By Victoria Infante
Dariel Amant went to university for a year not because he wanted to, but to please his father. He thought it would be a good idea to study civil engineering, until he spent time researching how to experience a day in the life of someone studying that career.
“No, no expertise for me,” said Dariel. “So I left school and dropped out.”
Influenced by—precisely—his father, who had been a DJ in his youth, and by a cousin who sang, Dariel began recording songs and making mixes on a computer that he bought after leaving school.
He started writing songs at the age of 13, but it wasn’t until he got serious about music that things changed for him; I was aware that it was not going to be an easy task considering the large number of musical videos that are uploaded to social networks every day.
“They say, ‘oh, if I put out a song and it’s good, it’s going to be heard, people are going to find it,’” he said. “But that is not reality, you have to put yourself in front of people.”
So Dariel, of Dominican descent and born in New Jersey, first recorded an EP, “Cuatro rosas” in 2024, where there is a mix of R&B with Latin and Afro influences. And a few days ago he released “El Amador”, an album of ten songs that combine R&B and alternative soul with afrobeats, bouyon and amapiano, electronic and dance music genres with black roots.
It is an album in Spanish with some phrases in English that seeks to transcend borders and reach Latin American countries because, originally, Dariel planned to make a career in the English market.
“For me, expertise is a challenge [hacer un disco en español]”, he said. “Skills as an exercise for me because I have never done it; I wrote my first song in Spanish about two years ago.”
The singer-songwriter hopes to travel to several cities in the country to present this album and then continue with the production of his next album, which is already in development. On the day of the interview, Dariel was in France, where he had traveled to present his new material and at the same time establish contact with a Portuguese producer.
He announced that it will be a job in which he will experiment more, and that when the cold approaches he will do something softer and more melodious. That is the reason why he prefers to make complete albums and not individual songs. This is how many of the artists he admires have transcended.
“This is what I want my artistic journey to be like,” he said.
