Long-time music industry insider Nicole Sanzio has released her debut Neo-classical instrumental single, “In Transit.” Composed by Nicole Sanzio and engineered by Phillip Lewis, the self-written original piano composition serves as a representation of various themes surrounding her experiences. The title applies to the process of completing the project as much as it does Sanzio’s personal journeys which are reflected in the ups and downs of the flow of the music.

In this interview spotlight, I chat with Nicole about the latest release, adapting during lock downs, technology and more.

Full Q&A along with links and music below.

Where are you from and how do you describe your style of music?

I always get confused at this question as simple as it should be. haha

I grew up in New Jersey, but was born in California.

How did you get here? As in, what inspired or motivated you to take on this journey through music and the music biz?  

I started composing music in my early teenage years, but gravitated towards the Music Biz as I got older and had to start thinking about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.  I started out by interning at EMI Music Publishing, the giant of all music publishing companies and landed my first “real” music job at BMI, so between learning the ropes at both, I learned how songwriters and composers could earn royalties from having their music in TV and Film, Radio, etc.  It was an area of the music business that fascinated me at the time, so naturally through exploring how some of them were getting placements.  It led me into eventually working at MTV and Vh1 which is where I learned about music libraries.  I became head of the Music Taskforce in my department and was striking some of those library deals.  I started working on building a little library of my own to work with the TV producers to include some of my own music and music from my talented circle of friends (Shoutout to Will Coss for being the first producer to use one of our tracks at the VMA’s in Miami one year, a track from Jay Mattia, one of my very talented and dearest friends to this day) which later turned out to be the start of building my own company outside of MTV.  Fast forward 15 years later and after repping over 500 writers/composers throughout the years, here I am realizing that I never put my own music out.  We are now at a point where we, as independent writers/composers/artists can easily put out music ourselves as opposed to having to get signed by a major label in order to get released.  The time worked in my favor, but God works in mysterious ways too.

How does your latest project compare/contrast with your previous release(s)? Were you setting out to accomplish anything specific, follow a specific theme, or explore different styles of creation?

The only major difference is that I am putting out my own release this time.  We started releasing songs from many different genres from our publishing catalog and I wanted to explore what it would be like to actually promote music outside of pitching music for tv and film.  I didn’t want to test this out with any of our other writers/artists before I did it myself.

Name the biggest challenge you faced as a creative during these unprecedented times? How did you adapt? How have you kept the creative fires burning during all this?

I’ve always worked out of my home office and had my writers in studios outside, so not much has changed there, but the biggest challenge was finding a studio with a grand piano to record at when I first set out to do so in April of last year in LA because most were finally acclimating on how to operate with Covid restrictions after not being able to for a while.  All of the studios were booked when I suddenly felt the urge to start recording and if it wasn’t for Rusk Sound Studios in Hollywood having a last-minute cancellation, it probably would have deterred me from following through.  All I needed was that first experience of recording my own material in a studio to give me incentive to want to power through the recording the rest of my debut album.  

What was the last song you listened to?

Coldplay/Selena Gomez’s “Let Somebody Go”

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? 8-tracks? Cassettes? CDs? MP3s? Streaming platforms? 

I’m into all of the conveniences that digital music has to offer, so it’s Streaming for me, but I’ll always respect Vinyl since that is what I first started listening to music on.  

Where is the best place to connect with you and follow your journey?   

Instragram @indigimusic and Facebook: facebook.com/indigimusic is where I post most of my updates along with our other artists/writers/composers.

I really appreciate Your time. Anything else before we sign off?  

I never anticipated being interviewed about my personal musical endeavors, so I appreciate YOUR time and interest!  THANK YOU!