Before Mia Sunahara (12) could properly speak, she had already begun expressing herself through music—babbling tunes and attempting to recreate any melodies her young mind had absorbed from the surrounding world.

“I swear my parents probably thought there was something wrong with me,” she said “They thought I was just making random weird noises, but they eventually figured out I was actually trying to sing.”

Sunahara’s passion for singing only grew with age, eventually leading her to song writing at a turning point in her emotional development: the seventh grade.

“I started writing music—bad music—in middle school,” she said. “It was all depressing songs, because in middle school, everyone was sad. And it’s easier to write a sad song than it is a happy one. But I’ve just been writing ever since.”

After more and more 10-second songs emerged in her notes app, Sunahara said she felt motivated to dip her toe into performing, joining both theatre and choir while experimenting with different musical mediums along the way—first the ukulele, then the guitar, the drums, and eventually making her way to the piano.

By the end of eighth grade, Sunahara began considering the possibility of recording her own music after seeing more young artists emerge in the music industry. However, because of her ever changing musical standards and a lack of instrumental expertise, Sunahara says she felt apprehensive about taking the leap to record.

“I have a mic and a little setup in my house because I was prepared to try and record myself for a long time, but because I’m not the best instrumentally, I was worried that whatever I made, it wasn’t going to turn out how I wanted it to,” she said. “And as I started getting better at writing, I would start liking whatever I had, but then I’d suddenly hate it a week later. So I just put off recording for a really long time because I was worried that I was going to end up hating whatever I put out.”

It wasn’t until she was approached by Tristan Brooks, a music instructor at School of Rock where Sunahara studies and performs in a house band, that the possibility of finally recording and releasing her own music became more realistic.

“A little earlier in the school year, School of Rock was hosting an open mic, and when I finished performing, Tristan just came up to me and said ‘when you’re ready to do it, I’m here.’”

Last October, Sunahara sent Brooks an audio recording of one of her original pieces. In the following months, Sunahara worked with Brooks in his home recording studio to transform the originally acoustic track into something with more of a funk-pop flare. According to Sunahara, Brooks played a significant role in developing the song’s sounds, and played almost all of the instruments on the track.

“He’s super awesome to work with and is so talented,” Sunahara said. “If you play a song around him a bunch of times he just starts riffing off of it, and then always comes back and is like ‘I think this should be here. We need a shake or we need a tambourine.’”

Finally getting to record in the studio and see her vision come to life with a talent like Brooks was a dream come true, Sunahara said.

“It was the coolest thing,” she said. “I never had a song of mine have this whole production. And just hearing the demos, and hearing [Brooks] play it back and adding stuff or like editing things while I was there was just so incredible and magical.”

After mixing the final track in early December, Brooks sent it to his music professor to have it mastered and ready for release. Two weeks later, on Christmas Eve, Sunahara dropped her very first single on multiple major streaming platforms under the artist name “Kimiko”—one of her baptismal names.

“It was the craziest feeling seeing the song finally drop and seeing all our hard work come to life,” Sunahara said. “Definitely the greatest Christmas gift ever.”

According to Sunahara, the title of the track, “BCC,” comes from the idea of blind CCing an email to someone of romantic interest.

“The meaning behind [BCC] is that I’m somebody who’s super interested in someone else, but I don’t know how to say it and I don’t know how to feel about it,” she said. “And I keep drafting messages to the other person, but then digitally crumpling up my papers and throwing them in the trash.”

Although Sunahara doesn’t typically pull inspiration for her songs from her own personal experiences, she said the song-writing process always ends up revealing something new about herself. With “BBC,” she was able to grasp a greater understanding of her sexuality.

“Because I’m young and I haven’t really experienced life yet, everything I write about I write from experiences I don’t know directly,” she said. “But [BCC] ended up being partially about my sexuality, because it’s about a girl. I actually sent my sister the acoustic version of it in the beginning, and she thought I was coming out to her. And I was like, ‘Oh, no.’ But then later I figured out that I was bi.”

Currently, Sunahara is recording her second single, as well as her debut EP which she plans to release in March. According to Sunahara, she felt that releasing BCC as her first project—a fun and funky track—would be the best way to garner a wide variety of listeners.

“We just felt like it was a little more inviting than some of the other stuff I plan to release on the EP,” she said. “All of the songs I write and plan to drop fit into very different genres, because I also listen to a wide variety of genres. BCC just seemed a little bit more catchy, so we were just thinking that we could warm people up with it, and have it be the first thing to get people interested.”

Recently, Sunahara was accepted into Berklee College of Music’s songwriting program. Although the idea of studying at one of the country’s top music institutions excites her, Sunahara is still unsure if she wants to pursue music as her sole focus in college.

“It’s scary to think about committing to music alone, especially because it’s so soon,” she said. “I’m still waiting to hear back from the UCs and to see if I’ll be able to major in science and minor in music. I just don’t want to limit myself.”

While Sunahara’s academic path remains uncertain, she says that her passion for songwriting will always remain close to her, and that she plans to practice music for as long as possible.

“My music means the world to me,” she said. “When I started pursuing music, I gained so much confidence and self-appreciation. Out of every single hobby I’ve had or activity I’ve done, I think music has definitely done the most for me internally. I just want to continue to make music for as long as I can, and hopefully people will want to listen to it.”