Mendoza’s Mesmerizing Melodies
Since the age of six when she began learning how to play the piano, senior Angelina Mendoza has surpassed new musical milestones. Over the summer of 2021, Mendoza released two songs titled “Shadows” and “Ice Cream” on the music streaming service, Spotify. Although Mendoza has only recently released her music to the public, she wrote her first song “Paper Dolls” when she was 12 years old. This grew into a love for songwriting, and two years later she won first place for a piece she composed and submitted to the Reflections competition, a contest where students enter their artistic interpretation of a given theme. Following this win, Mendoza performed an original song about her grandmother at the Carnegie Hall concert venue in Claremont, CA during her freshman year on June 25, 2019. During the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, Mendoza was inspired to write a song titled “Change” with the intent of speaking out against the injustice that the African American community faces.
Mendoza is now pursuing the production side of song composition, becoming more involved with the non-vocal aspect of music. Her songs include a variety of different instruments that she combines using technology. First, Mendoza writes the songs and composes a piano section to accompany it. Then, for the other instruments she needs, she asks her producer, Hubie Wang, for a guitar sample and records sounds using a MIDI keyboard, which can imitate different musical tools that are then weaved into the editing of the song. From the singing to the editing, Mendoza’s favorite aspect of composing music is seeing the transformation from the start to finish.
“Writing the song and hearing the results is my favorite part,” Mendoza said. “You go from hearing it [played] with one instrument and your voice to hearing it with all of these [different] instruments, microphones and other cool high-tech stuff.”
Though Mendoza loves the production aspect of music composition, her roots are in songwriting, which serves as an outlet for her to illustrate her life experiences. Relationships are a common theme in Mendoza’s music, making senior Jaiden Thakor, Mendoza’s boyfriend, an influential figure in her songwriting process. This can be seen with Mendoza’s song “Ice Cream”, which was written about a night when the two went out together on a date. Thakor is enthusiastic about sharing the joy of being together with Mendoza as she creates more music.
“I am [eager] to see what else she writes about,” Thakor said. “She does a lot outside of school and athletics. I am excited to listen to more of her music. Her voice [and] her talent is amazing and I [look forward] to being a big part of that with her.”
Claudia Mendoza, Angelina Mendoza’s mother, feels touched every time she listens to the lyrics of the two songs as it reminds her of Angelina Mendoza’s experiences and hard work throughout the years. She is proud of her daughter’s accomplishments and is eager to see what the future holds for Angelina Mendoza.
“I love that she has chosen music as a way of expressing herself,” Claudia Mendoza said. “Being able to listen to something that she has created is incredibly special and touching. She is now venturing on [to] the production side and I am excited to see how she develops. I am so proud of her voice, songwriting and production skills.”
Angelina Mendoza will continue to express herself musically as she enters the next stage of her life in college, where she seeks to minor in music. She intends for songwriting to remain an important part of her life, as she genuinely enjoys it. The music Angelina Mendoza creates is very personal to her, so she is interested in seeing how others interpret her songs.
“I have asked my friends what they think the songs are about, and I had them listen to more of my other ones [that are unreleased],” Angelina Mendoza said. “They [often] say something completely different than what it is about, [which] makes me [realize that the meaning] is different for everyone. So, if [my music] helps someone get through something, realize something or celebrate something, then that is [my] goal.”
