MiddleChild: Hey!

Karina Pasian: Hi!

MiddleChild: How are you?

Karina Pasian: I’m good. How are you?

MiddleChild: I’m good. I’m just checking out some of your stuff and can I say I may be more excited than you are?

Karina Pasian: (laughs) Thank you.

MiddleChild: I’m for real. Off the top you’re just 16, right?

Karina Pasian: Yea.

MiddleChild: And you’ve been doing this for how long? All your life?

Karina Pasian: Yea, basically all of my life. (laughs)

MiddleChild: I can tell. Let’s begin by talking about your single, “16 At War”. What was your motivation behind this?

Karina Pasian: Okay. “16 At War” was produced by Tricky Stewart and written by Dream. They both did “Umbrella” for Rihanna. My motive for that is that my family and I always wanted to apply messages to my music. I’m not trying to come at nobody, but nowadays on radio there is not really anything out there sending positive messages to young people and we always wanted to incorporate that into my music. So for the single,
me and Dream had an idea about me being sixteen and the struggle that sixteen year olds go through everyday and how old people…(laughs) not old people, but adults think that young people don’t really know anything. But it talks about how we see what’s going on and we’re not naïve about what’s going on around us.

MiddleChild: Right. And you say you want to deliver positive messages in your songs and that’s very evident in just the material I’ve listened to. Now was this a struggle for you to get this across to the label? Did they have a problem with this or were they for it?

Karina Pasian: It’s what we’ve gone through from the jump. We went down to the label and told them that the songs that I do have to have substance and integrity. It can’t just be a bunch of “say nothing” songs. All of my music has to have some type of substance.

MiddleChild: And they couldn’t do nothing but respect that, right?

Karina Pasian: (laughs) Yea. They really did. They did a really good job. They didn’t have a problem with it.

MiddleChild: That’s what’s up. Now I hear that the first song that you performed was Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” at a talent show. How old were you?

Karina Pasian: (laughs) I was seven years old.

MiddleChild: What was that like? That’s a big song to cover.

Karina Pasian: It was really great. I love the way the audience received it. It was the first time I really sang and played the piano in front of an audience. So it was a great experiment and let me know I wanted to perform for the rest of my life.

MiddleChild: That’s cool. Now you said that you worked with Tricky Stewart and Dream, so who else have you linked up with for the album?

Karina Pasian: I worked with Gordon Chambers and he’s the first person I worked with on this album. He’s a very talented producer and has written a lot of songs for me. I worked with Kenny who has another one of my singles. I worked with The Architects, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Ne-Yo and Brian Michael Cox. Just a lot of people over the past two and a half years.

MiddleChild: A lot of people have been checking out this buzz remix that you did with Chris Brown on his record, “With You”. How did that come about? What made you wanna jump on that particular song?

Karina Pasian: Well Chris is a friend of mine and my brother writes and produces and we had the song and we thought that would be a great song to have a duet with. So he wrote the verses and I did my thing on it. (laughs)

MiddleChild: That you did. (laughs)

Karina Pasian: (laughs) Thank you.

MiddleChild: I also checked out this song on your MySpace page called “Can’t Bring Me Down”. What’s the story behind that one?

Karina Pasian: That was actually one of the first songs I recorded. Since we told the label every song has to have substance, they got Gordon Chambers and he wrote that song. I think it’s a great song that everyone can relate to. I related to it when I was recording it and I think it’s a wonderful song.

MiddleChild: I see. I also noticed that you have like a YouTube channel or a MySpace video channel where you post videos and in one of them I noticed a picture of Mariah Carey in the background. I kind of took that as her being one of your inspirations.

Karina Pasian: Yes.

MiddleChild: So who else would you say has inspired you in the industry?

Karina Pasian: Mariah Carey really has inspired me in the industry a lot. Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera, and Beyonce of course. (laughs) Also a lot of Jazz greats and older music because growing up my family listened to a wide variety of styles of music. So Jazz definitely influences me also…and Gospel.

MiddleChild: Okay. Well we’ve established the fact that you’re sixteen and you say you’ve been working on the album for the past two and a half years, so how is it balancing the whole “growing up” thing, the industry, going to the studio and school and all of that? How is that working out for you?

Karina Pasian: It’s actually working out better than I thought it would. When I would travel and record in different places I always have a tutor because my family always taught me that education is very important and keeps my options open for the future and is incorporated in everything that I do. So whenever I go anywhere I have a tutor and when I’m here in New York I go to school. So I incorporate that in everything I do.

MiddleChild: Alright. So what is one song on the album that you really want us to take a listen to?

Karina Pasian: That’s a good question. Let me see. There is a song called “Go Back”, and it was written by Dean, this girl from Atlanta. I love the song. It’s a fun song, but it’s a good message. It’s talking about why can’t we go back to the day when men used to…and not that all men are not gentlemen (laughs)…but when men used to be more respectful to women and how men used to go up to a girl’s daddy and ask for her hand
before going out on dates. It’s talking about how I wish I could go back to those days and asking all of the guys to come back with me, and it’s a great song.

MiddleChild: And have you had any bad experiences with this little knucklehead boys messing with your head and all of that?

Karina Pasian: (laughs) Kind of. Yea. Kind of. (both laugh)

MiddleChild: You sound like you’re blushing on that one so I won’t ask about that one. (both laugh) So you got a song called “Cry” also. I won’t even get into what that one is about, but instead will ask you when was the last time you cried and what was it about?

Karina Pasian: Actually the last time I cried was yesterday. Me and my friends did this gospel medley and we sang it for our class because we were going to perform it in a show next week and we had auditions for it. We sang it from our hearts and everybody received it well and there were people crying and then we started crying. It was just a great moment.

MiddleChild: Sounds great. Well of course when a new artist surfaces, they will get all types of comparisons. Whether it’s to an old head or to someone who recently came out themselves. So tell me who are some of the artists you get compared to.

Karina Pasian: Alicia Keys. She is the person I get compared to the most because we both sing and play the piano. But I’ve been doing that since I was five or six. (laughs) So I get compared to her a lot. I don’t mind the comparison though. It’s an honor to be compared to her. It really is.

MiddleChild: Have you met her yet?

Karina Pasian: Yes. I met her when I was ten. I sang and played for her.

MiddleChild: That’s cool. Doing big things. You played at The White
House too.

Karina Pasian: Yea.

MiddleChild: I mean you’ve met all these important people. You sang at The White House. You covered a Celine Dion song at the age of seven. Is there any pressure throughout this whole process for you? (both laugh)

Karina Pasian: I guess the only pressure would be high expectations from everybody. I have to keep practicing and making myself better to make sure I meet those expectations, but other than that I don’t really see any pressure.

MiddleChild: That’s a great thing. I mean I’m serious. I just really listened to your song today. I’ve been had it, but you have to understand I get so many songs to listen to and preview a day that it takes me some time to get through it all because sometimes I have to be in that mood to make sure I don’t overlook anything. So today I played your song
and I swear I had it on repeat for like a half hour before I went to your MySpace page to check out more.

Karina Pasian: Wow.

MiddleChild: So you’re definitely going to get mad love from me and MiddleChild Promotions because I’m digging it. I know you have some people on my messageboard checking for you as well so I will be sure to keep them in the loop on all things Karina! (laughs)

Karina Pasian: Thank you so much.

MiddleChild: I wish you lots and lots of luck because you truly are a breath of fresh air. So we got you!

Karina Pasian: Thanks.

MiddleChild: So I’ll let you shout out your MySpace page and anything else you wanna say to your fans. Let’s do it.

Karina Pasian: Okay. My MySpace page is myspace.com/karinapasianmusic. And I want to say to my fans that I really like to encourage people to pursue their dreams and never ever give up on their goals because I want my music to inspire kids of all ages to make the right decisions and work together as brothers and sisters. Always to respect each other and show each other that everybody is equal in every way.

MiddleChild: That’s what’s up. Well you have a great day!

Karina Pasian: Thank you. You too. Thanks for your time.

MiddleChild: No problem. We’ll be in touch.