Diane Miller used to be uncomfortably shy. And then she discovered performing music.  

On stage as a rapper, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and more, she channeled a different version of Diane. Confident. Bright. Loud. Best yet, people loved it.  

The reception for Diane’s performances in her hip-hop band in particular helped her bloom off-stage, too. “The way people responded to it, I was like, ‘OK. Maybe I’m doing something right,’” the 37-year-old musical polymath says. “That helped grow my confidence to talk and communicate and really learn to break out of my shell.” 

Sharing the local love 

Now, Diane is working to help build up the Minnesota music community that helped nurture her. Starting this Sunday, Sept. 10, she’s rolling out a new, expanded version of The Local Show on The Current.  

Each Sunday evening, Diane will host The Local Show from 7 p.m. to midnight with several new features. Each show will include music as well as information about the Artist of the Month, which starts by spotlighting Burnsville sibling duo Durry for September. The show will also include a Throwback Track that’s “anywhere from five to 50 years old,” the Gig List highlighting upcoming local shows, local music news, top 5 debuts, and Land of 10,000 Bands as an opportunity to focus music from greater Minnesota. It all adds up to three additional hours every week in which she’ll highlight music from across the state.  

Throughout each Sunday show, Diane will continue debuting new songs and programming music from The Current’s deep library of local music.  

It’s a natural next step for a performer who found her voice in the local music scene. 

From Fargo to the Cities 

When she was in seventh grade, Diane settled with her family in the Fargo-Moorhead community, six years after her Navy vet dad retired. Finding her footing in that community wasn’t always easy. Beyond the horrors of middle school, Diane’s background was different from her peers. She grew up moving around a lot, including stints in Alaska and Hawaii. Her dad met her mom in the Philippines, which was also a marker of difference in the mostly white community. “My mom was born and raised in the Philippines, it’s a completely different culture,” she says.  

Her affinity for sports helped, and it eventually got her a college scholarship for track and field and cross country. While she had always loved music, blogging about music, learning to play guitar from a friend, she did not take part in school band as a kid. Instead, she describes herself as “a closeted musician and music nerd.”  

But when it came time to decide what to do after high school? “I struggled to know what I wanted to do.”  

So she decided to let her inner music nerd out, majoring in music at Minnesota State University Moorhead. Through that choice, she began meeting other musicians, then she began playing in a few bands herself. She also channeled her longtime obsession with music into a gig writing about music for the High Plains Reader, Fargo’s alternative weekly. When the Reader’s editor position came up, she landed the job, and began covering everything — art, politics, food. Between that work and her music, she says she “discovered that I had this passion for community.” 

Folk, reggae, and Nelly 

Diane’s work for the Reader brought her closer to a wide range of musicians. “I interviewed Dessa, and artists like Erik Koskinen, plus a ton of bands that played for smaller venues and could obviously benefit from press coverage,” she says. 

All the while, she kept busy following her passions as a talent booker and gigging in folk, reggae, and hip-hop groups.  

“In Fargo I opened for everyone from John C. Reilly’s country band to Nelly.” (For the Nelly gig, it was just Diane performing solo on a loop station beat box, if you’re wondering.)  

In 2018, Diane moved to the Twin Cities, and continued booking music and performing, making a name for herself in the bigger market. In 2021, she took over as host and producer for The Local Show—which at the time was a weekly, two-hour program. 

Now, she is thrilled to have the opportunity to bring even more music from around Minnesota to The Current’s listeners. “Being a local musician, being an artist who’s never really reached a level of nationwide recognition, but knows what it’s like to actually be in the heart of a music scene and be recognized by that,” she says, inspires her to give back.  

It’s all about discovery 

Diane appreciates that The Local Show’s audience wants to discover new music. 

“The Current’s audience is special. They’re gonna be open to it—one of the things we hear a lot from audiences is that they appreciate how much we focus on local music. Because it is so important for local artists to get radio play,” Diane says. “I think of myself as a fan of The Current before I became a DJ. I loved it because of the variety.” 

That variety includes a range of genres — hip-hop, indie rock, jazz, alt-country, and lots more — effectively blended together in unexpected ways.  

“The Current is like Minnesota’s music scene. It’s a melting pot for so many different styles of music from all different backgrounds … BIPOC, queer, male, female, non-binary. We’re going to hear from all voices.” As a queer woman of color who has been through the experience of being an outsider, she says she has a natural inclination to program her show inclusively. 

“You can use music as a way of gaining an understanding,” Diane says. “I mean, that's the power of it. Lyrics combining with instruments—it’s magic.”