Diamond Cafe brings his pop-funk sound to Vancouver

For the past few years, pop-funk musician Diamond Cafe has performed at shows for other artists in the industry.

But for his first headline tour, Sex Love Color, he gets to play solely for his fans — even in places he didn’t know he had them.

“This tour has been the first time that anybody has ever sung back the lyrics to me to every single song,” says Diamond Cafe, whose real name is Tristan Thompson.

“The first show was New York, and I wasn’t expecting that, but I could see everybody mouthing out the lyrics to most of the songs and it was unbelievable. And then just every show since, everybody’s just been singing.”

After touring major U.S. cities like Chicago and L.A. weeks ago, the Victoria, B.C. native returned to Canada and performed a “homecoming show” at the Biltmore Cabaret in Vancouver on March 20.

When he performs at home, he says it gives him “that rare tingle.”

“It’s important for me because this is where it all started — up here in the Pacific Northwest,” he says.

At the concert, Diamond Cafe performed tracks like 2017’s “Don’t Wanna Be Alone Tonight,” 2023’s “Body Weak,” “What I Want The Most,” “The Way You Used To Love Me,” and “Pocket.” He also sang “Lover Boy,” “Sweet Cherry,” and “When You Can’t Resist,” which are his latest singles, as well as unreleased songs like “I’m so lonely I could die.”

He left the stage after performing “Pocket,” only to return and bring members of the audience on stage to dance with him to another unreleased song.

“I love seeing so many different faces in the crowd that would not necessarily be in the same room together,” he says.

“It’s a beautiful thing to have people all congregate in one room, dancing to the same vibration, enjoying, … and just being let go in that one moment. There’s definitely an energy [and] frequency that gets tapped on stage, and feeling that energy and frequency from people is definitely an otherworldly experience.”

Diamond Cafe will bring his Sex Love Color tour to Toronto on March 27, but further down the line, he has his eyes set on releasing an EP followed by an album.

The EP will be a collection of songs including “Sweet Cherry” and “Lover Boy,” he adds.

“This one’s going to be a real funk-pop-driven EP. And then, the thing I can reveal about the album is I’m leaning more into slow-jam soul but also funk, [which] is my passion, so I’m always going to have that.”

He teases the album will also include “a lot of crazy features.”

As Diamond Cafe continues to evolve his sound, he says his exploration of funk has gotten more raw, organic, and dry.

“[There’s] not so [many] reverbs like I’ve used in the past, like really spaced out,” he says. “I want it to be super punchy.”

Because some family on his dad’s side are traditional Ojibwe drummers, he also hopes to incorporate drumming in future works.

“My family — my uncles and my grandma — they all went through residential schools,” Diamond Cafe says. “And so I just want to make everybody proud and honour them in a way that’s just real.”

As for his overall mission with his music, it comes down to being on stage.

“My music is just an advertisement, come see it live.”