By: Ella Colwell
The Olympia music scene is deeply saddened by the news of community member and Evergreen alumni Diana Arens passing. Arens was deeply respected as she started at KAOS as a live sound engineer in 1993, where she eventually became the KAOS Program Director as well as the host of ‘Free Things are Cool’ which she started as an engineer with K Records in Olympia in 1991. Arens moved from Auburn in 1988 to attend The Evergreen State College. At Evergreen, she received her BA with a focus in political science, communication, and psychology and then also received her masters in 2015 for public administration. Arens continued at the college for another year to maintain her position as program director for KAOS, with it only being available to students. Arens enrolled in 4 to 8 credit classes that taught her how to use 8-tracks, 16-tracks, and how to build speakers. Arens was involved with the riot grrrl movement, encouraging more riot grrrl DJs to get on the air. The riot grrrl movement was a way for girls to connect with others who face similar obstacles in the music scene. They would create zines and hold community meetings to discuss feminism and organize, wanting to have a space where women could feel safe.
Arens was also a huge advocate for indie musicians, recording bands such as Neutral
Milk Hotel, Bikini Kill, and Unwound in the West Coast area. In 1994, Arens recorded every band that played Yo-yo A Go-go, an independent music festival held at the Capitol Theatre in Olympia. Arens later came back to record the festival once again in 1997, and then also recording the first Lady-Fest, a community based event that sought to uplift girl bands and artists in 2000. Throughout the 1990s, Arens went beyond her involvement in KAOS and was a regular engineer for Dub Narcotic Studio, also in Olympia. During her time at Dub Narcotic Studio, she experimented with distortion with the band Love as Laughter. Arens was known for always willing to try what the musician wanted to do and believed in recording bands because she loved to make things happen, not because she wanted money or fame, making Arens a highly respected and sought out recorder to work with throughout Olympia
Diana maintained an extensive record collection, grounded in her philosophy in uplifting independent artists in Olympia.. Her contributions to the Olympia music scene have been very
telling, many bands would not be where they are today without her. The Olympia music scene
has always relied on DJs, zine creators, and organizers to keep the community eventful. KAOS Dj Paul Pearson, who worked closely with Arens for 30+ years, spoke on her time spent at the radio station, “KAOS has a fairly rigid music policy, 80% has to be Indie, but, Diana, I think there were times when she was more like 90%.” KAOS has always had a mission to overcome the record labels and the music industry, but now most musicians are independent, the real challenge KAOS faces now is streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. “Diana is one of the most ethical people I knew, I think she would be in step with this new hurdle.” Pearson remarked, highlighting how difficult the COVID-19 pandemic was on radio stations in the area. “These are times when we need people like Diana and institutions like Evergreen and KAOS. My main hope is that people here know who she was and that students continue to do amazing work in her honor.” Pearson said that current Evergreen is not so different from Evergreen back in 1994.
A celebration of life was held on Saturday, May 3rd at Capitol Theatre, a place that she
had a great influence on and where memories and her legacy will continue to be shared. The
people who put together the memorial and attended made a playlist of Arens favorites which
featured songs from a wide variety of genres, showing that Arens truly wasn’t bound by just one
genre. The playlist can be found here: https://www.mixcloud.com/paulpearsonseattle/the-diana-
mix/
In Diana Arens own words, “wherever you are, you belong there.”
