Diamond Rings Seeks Therapy in Music, Just Like Jay-Z

On one hand -- the one wearing the fingerless black leather glove -- John O'Regan, aka Diamond Rings, is a conceptual artist. The singer and guitarist got his start fronting the Ontario post-punk group the D'Urbervilles, but in 2008, he gave himself a glam makeover, trading his ax for a keyboard and indie-dude duds for tights and red lipstick. Ever since, he's made '80-style synth-pop, an apt soundtrack for his ongoing journey of self-discovery.

At the same time, 'Special Affections,' Diamond Rings' debut, is a plainspoken album rooted in universal sentiments. Take away the eye shadow and keyboards, and O'Regan is just an earnest 20-something singer-songwriter with a knack for melody. One need not be a gender-bending club kid to relate to this music.

"For sure, I want the songs to be direct and connect with people," O'Regan tells Spinner. "That's what a good song does, in my opinion. It's about working out my own thoughts and my own feelings and trying to understand more about myself through songwriting."

In this respect, he shares something in common with the self-proclaimed greatest rapper alive.

"I was listening to this interview with Jay-Z on the Howard Stern show and Howard was encouraging Jay-Z to see a therapist to deal with these issues he has with his father or whatever," O'Regan says. "But his rebuttal was, 'I don't need to. I write these songs.' That kind of resonated with me."

As for the decision to groove along with electro-pop beats rather than, say, grab an acoustic guitar and go the coffeehouse route, O'Regan says he wanted to make music that works on two levels.

"I'm first and foremost writing the kind of music I want to hear," he says. "I'm really excited and enamored with weird pop music -- stuff that's catchy and exciting and makes you kind of take pause and recognize there's more at play than a catchy hook. I feel like there isn't enough of that in the world."