Summary: Minnie Yang is an emerging Chinese-Canadian R&B/pop singer-songwriter, currently studying guitar at Mint Music. A multi-talented artist, she first studied piano at the age of five and later played zither, violin, cello, and viola. She recently released her new song, Don’t Blame Me, on the YouTube page of her Chinese record label Tai He. She also has a planned EP for release later this year, and some of her older music can also be found on Spotify. Minnie is part of a new monthly blog series showcasing the many talented students that have studied at Mint and the Toronto Guitar School over the years, who add to Toronto’s rich musical landscape and varied cultural tapestry.
Mint Music Student Spotlight – Minnie Yang
(Vocalist, Guitarist, and Songwriter)
Minnie Yang is a musician and student at Mint Music with a varied, colorful background. Originally born in China, she started learning piano at age five. When interviewed she said China has a strong after-school curriculum that starts at an early age. She first took dance but did not enjoy doing the splits. After complaining to her mother, Minnie was switched to a painting class, but soon resorted to stealing other children’s work and passing it off as her own. Finally, her mother signed her up for piano, which Minnie stuck with. When she got older she also started playing a few different varieties of Chinese zither. Chinese R&B music imprinted deeply on her as a child, and later when she moved, North American pop became very influential in her artistic development.
At the age of 14 she moved to Canada and studied the cello, viola, and violin, respectively, all the while continuing to play the piano. Every summer she would go back to China to visit her family. Deeply connected to the entertainment and film industries in China, her family always got her involved in their projects, giving her small acting roles on streaming platforms. Passionate about the arts and comfortable on the stage, she was once asked to perform a song written especially for her for the soundtrack to one of the shows. The event planted a seed in her head, slowly growing into a love of musical performance.
After high school she studied International Relations and French Linguistics at the University of Toronto with the hope of gaining employment as a diplomat or interpreter. However, as she had done all her life she then zigzagged again, and did a Master’s in Product Design that landed her a job at CBC News as a product designer.
In 2023 Minnie was inspired to start writing and performing songs after seeing a great performance by her friend, Yoshe Li, an accomplished Toronto-based singer songwriter who also plays guitar and bass. Yoshe also can be found playing the guitar and bass on Minnie’s new recordings.
Minnie asked Yoshe, and Yoshe’s collaborator Eric Juu, himself a great music producer, how to go about charting her musical path and Eric suggested she upgrade her skills and learn the guitar. Minnie, working with Eric as her producer, started writing songs and signed up for guitar lessons at Mint Music to allow her to more freely express her musical ideas on the instrument on stage and in the studio.
Minnie feels Mint Music is very supportive of her musical journey and has since discovered a musical community she never expected to find with Mint. She studied initially with Mark Ritter for almost a year. Minnie is very complimentary of Mark’s teaching style, stating that he is very knowledgeable with information on many genres of music. He is multi-talented and can compose, perform, and improvise. Mark’s chill demeanor gave Minnie a self-described, happy start on guitar.
A few months ago Minnie started studying with Mint Music guitar instructor Camila Milla. Camila brought a new perspective to Minnie’s understanding of music, through a discipline based practice style. Minnie, hoping to be pushed, found Camila, a very systematic teacher, who has given Minnie many finger exercises and helped fill in more of the mechanical basics of the instrument. Minnie thinks both teachers have given her strong support despite their contrasting teaching methods. The varied roster of Music Instructors at Mint Music has enabled Minnie to tailor her educational experience exactly how she would like.
Minnie wrote her first song, “Utopia”, last year. She initially only wrote the lyrics, melody, and had a basic structure of the song. Eric, her producer, then came up with chords and developed the instrumentation for the piece. She describes the song as a fairytale: “Once upon a time there was a girl living on a planet called Utopia. She was looking for something precious and eventually saw light from a faraway planet. After looking closer, she saw more light from a human boy and she fell in love. She mused to him, “Does it burn when you think about us?”
She now writes chords to her music and is expanding to more production ideas as she gets more comfortable with it. She is enjoying the collaborative process with Juu because they have been friends for a long time. Good communication between these old friends enables Juu to know what Minnie is looking for in her music and Minnie feels at ease in this music-making environment. Minnie’s day job allows less room for creativity while music lets her step outside of that box and embrace the freedom of creating music for herself.
Minnie still plays piano, and most of her music is written on piano or guitar, or both. If she gets stuck on guitar she changes to the keyboard to write. Sometimes she starts with a melody and sings it into a voice memo on her phone and then figures out chords to it.
The idea of flow is very important to her and she has to be in a certain mood to write music. She feels it always must spring from an initial inspiration. Rather than treating music making as a structured, dry task, she waits until she is soaked with emotion and then lets it out. Later, more technical considerations arise, like, what kind of beats, what kind of production, what sound effects, what instrumentation, what role she would like her producer to take, etc. This part she finds more difficult to go through smoothly and that is when she will sit and listen to other music for inspiration, especially music she might not regularly listen to: Bjork, 88 Rising, rap, jazz or classical music. She is always looking for new sounds to continue sustaining the creative process.
Inner feelings are important to her artistic practice. Minnie says she creates her own Utopia through her music and finds she can move through whatever feelings she wants. She builds her own world through music all the while staying true to herself. As a lifelong learner Minnie is always interested in expressing different shades of her personality and experience and by listening to her music, one can hear that she is quite versatile. She can smoothly move between the previously mentioned, Utopia, or Don’t Blame Me, to a song like, Oh MY, a very dance-able, girl boss-vibe song, with a happy, and confident message.
She is particularly proud of the music video for her new song, Don’t Blame Me. It can be found on the YouTube page of Minnie’s Chinese record label, Tai He, who manages her publishing rights. Minnie worked with some of her videographer friends, and makeup artist friends and came up with the story for the video herself. The multi-talented Yoshe did the video editing.
Minnie’s star is definitely rising, but there is still much she wants to do. She would like to try writing funk and punk music, and she also wants to study more artists like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Daft Punk.
She currently has three songs on Spotify and Apple Music and Minnie has planned her first EP of three songs for the end of this year or the beginning of next year. After that, she would like to start playing live shows in Toronto and book concerts for herself back in China.
Minnie has very strong feelings about being a musician and some great suggestions for those serious on pursuing their dreams: “First figure out what kind of musician you want to be. Do you want to write songs? Produce? Mix? Discover what speaks to you the most and once you feel comfortable with that, start spreading out to other areas that excite you.”
Minnie used to worry about if she was passionate enough about music. Many doubts came to her mind, such as, would she stick with it all her life? The answer, she realized, is yes. “Writing music feels like writing diaries to me, it helps me see the potential in myself.” If she can’t have overwhelming success in mainstream pop culture she has no intention of giving up on her music goals and wants to keep playing, writing and performing for a long time to come. Music is her passion and the way she expresses herself in the world. She loves talking about music with friends and playing guitar and keyboard as it inspires her and brings meaning to her life. She likes being a “cool girl that plays music.”
Minnie adds: “If you feel it inspires you and gives you happiness – GO FOR IT! Like I’ve discovered, interests and passions change too, and that’s OK. Just go with the flow and live in the moment!”
You can find out more about Minnie by clicking on the website links below:
Website
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6MjvukYRgXNv9XUYph1mdh?si=50d0IhycQEi-hCA13h-bpA
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@minnieyang.utopia
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/voyouaulait/
Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@minnie.aulait
Apple Music: https://tr.ee/6Rl8PCFiU8
