Musiana Knows Exactly Who She Is

Growing up, singer-songwriter Musiana was always surrounded by music.

"My family are musicians, and they trusted my creativity," she tells New Times over the phone from Seattle. "At 7, I started doing private piano classes, which were my first dynamic with an instrument. I didn't like to read the musical notes on the paper; I would sing and play chords by ear."

Born in Venezuela, Musiana moved to Miami with her family at 19. Around the age of 21, her father gifted her an acoustic guitar.

"I started doing the same thing I did with piano," she says. "I played random chords with melodies that became songs."

Musiana expanded her musical horizons while studying at Miami Dade College.

"I did music classes and connected with new nationalities; I met people at open mics — it was my first time interacting with other genres," she adds. "I grew up listening to bolero, bossa nova; now I learned rock, indie, jazz, and urban, for sure."

In 2019, she began releasing music, mostly Latin rhythms with a folk sensibility. On her latest track, "No Entiendo Quien Soy" ("I Don't Understand Who I Am"), the beat is a little dancier and the ambiance is more chillwave. The song came together while collaborating with producer and boyfriend Rick Moon.

"We got together in the studio and talked about existential changes [and] how this human race doesn't fucking know anything," she says. "The song is the realization of not knowing what you're doing here but having the passion to keep going. It's very different. It's not born from me at my guitar or keyboard. I improvised from other sounds. My past projects were more acoustic directed. It's fun to be more dreamy."
For the song's music video, Musiana plays a magical creature on a journey of self-discovery from the sands of Miami Beach to the stage at Bar Nancy.

"My friend April Nicole is a director, and she wanted to create something before I left for Seattle," Musiana says of how the video came together. "We got together a bunch of friends and local artists. It has a girl born of the ocean; she runs away and finds a cute girl who is her inner child. In conclusion, she realizes she's not from the planet."

Another video on Musiana's YouTube channel shows a more down-to-earth look at Musiana busking in New York City's Washington Square Park, delivering a folksy, 30-minute acoustic set.

"Some friends recorded me — they asked me the night before," she says of the recording. "That wasn't even my guitar I used. I like walking around and playing when I visit a new city. I wasn't expecting people to sit down and listen."

A few songs she's performed in Washington Square Park will make up her debut album, Son del Mar, which she plans to release later this summer.

"I worked on it for three years," she adds. "It has different genres, lots of percussions, some bolero, some R&B, experimental vibes. It's for my grandmother and the ancestral lineage before me."

You can hear it for yourself when Musiana performs at the Bridge alongside Moon and Alejandro Elizondo on Friday, April 14.

"It's time to share these songs already," she says.

Musiana. With Rick Moon and Alejandro Elizondo. 7 p.m. Friday, April 14, at the Bridge, 4220 NW Seventh Ave., Miami. Tickets cost $10 to $15 via eventbrite.com.