DiipSilence combines cultural passions with foley skills to create a world of sound

“I want to hug the world of sound and show people what I can make from daily sounds by using location sounds I hope my music can paint an image of the place, to let people hear what I can hear, see what I can see.”

DiipSilence is a Chinese electronic producer based in LA. She hones in on her skills as an audio engineer while drawing inspiration from her culture to create her work.

“I love reading ancient Chinese poems, which inspires me a lot in my writing,” she says. “I like how deep the meaning it can convey in such simple words. In my song ‘Fury Tail’ I use poem form to write my lyrics which each phrase of the verse only contains four characters, the simplicity really helped me in song structure as well.”

She says that sound wise, she draws her inspiration from everyday life and uses her skills in audio engineering to recreate it.

“I tend to record foley sounds and field recordings while traveling, then go back to my studio to do sound design,” she says. “Working as a post sound editor opens me another door of treating sounds, I love to create new sound ideas, for example, importing my own recordings into wavetable synth, samplers and so on to create an instrument rather than to use common instruments.”

“The so-called ‘noise’ from our daily life can be turned into a quite interesting noise bass, can be layered with drums, can be filtered as a hihat, can be so much more than how it sounds originally,” she says. “Waterdrops can be snares, rubber bands can be fretless bass, even vegetables can be made into instruments.”

“I want to hug the world of sound and show people what I can make from daily sounds,” she says. “By using location sounds I hope my music can paint an image of the place, to let people hear what I can hear, see what I can see.”

DiipSilence recalls using Ableton Live six years ago when she started producing.

“During these years I kept reading, learning online and practice every day, to improve my production speed and sound design skills of using different sounds to build an original music patch,” she says.

She notes that her work in production changes her experience in listening to music itself.

“I progressed my music styles as well by listening to a variety of music in different styles, then create a ‘song structure map’ for the songs I love,” she says. “By analyzing their song structures, I also have a more comprehensive understanding of different music genres, which helped me to collaborate with various artists.”

She describes her most recent release, “Null Trek” as a “sad alternative and dubstep Chinese song.”

“The song incorporates dreamy female vocal, both trap sub bass and growl dubstep bass, trippy drums, and layered synthesizers,” she says.

Her song “Fury Tail” went to number one in the Kanjian Indie Music Chart in China.

“That was the first song that I wrote in ancient Chinese poem lyrics form,” she says. “I infuse western electronic music with Chinese ethnic instruments, and of course, foley sound designs.”

“I think all of my compositions are from my heart,” she says. “They all resonate with me, or I should say the resonation comes first, then I write.”

DiipSilences new EP Meteorology IV is set to release soon. She also has a series of videos on YouTube that showcase her sound design. You can view those here.