What a way to start the new year with the chilly temperatures and snow, but I don’t mind it much as long as I’m indoors. This gives me the perfect opportunity to sit back with some hot cocoa and write to the followers out there looking for something new (Minted) to read.
A Little About Me:
I’m 23 years old and a musician, hence the Minted Tunes, and I live in Philadelphia, PA. Home is way down south at the tip of Florida, also known as Miami.
My parents met in Guayaquil, Ecuador. My mother was born in NYC but studied medicine down there and my father was born in Ecuador and working. They met, the loved, they had me, fairly straight forward. Then moving to the US Hot Spot Miami, FL. For a lot of people reading they may expect some sappy sad story about their divorce, but truthfully, that’s not going to happen. They’re happy wonderful people and I couldn't be more content with our family dynamic. So what, it’s a little stressful sometimes, but who can complain about getting twice the amount of gifts on Christmas?
Back to me, I’m an only child by technicalities, but in reality I have brothers and sisters close to me.
When I was eight years old I started taking music lessons on the advice of my elementary school music teacher at the time. What she saw (or heard) in me, I’m not quite sure because she mentioned the idea to my mom after hearing me sing “The Bunny Song” with all my other schoolmates, who were probably wondering "Why does our education include singing this dreadful song?” . I immediately began learning my third language, music (I am fluent in both Spanish and English). I was part of the Miami Choral Society! It sounded so prestigious, until they quickly changed the name to the Miami Children’s Choir. Kind of a let down because now everyone knew they were coming to listen to kids sing their versions of elementary songs while a man waved his hands in front our faces in the hopes that our eight year old ADD minds would follow before realizing how we’d become performing monkeys… and our parents were paying for it! What a laugh! All jokes aside, I loved being a performing monkey. I loved the applause, the smile on people’s faces, the standing ovations, the request for more and most of all the actual act of performing, singing and making people laugh. Oh wait… I still love all those things.
One year into it, I got my first rejection at the heart wrenching age of 9 when I was told that I was not ready for “Intermediate Choir”. So I continued on in Beginner’s Choir for another year before making it to Intermediate. Two years there and I was off to Advanced Choir, where I was chosen for the kid’s roles in the Florida Grand Opera. Now this was a real stage and at real venues. I got to act and sing and dress up and being chosen, I felt so special. No one mentioned these dreams become harder to fulfill when you’re older?! … I’ll save the ‘live and learn’ bit for later. As I mentioned I was moving on up and most of all, I was learning a lot about how music worked, how to do the fun things like improvise and take on solo parts. I could never admit that I wanted to sing a solo, I’m not sure why, but I had this shy front that I would put on despite how hard I worked to make sure that I worked well with my choir mates. There was one thing I knew for sure though, I was heading to HighSchool, 14 years old now and I wanted to go to Arts School. Yes, I am good at math and science and blah blah blah, but I wanted to be a goofball and prance around singing like the performing monkey I mentioned earlier. Months of practice and training and my audition for New World School of the Arts in downtown Miami had arrived. I could elongate the nervous wreck I was that morning or talk about my ridiculous interview answers, but the point is… I MADE IT and I could not have been happier!
NWSA Senior Show Case (I'm on the far left)
My four years of high school at NWSA could be a whole book in itself so it’s difficult to condense but I’ll mention the most important detail which is that I grew as a performer (and a person) so much. I was so shy when I first started my vocal lessons, simply standing and moving my mouth to expect the wow reaction I had received at age 8, but that wasn't the case anymore. I had to learn more about moving, acting and performing. Let’s just say that by senior year I had mastered my craft… at least among my peers. I had the best class and group of people in my choir and at school. Everyone was always really supportive and talented so you genuinely felt you wanted others to do well and I finally started auditioning for solos.
I remember one time my mom said “Sam, why don’t you audition for more solos and sing out more?” and I said “Well, no one asks me to..”. My mother quickly responded “Sam, no one is going to ask you to be famous…”. Finally, the response I needed to motivate me to get out there and just say ‘hell with it’ if they don’t like me, they don’t like me and I’ll sing elsewhere. After the many awards and recognition I received at New World School of the Arts, I graduated and head to the Northeast (where I’ve longed to go since before I could remember) to Carnegie Mellon University. Another book could be written here about pretty much everything, but this is about the music, the Minted Tunes to follow. I graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Economics, a minor in Music Technology and a Certificate in French and Francophone studies. Yes, I studied abroad in Paris, France and had the time of my life, but that’s for another post. The really exciting stuff is how I took on the task of learning how music is recorded and working behind the scenes in the CMU Studio. I pretty much became the Head Engineer’s right hand and gained my new skill of recorded music. It’s with this knowledge that I am able to now record anywhere and everywhere. It's with this how I’ll be able to put my tunes up for you to listen to and comment on.
3am Recording Session at Carnegie Mellon
After I graduated, I worked a bit, then got signed to an independent record label (whole separate post about that to come) then left them and moved to Philadelphia to keep working at an independent music label as an A&R Coordinator, sing and live with my too-good-to-be-true boyfriend that supports my little kid dreams 100%.
The people I met along the way and the troubles and joys I’ve been through to get to where I am today, to feel comfortable enough to put a non-perfected video up of me fiddling around on my guitar is just too long to fit in this post, but no worries I’ll elaborate on the little details of my journey slowly but surely with pictures, laughs and most importantly music. I just wanted to catch you guys up on a bit of me and how I got here.
This video (link below) was taken just two days ago in Miami with my mom. She caught me and I didn't realize ‘til halfway in. I’ll be recording the full version of this Cover sometime this week and will hopefully have it up by the end of next week. I am such a perfectionist that I would never in my wildest dreams put something up that I didn't think was 100% but as my mom says “Fuck it”. It’s a new year and I’m going to get out of my comfort zone to just put myself out there. Take it or Leave it, Love it or Hate it.
Thanks for reading and hope you’ll keep following me and my Minted Tunes ;)
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