By Vicki Li ’18, Arts and Entertainment Editor

Rebecca Slater is Newark Academy’s resident phenom at the violin. As she consistently earns first or second chair in regional, all-state, and all-eastern orchestras, beating out hundreds of other talented violinists, it’s safe to say that Rebecca’s passion for her instrument has led her to be one of the best musicians that has ever graced NA. Currently, she plays in New Jersey Youth Symphony, a highly selective and prestigious orchestra, as the Co-Concertmaster. In addition to being extremely qualified on paper, Rebecca has also extended her musical presence to social media on her Instagram account, @nofacenomoney (please follow her, I promise you it’s worth it). In just under two years, Rebecca has managed to gain a following of more than 1400 people who enjoy her covers of classical compositions and pop songs. To get more insight on the genius that flows behind her success, I decided to interview her about her Instagram career as a famous violinist.

Vicki Li: When did you start playing the violin?

Rebecca Slater: I was seven years old. I actually played the piano before I started the violin. I was five years old when I started that.

Vicki Li: How did you get Instagram famous?

Rebecca Slater: The short answer is persistence. In the beginning, I barely had any followers. Most of them were my friends, and I would be lucky to even get twenty views per video. I just kept recording and posting it online because I loved playing my favorite songs. My initial rise in followers was a total accident. I had tried to check if my violin teacher had an Instagram so I could block him because I didn’t want him thinking I was doing this in my free time rather than practicing. However, I accidentally linked my Instagram to my Facebook, which notified all my Facebook friends about my account, which gave me an even bigger audience.

Then, a little later, I submitted a cover of “We Don’t Believe What’s on TV” by twenty øne piløts to a larger music account called @clique_covers, and the owner reposted my video, which garnered about 31,000 views. I was ecstatic! Then @thatviolakid also reposted one of my covers, and after that, I gained a thousand followers really quickly.

Vicki Li: What made you want to start a violin Instagram account?

Rebecca Slater: I would regularly scroll through my feed on Instagram, and I saw a lot of other musicians with a big following. Since I love violin and I love performing, I thought, “Hey, maybe I could do that too!” So, I guess the number one reason for starting my account would be fame. I also wanted an outlet where I wouldn’t have to be confined to the rules of classical music. Violins are usually more famous in renditions of older periods of music, but I wanted to play my favorite songs, whether they be pop or classical. I wanted to share my musical talents and hopefully inspire other people to do the same.

Vicki Li: How did you come up with the username “@nofacenomoney”?

Rebecca Slater:  I was at an Asian Food Market on Route 22, and a song came on in Mandarin. During the chorus, the guy sang “我没有钱，我不要脸”, which, in English, means “I don’t have money, I’m shameless”,  but the literal translation of the second part is “I don’t want a face”. I thought that just really strange and funny, so asked all my Chinese friends what they thought “我不要脸” meant, and they all thought it was “I don’t want a face” as well! So for the next few days, I would just go around saying, “I don’t have money, I don’t want a face,” which eventually evolved into “no money, no face.” Ashley Sun, a good buddy of mine, flipped the words around, and thus, @nofacenomoney was born!

Vicki Li: How do you pick the songs you choose to cover?

Rebecca Slater: All the songs I play on @nofacenomoney are songs I genuinely love. You can’t really describe why you love a song; it just connects with you. That’s how I feel about the songs I play on my Instagram account. Sometimes when I hear a song, I think “Wow! This would be great to cover!” especially if it already has violins in it. Also, I’m no sellout. I don’t usually take requests unless I really love the song that was requested. I even end up recording songs that aren’t well-known because personally, I just love them more and get a lot more enjoyment from covering them.

Vicki Li: How do you get people to collaborate with you on covers?

Rebecca Slater: I beg them, or I wait and pretend I don’t actually want to collaborate with them. Just kidding! I actually have no idea. They just ask, and I’m pretty open to it. I love playing duets, especially with unconventional partners, like a trombonist or a percussion player. I ask my friends sometimes, such as Cynthia Huang, who goes by ‘Rexspecs’ and plays the drums, and Alena Zhang, who goes by ‘Butter’ and sings.

Vicki Li: How long does it take you to record a cover?

Rebecca Slater: It really depends on how difficult the piece is or how many parts it requires. Usually I play pop songs and they have very simple melodies, so learning a song is never really an obstacle for me. I sometimes have to arrange the violin parts for a song because they might be in a different key or octave, and occasionally I have to do this by ear. Recording can take anywhere from 15 to 40 minutes, and then I have to fix the technical parts, such as volumes. I’d say arranging the music takes longer than recording, but recording is also difficult because I have to record each part on its own. Recording each part by itself obstructs me from taking some musical liberties like speeding up or slowing down because I have to stay with the metronome to ensure the parts align.

As of now, Rebecca isn’t sure of the future of her account, but you can be sure she’ll never stop playing the violin. Thanks, Rebecca, for sharing the details of all the hard work that is put towards making a single beautiful violin cover! Once again, go check her out on Instagram @nofacenomoney. Once Senior Spring hits, she’s promised to post as much as she can.