Diego (deeg) and I are mutuals through a book club group chat. My presence is obnoxious—whenever I find something remotely good, even if it’s just the first few seconds, I’ll toss the sc link into the chat. Doesn’t matter if people are talking: link. If someone else is sharing: link. Even if the conversation has nothing to do with music: link. He was the first person ever to DM me that he liked what I was sharing. That alone warranted an interview, but I was curious to hear about how someone in a book-club group chat makes music.
listen to the mix: https://soundcloud.com/losermagazine/losermix01-deeg
follow deeg: https://soundcloud.com/deeg112233
Loser Magazine: Okay. Cool. So what’s your, uh, what’s your artist name? Who are you?
deeg: Hi. I’m Diego, but my artist name is deeg
LM: What’s a ‘deeg’? How did you come with deeg?
D: It’s like a more casual version of Diego. I workshopped like 50 other names before and all of them were so bad. Coming up with the name is really, really hard. Which sucks because you can’t release stuff until you have a good name. My mom called me ‘Jeegs’ when I was growing up, like the Portuguese or the Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation of my name is ‘Jiego’. So then you get ‘Jeegs’, and then Deeg is, yeah, I guess a variant of that.
LM: Does that make you nervous? Like if you make a beat and it sucks, do you take it personally?
D: If my name was like ‘ShadowCore’ and then I made a bad beat, that feels like it’d be worse. I feel like if you’re going to be putting stuff out there, it’s going to be a risk to your identity no matter what. Unless it’s anonymous in which case…
LM: Haha, especially for saying slurs.
D: I don’t know if that’s true of any of my songs…
LM: What made you want to start releasing music? Did you start as a kid?
D: Growing up, I would say I had a casual interest in music. I had favorite artists, some favorite songs, but I wasn’t engaging with it super deeply. I liked Daft Punk, a lot of Gorillaz, a lot of random shit, whatever songs I knew about. The first songs I ever bought when I got an iPod shuffle in fourth grade were ‘TiK ToK’ by Kesha and ‘She Wolf’ by Shakira. Let’s see. Muse, Elton John, Modest Mouse, Lemon Demon, do you know Lemon Demon?
LM: I don’t know Lemon Demon.
D: The Neil Cicierega project. I liked songs from the musical Rent. A lot of TV Girl, way before they got big. TV Girl was one of the first artists where I liked everything they had. They had like a couple of EPs and French Exit which I think is still their most popular album. Like no skips, you know, every song is great on there.
LM: Was TV Girl exciting in part because it was ‘contemporary’? Like, listening to contemporary music, it’s not just music, there’s a place associated with it, right? You can go see these people, be a part of the scene they come from. Did you envision yourself a part of something like that?
D: I wasn’t really going to a ton of shows. I think I really only started going to live music fairly regularly, like, shit, 2023, 2022 or something. I’m somebody who likes staying home. The primary way in which I was engaging with songs was like electronically through Spotify. Every in-person engagement I’ve had has come out of that.
LM: Got it, so what about college?
D: When I got to college, around 2018 things were kind of different. I dated a girl at the end of my freshman year who was really into music, but she broke up with me before the start of my second year.
LM: Cause you didn’t know music?
D: Haha, no, other reasons. I was quite sad about the breakup so the importance I placed on that relationship transmuted itself into appreciating music. At that point my roommate introduced me to a ton of music. I think you call it mu-core, right? A lot of rock stuff, It helped me understand more of what you might call the “indie canon”. He was a huge Radiohead fan. I don’t think I’m the target audience for their music. It’s just not energetic enough. The unifying theme of 90% or 95% of the music that I like is energy.
LM: Was this the turning point when you wanted to start making music?
D: Yeah. Because of these relationships, music started being something very, very valuable to me. A well-made song is a super valuable thing to exist in the world. I started feeling like damn, it’s a real shame that I’ve not been making music or developing the skills, because, at least for me, it felt a bit painful to really enjoy music and have no way to contribute to it or integrate it into my identity. I was 19 then, you know, it felt like it was too late, like my life’s basically over. Especially because I’d be starting from scratch. COVID happened, granting a gigantic stretch of time when I wasn’t doing anything, which was a good ground zero for starting from scratch, trying to brute-force making music. Before we were recording, we were talking about consumption versus production. I feel like I’m very heavily biased towards producing things. Like a life where I’m just consuming stuff that other people have made feels bad to me.
LM: I’ve tried so many times to make music. Under my bed is a graveyard of midi keyboards. I bought a new one every time I tried, but I’ve never been able to push through. How did you do it?
D: I mean, when I say start from scratch, it’s like, you know, I had zero natural talent or inclination or really even ideas. I think it’s a question of how much do you want it and then how long are you willing to sit with being bad at it before you get to the point where you’re happy. It took me four years to make a song that I thought was good.
LM: So what kept you going?
D: I was making progress, so that felt good. I wanted it really badly. Working in service of a goal that I cared about, even if I wasn’t actually there yet, felt meaningful. There was kind of a weird thing where I’d make a song that objectively sounds terrible, but because you made it, it sounds really enjoyable. Sometimes I’d listen to a song I’d made for three hours on repeat.
LM: Sounds like a form of masturbation.
D: Masturbation is load-bearing sometimes. I was also fortunate to be in a very supportive environment. My roommate and I moved in with two other guys, none of them were making music, but they were all very big music appreciators, not the type of people that would strike you down if you were trying something and doing badly at it. It was a very positive environment. When I started making music, I wouldn’t say it was like, oh, I’m going to devote my life to this, that this is going to be my identity. It was very much a casual start. As I spent more time producing, I got more ideas about what I wanted to do. It just gradually began to grow in importance in my life.
LM: Talk a little bit more about your thoughts regarding producing versus consuming. Why is producing a necessity for you to engage with art or music?
D: I mean, for one, it feels kind of like at a base level, it’s more impressive to make a good song than to listen to a good song, right?
LM: It’s impressive to make a good song, but that doesn’t mean that you have a good taste or you’re engaging with art critically, right?
D: Yeah, I mean, so I guess making a good song feels like it would be more valuable or more important to me than proving that I have good taste or that I’m engaging with the art critically. It feels like a more real way of interacting with the scene and the world of music, like I’m entering into a conversation with artists in my world. To me, it feels sort of intolerable to be just receiving everything.
LM: I think taste matters though. Someone needs to draw lines about what’s good.
D: I don’t disrespect taste, but going back to the consumption versus production thing, even the worst artist making music is more valuable than the best critic. I could be wrong, but that’s my initial thought. Second, I do think taste is a real thing that exists, and I do think musical value is a real thing that exists, but I don’t have the opinion that every single person that listens to music is going to have the potential to enjoy every song that’s made. Different stuff appeals to different people, whether a song is good depends on whether there’s a type of person it could appeal to. Honestly, I just want to be more than just a fan, you know? I want to be on an equal level with the artists I like the most. I want to be a part of a community, to meet other people that care about music the same way.
LM: I’m such a fucking fan. It’s pretty embarrassing.
D: Didn’t you post a picture of you and xaviersobased in the chat?
LM: Yeah, I always freak the fuck out. When I saw him on Wall Street he was with some girl, I think his girlfriend, I don’t know. Like a dork, I go “May I have a picture please?” I’m shaking. He’s 10, actually, 11 years younger than me. I’m fucking 29, almost 30. I have a fucking poster from one of his shows. Two of his songs were my most listened to on my Soundcloud recap. My girlfriend’s taking the photo looking at me like I’m retarded. The most embarrassing part of it is not the picture, which is pretty bad…
D: Oh, I feel like you look cool.
LM: Thank you, thank you. I really don’t. So after the photo, I go to shake his hand, like “Thank you, sir. Pleasure to meet you.” He kind of pulls his arm away because he’s done with the interaction, so I end up awkwardly grabbing his fingers.
D: That’s tough. That’s tough. For context, we met in a group chat two weeks ago and have been sending music back and forth. Based on what you’ve seen, have you been able to get a sense of my music taste?
LM: Lotta Indie sleaze / Electroclash Revival. We both really like ‘Laptop Twee’.
D: Ear.
LM: Ear are so fucking good. The best album this year, bar none.
D: So good, so good. The genre that’s been most influential for me is probably the early 2020s digicore scene or like 2hollis. I’m also influenced by Jane Remover and Dariacore.
LM: Really? I don’t really listen. How has it influenced your music?
D: When I was really trying to make music in early 2024, I was getting this existential angst like damn, I’m not good enough. I’m wasting my life. I quit my consulting job for a year to really focus on getting better. Then I was listening to a ton of Dariacore. It really crystallized this ADHD brain, high stimulus type of music in a way that I hadn’t really heard before. When I heard it, it felt like the vibe I had wanted to go for.
LM: Interesting you mention quitting your job. What’s the line you want to have between yourself and a character? Where are you in the process of constructing an image?
D: Yeah, it’s a good question. I’m definitely quite early in creating my image. Deeg is only just starting to emerge as someone different than ‘Diego but he’s making music’. But I’m excited for when he does. To provide some context I just started making lyric and vocal driven songs.
LM: Yeah, your new stuff is more emotive.
D: I think moving to New York has been a bit hard, destabilizing. When I write a song, it’s a time to take negative energy and put it into something. I don’t know if the lyrics necessarily reflect how I am day-to-day, but I’ve been getting better at singing.
LM: How has New York been by the way? When did you move?
D: I moved to New York in August of this year.
LM: Welcome! How are you finding it?
D: It’s good! I’ve met more people that are into the same music, which was a struggle in Chicago. I met this girl shortly after moving here, shout out Rachael. She has a very similar music taste to me and that was cool. It was kind of life-affirming. In general it just feels like there’s more going on in New York and a higher concentration of what I like. I want to be going to more shows and generally get involved in the scene, but I haven’t done that since moving here.
LM: Do you ever say you make music on dates?
D: I try not to proactively bring it up. I feel like talking about it is lame.
LM: Music is low key lame.
D: Well, talking about music is lame, actual music is good, but anytime it gets converted into text form or words, it’s just lame.
LM: Haha, honestly I agree. Shout out Loser Magazine.
D: We’re on the same page here. Back to singing, it’s like a step further in vulnerability because you can’t really be subtle about it. If you’re producing music you can wear headphones, but when you’re singing, you’ll be singing terribly for your roommate and the upstairs and downstairs neighbors to hear. –When I started doing vocals it was super heavily processed, very heavily auto-tuned. I was limited to the type of stuff I could do. I’m getting a sense of my range and it’s been getting better.
LM: It sounds good dude, excited to hear more. What’s your process like? Are you aware of the algorithm when you make a song?
D: I’m more interested in the specific music I want to make, appealing to high internal standards and not worrying about genre.I’ll take certain elements or components from a genre that I like and emulate those. Let’s see… it may be like, what drums do I want to have in a song? That’ll determine the genre or whether it’s more dancey or hip-hop. From there I’ll take elements from other genres and put them together and see the results. For example, I’ve been singing in a pop- punk style, which I want to enmesh in dance music. Cohesion is important, but I think a lot of the time a song can be good even if cohesion isn’t fully there. Real mastery is finding a way that feels like the elements that are good separately come together in a way that makes sense.
LM: Are you collabing with anyone?
D: Gopher, he’s one of the guys I mentioned from Chicago, he plays guitars and stuff. So anytime I’m making music with guitars in it, it’s probably him. He also helps with workshopping lyrics. I’m a part of this shitpost collective epicness447. We’re all over SoundCloud.
LM: Shout out epicness447. What’s next?
D: I recently released a song, Bottle Rocket, that I’m really proud of. Hopefully I’ll release some videos and stuff to try and get more than 44 monthly listeners on my Spotify, in a way that’s tasteful and elevates my music. It’s just another form of creation, and I want to do it in a way that doesn’t feel like I am debasing myself. Really the point of no return. I think it has become increasingly more important to me to do stuff live – hopefully a show at PinkFrog Cafe in January. That’s the plan right now.
LM: Is it going to be ‘deeg’ or Diego on the stage?
D: We’ll see who shows up. 
LOSER Magazine 