Interview: Broadway's Mia Pinero Talks Debut Album GROWING UP

Mia Pinero, who as an understudy in the recent revival of West Side Story made her Broadway debut as Maria, was prepared to explode onto the theater scene like the star she is... when the pandemic brought everything to a halt. Suddenly, Pinero was back in her hometown of Racine, Wisconsin.

From month of reset and reflection comes now Pinero's debut album, Growing Up, to be released tomorrow, March 15. The album is a beautiful musical journey, featuring stripped down interpretations of songs by a range of artists from Stephen Sondheim to Donald Glover and more.

'Growing Up' features piano, mixing and arrangements by Alex Thompson, and is co-produced by Mia Pinero and Alex Thompson. The album also includes Brett Scott on engineering, mixing, and mastering with Alex Nielsen on engineering and recording the album. The album was mixed and mastered at BNB Audio in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Alex Makoto Simpson is the Album Cover Photographer, and Christopher Boudewyns the Portrait Photographer.

BroadwayWorld has your exclusive first listen to Stand Tall below!

We spoke with Mia Pinero about the process of putting the album together, what she hopes people take away from it, what she's learned about herself as an artist, and more!

---

Growing Up is your debut album. How did you decide that you wanted to put out an album, and when did you first begin working on it?

I had always wanted to make an album. You know, you listen to people's solo albums and it really helps you get to know them in a different way, apart from a cast recording. It was something that was always on a bucket list, but I'd had no idea how to accomplish that. And, of course, the pandemic happened. I was in Ivo van Hove's West Side Story, and we were in rehearsal- boom- we get the call. So then I went to my hometown in Wisconsin that I hadn't been to for almost ten months because I was doing the show. And what was a few months turned into almost a year and a half. I was with my mom at her condo, driving some of the same roads I'd driven growing up, seeing the gas station, seeing my childhood home, and I had the time to take a deep dive into better understanding my childhood, and my past, and growing up.

A friend of mine had self-produced a Christmas album, and I thought, "How cool! Let me ask her what that process was." I thought, "This might actually be something I could do. I don't have to wait for the record label or the producer to call me to do my own album, let me try to look into making one." Then, in January of 2021 I just thought, "Maybe this is the time." I was in a deeply reflective place, I had a lot of time on my hands. The theaters had been closed for what was coming up on a year, and there was just a lot there. I deeply missed singing and rehearsing, and I wanted to capture that moment that I was in that was very tender.

I called a dear friend, Alex Thompson, and I said, "Hey would you be interested in arranging some songs for an album?" And he said, "Yes! And, actually, I work at BNB Studio," where he also mixes, masters, and sound engineers, so I kind of just stumbled into the perfect unicorn collaborator. We set up the Zoom call, and in my mind, the list of songs came together. I have an ongoing list of songs that inspire me, that deeply hit me, and for whatever reason, these nine songs had to be together in this playlist.

What can we expect to hear on the album?

There's an eclectic mix, from Donald Glover's Stand Tall, to John Mayer's Stop This Train, to Children Will Listen by Stephen Sondheim, The Nearness of You, I've Been Accustomed to your face... So it's this mix of some of my favorite songs from a diverse group of singers, and from different genres. But Alex really was able to make all of these songs, the way he arranged them, to sound like one cohesive project. And all stripped down to just piano and vocal.

Something I was really adamant about when making this album, was that it wasn't recorded in New York, it didn't have the noise of New York, or any input. Even though I love that, there was something about this moment where I was in Wisconsin, in this world, around my family, revisiting some of these places, and I wanted it to be purely simplified, to really focus on story and lyric. And someday I'll have the big orchestra and the big, produced album, but there was something really special about this being something that I self-produced along with Alex Thompson that would keep the integrity of this moment, and my voice of that moment. And I hadn't even taken a voice lesson for... I was doing eight shows a week, and then all of us were in our sweatpants for months and months. So I really wanted it to capture the rawness and honesty of that moment.

Would you say the album has an overarching theme? And did that play into the songs that you chose?

Absolutely. The album, it's slightly chronological, but not exactly. I consider it to have an A part and B part, and Stop This Train is the pillar in which it connects both the A and the B section. And it's really is looking at, "What does it mean when we've quote-unquote, 'grown up', we're not in our childhood anymore, we've left home, we're pursuing our careers, and what does it mean to go back and re-look at our childhoods, and things that have happened, from an adult lens? How do we learn about who we are? The album explores some of the most important growth, as we don't stop growing just because we've turned 18.

The album begins with Stand Tall, it's a beautiful arrangement that's very different from the Donald Glover version, but it just comes to this idea where a father figure in the album is saying, "Go big, dream big, stand tall, be strong, and move forward." And the next song is All I've Ever Known from Hadestown, which is, "I've been strong, I've been alone, now here's a person, a romantic relationship." To that relationship intensifying, to then Stop This Train, where, "Woah, I'm away from home, and time is passing, and my parents are growing older, and I come home at Christmas, and I only get a few moments with them. Everyone's hair is a little grayer, and everyone's a little taller," and "Wait, let's just stop for a moment," which ironically happened with the pandemic for a lot of us.

To put it in a more broad sense, it's really about what is the growing up past childhood, and what is it to look back? And I think it can be a very scary thing, it can be a very empowering thing, but whatever it is, it helps us better understand who we are today, and how to move forward with all of the beauty and hardship that came with that past.

With all that being said, what would you say you have learned about yourself as an artist during the process of creating this album?

I think I learned that I can do it! I think sometimes it's challenging to just believe in your ideas and to fully invest in them, and I thankfully had an immense amount of support, but it's the reminder that you need to believe in yourself, and that your story is a valuable one, not just to you, but to other people. And what a sad thing if you have an impulse and you can't follow it. Because you're not only depriving yourself, you're depriving other people. I was terrified when I called Alex for the first time and said "I want to do this." I almost wanted to call him back and say, "Just kidding, I have no idea how." But what happened was, I was now held accountable with someone who thought it was a really good idea. And held accountable with a collaborator that really was there to be along the way with my vulnerabilities and my authenticity.

It really was a journey, figuring out, "Oh we have to license this?" or, "How do we record it? How do we get the word out? How do we record separately?" and, "What is reverb? And the mastering process?" And as someone who knew zero about it, it was really daunting. But, little by little you ask the right people, and they help you, and I'm so glad that I did, because a year later I have a work that I couldn't be more proud of that I was able to call the shots on as well.

What are you most excited for with this album's release?

The first goal of this album was to preserve this moment, and for it to be in the pockets of my siblings, of mine, of my partner, and as I was encouraged to really go all the way and bring it to the public, and to do press, and to get the word out, I kept thinking, "Every single one of us is on this journey. It looks different for all of us, but each of us has a past, each of us has a present." And there are beautiful moments in all of our pasts and presents, as well as challenging ones. I want this album to be a reminder that people are not alone, that life is beautifully complex, and I am with you. Whether you're in your car, on the train, on the subway.

And [I hope] as you listen to my journey, that it brings things up in your journey as well. Because everyone has a mother, everyone has a father, and everyone has a connection to someone they love in an intimate way. Whether romantically or not. So, I think it's wonderful that it can be relatable to anyone who hears it. I always say that it's not a summer bop [laughs], it's definitely something to aid you on those moments, to calm you and give you some hope, but also authenticity and acknowledgement of the challenge.

Are you planning to do a concert of songs from the album?

Yes! Actually, this album has a narrative arc that would fit very well in concert, and it was something that I had always imagined, but again, was sometimes too scared to think, "Oh, can I really do it live?" But it was always a dream, as I was making this, to share it in that type of intimate setting. And I am really happy to say that the day of the album release, March 15th, I will be doing the album live at 54 Below at 9:30 in New York City. So it's going to be Growing Up: An Album Release Celebration in Concert. And I will be singing through the whole album live, as well as sharing little moments of its creation, and context, and just celebrating that it's going to be out in the world!

---

Growing Up Track Listing:

1. Stand Tall

2. All I've Ever Known

3. The Nearness of You

4. You're Nearer

5. Stop This Train

6. I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face

7. Children Will Listen/ No One is Alone

8. Do You Remember

9. Growing Up