Diego Paulo

You know the world just got a little bit smaller when five fresh-faced, White kids from Delaware import their own brand of Afro-Cuban, barefoot, Brazilian Bossa Nova, Tropicale back home and take it to the American road. But that’s not enough. “We want to bring our form of music to the mainstream,” says percussionist, Tyler Holloway.

Diego Paulo was born two years ago while Zack Homenik, a confident 24-year old with a thin, blonde, moustache, was studying abroad in Brazil. While exploring the continent, inspired by the sounds and flavors of South America, Zack adopted the alter ego, Diego Paulo, a fearless, romantic wanderer, speaking to the world though music.

“Music is so global. When we can’t communicate freely, music is the translator; it’s the universal language,” explains Zack.

When he returned from Brazil, Zack called on school chums Tyler Doherty, Tyler Holloway, Sam Nobles and Katie Dill to join him: Diego Paulo was re-born. “We all transformed into one being,” says Zack.

One extremely laid-back being. Backed by strings and percussion instruments, Katie sings softly, and the music is as cool and easy a Tahitian breeze. It’s also appropriate for all ages. The debut album from Diego Paulo, Café Con Leche, will be available this spring. - CentricTV.com

So last tuesday’s VH1 Save the Music benefit sort of had a Bar Mitzvah vibe. There was one side of the Union Square Ballroom filled with the out of place middle-aged, another with mini-dress clad girls salvaging a good time, and everyone in between was drunk on Hypnotiq.

Mike and I approached the door, sneaking past a standard group of cigarette breakers to get to it, and assessed the situation. The duo of bored twenty-somethings sitting behind a white linen covered folding table forwarded us over to the “press spot” about five feet away where it seemed our “VALUED AT $200!!!?!!” gift bags were nowhere to be found. Who cares really though, we thought, it’s a benefit for god’s sake and there’s bound to be some drinks down there. We both had had a long day, and anything free sounded pretty appealing, especially if was in the name of Saving the Music.


Within the first 30 seconds of arriving, Mike turned to me and said “you know those big parties you see on the internet?” I bent towards him to hear over the deafening dance music, “We’re at one.” 30 seconds later and fifteen feet deeper into the crowd, he quickly retracted his statement. Above us hung wrought iron candle fixtures that seemed identical to ones my aunt uses in her fireplace around Christmastime, where to our right lived the DJ, dropping tracks like it was 2008 on the crowd of poorly lit partygoers. The scene was lively, if a bit awkward, and we hung to the open bar like lions to a watering hole. Everything I drank was blue and came with rock candy.


Twenty minutes later, DIEGO PAULO saved my night. This lively quintet from Delaware, fronted by the enchanting Katie Dill, immediately soaked up any tension in the room, disarming the suits with their crowns of flowers, glitter Bindis, and unassuming vibe. Drummer Tyler Halloway almost made my jaw drop a few times with his intricate rhythms, at once inspired by indie rock and bossa nova, a rare combination to be found flowing out of Delaware of all places.


The band’s fans were easy to spot: any girl in a flower print dress and any guy wearing plaid in the crowd seemed to be bopping and singing along to what I could only imagine was a source of local pride. There was something honest about Diego Paulo’s excitement last week, despite their surroundings. Through their on-stage exuberance and on-point performance, it was easy to see just how glad they were to be there, in New York, playing for a good cause and a fresh crowd.


When I approached Katie Dill, a freckled dark-haired girl with a wide smile and a powerful voice riding the feminine side of Casablancas melodies, she was still floating on the adrenaline of her performance. She told me that the opportunity to play that night came almost by accident - Diego Paulo was the last minute substitute for a band that couldn’t make it. I can’t imagine that whoever missed out on playing that night could possibly have done better.


Mike and I turned our backs against the logo smothered photo backdrop as the band stood chanting together and getting its picture taken. Though I still had a couple more questions to ask, I thought it best to leave them bathing in their glory. Hopefully, it isn’t temporary.


-JFP
- Music Vagabond

As local Newark bands go, Diego Paulo is boss. Make that bossa nova, the Brazilian style of jazz that they’ve adopted as their signature sound.
That “Girl From Ipanema” vibe — as is the case with most of the band’s influences — was inspired by personal experience. Zachary Humenik (vocals/guitars) says he first fell in love with bossa nova during a trip to Brazil.
“My first travel experience really was helping me translate the bossa nova feel to people that never really understood it before, and try to have all of us put an American spin on it, so that someone who doesn’t know what bossa nova is will be able to understand it a little bit more,” Humenik says.
Tyler Doherty (vocals/guitars) and Humenik, who are brothers, played together in Bellefonte, their previous band which has since broken up. All the band members have also played together in jazz ensembles at the university.
As Diego Paulo, Doherty, Humenik and Sam Nobles (vocals/bass/guitar) had been playing together for approximately three months when they asked Katie Dill — a well-known local artist in her own right — to do vocals on their cover of “Girl from Ipanema.”
“I knew of Zach and he called me up and was like, ‘Hi, this is Zach Humenik,’ and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I think he’s in American Buffalo.’ [Dill had mistaken him for Zachary Thomas, the vocalist and guitarist from American Buffalo.] I was like, ‘Did that kid just ask me to be in American Buffalo? What’s going on?’ ” Dill says.
When Dill (vocals/banjo/ukelele) showed up to sing with them, she was surprised to see Nobles there as well.
“We knew each other,” she says. “We didn’t know we were going to be playing together that day.”
Although they’ve been together as a complete group for only a year, the members of Diego Paulo are close, both as musicians and friends.
“I think at this point we have such an understanding of each other that we kind of always edit each other and add our own flavor to everything we do,” Dill says.
Since they started playing together, Diego Paulo has expanded their style to include bluegrass, rock and African influences. Nobles says the African sounds in their music are a result of listening to Ghana Special, a compilation album of funky and soulful Ghanaian music, on repeat during a particular drive from Newark to Philadelphia.
“It clicked with us really well — not intentionally — but one day we just started playing and it came out sounding like Africa,” Nobles says. “So now we’ve got some Brazil, some Africa and some America in there too.”
The band explores this wide variety of sounds on their first full-length album, which they expect to release in late April or early May. (“Just in time for the summer sun,” Humenik says with a laugh.)
“It’s 10 different songs and it’s a wide variety of tunes,” says Tyler Holloway (drums/congos). “We’ve got rock on there, we’ve got Americana, there’s bossa nova, reggae, jazz — all sorts of stuff. We’ve got some Africa on there. We basically tried to sum up the main feel of our sound as a band with this album, with every song having a different style but still sounding like Diego Paulo.”
To put together the album, which is still unnamed, Diego Paulo enlisted the help of several friends. Steve Scher, a friend of Holloway’s since his freshman year of college, produced the album and provided the band with recording equipment. The album was recorded at Nobles’ house in Wilmington, and is being mastered by Grammy award-winning producer Warren Russell Smith at a New York City studio called The Magic Shop, where Holloway interned last winter.
Working in the studio enabled Diego Paulo to do more mixing than is possible when playing live, and to have their friends play on the album. Rob Nowicki plays trombone on the album and Davien Bailey plays trumpet.
On Saturday night, Diego Paulo (along with Atlas, another band featuring students from the university) played to a sold-out East End Café — their first show since taking a break to record their album. Despite a few initial technical difficulties, their 10-song set list, which included the very danceable “Aleksandria,” “Sail Away” and “A Viagem,” had the entire crowd jamming.
After spending a month recording, the band was happy to have an opportunity to play live.
“We usually play live so it’s kind of been weird to have to go into the studio and do it so methodically,” says Holloway. “It’s especially been great with this snow. We’re all trapped here at my house in the living room, and we’ve just been jamming for like ten hours. It’s been so refreshing for each of us. It’s been awesome.”
For more information about Diego Paulo and to hear their music, visit http://www.myspace.com/diegopaulo. - University of Delaware: The Review

Popular Delaware band “Diego Paulo” made its first-ever New York debut March 2 at the Union Square Ballroom. Performing a mix of Latin and American inspired numbers, the five-member group played as part of a benefit for VH1’s “Save the Music Foundation.”
Sabrina Chapman, public relations coordinator for the event, called it a “success” and said it drew fans from the Northeast. Among them was a busload of about 30 fans and friends from Newark, Delaware, Diego Paulo’s hometown.

Steve Gray, one of those on the bus, said Diego Paulo “was really fun to listen to and go see. They’re as much for the audience as they are for themselves.” That seemed true, as the audience, which at times grew to more than 100 during the 9 p.m. to midnight event, grouped before the stage, dancing and swaying along with the band, some swinging hula hoops around their hips and others blowing bubbles.

At times touching deep notes and singing ballads, Diego Paulo lead singer Katie Dill reminded me of Amy Winehouse. Other times, the makeup of the band, with a woman as front person singing Latin inspired songs seemed reminiscent of the popular Northwest group, Pink Martini. Afterwards, Gray said the group was going with the band to an after-party. The out-of-town fans who rode the bus didn’t expect to get back on it until the wee hours of the morning. - WeKnowTV Blog