Bianca Muniz is a New York native, survivor, and songstress. Her deeply personal and unapologetic songs paint pictures of her world, immersing the listener in her experiences. Muniz's vocal ability is incredible, and it is even more astounding considering the voice inhibiting chest surgery she has undergone which has forced her to rebuild her singing muscles. She reaches the high and low ranges of her voice with an ease that an experienced singer with years of vocal training would struggle to build to. Her smooth and powerful voice is infatuating, captivating her audiences as she expresses her life through music. Due to its originality, her music genre is difficult to place as it represents a combination of jazz, neo-soul, and dream-pop. I spoke with Bianca Muniz about her life, music, battle with cancer, and inspirations.
Where are you from originally?
I am originally from New York, I grew up in Yonkers.
How long have you been fighting cancer?
I was diagnosed for the second time in November. The first time I was 11 and I was in remission for about 10 years.
Has your fight with cancer changed how you pursue and write music?
I definitely have to say yes. I feel like I have become more connected with music. I have always been connected to it but music definitely helped me get through it the first time I was diagnosed. I remember I wrote a song and I wasn't thinking about what I was writing and I showed my sister and she was like "do you realize that this is basically what you feel through everything?" I didn't realize that until she said it. A lot of what is happening to me comes out through my music.
How long have you been writing and singing?
I started writing my freshman year, I wrote a couple songs that were completely terrible and I am never going to play them again, like ever. Like they were terrible. And then after about 5 songs, I wrote what I consider my first real song and it's actually coming out in August as a single and music video. I went back to like the very first one and tuned it and created it into something new, it's called "For You."
Who are some of your influences?
I've always loved Radiohead so much, so Radiohead is definitely a huge influence of mine. I love Becca Stephens band, Lianne La Havas, I love her, and Lana Del Rey. I have a lot of influences and my genre choice varies a lot.
Could you tell me about releasing your upcoming single?
I came out with an EP last year. But after I was diagnosed, we set the studio date and I was like "I need to get in the studio before the surgery and have something to work on and edit and mix while I am recovering because I won't be able to sing for a while."
So we recorded two songs one of them is "For You" and the other one will take a long time to finish. I recorded for you live with my band, and we recorded it with scratch vocals. After the surgery, I had to build my voice back up because of the surgery, which was on my chest, and affected my breathing. After I built my voice back up again I went to the studio and I finished all of the recording and harmonies and everything. The song was done and we mixed and mastered it and I was like what do I do with this? Then out of nowhere I was on Instagram and I was following this videographer for a while and he posted a video and I was like "oh my gosh, that is perfect, I want that." So I messaged him and got a response and we talked on the phone the next day and planned everything. The next week we shot the music video. It was a very spur of the moment kind of thing and I was like yes, we are gonna do this and that's how I'm going to release the single.
Are there any stereotypes about people with cancer that you wish people would get over?
Okay so I don't know if this will suffice as an answer, the question just reminded me of this. Luckily, I did not lose all of my hair through chemo, I was so blessed. I lost a lot of it but when I shaved my head but I never actually went fully bald which is incredible. Anyways, I was checking out this music venue for my welcome back show and the bartender said to me "Oh wow, you have short hair! that's so amazing I had short hair at one point too and people asked me all the time if I had cancer. I was like no, I don't have cancer, I just have short hair." I was just kind of smiling at her not knowing what to say and I was like trying to figure out if I should tell her or not. I decided not to tell her because it would then have involved a whole long conversation about that.
Do you think it is important to tell your story as a young woman going through this?
This is the second time I've had cancer and the first time I pretended like it wasn't happening. I wore a wig and I didn't want anyone to know. But then I would change my wig color like every day so my mom was like "your kinda defeating the purpose." Then this time I made a very long Facebook post explaining what was going on the night before my surgery. When I was looking up women my age who were going through this, I could not find any. There are no people my age who wrote about it or posted pictures of what was happening, it was all women over the age of 40. I'm not 40, I'm 22 and this is happening so that basically why I decided to be open about it.
Did you wait for all your hair to fall off or did you shave it on your own terms?
So I was supposed to go to a wedding after my first treatment and I was freaking out. I was like "oh my gosh, I really hope I have my hair." I have really thick curly hair so the loss wasn't noticeable yet. It lasted the wedding and during the second treatment, my hair was still hanging on strong. Finally, after the third treatment, it was covering the couch and my dad had to vacuum the couch because it was so hairy. So I could have kept it longer, but it was just getting everywhere and we were vacuuming too much, so I shaved it all off. It thinned out a lot and there were bald spots and what ever, but I got really lucky where it did not all fall out.
When you finally shaved your head, how did that affect your confidence?
It actually did not bother me at all I was actually a little bit excited, to be honest. I used to have brown hair and I felt like going through a dramatic physical appearance change. I was asking my friends if I should go blonde or shave my head. They were like "please don't shave your head," and so I went blonde and then I ended up being able to shave my head too. I feel like such a bad ass
What are you listening to right now?
Let me open my phone and see what the last thing I was listening to was......Oh Yuna, I just discovered her a couple weeks ago and she is like amazing.
What is some advice you would give to other young people trying to pursue music who are fighting cancer?
I would say channel everything to your music. Everything you are feeling, whenever you are feeling very crappy or happy just listen to music and write music. It helps overall with every way you're feeling and creates very powerful music.
What is some advice you would give to other young girls trying to pursue music?
Don't let other peoples opinions influence you. If they don't like your music, their loss.
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