From her music to her viral videos, Mia Asano is bringing something new to a classic instrument. We talk Electric Violins, the pressure to be perfect and the highs and lows of sudden social media fame. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Things We Wish We Were Better At.

Mia Asano: 01:39ish

Pointless: 30:06ish

Top 5: 44:00

https://open.spotify.com/track/1ueJotDhUqui1VJp0piINB?si=438e7ae7d84740a9 (Mia Asano Spotify Music)

https://www.instagram.com/miaasanomusic/ (Mia Asano Instagram)

https://www.tiktok.com/@miaasanomusic?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1 (Mia Asano TikTok)

https://www.youtube.com/c/MiaAsano/videos (Mia Asano YouTube)

https://miaasano.onuniverse.com/ (Mia Asano Website)

https://www.facebook.com/miaasanomusic (Mia Asano Facebook)

Interview with Violinist Mia Asano

Nick VinZant 0:11

Hey everybody, welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode, violins and things we wish we were better at

Mia Asano 0:22

when I was around age 13, I discovered electric violins. And then for me, it was game over from there like that I was like, This is what I have to do, I have to get my hands on an electric violin, playing violin is very, very difficult. And you're trying to train your muscle memory so that your fingers go to that exact perfect 10th of a millimeter spot every single time. And so, it really takes a lot out of you what ended up happening, I was going through kind of a period of questioning myself musically and I was feeling a lot of imposter syndrome. I posted this one video, and I woke up the next morning with 100,000 followers and I was at the grocery store and I started crying.

Nick VinZant 1:01

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, like download, subscribe, share, leave a review, we really appreciate it really helps us out. So I think the best way to introduce our first guest is to let you hear her music

this is electric violinist. Mia Sano was it always the violin for you? Or did you try other instruments and then find the violin?

Mia Asano 1:44

When I was five years old, I was given the choice from my parents. They said you could play a violin, guitar or piano. And I chose the violin. And, you know, I could have had other opportunities to try other instruments throughout the years, but I kind of just fell in love with the violin right away and basically never looked back.

Nick VinZant 2:02

What was it about it?

Mia Asano 2:04

Um, it's hard. Recalling back to my five year old brain, I think I just probably liked the look and sound of it the most,

Nick VinZant 2:13

I would say that probably the violin is the coolest looking instrument to play.

Mia Asano 2:19

I would I agree with that. I think both a typical acoustic classical violin, I think it looks beautiful. And it's one of my favorite instruments. But then when I was around age 13, I discovered electric violins. And then for me, it was game over from there like that I was like, This is what I have to do, I have to get my hands on an electric violin. And that's why what I do normally now is I play both acoustic violin and electric violin. But I would say my primary at the moment, and what I'm known for most is being an electric violinist.

Nick VinZant 2:53

So with me knowing absolutely nothing about violins besides what they're called strings. What's what's the difference between your kind of classical violin and an electric violin like what's, what's the difference there.

Mia Asano 3:10

So, classical violin, it's also called, I mean, I call it an acoustic violin, but a lot of people recognize it as a classical violin. So you go to an orchestra and you see people playing these wooden instruments, that's, that's a violin. And typically, they have four strings, the string notes are E, A, D, and G. A lot of the time people who play it will focus on the, the music of the classical tradition. So you know, your Bach and your Beethoven and your Mozart. And that's, that's a typical like classical violin. You also see though fiddle players, they'll play on acoustic violin as well, but they call them a fiddle. And, and that's what when people typically think of a violin, that's what they think. An electric violin can take many shapes and forms because it doesn't rely on the body of the instrument to project the sound. So as you can see, in a classical violin, it's hollow inside. And so through those little squiggly s looking things on the on the instrument, the sound comes through those they're called the F holes. And the instrument itself is projecting the sound out. But on an electric violin, a lot of the time the body of the instrument is solid, or it looks really weird. Like they can make them look as weird as they want. There's this one maker that makes them look like skulls, or there's one the one that I play on. It's called a viper, from wood violins, and it looks like a flying V electric guitar, and it has frets and seven strings. And so what an electric violin allows you to do and why I became obsessed with them really quickly, is they're really similar to electric guitars. So you can play you can plug it into like a guitar effects pedal rig, and so I can put distortion on it. I can make it sound like an electric guitar, I can put all these different crazy effects on it and make It sound like not even like a violin anymore. So something I'm really passionate about is just breaking the boundaries of, you know, I was classically trained for 16 years, I still play classical music, and I love it. In addition to that, I have all these other musical interests like rock and pop, and electronic music. And my electric violin allows me to play those and play stylistically more appropriately in the setting. If I'm in a rock band, then I can plug in and play rock music instead of then I'll go play fiddle tunes with my Celtic band on my acoustic violin. So that's that's the difference.

Nick VinZant 5:33

Is there any kind of animosity there between like the classical violinists and the electric violinist like all these kids, their damn electric violins?

Mia Asano 5:43

Um, yes. There's different. You know, I think this is true in any community, when people do something that's different. And that kind of breaks from tradition, there are going to be purists who take offense to it. I've experienced incredible support from musicians in the classical community who see what I'm doing. And they think, like, I really love that because it's, it's taking the violin to a new level that's opening it up to new audiences, and blah, blah, blah, then there's other people and I get quite a bit of hate comments on my social media platforms, from people who say, I've been told that I'm a disgrace to the classical violin world, I've been told that there's like kind of an ongoing joke from some YouTube channel of people calling it calling my electric violin sacrilegious. So and I know it's kind of like an internet joke. So I, I don't take offense to it or get upset by it. But you know, there's a lot of people who will be like, That's a sacrilegious file and just play an acoustic violin play a classical violin. And there's a lot of people who, because, admittedly, to be a classical violinist, it takes a lot of work. There are people that are practicing like six to eight hours a day. And you know, I grew up doing that I was I was in deep in the classical world. So I have a lot of respect for the classical community, I'm still I still consider myself a part of it in addition to the other stuff that I do. But there's people that have to put in so much work to play this music that is so intensely difficult. So to see someone playing an electric violin, there's a lot of misunderstandings, people think that it takes less skill to play an electric violin, which is not true. And there are people that think that because I'm playing pop music, or rock music, people who are putting in six hours a day practicing this intense classical music, some of them, some of them get offended. They're like what you're doing is so easy compared to how much work I've had to put it's, I think it's a it's a misunderstanding, because I still have to put in a lot of work,

Nick VinZant 7:39

when you look at kind of an orchestra is a violin a harder instrument to play than, say, like, the saxophone and the, like, when people like, Ooh, you got to be good to play the violin.

Mia Asano 7:55

People have to work very, very hard no matter what you play. So that's, that's the caveat. That being said, a playing violin is very, very difficult. And I feel very fortunate that I started when I was young, because I'm like, Okay, I didn't I didn't come up with this. Itzhak Perlman, a very famous violinist said this, he said, you could take a beginner and sit them down at a piano and try to teach them Twinkle twinkle little star, sit them down at a piano and sit them down at a violin. By the end of the day. On the piano, it'll sound like Twinkle twinkle little star on the violin, you have no idea what it's gonna sound like. Because you're dealing with the bow, which has the potential to sound so horrible if you don't know what you're doing with it. Whereas, so like, I think on any instrument, it can be very difficult to play the repertoire, like the difficult repertoire. On the violin, a lot of my students struggle a lot with making it not sound like screeching or that type of stuff. It's very challenging. So I'm glad I started when I was young, because I joke that it takes you about 10 years to kind of figure out how to make it sound not terrible. And then after that, hopefully you're good enough that you can get into a music school.

Nick VinZant 9:06

So why is it so difficult, um,

Mia Asano 9:09

so definitely, the bow adds a whole nother level because you're not just there's there's so much potential, like I just mentioned for the bow to sound scratchy or screechie. The other really difficult part is on the instrument itself. You want your notes to play in tune. And on the violin, there's about a 10th of a millimeter of space where you're playing the exact right note, and if your finger is anywhere around that perfect spot, you're out of tune. And so unlike on a guitar where you put your finger down between the frets, and that's the correct note, or on a piano where as long as hopefully the piano is in tune, you press the key and it's in tune on the violin. You could put your finger down in the right spot, and I'm putting finger quotations the right spot. And it could still be the note, but not the perfectly in tune notes. So I used to spend, I would have a violin lesson and we would spend the entire hour working on one measure of music, because I would be, I wouldn't be playing that note perfectly in tune. And then a lot of the time on violin, you're playing chords. So that's multiple notes at the same time. And you have to play those notes. So they perfect are perfectly in tune with each other. So the way I would do that is I would play it and adjust my fingers slowly, until I can hear them ringing them in the most beautiful Intune way. And then I would take my hand off the instrument, I put it back on the instrument and try it again. And you're trying to train your muscle memory so that your fingers go to that exact perfect 10th of a millimeter spot every single time. And so it really takes a lot out of you, I will say. And then my electric violin has frets on it. And so it looks like guitar frets. But contrary to popular belief, I have a lot of people that think that because I have frets on my electric violin automatically, I can play in tune. So people will say you're cheating because your frets on your electric, the frets don't actually help me play in tune, because it's the same way as on my classical violin, I have a 10th of a millimeter on the electric violin that's perfectly in tune. The frets just serve as like a physical reference point. If I'm playing live and I can't hear myself, then I can see and feel where the notes are supposed to go. Because again, on the violin, you can put your finger anywhere, and not if you can't hear yourself you don't know if that's in tune or not. You're constantly listening and adjusting to make sure everything is perfectly intonated.

Nick VinZant 11:35

So what makes a really like somebody like yourself, what makes a good violinist really good

Mia Asano 11:42

for me personally, I judge it more based on did you make me feel something with what you just played? And that's the mark of like a really good violinist for me.

Nick VinZant 11:49

When people kind of do that when they put their own kind of signature on it. Right? Like can people like myself hear the difference? Or is it mainly just people like you that will be able to hear the difference?

Mia Asano 12:00

Um, I think a trained violinist will be able to hear the difference because again, there's typically a an ideal way to play something. But the thing is, everyone has a different view of the right way to play a piece. Like, for example, kind of the composer that is highly revered for violinist is Bach. Because he wrote these incredible Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin that are so difficult. And to play them beautifully is a really incredible, they're they're meant to be played in churches, like it's a very, like, sacred piece of music for you to be able to play as a violinist. It's also really hard to play it well. And every single violinist in the world has a different idea of like the correct and proper way to play it. So what I learned is you can't really please everyone. I also learned from a teacher of mine, that if I'm going to go play violin for like an audition for an orchestra, and I go and playing Bach, chances are the way that I've interpreted it is not gonna be the same as the way that the auditioner has interpreted

Nick VinZant 13:03

it, the music that your own music now, is that something that you've written? Or is that more of a stylistic interpretation of things?

Mia Asano 13:10

It's both so for my own music, because yeah, what I mostly do nowadays, is alternative contemporary styles of music. So, again, pop rock, electronic, Celtic music, I go to the Berklee College of Music. So I've been studying jazz and r&b. There's all these different other styles of music that the violin is capable of. And what I mostly do is, well, I released original music, and I do write and release original music. So I actually just put out a single, and it's called lunar. And it's an kind of a pop electronic, violin track, but I co wrote it with a professor of mine, Jason attic, who's an incredible jazz violinist. So with him, we kind of put a jazzy bluesy spin on parts of it while still collaborating with some electronic producers to make it very, like pop electronic. So that's kind of the style of music I'm trying to go in. But then on my social media, so what happened is about a year ago, I sort of accidentally had some videos go viral on Tik Tok and Instagram. And that was me kind of just doing pop covers, covering different like songs that were trending. And there was a pretty big public reaction to it. People really enjoyed it. It really liked the electric violin that I was playing on. So a lot of what I do nowadays is playing covers and short, just short, fun daily videos that I put out, just for fun.

Nick VinZant 14:40

Were you surprised by the reaction that you had? Because I saw some stuff? It was like 10 Let's call it 20 million, whatever however many millions it is but were you surprised by people's reaction to

Mia Asano 14:51

it? Um, I was I was I was surprised. I'll be honest, because what ended up happening I was going through kind of a period of calm questioning myself musically and I was feeling a lot of imposter syndrome. This was kind of like in the middle of the pandemic, when it was like that dark time when everyone was like, Oh my gosh, like, Will this be over and I was definitely feeling that. So just to kind of bring myself out of my slump and to try to come back to play music that I feel felt passionate about. I started posting videos, kind of secretly on on Tik Tok. You know, I didn't know much about the platform. I just kind of woke up one day and I had this idea to, I was like, Okay, there's all these trends that go around on Tik Tok. What if I did those, those trending things, but as electric violin covers, so I started doing it, I'm not really expecting anything to happen. Like, obviously, it'd be nice to have your video go viral. But I wasn't really like setting out like, Oh, I'm going to try to get Tik Tok famous. What ended up happening though, is because I got really clear on, I want to be authentically myself, I want to help people and make people happy, I want to. And then I've been honing my video editing skills and my audio editing skills throughout the pandemic. So all of that kind of combined into this perfect storm, where within a week of me posting every day on the app, I posted this one video, just totally not expecting anything to happen. I threw it together in like a half hour just like threw it up on the internet. And I went to the store with a friend. And as I'm leaving the store, I look in the video had 36,000 views. And I was like oh my gosh, and it kept climbing and climbing. And by the end of the night, it had 2 million views. And I woke up the next morning with 100,000 followers and I was at the grocery store and I started crying. I was like how I was not expecting that. I couldn't believe that it happened literally overnight. He there was like a really positive response to it. And that was so meaningful to me because again, I'm coming off of months of feeling so uninspired and sad and and feeling lost musically.

Nick VinZant 16:56

Are you ready for some listener? Some harder slash listener submitted questions? Yeah, let's do it. hardest song to play,

Mia Asano 17:04

hardest song to play? The hardest song to play? I think that's really subjective. It depends on the person's abilities. That being said, I think any Paganini is extremely difficult. He's this incredible composer who wrote these caprices, like to be a violinist that can play a Paganini Caprice is very, very impressive. And then any of like the bigger name of violin concertos, I would say are very difficult.

Nick VinZant 17:31

Have you ever had a violin related injury?

Mia Asano 17:35

Yes, I have had many violin related injuries. I was in an orchestra in high school. And we were rehearsing, I think, to play at like Carnegie Hall, like, which was a very cool experience. But we were having these like really long, intense rehearsals. And I it was like 17 hours over the course of two days. And I remember not knowing at the time I was young, I didn't know how to warm up and stretch before you played. I didn't know the importance of that. And because it was so intense, and I was playing for so long. And I didn't have the best posture. I've learned since then. But I my shoulder started hurting. And then for the next few years, every time I would play my shoulder would hurt my left shoulder. So finally in college, I went into the physical therapist at my school and I was like, Hey, I've had the shoulder pain for the last four years. Can you help me and I went to a sports doctor and they diagnosed it as coracoid impingement. And then throughout the course of that year, I also developed tendinitis in my hands and forearms, and a lot of musicians. A lot of violinists that I know have these types of injuries just from it's called an overuse injury. Because, again, there are people that are practicing eight or nine hours a day, so like of course, you're going to overuse it at some point.

Nick VinZant 18:57

So then, is the violin the most dangerous instrument?

Mia Asano 19:02

Well, any instrument any instrumentalists can injure themselves like pianists, you know, guitar, like all of the ins I don't know a single I have a friend from high school who was an incredible, who is an incredible percussion player. And, you know, they were playing a marimba so much that they ended up with these forearm injuries. So it's not just violin it's, they call us small muscle athletes. So you know, you have your big muscle athletes, like a soccer player or football player. Musicians like technically, according to the sports doctors that I've talked to, that's why I had to go to a sports doctor. You know, we're exercising these small muscles in our hands and our fingers and our neck and our shoulders. Depending on the answer like drummers are using their legs. Yeah. So anyone is really there's potential for injury for anyone if you don't know the right types of if you don't have to take care of your body. And if you're overdoing it, and unfortunately, a lot of young people because we're not taught how to take care of ourselves. We're just taught, practice a lot and get better. Do

Nick VinZant 20:04

people go nuts driving the playing the violin? Like, I feel like it's the kind of thing that you could you would have to be like so obsessed with? Kind of like, I don't know if you've ever seen the movie Black Swan or something like that, yes, the pressure and all that stuff, like, Does that happen to people,

Mia Asano 20:19

um, I wouldn't specifically say like, go nuts. But, um, there's a lot of burnout, that I also have experienced at times, there is a lot of pressure because everyone's kind of competing for similar jobs because this, it's dependent on the person, but a lot of the jobs for violinists are playing in an orchestra, for example, and there's only a certain number of seats in that orchestra. And a lot of those people in the orchestra have kind of a almost like permanent position, it's very hard to get a job in those settings, unless you're really, really good. And to be really, really good, you need to practice really, really hard. And so, you know, people are competing for limited seats, there's very limited, limited jobs available. And so as a result, it can be discouraging for some people. For other people, it's the thing that they want to do the most, and they love it the most, and nothing will deter them from that. And I think for any musician, like, that's what it takes to make it far as a musician is you have to have that internal drive and passion where it's almost like, you can't do anything else, like you have to do this. And then it's worth it. It's worth it to put all that time and energy into it. Like they say, life is suffering. So what you should, you should need to find the thing that it's worth suffering for him.

Nick VinZant 21:41

Most expensive violin you've ever played?

Mia Asano 21:45

Oh, no, um, the most expensive one I've ever played is definitely like, I don't think they let me touch one of the million dollar ones. But they can get that expensive. I've played ones in the, like 50 to $100,000 range, but just like what I'm out of violin shop, like, and they have one there and they let me touch it, you know, like, and but that is the range of a lot of violence. A lot of higher end violins, they can get that expensive. They can range from like $200 that you can buy, like online, from there all the way to millions of dollars and bows to like a violin bow like they can get up to like $200,000. Like, they're there, they can be very excited. I know, it just looks like a stick. But it's a really, really important stick. And some of them are made from like this extinct Brazilian tree wood and there's like, and it's like the best thing that you can get. And so it gets really rare. And so, you know, the prices can really vary on different instruments.

Nick VinZant 22:46

Is it rare? Because it I mean, is that expensive? Because it's rare? Or is it that expensive? Because like, oh, that really is a better violin.

Mia Asano 22:55

Um, it's both. I think there's definitely like, like with anything like with fashion or business, whatever, like brand value is a thing. And there's some incredible violin makers from hundreds and hundreds of years ago that made these pieces of art that are just the most incredible, incredibly intricately crafted instruments that are not only just better, but then because like Stradivarius is probably the most commonly known violin maker. So to play on a Stradivarius violin, you know, it's it's very high quality. Also, it's really rare because obviously Stradivarius is not around anymore.

Nick VinZant 23:29

coolest place you've ever played.

Mia Asano 23:32

Um, there's a couple answers to that. One of them, as I mentioned before, was Carnegie Hall. I toured there with with an orchestra. And it was, it was amazing. Definitely a life changing experience, because it's seen as such a important and incredible venue. But then I've gotten to play some really fun events at different, like nightclubs, and I played at the House of Blues in Boston. And that was really fun. It was that was a really, really fun experience. But definitely, probably Carnegie Hall was my favorite,

Nick VinZant 24:06

best violin related joke.

Mia Asano 24:10

Oh, no. Um, I mean, okay. It's like a thing in orchestras, where, like, we the instruments will make fun of each other. So like, the poor violas and a viola is like a violin. But the tone is a little deeper, the instruments usually bigger, and the strings are different instead of a DG, it's a DGC. So in an orchestra, you have your first violins sitting next to them or the second violence. Then you have the violas and the next level of the cellos. Right. And so all the instruments will kind of give each other a hard time and people will make specifically they'll make jokes about the viola and then the violas will fire back with jokes about the violins, but like, it'll be really funny, like funny but also kind of like, they'll they'll try to insult each other like, oh, like, what's the best best note you can hear or the best sound that you can make from a violin? The sound of it hitting a trash can or something like that. I don't know.

Nick VinZant 25:03

Do you check your VAT? When you fly? Do you check your violin and carry on? Or do you bring it with you? Or why do you check your violin? Or do you bring it with you

Mia Asano 25:13

never, ever, ever check your violin because the violin is so delicate that like even when the weather changes, my violin will freak out. And also, as you now know, violins can get pretty expensive. So I'm not trying to replace my violin every time I check it, and it gets broken. So because the air pressure is changing, and stuff like that, so then there's been a bunch of violinists who have tried to get on airplanes. And sometimes I've heard horror stories about the airline trying to force them to check the violin, and you can't because it'll, it'll break it. I feel really bad for cello players, though, what they have to do is either one of my roommates is a cellist and he will either like take the risk and check the cello but put it in like this really intense like case with all this padding in it and just like take the risk or cellist will have to buy a second plane ticket for their cello. And I have some friends that have done it. My brother's a cellist. So if he were to travel with his cello, he would have to buy a second plane ticket and just sit next to it on the flight. And, and yeah,

Nick VinZant 26:21

that's got to be a weird feeling. Yeah, that's got to be strange. Like, sitting here with my cello. Having like, the cello is just in the middle seat. Not only

Mia Asano 26:34

do you have to do this thing, man, like no, this is this child. You got to put it in its seat belt, Jada, offered a drink. It's it's a it is a wrapper of the plane.

Nick VinZant 26:46

Yeah. It is. You paid for the ticket? You better get those snacks for it. Yeah, since

Mia Asano 26:51

but like, yeah, that would demand it. A lot of people will rent instruments and whatever city they're in. Or like for tours and stuff, even if people are flying. Sometimes they'll have like a driver drive all the instruments to the next location. Like it depends, like people find ways around it. But I think like traveling with your instrument is the best way if you can afford it, like obviously, it's a huge expense. But then you're not playing an unfamiliar instrument where you go, but like my high school orchestra, we toured Europe once and went to Austria. And we're playing there and we couldn't bring our cello cello was on the plane. So we just rented cellos when we were there. And the cellist just had to kind of figure out the bass players to they just had to figure it out when they were there. And there was okay.

Nick VinZant 27:32

Let's see, did you just get a flute? Right? What's the little tiny one? Like the piccolo? Yeah, just get? Yeah, put that thing in your pocket. Um, so you've said some words that I didn't definitely recognize. Best piece of violin lingo.

Mia Asano 27:47

Best piece of violin lingo. There's so much it's so cool. And that's the thing is I've been exposed to like German and Italian and sometimes Spanish, because there's all these different in the music does all these different markings, and you got to learn what they mean. So let's see, a lot of people will ask me, Can you play your violin without a bow? And that's actually one of my most viral videos, was me answering that question? And the answer is, yes, you just pluck the string with your finger and it's called pizzicato. So, or for short pits. I like that one a lot. There's I like ricochet. That's where you kind of bounce your ball on the strings. But every time the ball bounces, you play a note. So sounds really cool. I like glissando, that's when you slide into a note. And I do that all the time. There's, I mean, there's so many I could just go on and on and on.

Nick VinZant 28:41

Oh, those are good one. Now is the do is your new album out now? Yeah,

Mia Asano 28:48

um, then the single is out, I'm in the process of writing the album. But the single, I just dropped it on October 20. So it's been out for a couple months now. And people have been really supportive of it. It's on all streaming platforms. And it's also I did a music video in a laser light studio. And that's up on YouTube. So I'm really excited about it.

Nick VinZant 29:08

That's pretty much all the questions that I have, is there anything that you think that we missed or anything like that?

Mia Asano 29:15

No. The last thing I want to say though, is I appreciate when people are open minded about what the violin is capable of. And that's my passion in life is showing people that the violin can break a lot of boundaries and isn't, doesn't need to be intended for just one style or another. You know, there's so many capabilities and the most important thing is to find what speaks to you and pursue that and find what makes you happy. Because there's space for everyone to and if everyone's doing the same thing, then collectively, we can all support each other and that's the best thing we can do.