Creativity sometimes comes from meeting a challenge. Singer-songwriter dia maté was happy to do just that, taking on what her collaborator Quest suggested about writing something different for a change. The result is “Kalimutan,” a single that is now released on all music streaming platforms under Island Records Philippines.
dia’s new single is a result of a lock-in writing session she held with Quest. During that session, she says, she came face to face with something that she found difficult to do. “One thing that I always had trouble with was being able to write a happy song,” she says, “I’m so used to writing melancholic and sad songs, that writing happy songs wasn’t my norm.” Quest posed the challenge: what if she could take whatever she lived through and make it a source of gratitude rather than sadness?
“Kalimutan” is a song about growth meant to be in an uplifting tone. “It is about accepting who you are, moving on from the past, and finally moving forward with positive emotion,” dia says, “The journey to acceptance can be a difficult experience but when you are finally there, life becomes a little bit brighter.” She says that she drew from what she experienced and saw how she grew because of those events.
“Kalimutan” also marks a departure of sorts for dia, whose songs have always been in the R&B and indie pop genres. She says that she “ventured out more into the pop realm” for this song, citing Doja Cat and Dua Lipa as artists she had in mind when writing the song. While this will be something new for people who have followed her since the beginning of her musical journey, this song offers something that is life-affirming and celebratory.
In fact, dia says, “[‘Kalimutan’] is a song you can dance to. It’s also a song that you can scream at the top of your lungs when you need to forget about the past.” A healthy forgetting is perhaps what people need when moving forward is possible.