Kenia Arias
Miami, Florida, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
Tate Music Group proudly announces the album release of up-and-coming pop artist, Kenia Arias. The debut album, “Karma,” releases nationwide this week.
Released by Tate Music Group, the album includes 10 club-worthy tracks and is currently available nationwide at the iTunes Store, CDBaby.com, or directly from TateMusicGroup.com. Arias started performing and singing at the age of four and has been pursuing her artistic career ever since. At the young age of 12, Arias recruited two of her friends and started a short-lived girl group called “The Lazers.” They performed Salt-N-Pepa covers in driveways around her Long Island neighborhood. The budding performer then became a dancer on Club Jam, a music and dance television show of the 90s, which led to becoming a regular dancer and extra on MTV. She also started modeling to gain exposure. She remembers, “I was 14, and I got my first paycheck for 500 bucks for working two hours of work. To any 14 year old, that’s pretty exciting.”
That same year, Arias started recording her demos and writing her own material. At age 17, she signed herself up for the “Miss Teen Long Island” pageant, so she would be able to qualify for the New York State Talent Competition and get a chance to sing. Despite having no pageant training, she ended up winning both. When she was 18, the Arias family moved to Florida, which ended Kenia’s modeling career. Still determined, she kept flying out to New York for photography and auditions. She also started performing in local musical theater, community festivals, and live music venues. After signing with TMG, she took the role of Executive Producer and oversaw every part of the production, from the studio sessions to the makeup used for the album photography. Now that the new album is releasing, Kenia will soon go on a nationwide tour to promote “Karma.” Check back at her website, www.keniaarias.com for future dates. Kenia currently resides in Miami and travels to Los Angeles as often as her schedule permits.
Arias’ Electronic Press Kit, including music samples and contact information, can be accessed here. - Tate Music Group / Amanda Morad
Kenia Arias isn’t your typical FIU student. Instead of just dreaming about becoming a superstar, she went for it. “Ever since I was little, I just wanted to sing. To tell stories, to relate to people through the music, and to touch them in meaningful way,” said singer/songwriter Kenia Arias as bells rang in the middle of the Graham Center courtyard. “I like the bells,” she pointed out, “It reminds me of The Sound of Music.”
Born in Puerto Rico, from Dominican and Puerto Rican parents, Arias was brought to the United States in a vessel of salsa. Settling in Long Island, NY, Kenia was brought up in a musical environment, with the aforementioned salsa from the old and the fresh new sounds of hip hop and R&B of the time. By the age of four, she was already singing along the TV and radio, and at the age of six, she decided that singing was her thing.
“I recorded my first demo when I was 14 in someone’s basement. It was actually a really, really pimp studio; I was impressed!” After reassurance we all have to start somewhere, she went on with her tale: “I first recorded covers, because the process of writing my own music at the time seemed overwhelming, and as long as I was singing and felt a connection to the music, I was happy”.
She was signed to a production company at 17, and even though she was no longer doing covers, she still wasn’t doing her own music, something which had now begun to bother her. ”There was a lyricist with the production company, so they weren’t covers. But they weren’t mine either,” she said. So after one cover album, she decided to do her own music. “I said to myself, ‘What really draws my attention the most? What am I feeling right now?’ And from that I made a demo with 12 songs on it. And that I just mailed to everyone: Please sign me! Please sign me! Until someone finally did!”
Everything was going great for Arias, until her parents told her they would be moving down to Florida, and there was nothing she could do to change it. The prospect of going from the bustling and rich artistic scene in New York to a place where “Everyone is 80 years old,” according to Kenia, didn’t excite her in the very least. Mostly because her career was already off to a good start, and moving from New York would seriously affect that. In the end, she had to do it. ”I cried a lot, but I fully understand now why my parents wouldn’t just let me stay. Besides, I never really wanted to leave their side,” said Arias.
But how do you manage a singing career in New York from Florida? “I flew off for everything,” she said. Auditions, gigs and interviews in the Big Apple were still being attended by Kenia from Florida. The breaking point came when she got a call back from an audition for Rent to play the role of Mimi, asking her to come back to New York for a second audition. At the time she was in Florida, attending college and with no budget to afford another plane ticket. She realized then that the hectic commuting wasn’t going to work out, so she decided to start from scratch. Surprisingly enough, FlU proved to be the starting point for her operations. Asking around in the music department got her into a couple of classes that landed a couple of auditions and resulted in signing a deal with independent label (TMG) Tate Publishing and the recording of her first album, Karma.
Sounds easy, but it wasn’t. Signing record deals and recording albums is all great and dandy, but there’s still homework to do. That’s right; Kenia is a full time student at FlU. How do you accomplish all of this successfully? The answer is you don’t, and as Kenia admits, some of her classes were not getting her full academic effort, since most other attention was focused on the music. She took a semester off for music, but still, Kenia plans to graduate with a degree in Special Education from FlU next year. “I’m a big believer of finishing what you start.”
You can head over to her MySpace at myspace.com/keniaarias to find out more. - LIFE! The Beacon / Ronald Calero, Staff Writer
Discography
Album: Karma
Singles: Karma, Beware, Contradiction
Photos
Bio
Kenia Arias is an independent Pop singer and songwriter distributed by the independent record label Tate Music Group. Kenia started performing and singing at the age of four. And since then, she has been pursuing her artistic career in as many ways as she could. At the young age of 12, Kenia recruited two of her friends and started a short-lived girl group called "The Lazers". They performed Salt-N-Pepa covers in driveways around her Long Island neighborhood, and even set up chairs in order to encourage an audience to gather.
Two year later, Kenia found herself being a dancer on Club Jam at age 14, which led to becoming a regular dancer and extra on MTV. But never one to settle, Kenia thought it would be a good idea to start modeling to gain exposure, which led to booking modeling gigs. Kenia remembers "I was 14, and I got my first paycheck for 500 bucks for 2 hours of work. To any 14 year old, that's pretty exciting". That same year, Kenia started recording her demos, and one year later, at age 15, Kenia started writing her own material.
At age 17, Kenia signed herself up for the "Miss Teen Long Island 1999?, pageant, so she would be able to qualify for the New York State Talent Competition (1999) and get a chance to sing there. Despite the fact that she had no prior pageant training, Kenia ended up winning both. Later that year, Kenia performed at the legendary Club New York (2000) where she opened for Brenda K. Starr and was discovered by the Manhattan based production company Que Pasa Productions. Kenia recorded 8 songs with the company. However, the CD did not catch any label's attention and Kenia continued recording demos at her own time and expense.
When Kenia was 18, she saw an audition for the famed Apollo Theater (2000). She auditioned and was selected to sing for their famous amateur night. But prior to performance night, Kenia contracted a severe case of Strep throat. The producers of the show advised her not to perform, since she could barely speak. But not wanting to miss the opportunity, Kenia insisted that she would be fine. When her time came, Kenia performed with a high fever and was booed off the stage. Kenia admits that "It was upsetting, I laughed walking off the stage and then cried backstage. But after a month or so I was proud of myself. I realized how much determination and passion I had for my music. I won that night".
That same year Kenia's family moved to Florida, which ended her modeling career and she began enrolling in college. But still determined, Kenia kept flying out to New York for photography and auditions. "I still have vivid memories waiting in the scorching miami heat for 12 hours to audition for the first season of American Idol in '02. As well as flying to New York to audition for Divas Live '03 and waiting 15 hours outside in the snow. Talk about extremes!" Encouraged by an actor friend to audition for the college theater program at Indian River State College, Kenia reluctantly went to read for an adaptation of Alford Hancock's "Strangers on a Train".
This being Kenia's first acting audition, and having no previous acting experience, she remembers being very apprehensive "I had no idea what I was doing, I was scared to even pull into the parking lot". That night Kenia auditioned gracefully, and two days later she found herself cast in the show's two week run at the Wynne Black Box Theater (2004). Shortly after, Kenia started performing in local musical theater (Jesus Christ Superstar-2004), community festivals (Dancin' In The Streets-2005), short films (The Domino Movie-2007, The Payback-2008, Zelda's Video Game Addiction-2008), and was even hired by a well-known family as their go-to live entertainment (2008-present).
Now living in Miami, Kenia continued her now 12 year old tradition of mailing out demos, which had now evolved from tapes to fully packaged CD's. Kenia's perseverance paid off when she received a call from Tate Music Group in 2009, who were very intere
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