3. Miri Ben-AriThe Hip-Hop Violinist

I’m not gonna listen to her music right now, but when I was younger, my uncle gave me her album. That was probably my first example of someone who plays violin differently than just being in an orchestra. I was like, oh, she’s hot. I’m going to do something like that. I need to create my own world how she did. She was playing on all these rappers’ songs. Before her, I only saw [violinists] dominating YouTube by basically being a cover artist. But here a lot of the sounds sound maybe synth-y, or like they could be a MIDI violin. Miri Ben-Ari does a good job of creating these memorable lines. That’s what I always try to do in my music. I’m always using the violins to create texture, even if it doesn’t sound like a violin.

In order to make The BPM, I had to be very ‘gadget girl’ forward. I used to perform with just a drum machine, a violin, and a mic, but now my set has evolved to have a better quality of sound. I had so many cords to plug in and needed to learn how to rewire things. But in a sense I’ve always felt like a gadget girl because I don’t really feel like I’m so technically advanced in the violin that I could go win a competition right now. I’m always trying to figure out the best electric violin sound. Basically, gadget girl has always been in the background, so I was like, why not just make that the forefront and have everything exposed? All the gears, all the wires.