Diao came from a musical family, 'so I just immediately gravitated to the melody of it. 'My core memory is watching Hercules and hearing ' Go the Distance,'' he recalled. Diao was drawn into the animation and music, despite not knowing any English. But when he was seven, a cousin from Japan came to visit and brought a magical haul: a set of Disney video tapes - and with it, a whole new world. When Laurence Dale Diao was a kid on the Philippine Island of Leyte, his TV diet consisted of just a couple local channels.
