World Of Mia Denee; Creating Before Everything Is in Place

Mia Denee spent years knowing she could sing before she knew what to do with that knowledge. Singing had been part of her life since childhood, from putting on little concerts at home to joining a church choir and eventually attending a fine arts school. But making her own music asked something different of her. During the pandemic, she posted piano covers to TikTok and experimented in GarageBand on a MacBook her mom bought her, while continuing to wait for the right beat, the right production and the right circumstances to make something of her own.

The stretch between what Mia can already imagine and what she can currently execute is part of what makes her emerging catalog compelling. Moving through R&B, neo-soul, pop, jazz and K-pop-influenced sounds, she’s still working out just how wide she wants her musical world to become. There’s no neat arrival point yet, and that may be the point: the songs are being made while her technical skills, confidence and sense of possibility are still catching up to the artist she can already picture herself being. 

In this World Of conversation, Mia Denee reflects on the musical foundation she grew up with, learning to create before she felt completely ready, the pressure of sharing work that belongs to her and what she hopes people understand about the independent artists building careers without much backing.

Matilia, World Of: Before we talk about your music, who is Mia when she isn’t writing, recording, performing, or thinking about the next creative idea?

Mia Denee: I’m the normal indie artist. I work a normal retail job, and I’m in college for Information Technology. When I’m not making music, I’m most likely listening to music, working out, working, or watching a show or movie.

World Of: You’ve been singing for more than a decade but only began building this particular catalog more recently. What had to happen internally before you felt ready to introduce yourself through your own music?

Mia: I was honestly a very shy teenager at times, so oftentimes it took a lot for me to put myself out there. Especially during and after the pandemic. I had started a TikTok during the pandemic where I would sing songs while playing the piano, but I never had the resources I felt I needed to create a song, so I stuck to doing covers. During this time, I asked my mom for a MacBook to create music in GarageBand (around 2020 or 2021), and she got it for me. From then on, I would play around in GarageBand and make songs until eventually something clicked: I felt like I was letting time pass me by and holding myself back to wait for the perfect beat, the perfect production, and so on. So I eventually cracked down and bought Logic Pro and created my first song on it.

World Of: When did singing first shift from something you were capable of doing into something that felt inseparable from who you are?

Mia: Music has always played an integral part in my life. I would sing around the house and put on my own little concerts as a kid. So singing has always been a part of me. But I started to really feel inseparable from it when I joined a church choir back in elementary school. Something about the harmonies and the feeling you would get when performing with your peers was amazing. So from then on, I attended a fine arts school with my concentration being music – choir and chorale music.

World Of: Who recognized something special in your voice before you had the confidence or language to recognize it yourself?

Mia: My mom. She’s a huge music fan, which is honestly why I started in the first place. We would be around the house some weekends listening to music and dancing. At the time, I was really obsessed with the movie Annie. She had asked me to sing “Tomorrow” from the movie and was stunned when I started singing. She was so surprised that I could actually hold a note that she called my aunt and told me to sing it for her too! All that to say, she’s been my biggest supporter from the beginning and has always pushed me to chase my dreams, no matter how difficult the journey may be. I will always be grateful to have such a supportive mom!

World Of: What did the earliest version of your artistic dream look like, and how closely does it resemble the life you’re trying to build now?

Mia: The earlier version of my artistic dream consisted of me producing in my bedroom and, even as a child, performing covers and writing lyrics. I would say that I still currently do all of these things; however, now that I’m older and have evolved more, I have more ideas for what I want my music to look and feel like.

The bedroom setup is still part of Mia’s life, but she’s no longer keeping the process contained there until she can present a finished version of herself. Part of building the artist she imagines has meant letting people see the middle of it too.

World Of: You share covers, original music, and more personal “Mia’s Diary” content through YouTube. What makes you feel comfortable letting people witness both the polished artist and the person still figuring things out in real time?

Mia: I feel like the easiest way to connect with people is being raw and open about what you’re going through. It lets people know that their experiences or issues are more common than they think. I also am just a very carefree person. I tend to just go with the flow, depending on the situation, of course. I also think that it’s just important to document my journey to achieving my dreams; it’s important to show the good and bad, the ups and the downs because that’s the reality of life. Nothing is linear.

World Of: How did singing gospel, hymns, and classical music shape the way you understand emotional delivery, even when the music you make now belongs to a different world?

Mia: Growing up in a church choir, the delivery was always emotional. Every time we sang, you could feel the message we were conveying through song. It taught me how to grab an audience’s attention and make them really feel something. And still to this day, I hold on to this technique when recording my own music because ultimately that’s what music is for: to evoke emotion. A song should be able to make you cry, smile, laugh, etc.

World Of: Rather than only naming your favorite artists, which musician taught you something important about vulnerability, which taught you something about vocal technique, and which gave you permission to experiment?

Mia: The artist who taught me about vulnerability would be Mariah Carey. She’s such an amazing lyricist (and singer, of course), and the way she uses her words to express what she’s been through will never fail to amaze me. The artist who taught me about vocal technique would be Whitney Houston. From as early as 5 years old, I would listen to songs by Whitney Houston and copy her vocal techniques or, more so, try to copy how she sounded. I would try to emulate the vibrato she would do and the belts she would do. She was someone who really inspired me to work on my vocal technique. 

Lastly, the artist who taught me to experiment with my music is Beyoncé. She’s such a genre-bender and knows how to fit into any genre, and I take a lot of inspiration from that. Hopefully, one day I can execute genre changes as flawlessly as she does.

World Of: You work across R&B, neo-soul, pop, jazz, K-pop, gospel, and other styles. What connects those musical worlds for you emotionally, even when they sound very different?

Mia: Through all these genres of music, I can express my feelings in different ways depending on the genre, but just with a different soundscape. Even though they do sound very different, in my head that’s how these genres connect.

World Of: Is your artistic identity built more from the music you grew up hearing, the music you discovered for yourself later, or the gap between the two?

Mia: It’s a mix between the two. Growing up, we listened to a lot of R&B, hip-hop, neo-soul, and gospel. As I came more into my own, I found out about K-pop, musical scores, alternative genres, etc., and from there, I started to honestly take inspiration from all of these genres.

World Of: Are there films, visual artists, books, conversations, fashion, or personal memories that influence your work as strongly as music does?

Mia: The personal obstacles that I’ve encountered throughout my life influence my music.

Those obstacles don’t just become material for songs; they also shape the work itself, especially the distance between what Mia can make with the skills and resources she has now and the artist she can already picture herself becoming.

World Of: When you imagine the fullest possible version of Mia Denee as an artist, what does she allow herself to do that you’re still learning to permit yourself to do now?

Mia: She allows herself to be less hard on herself about not being this amazing producer who knows how to mix exceptionally well, and about not having access to certain opportunities and resources that others have. Everything just takes time and patience. In due time, I will have that and much more.

World Of: What has releasing your own music taught you about being seen that performing covers or someone else’s material couldn’t?

Mia: It’s taught me that not everyone is going to like what you put into the world, and I’ve learned to come to terms with that. Not everything is for everyone, but the people that my music is for will stick around for the journey. I’ve also learned that I have such an easier time performing someone else’s music because I’m not attached to it. With my own art, I have a personal attachment, so I tend to take criticism of my music more seriously.

Releasing originals means accepting a version of visibility that covers never required from her. The voice might be the same, but the stakes are different when the thing being received, criticized or embraced began with Mia herself. But by the end of this conversation, it’s become clear that what she wants people to understand reaches beyond how they hear her songs.

World Of: When someone finishes reading this, what do you hope they understand about Mia Denee that they could never learn from streaming your music alone?

Mia: I hope they understand how important it is to support independent artists with no backing or little to no backing. Most of the time, they’re just normal people chasing a dream and could just use a little bit of support, encouragement, and positivity rather than judgment. We’re all just trying to survive while also keeping our dream alive. 

Lastly, I hope whoever is reading this understands the importance of perseverance, staying true to yourself, and putting yourself out there. It will take you a long way and bring you an abundance of opportunities and connections.

For Mia, keeping a dream alive currently looks less like having ideal circumstances and more like continuing inside the ones she actually has. There’s school, a job, production she’s still learning, resources she doesn’t yet have and the unavoidable discomfort of letting something personal belong to listeners once it is released. None of that has disappeared. But what’s changed is how willing she is to keep creating even before it does.

Mia Denee’s original music is available now on streaming platforms, alongside covers, original performances and her “Mia’s Diary” content on YouTube.