Amplifying Asian Voices: Diana Ratsamee's 'Eastern Echoes' Brings the Sound of the Asian Diaspora to Seattle Airwaves

by Soumya Gupta

Seattle-born Diana Ratsamee says the Chinatown-International District (CID) was a big influence on her upbringing. Throughout her life, she always believed that her heritage held a lot of value for her, and she often found herself connecting that with her love for music. These days she's exploring those facets of her life through her radio show, Eastern Echoes with Diana Ratsamee, which dives into cultural influence on music throughout the Asian diaspora.

The premise of Ratsamee's show, which first aired in September 2023, is to highlight music and tunes from across Asia spread across a three-hour weekly program featuring the beauty of Asian culture and music. Each week, Ratsamee explores music from different genres and cultures in Asia, promoting the artists and their wide-ranging approaches to storytelling. The show dives into alternative and underground scenes in Asia that are grabbing attention in some parts of the world. She strives to highlight what communities in Asia are listening to, and to share that with different communities at home.

As part of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month in May, Ratsamee said she interviewed a post-experimental Danish-Korean band from Copenhagen named Meejah, which includes vocalist, main composer, and multi-instrumentalist Mai Soon Young vlisen, a Korean adoptee raised in Denmark. She played Meejah's debut album, Queen of Spring (2021) during her episode, which blends Korean scriptures with Nordic melodies.

"Eastern Echoes focuses on not just contemporary and new artists, but we tap into classic and influential artists that have shaped the world we live in today," Ratsamee said. "Each episode is a journey that allows you to get down to the music that is being enjoyed in scenes from all around the world and learn about these pioneer artists."

Ratsamee's vision for Eastern Echoes is to ensure that it transcends borders and connects communities and listeners from all over the globe. She likes to let the music speak for itself, and structures the show to emphasize the music and clips that she has gathered.

"As a DJ, I think it is your responsibility to tap into your surroundings and understand the impact of music," Ratsamee said. "For example, every week I take a walk around Chinatown, and each experience would inspire me to look around and connect with artists and their tunes."

Hailing from a Lao American refugee family who migrated to Seattle in the early 1970s, Ratsamee was surrounded by music her entire life. Her father was a musician and performed for Lao and American bands, but for Ratsamee, familial responsibilities and financial pressures pushed her away from music and into a corporate job. However, she always wanted to return to her love for music and poetry, especially because growing up she hadn't seen a lot of female Asian musicians.

"I grew up in a refugee community, and I was the first in my family to attend college, and in some way, there was a pressure to grow and climb up the career ladder," Ratsamee said. "It was one of those experiences where I had to move away from my dream, and if I couldn't see any success stories around me, I shouldn't be in music."

After five years of working a corporate job, Ratsamee realized that she wasn't able to forget about her love for music, and began to spend time traveling and making music; in the midst of this, she found an opportunity at KEXP Radio to host her own program centered on music and musicians of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. Ratsamee has been constantly vocal about integrating Asian heritage into the Seattle arts sphere.

Part of Ratsamee's process with music is being active on the internet and connecting with a larger community of musicians and artists globally. She's been able to meet local artists across the Asian diaspora, and hopes to create a space for them to be heard and recognized. She also connects with international labels and groups spanning multiple musical genres, and draws on her own research into Asian psychedelic rock.

"When I think about my show, I think about what music I can play that really means something to people and my listeners, across all age groups," Ratsamee said. "Part of my job is also to present stories that are intergenerational; I like to play pieces from a wide range of phases."

"The music tells the story of the Asian diaspora, and opens room for conversations about our Asian community," Ratsamee said. "We are not a monolith, and we're not here making just one type of music, and that we deserve to be heard. It is a wide region I'd say."

Almost one year into her show's launch, Ratsamee said that it's been a journey and a dialogue, back and forth. What she has enjoyed seeing is the Asian community growing, and a peaked interest in understanding Asian culture. She's had multiple conversations with both listeners and artists, to present authenticity in rich music culture. A memorable conversation she recalls was when a Vietnamese listener reached out to appreciate her show, and said that it was comforting to hear his country's music on local radio.

In addition to music, Ratsamee has also been an active participant in spreading Asian influence in Seattle through her role as a producer at the CID Block Party, and by hosting cultural events at the Little Saigon Art Creative art gallery.

"Eastern Echoes with Diana Ratsamee" airs live on KEXP 90.3 FM from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. PST and is available as a live stream and archived program at KEXP.org.

This article is published under a Seattle Human Services Department grant, "Resilience Amidst Hate," in response to anti-Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander violence.

📸 Featured Image: Diana Ratsamee, a Lao American musician and DJ, and host of "Eastern Echoes" on KEXP 90.3 FM from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m PST. (Photo courtesy of Diana Ratsamee)