars. Yeah, so my story and journey with Jackson's probably different than a lot of people who like have played Jackson since they were kids, and just you know, mine started basically I play evh Amps and my rep at evh is also my rep at Jackson.

2:34 So for some years he. Had just been wanting me to try Jackson's, try Jackson's. I was very happy with where I was, so you know, there was no urgency for me to do so, but you know, he held every periodically, just asked me like, hey, do you want to check out some Jackson? Can I send you some to play? Blah blah blah, and so, like I said, I didn't have. A big sense of urgency about it. But they came to me a couple of years ago with an idea that they had and it was something really cool and like, which ended up being the signature. But it aligned very much with you know, something that I've always wanted as a player, And you know, it started by them just sending me first a bunch of guitars Jackson's signature non signatures fenders to just try out and kind of get used to. And after that they built me one that I wanted with all of my specs, which ended up being the prototype.

3:34 But I loved it. It felt perfect. I ended up recording like all the new songs with it, so it passed the studio test, and yeah, I knew that that was the home for me, Like after just really taking the time to sit with them and talk to them about their plans and ideas for me, just really aligned with my goals. And so here we are. So me as somebody who tried to play guitar and really sucked. You know what I always wonder is for somebody like me, is like guitar is a guitar is a guitar, And like, no, I don't really think that, but it's kind of how you think. It's like, well, what would be the difference and why is it they keep switching guitars for different songs and stuff like that, And I'm really kind of plaining Devil's Advocate for the listeners that you know are thinking that right now. So what is it for an artist like you who is a badass guitarist that can tell the difference between one guitar to the next, And what makes this guitar now to be the one that's perfect for you?

4:44 I honestly think for every player it's completely different, you know, Like it's not like you could talk to me and then you can go talk to Billy Joe from Green Day and then talk to James Hetfield and we all might have the same preferences, but we might have completely differ ones. For me, I know, I need a guitar that's like a workhorse, you know, And I feel I've always had that, But a guitar that's a workhorse that like I can take on the road and I don't have issues with it all the time. You know. I do have a tech luckily, So sorry, there's a trash truck outside, but I do have a I do have a tech luckily, so he handles most any issues that I have. But I need a guitar that's reliable in all settings, whether I'm in the studio or I'm.

5:29 On the road. It just alleviates a lot of a headache, you know, for me, and just something that's very comfortable for me. And comfort again is something that's just so relative to the player. So it's really like, you know what I mean, it's really bass player by player. You can ask one player and it's something completely different. For me, it's just workhorse. It has to be good quality, workhorse guitar and it just has to be very comfortable for me to. Play and have the specs that I love. And other than that, I'm not super picky. So yeah, you know, it's funny because when you say comfort, that hits home for me because I look at somebody like Tom Morello, yeah, and like, how the hell is he even comfortable holding his guitar like that?

6:15 You know. It's like I'm like, if I were doing that, that would not be comfortable. I'd want it like down low. I don't want my arms up like this. I want down lower. I would be able to strum it easily to me, you know. So it's like I feel that so much. It's like and everybody's body is different too, so so you know, what might be comfortable for you may not be comfortable for me. Or you know, like you mentioned Hatfield, he's a pretty tall dude, you know, So it's like that would be even a difference, you know, for me, I'm not a tall dude, so that might not work for me. And I always think of like Morella, I'm thinking, well, maybe it's guitars a high as because he's a little taller, so he needs That's not really a case.

7:02 Yeah, because I like and especially even when I started, I used to play my guitar is like down to my knees, you know, And now it's come up a little bit since then, but I still play it pretty low. And when I see guys with their like up at their chest, I'm like, oh god, I can't. I just couldn't. I feel like I can't rock out look cool with it up that high. But those guys. Are probably like, she probably can't play tight enough with it down that low. So like we all, you know, we all just give or take some You might look, you might look a little way cooler. But maybe you're not as like technically sound you know who knows? Yeah, but it. No doubt. And so.

7:43 Basically, would you say that this new guitar is just basically all. Absolutely I say that a lot like some guitar players they when they make a signature, when if they get the opportunity, it's like they make this guitar that has all this stuff that they've just always wanted to try. For me, I just knew if it had my name on it and needed to be a guitar that was just one hundred percent me. What I've been. Playing, what I tour with, what I tracked within the studio, and what's comfortable for me, so that anyone who picks it up, they know they're getting what I love and you know what I prefer to play, And that's what I did with this guitar. Like everything from the pickups to the shape of the neck to the weight of the guitar.

8:27 It's pretty. It's heavy compared to a lot of guitars, but I wanted it to be. Hey, I like heavy guitars, So everything like that is just very very diamond and. That was the goal. Nice And so what does it feel like to be to become the first female Jackson signature guitar artist and first African American female signature artist in heavy music? I mean super cool? You know, like it all happened by me being diamond and being driven by passion of loving heavy music and loving guitars since I was so young, so I was eleven years old. It wasn't something that you know, like you'll see a couple of people get mad online. There's always trolls, but they'll get mad be like this is something, this is woke or something like that. I literally, I've just been playing guitar since I was eleven. I love Corn and Slip Knot and Metallica, and I just wanted to be like those guys. And so here we are today, and it's really cool to have accomplished that by just doing what I love, you know, and yeah, and now I can I feel like I can inspire other people to like not worry about all the extra stuff, just do what you love, and like people will pay attention at some point.

9:45 So it's it's just very cool. It's real and there's always gonna be haters, especially in social media. So the best advice I could get anybody is disregard those comments because it's those people are just doing it just to do It's not even their opinion. You know. It's really funny too. I say it to people a lot, like if you a lot of these guys, like if you show that, like, I think they feel like they're not even reading this. But if you like comment back and you're like, yo, dude, like I hate you feel that way, but appreciate you taking time to check it out. They usually write back and they're. Like, oh no, I was just messing around, like I didn't. You know. Usually they like backtrack, Yeah, stick to their guns, But most.

10:26 Of them end up backtracking, and that just lets you know they're just doing it just for for attention. They're born, Yeah, in your parents' basement. I don't really know. But it kind of reminds me of, you know, being a kid, and my brother used to tease me and I'd go writing to my mother and she's like, just ignore him and he won't want to do it. Yeah, you know, pretty much exactly. So. And then I also want to talk about real quick too, that you released your first new single in three years. That's way cool. Yeah, tell us a little bit about that song. Yeah, so it's called Livenot Fantasize. We've been in the studio for about a year, so it feels good to finally get the single out.

11:11 But it's really cool. I feel like it is one hundred percent tetrarch but there were some cool things we did in it, Like we like pushed some of the industrial elements in it, which was really cool and fun, and just the guitar solo in it I loved. I had a really fun time writing. And it actually started off honestly as a joke song. Like we wrote that song and it was a joke. It didn't have any electronics on it or anything, and just like I had a bear riff with some drums and I the joke was. I was like, wow, this is like super Dad. There was like because we had nothing else on it. But for some reason it kept making the cut as we were cutting down songs, like it just kept finding its way in the new batch and it ended up being.

11:56 A lead single, which is so funny, but how things work. But yeah, it's always the one you don't expect, right, Yeah, for sure. And so tell everybody how they can check out the new single, check you guys out, and also check out the new signature guitar. Yeah. So the single, you can find the music video on YouTube. It's on all streaming platforms Spotify. Apple Music, Amazon, whatever you got, So yeah, pretty easy to find and guitar. It's pretty crazy. You can Guitar Center, Sweetwater. Reverb, Jackson dot com, Jackson Guitars dot com. You can find it there, so yeah, it's pretty all, pretty easily accessible.

12:40 Very cool. Well, this is all very exciting and uh, I can't wait to see you out there with it personally. Me personally same. You should be seeing us very soon personally and I will have it all right. I love it. Thanks for man all the great music you give us, and thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. Thank you for having me. As always, I appreciate it. You got it. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Platemin on w for c u I Radio.