Meet Dianna St. Hilaire | Opāru-Musical Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dianna St. Hilaire and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dianna, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
I think risk taking is absolutely essential to doing anything in life. When you don’t take risks your life becomes stagnant and uninteresting. The more ridged you are about not taking risks the more stress I believe you have in your life. There is this idea that not taking risks means your life will be long, peaceful, easy and calm, but even if you chose a life without risk you are not risk free. Every step you take is a risk, anything could happen at anytime, so it is a much better feeling to know that you took every chance and every risk you could to be where you are today. It will be more rewarding that you put 100 percent of yourself into what you enjoy and love in life, rather than to be frustrated that you never tried to do those things. The only thing that prevents us from taking risks is our own fears.

I moved to LA on my own when I was 21 from Albuquerque. I had no family here or friends so I was completely alone. I know I’m not the only one to move to a large city from what was once a small town but, it was a struggle the first few years. Taking that initial risk of leaving everything behind including lifelong friends and a boyfriend at the time, was hard but a great decision as it expanded my reach and my mind. That leap of faith made me the person I am now and I’ve been able to do many things in the music industry and meet so many people throughout the years that I would have missed out on. I live in a thriving city that has amazing mountains and beaches where anything is possible. Doing music is a risk. It’s a lot like playing the stock market. You never know what will hit or what gig you might get that could potentially change your life forever. What’s most enjoyable though is the journey and there is no journey without risk.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m a singer-songwriter and I have a project called Opāru. Opāru is a dark pop project similar to that of Lana Del Rey or Grimes. I really love to write beautiful music that delves into the human psyche. There is a tendency for people to avoid going deep into their minds to think about what is really affecting them. I think it’s very important to know what emotions are driving your behaviour and what things you can do that will make you feel better. We are animals and our hormones and animal instincts drive us. It’s time to get off the bus and look at yourself from an outside perspective, but still retain your human nature. Opāru has a few new albums coming out that I can’t wait to release. One is a Cover song album of Reimagined Covers due in September written with my producer and co-writer Vittorio Iannucci and another is an album of new original songs written with producer Mike Ellery!

I am currently writing music for film and TV with various libraries and publishing companies around the world. This has been a wonderful journey, it was something I always wanted to do. It took me a long time figure it out and a lot of mentorship, but it was worth it. I now write with people from all over the world and have made long lasting friendships with amazing producers and songwriters. Recently I finished an album with 2 of my wonderful co-writers Caroline Hill Moore and Geoff Evans for our publisher Likha Music. This was a Gothic Choir album that we had spent 2 years trying to finish. Recently I got invited to be part of the Recording Academy which is something I’ve always wanted and I’m so proud to finally have been accepted. Now I hope to help teach future generations the lessons and skills I’ve learned throughout the years.

I was able to get where I am now because of the journey I went through. Everyday you wake up and you make a choice of what road you will go down on that day and what is most important to you. The journey was not easy and is still not easy and I face challenge after challenge each day. I would say music is therapy so any challenges I went through and continue to face are overcome by my creativity. It is a beautiful outlet for me to let go and hyperfocus. Whenever I would feel heartbreak or pain I would just put all my energy into creating.

I think it’s extremely important to have a mentor. I didn’t know this when I was younger I was unaware that people had mentors. I know that sounds funny these days, with all the ads on FB, but this was the late 90’s and there were not people promoting themselves all over as life coaches and mentors at that time. I came from a family that did not have mentors themselves or take coaching courses so they did not show me this way of doing things. It wasn’t until many years later that I figured out how important it was. If there is something you strive for get mentorship.

Opāru means opal in Japanese which is why I chose the name, it’s my birthstone. Opāru was a new brighter beginning for me. My story was not always so lovely. It used to be very dark. I had a hard childhood which led me into the creative arts as an outlet to relieve stress and anger. So a lot of that stress and anguish can be heard in my earlier music.

I’m an extremely empathetic person and I always want to help everyone. But I learned that you have to make sure you are surrounded by loving people. There was a time in my career where I was surrounded by the wrong individuals, and it really affected my ability to be successful. There was always a massive upheaval that would turn everything upside down in my world and make it even harder than it needed to be. So always remember that you are most important even if a part of you wants to give someone else compassion and love, make sure that you’re okay first. If that person isn’t showing you the same compassion and love it’s time to move on.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
One of my favorite places to go here in the summer is Paradise Cove Beach. Nice place to get a drink and have a relaxing time watching the ocean waves. Then we would obviously have to go to the Sunset Strip to go to our favorite staple The Rainbow for dinner, then after we could then walk around and check out some of the many bars and local bands there on the strip.

I would take them to check out some of my favorite places over in my neighborhood such as the Western Station Beer and Wine in Eagle Rock and the Silverlake Bacari. I have a love for all things spiritual so we’d have to make a pitstop in Echo Park and head over to House of Intuition.

We could stay the night in downtown LA in Biltmore for a night and while we are there head over to the Disney Concert Hall and have dinner at Vespaio beforehand.

The following day we would go to the Water Grill and the rooftop bar at BonaVista for an epic view of the city, before heading back up the 101 to go to another concert at the Hollywood Bowl.

We would need a day of hiking in Griffith Park up to the Observatory to take a look through some of their great telescopes at the stars and planets. This would be followed by a evening at Yamashiro so we could get in that fabulous view and after dinner head down to Hollywood to the Chinese Theater for a movie night.

I would take them to the Huntington Library for the day and another day at the Getty.

One last day at Cornell Wine Co. up in Agoura Hills.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are so many amazing people in the world that deserve a shout out. I think my husband and actor Francis Gonzalez has had a lot to do with my success. He has been very supportive over the years and really believes in my ability to write great music. Growing up I didn’t have much support, so having someone in my life that has been able to allow me to focus on my craft and give me tools to be a more productive human is fantastic. It’s hard to find people that truly see your value, let alone a spouse that really lets you just be who you are.

Website: https://oparumusic.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/oparumusic

Twitter: https://x.com/oparumusic

Facebook: https://facebook.com/oparumusic

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Oparumusic

Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2i5bjf3q5hjkcEc66LDbl5?si=V8B1OkBfSJOb0uOX1T8UFw
https://powercoachingmusiccourses.teachable.com/p/beginning-vocal-course

Image Credits
Lisa Whitmore
Star Sargenti
Mark Hanson
Matt Champagne
Ilya Ratman
Kavan Cordoza