NAS 10 Questions with Mirandaclare

[Interview Number 54]

Hey guys! We have changed up some of the questions in our interview. Let us know what you think in the comments below. This time, we get to know Mirandaclare. Her track "Thought It Through" is featured in the New Artist Spotlight Family of Playlists.

Link To New Artist Spotlight Playlists:

https://www.newartistspotlight.org/playlists

Okay, let’s get into the Ten questions for Mirandaclare!

𝟭. Where are you from and what is your hobby?

Born, raised and still living in Melbourne, Australia.

When I’m not absorbed in my musical ideas, I love to draw, paint, garden, or take my 12-year-old pooch, the lady Macey, for walkies.

𝟮. How did you get into music?

I can't remember not having music around. My Dad has a beautiful singing voice, one of my brothers is a classically trained pianist and composer who has introduced me to so much music throughout my life, and another brother is a very talented multi-instrumentalist and songwriter.

I took piano lessons as a child, drums in high school, and taught myself to play the guitar. I'm fortunate to have grown up in a home where the piano was almost always being played, and singalongs around the piano were (and still are) completely normal.

The Beatles, David Bowie, Neil Young and Talking Heads were probably played most throughout the years, among many other artists old and new as everyone's tastes naturally ebbed and flowed. Oh, and I have to add that the Eurovision Song Contest is taken more seriously than the Olympics in my family!

In terms of making music, I've always had some degree of musical ideas, from writing pages upon pages of original songs for my primary school "girl group", to my short-lived band early in high school that definitely didn't have a cringeworthy name (that's a lie, we were called 'Social Intentions'), and I used to produce and record funny songs with my little sisters for fun, but it was around when I taught myself the guitar as a teen when some more solid ideas were forming, and I began to write and record more.

I “borrowed” a cheap USB microphone from school, downloaded good old Audacity, and started experimenting with a lo-fi kind of sound reminiscent of some of the music I was into at the time, like Grizzly Bear’s 'Horn of Plenty' and Elliot Smith’s 'Either/Or'. When I started listening to more R&B, Hip Hop and Neo soul, I became even more interested in production, and started making beats in the old demo version of FL studio.

Immediately after high school I was studying Fine Art, having gotten accepted into what I thought was my dream course, but I quickly realised it didn’t feel right. Acknowledging that I had a strong desire to learn more about making music, I committed 2 years to completing a course specialising in audio engineering and sound production, and that was the best choice to have made to nurture my creativity and learn the skills I needed to produce, record and engineer on my own.

𝟯. Who are your biggest influences?

Above all others, Bjork and Kate Bush. No one is more inspiring to me than those absolute powerhouses of women and their mind-blowing, inimitable skills in songwriting, production and performance.

The following favourites, amongst many others, come in second, as they have all given me so many hours of listening pleasure and so very much inspiration - Fleetwood Mac, Outkast, Joanna Newsom, Depeche Mode, Janelle Monae, David Bowie, Grimes, Jurassic 5, Laura Marling, Ella Fitzgerald and The Beach Boys.

4. What are you goals in the music industry?

I want to continue to build a body of work that I’m proud of, I want to keep improving on promoting myself independently, networking and building my contact list, I want to find the audience that wants to hear my music just as much as I want to make it, I want to start performing live, and ultimately, I want to go from pursuing a music career to living one, so that my absolute passion never has to take the back seat.

5. If you could choose a location to perform at, what would it be?

I honestly just dream of doing gigs at some of the iconic local venues that have been collecting dust for most of the last year, such as The Toff In Town, or the Corner Hotel. As I haven’t performed before, I’m also just so excited by the very thought of preparing my music for live shows, and hopefully getting some family and friends involved in the band.

And if I’m ever lucky enough to travel internationally with my music, I’d love to start straight across the Tasman, in New Zealand, if they’ll have me! Side note that I’m a huge Lord of the Rings geek, so I’d be all up in that Middle-earth tour too.

6. What is your all-time favorite song?

This is not an impossible question for me - I cannot and will not deny the fact that my favourite song ever is Tusk by Fleetwood Mac. The title track of the infamously messy album which is, in my view, partly an ahead-of-its-time masterpiece, and partly just forgettable (but pleasant!) easy-listening music. But back to the song Tusk in all its whacky glory - it is just delicious. Man, that guitar texture! Those toms and that thick, elephantine bass! A fairly simple musical idea, completely elevated by Lindsay Buckingham's gutsy, experimental approach to production at the time, and of course, the addition of the USC Trojan Marching Band as the absolute cherry on the top of this dynamic, surprising, textural, sonically exciting and very polarising masterpiece. What better way to follow up ‘Rumours’? *Insert chef kiss*

7. Most embarrassing moment?

My life is full of these as I'm awkward and rather clumsy.

One of the top ones would have to be a few years back - I was walking home from the train station, amongst many other people, wearing some really chunky, inflexible shoes. At some point I misstepped and fell straight over, flat.

A woman asked me if I was okay, but I was too embarrassed to respond so I just tried to get away as quickly as I could. Unfortunately, that woman found me to have been terribly rude ignoring her, so she started obscenely yelling at me as I wobbled away on my fabulous yet precarious platforms.

Needless to say I tend to opt for a more practical shoe these days.

8. Proudest accomplishment?

I’m going to answer this in relation to my efforts with music so far, and say it was releasing my EP in late October 2020.

I released a few singles mid-last year, before I really knew what I was aiming for - I just wanted to get started with music after being indecisive and uncertain for what I felt was too long. Once I decided on putting my debut EP together, I promised myself I would take my time, and keep working on the EP tracks every day, and even on days I couldn’t do much work I would still listen - critically listen - take notes, make checklists, and not call it a day until I was happy.

Learning to have the discipline it takes to see my ideas through to completion, through the practice of doing so, has been a significant personal accomplishment for me. The whole process of putting the EP together on my own was exhilarating, all-consuming, at times it felt like I would never be done, but the thrill and the challenge were just so motivating and satisfying.

Having an idea of what I’m in for being in the very early stages of producing my debut album is helpful, although I know it will be an even more intense experience as it will have at least twice the number of tracks as the EP.

But that uncertain sense of adventure is all part of the joy of creating something from scratch - the frustration, hours of feeling stuck, last-minute changes, moments of utter self-doubt, and of course that voice that lives rent-free in your head, always picking your worst days to ask you “what the hell do you think you’re trying to do here?”

No matter what it is, finally pushing through doubt to the other side, where you are able to reflect and feel satisfaction in what you've accomplished, is always something to be proud of.

9. What is something about you that might surprise someone who knows you the best?

Hmm...this is the only question to really stump me. I'll just say, anyone who thinks I’m daggy doesn't know how cool I am, and anyone who thinks I’m cool doesn't know how daggy I am.

𝟭𝟬. What is your dream collaboration?

As I haven’t collaborated at all yet, my immediate dream is to work with others in this wonderful community of independent artists. I think I'd particularly like to work with Ya - I've been listening to her debut album and it is so damn good. Love her sound.

Aside from that, Grimes comes to mind as someone I'd love to collab with. On top of being a fan of hers, I also really admire her outspokenness on the realities of being a woman who produces and engineers her own music, and her integrity in remaining so authentic to her unique sound and image. She has reached and maintained phenomenal popularity without succumbing to the pressures of following tired pop music trends - she’s very popular but still feels so underground. So admirable.

"Thought It Through" on Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/track/2a9KmXhiKcMWe9XbzO0obu

and follow her socials

https://linktr.ee/mirandaclare

You will not be disappointed!

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