Hi Sofia, welcome to VENTS! How have you been? Great! I’ ve been enjoying the summer, going to camps, hanging out with my friends, and practicing violin!
When did your initial love for music started? I’ ve loved violin since I could remember. I was about two years old when my parents took me to an all female Mariachi band and I just started jumping up and down. I pointed to the woman playing the violin, and said,“ I wanna do that! I wanna play that, mama!” And that really started everything.
From all the instruments out there, what draw you into the Violin? I think it’ s because I also love to sing. The violin is the instrument that mostly mimics the human voice. Also I love to be challenged and violin is one of the hardest instruments.( Sorry pianists!) In violin, you either get the note in tune, or you don’ t. Then there’ s the bow and it needs to be parallel, full bow hair, a good bow hold, ect. It’ s a lot to remember. But I love it! There have definitely been times where I have been frustrated at the violin and wanted to quit it. When I was around five, I quit! The“ quit” lasted half a day. After I heard it, that I really quit, I begged my mom for another chance. I have never quit since. There have been times I wanted to, but I never did. I’ m so happy and grateful that I didn’ t.
How was the transition from Mariachi to Classical music? I actually never played Mariachi. That was the first music I heard the violin play, but I never really did play it. I did however play fiddle music, which is just violin, but played a little more sloppily. I used to play Scottish music and Irish, but mostly play Classical music now.
Speaking of classical music, let ' s talk about " Bach Double "- how did you come up with the idea for this song / compilation? My dad was working with drones, and he wanted to do some test shots to try it out. Me and Dr. Can volunteered to do a video, and since I was working on Back Double at the time, we thought it was a perfect song to do because it was for two violins! The first shot we did was the mountain top. We thought it was perfect, because it was flat on top, just like a little stage! It was breathtakingly gorgeous up there. You could see for miles and we were up pretty high. Me and Dr. Can climbed up there in sneakers and then put on our performance shoes. My little heels were ruined after the shoot because I kept stomping down on the platform for dramatic effect and because I was having fun. The fabric on the shoes peeled off because of the amount of pressure I put on them. The second shoot was the sand dunes and that was so much fun! We played around a lot in that one. I remember that there were guys on big motorcycles, shirtless, and very few with helmets. I also remember( I have no idea why or how I remember this) this little bug on the sand crawling around. It was a beetle or something, and was leaving the cutest little footprints in the sand. I think you can actually see the tiny beetle footprints in the sand in the video. The third shoot was the beach. That one was a freezing one. We woke up at 5:00 am to catch the sunrise and the beach was not very pleasant at 6:00 am. We drove for an hour, making little videos and Dubsmashes. The first shoot at the beach was awful. I was a little diva, not wanting to go into the water because it was cold. I wouldn’ t take off my jacket, sunglasses, or kitty ears( which I wear a lot). So we went back another day, and believe me, I went right into the water that time. No jacket, no shoes, nothing. After the beach shoot, we went straight to Starbucks to get a warm drink.
Bach has a great number of wonderful music pieces- did you handpick them based on your favorite songs or how was the selection process? It was really the only song I knew that had two violins, and so it worked perfectly.
How did Mr. Canbolat come on board? Was he part of the whole process from the very beginning? He actually is my second violin teacher. My first, Mrs. Salisbury, was / is amazing at teaching violin. I was with her since the very beginning. I have been with Dr. Volcan Can for about 3 years now. When Dr. Can first came from Turkey to America to become a violin teacher, we heard about him from a friend. We were so happy with Mrs. Salisbury that we had no reason to leave. But just to see what this was all about, we went for anaudition. Me and my sister both got in! The pressure of picking between both of them was so hard. I was up half the night crying about who to decide. Finally, I picked Dr. Can because the Colburn School has so many other kids and I’ m homeschooled. But I love both my violin teachers. Dr. Can is amazing. He’ s like a big brother to me. But I also respect him and listen!
Different to other performance videos, for this one you actually had your father direct a pretty cool video- how did this all come together? Did he propose the idea to you or have you been discussing doing something like this for a while? Propose. It was kind of a slow gradual thing. We’ ve been working on the video for two years. I had no idea when we first started that it was going to be a music video. It was kind of just test shots. But as we continued, we decided it was going to be something more.
How was the whole film experience? Absolutely amazing. The places we went were just beautiful. We started shooting it when I was ten, and since I have been getting better violins, and I’ m getting better at playing the violin, we had to re-record the music again and again. I’ ve gotten to know Can a lot better then before. I’ m so grateful for this whole experience.
You get to shoot on different amazing locations- what was your favorite one? That is the hardest question of all of these. All of them were special in their own way. But if I had to decide, it would have to be the mountain. The view was amazing, me and Can talked and talked, we had snacks, took pictures, and I had so much fun dancing on the top of the mountain with Can and our violins. When we went to the top of the mountain, it was so hard to get up there, because of the rocks. But we later realized, after climbing up the mountain, that there was a much easier way to get up there.
I understand you are working on a follow up to your first debut album BabyStar- how ' s that coming along? I haven’ t been working on it as much as violin because I’ ve been so busy. It’ s going well. I have a little home recording studio and I get up at 6:00 am to do some recording in quiet. I used to make my albums only voice, but I definitely want some violin in there too.
Would this be a cover album or can we expect some original material? There are barely covers in there if none. I love doing my own work. I write my own songs and back up. The violin will be songs that I didn’ t write, for sure, because I don’ t write violin music. But the songs I sing will usually be songs that I wrote.
Any plans of exploring other less Classical and more modern sounds on this record? Absolutely. There will be beats for the songs I write and sing. Maybe some beats for even some violin stuff. Sometimes I use the violin for a background stuff or I’ ll make up a melody with it.
Any tentative release date or title in mind? It might be called Alive. It might be called As I See It. I don’ t know right now. Maybe this year or the next, it depends on how much I work on it.
What else is happening next in Sofia Miranda ' s world? I’ m going to make a few more videos for my YouTube channel. Maybe some more music videos of me solo with the violin or singing. I’ m hoping to maybe do a video underwater. Who knows? I sure don’ t. I just go where the music takes me. I never planned to study with with Dr. Can. I never planned to make a music video, and I sure never imagined that I would be writing replies to a magazine called VENTS for an interview! My violin has taken me everywhere, and I’ m so so grateful for that.