STORY: MUSIC & I

My dad & I named my sister after Christina Aguilera while we were driving to the hospital. Pa’s favorite artist was Britney Spears. Growing up, Ma and Pa threw music-infused parties on a regular basis - their Cambodian karaoke collection included towers of DVDs, a Sony sound system, microphones and a subwoofer

I took violin lessons for 3 years and piano lessons for 3 months

Until high school, I primarily listened to rap and pop. While attending undergrad at Syracuse University, I was introduced to a new culture at a 50 Cent/Kygo concert: electronic music. At ‘Cuse, our Bandier music program was known to crank out big names like The Chainsmokers and Clairo. Our parties always had a DJ or someone throwing down heat on Aux. University Union, a student club, was known to bring in big names across the music genres for our 2x annual parties: Block Party and Mayfest

Post-college, I moved to NYC where I got super into the Brooklyn electronic music scene. Pre-COVID, shows were less than $20 and my roommate Megan & I were hitting a Brooklyn show multiple times a week

Nowadays, Megan & I are still hitting a show every week: me in Colorado and her in NYC. Both of us are also still deep in festival culture; forever connected by music

Being a yoga teacher, I love infusing my class playlists with the music I love

thank you for reading

with love,

monica