Mia Asano Brings Her Solo Show to the Grog Shop

Electric violinist Mia Asano says she actually benefited from growing up in Denver, a city with an art and music scene that pales compared to that of bigger cities such as New York or Los Angeles.

“Denver serves as a good incubator for young artists,” she says via phone from her Los Angeles home. Mia Asano performs on March 14 at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights. “I would play violin at fashion shows while models walked down the runway. That led to me joining the Denver music scene. I met bands and photographers. I was basically practicing for what I do now. I sucked at it as a kid, but it was a very supportive environment.”

Asano began playing violin at 5; she had the choice of violin, piano or guitar.

“I don’t know why I chose violin, but I chose right,” she says. “Something about it spoke to me. It’s one of the closest instruments to the human voice. I just loved the sound of it.”

Her parents listened to a range of music and loved George Gershwin, James Taylor and the Beatles. She cites those artists as influences, and when she got older, Asano started listening to pop-punk, metal and rock. After graduating from the Denver School of the Arts, she went to Berklee College of Music in Boston and experienced the kind of musical competition that made her work harder at her craft.

“Admittedly, I had big fish-in-a-small pond syndrome,” she says. “When I went to Berklee, it was humbling. Everyone is as good as you or better. There are a ton of alternative string players there. That’s why I chose to go to that school. I wanted to be surrounded by amazing musicians and exposed to different music styles. It was the only place where I could study flamenco and bluegrass and classical and jazz in the same day. I broke down everything I knew about myself and really humbled myself. I realized I knew nothing about music and spent four years studying different styles. I realized I didn’t care about fame. I just wanted to make music that I love with people that I love.”

While still at Berklee, she released a video of the SAINt JHN track “Roses” that went viral.

“It was supposed to be kind of secret,” she says of her version of the track. “I realized I had been spending all my time to impress other musicians. I was attempting to go back to the music I loved in high school. I was secretly doing covers of my favorite songs. TikTok was a huge thing at the time. We were still in the pandemic, and I was covering the TikTok-trending songs. I was doing it for a week, and it was the third one. I posted it at the end of the afternoon, and I woke up the next day with 100,000 followers. That was the number I wanted to have at the end of my career. My career was basically gifted to me.”

In the wake of that viral video, she collaborated with Tina Guo, Kiki Wong and Grace Kelly in performances as the Ramenstein quartet.

“My favorite band is the industrial metal band Rammstein,” she says. “I was separately planning collabs with Tina, Kiki and Grace. It was going to be a TikTok video. We were all ambitious. We wanted to release a song. The name Ramenstein came up. I love all those girls so much. They are dear friends of mine. It was a really fun collab.”

Asano also toured with bagpipe player Ally Piper as the duo Mia x Ally. She and Piper even released an EP that features covers of songs by acts such as the Charlie Daniels Band and Dropkick Murphys.

“We met on the internet and joined forces to start touring a couple of year ago,” says Asano. “We got to tour the East Coast and the South. And then, we did a full U.S. tour. I’ll be revisiting some of the venues we played on my upcoming solo tour.”

Last year, she sat in with the Swedish metal band Sabaton, a group that embraces classical music.

“I’ve been a fan of them for a really long time,” she says of Sabaton. “When I was in high school, I saw them perform with a cellist. They’re one of the leading power metal bands, and they sing about history, specifically war. The beginning of their career was based on World War I and II. When I got the opportunity to tour with them, it was an obvious yes. They took a chance by adding an orchestra. Their fans are metalheads used to moshing. The response was so positive. We were playing their favorite music in a re-imagined way.”

While people mostly know Asano for her covers, she’s working on a solo album of original compositions.

“It’s a concept album about cryptids and monsters and creepy things,” she says. “Every song on the album is named after a different creature. There are songs called ‘Dragon,’ ‘Mothman’ and ‘Loch Ness.’ My producer Nick Morzov is amazing. He worked with Blink-182. The album is like nothing you have heard before. It’s sonic metal-meets-EDM pop with violin.”

For the live show, Asano has assembled what she refers to as “the most amazing rock band.” The group includes Dragonforce bassist Alicia Vigil, guitarist Sam Fairless (Sam Becker) and Phil X drummer Kyle Abbott.

“They’re some of my closest friends but also the best people in the world,” she says. “It’s a fun light show too. I’m so excited. It’s just amazing. I’m particularly excited for the Cleveland show since Wood Violins, the company that builds my Viper violin, is based in Cleveland now, and the team from the shop will be attending my show.”

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