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Date: 8/3/2023
LONGMEADOW — Longmeadow resident Victoria Zingarelli, a musician who performs under the mononym “Toria,” has taken another step in her budding musical career with the release of her first single, “Simple Life,” a soul-infused ballad about missing the honeymoon phase of a relationship.
Zingarelli said she has been singing her whole life but realized she wanted to make a career out of it in middle school.
“My parents always had music playing,” Zingarelli said, adding that they have always supported her dreams of being a musician. She grew up on 80s dance music and fills many of her songs with a similar style. Contemporary artists that she admires include H.E.R., Bruno Mars and Dua Lipa. Zingarelli said Mars was able to diversify his music early on and not be pigeonholed into any one sound. She pointed to Mars’ collaboration with Anderson .Paak on the 1970s soul inspired band Silk Sonic. “He’s such a performer,” Zingarelli said. While Dua Lipa’s music “makes you want to dance,” she said music by H.E.R. has gotten her through emotionally tough times.
Zingarelli began writing music at the Institute of Musical Arts, a nonprofit organization that supports women and girls in music and music-related businesses in Goshen, at 16. In high school, she experimented with a capella.
When Zingarelli was accepted to the Berklee School of Music in Boston, she majored in songwriting, while studying classical and jazz. There, she received training in building an album. She cited musician, songwriter, producer and executive producer Rodney Alejandro as an industry professional who she learned much from while in school. Berklee is also where she first began jamming with other musicians. “It was very organic,” she said, adding that people in a social setting would just take out their instruments and start playing together.
Despite graduating in 2022, Zingarelli still works with many of the musicians she met at Berklee. She said musicians send her an instrumental track and she “top lines,” writing the melody and lyrics for the song. She writes for other musicians, as well as herself. While much of Zingarelli’s songwriting is personal, she also takes inspiration from other people’s experiences. She said there is a challenge in seeing through other’s eyes while maintaining an “authentic” and “raw” feel to the song.
Songwriting is a process, Zingarelli said. Oftentimes, a song she has written will not work and she must scrap it and start again. However, she said that first song will help her feel her way to the final version.
Zingarelli has played intimate venues such as local restaurants, but has also played larger stages. She recently played a set at MGM Springfield. Performing live allows her to have a “human connection” to the audience, she said. She described a moment when she was singing and a couple in the front row turned to each other and kissed. She said making people feel powerful emotions is one of the main reasons she performs. “I feed off the crowd and they feed off of me,” she said.
As an independent musician, Zingarelli said there would be positives and negatives to being signed to a record label. While labels provide help with marketing and distribution, being independent allows Zingarelli freedom to put out the music she wants and to control her professional persona.
“I think the industry has changed,” Zingarelli said, citing music streaming platforms as a method of distribution that make it easier for independent artists to get their work out to audiences. There is a “built-in audience,” she said.
Zingarelli said she plans to continue releasing more music. She has two other songs that will be released in the upcoming months. Rather than being similar in style to “Simple Life,” she said, they “show other sides of my artistry.” Zingarelli, whose father is Italian and her mother is Puerto Rican, is also planning to release music in both English and Spanish.
“I’m very excited to be on the journey,” Zingarelli said. “[Music] is something I’m never going to not do.”
“Simple Life” is available on all major streaming platforms.