With her co-headlining tour and beautiful new album, Indie veteran MIRAH gets to have it both ways
Arriving almost a decade after her debut LP, Mirah’s 2009 album (a)spera shows her fully embracing the gravitas that can only come with years of nonstop creating. The album’s title is a combination of the Latin “a spera” and “asperak”, which mean “hope” and “adversity” respectively, and it is this dichotomous beginning that sets the tone for the songs contained within. Stylistically, (a)spera ranges from an orgiastic samba “Country of the Future” to the barren ballad “Shells,” which contains only Mirah’s voice set to the haunting accompaniment of a West African mandinka kora. Mirah sings with an unforced intimacy that can shift from teasingly seductive to dead serious within a single verse.
She may have started out small, piping her early songs into a four-track recorder, but with (a)spera she’s tapping into the sort of otherworldly grandeur that runs through Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love and Björk’s Vespertine. So it’s fitting that when she took a moment to speak with Playback, Mirah was on the road with Thao Nguyen, whose second album, Know Better Learn Faster, came out on Kill Rock Stars last fall. Thao’s onstage intensity, all flying black hair and angular limbs, strikes a perfect balance with Mirah’s poise.
On the afternoon of a recent Brooklyn show, Mirah and Playback contributor James Rickman sat in a park by the East River to discuss the big issues that every serious artist must confront: the struggle to create globally conscious work, staying idealistic in a volatile industry, and Lady Gaga.
Lyrically, (a)spera seems almost entirely concerned with the state of the planet. What pushed you in that direction?
I definitely was working with a lot of broader themes, aside from just my personal ups and downs. I've been doing this for some years, I've put out a bunch of albums, written all these songs, many of which revolve around more personal themes of love and loss, which is pretty universal and people can get into that, but that's not the only thing that I think is important. I've always had a really strong involvement with various social justice and environmental issues. Since I was a kid, really. So I'm like, "Okay, well, I care and think about these things; I am an artist and this is my medium. I will try to marry those in a way that isn't too didactic, that hopefully draws people in and helps to have a unified feeling.”
You're ten years in. Does this kind of inspiration come with experience?
There's a responsibility that is unavoidable about being in a position of addressing groups of people at a time and having them all listen to you. If I'm going to share words with people that are from my heart, and however many thousand copies of this disc are going to be pressed and sent out into the world, I want to take that responsibility seriously. And have there be fun stuff too, and have it be personal, ‘cause that's a way in for people.
What are your plans for this tour? Are you heading overseas after this?
No, this tour is just this five-week jaunt. We don't actually have plans for this touring group, beyond this tour. It's all happened pretty fast. We only met in November, when I moved so San Francisco. We've sort of just met.
Are you and Thao writing together?
We will be. We've only just begun. [Laughs.] Hey, that's catchy! We should work that into a song.
Thao is known for rocking out onstage. How is it performing with her?
We play a really energetic two-hour set every night and I'm just not used to it. I mean, I have a lot of energy, but I haven't really had the opportunity to have as lengthy or energetic performances. So that's fun.That's what this particular collaboration holds for me as a learning point: it's about the performance. All of my other collaborations have to do with sound landscape and various aspects of the creative process, but they haven't really included a lot of sweaty performance.
What're you listening to in the van?
We actually listened to the entire Lady Gaga album yesterday, which was interesting ‘cause I only knew the hits. It's interesting to hear what people who have the hits put on an entire album. I feel like it's definitely intended to be a full album experience. I think she's really interesting, and also her fame, her whole shtick. That video she made with Beyonce? Full of intrigue for me. With the heart and the ankh at the end? I'm like, “Okay…” What I'm going to read into that is maybe different from what some other people would, but that was a bold choice, and I'm into it.
Speaking of deep cuts, I wanted to ask you about "The River." It's the third-to-last song on (a)spera, and it's almost eight minutes long.
We spent a lot of time with that song—how do we frame it, how do we move it along? We actually listened to a lot of Leonard Cohen. In your mind, you're like, “Oh I know that Leonard Cohen song, I've listened to that album, it's mostly just him and guitar right?” But then when you're really listening it's like, “Wait, there's a jaw-harp that comes in for two seconds really loud. And then there's ladies singing!” It floats in and out, and the general impression is just acousticy vocals and guitar but there's a million really interesting things going on production-wise, and his songs have that more mesmerizing feel. That was our inspiration.
Do you write with production in mind?
Sometimes I do. "Country of the Future," the samba, that one I just wrote laying in bed, bopping around in my head. Yeah, it kind of depends. Sometimes I feel self-conscious about [my albums] ‘cause I'm like, “It's so weird, every song is different from the one before and after it, I'm worried that it doesn't flow in the right way.” I want to make something that's a cohesive piece, start to finish. I can’t do it. Every song demands a totally different treatment. Now I've come to terms with that and started to really appreciate how fun that is for me and for the people I'm working with. It's like, "Today, we're going to wear cowboy costumes! Tomorrow, we're gonna be wearing our Tyvek cleanup costumes!” Every day is a different day.
Do some fans still expect a four-track vibe and get weirded out by an album as expansive as this one?
I have this amazingly loyal fan base; they tend to be fans of my earlier work, and here they are following along as I progress, but their first love of me is my earlier work, which is more four-tracky–maybe a little more cute or something. It's different to write songs about your life and your thoughts when you're twenty-two than when you're thirty-five. So at least at shows, I have the impression that those are the people who listen to my music: of a certain age, a certain attachment to my earlier albums. And I'm like, "What about my new album, guys? I thought it was really good!"
Are you seeing a lot of fresh faces since...
That lady just took off her shirt! [Mirah points to a woman sitting on a quilt between our bench and the river. Having removed her blouse, the woman now pulls down her bra straps and lies on her back.] I would do that. Especially when I'm an old lady. It's nice.
How long have you been full-time?
Like as a job? Actually for quite a long time, but part of the reason that was possible is because I lived in Olympia, Washington. My rent was $175. My best friend and I were running a cafe out of our apartment one day a week. I segued from being a really lo-fi entrepreneur into being a really lo-fi indie rock performer, and never really got another real job. But that doesn't mean that I was selling tons of albums and making bank on shows; I was playing living rooms and basements and coffee shops. And I really appreciate that, ‘cause I feel like that built a lot of fortitude in me. Sure, I stay in hotels now, instead of on people's hardwood floors, but I'm glad I stayed on people’s hardwood floors ‘cause they were really nice people. They gave me breakfast in the morning.
No hotel can compete with that. So, how are you navigating the changes in the music business? Are you open to ads, TV placements, etc?
Over the last couple of years, that's been a large part of my income. The fact that the choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance decided to use my song on that one episode? That paid off my student loans. Also, it occurred to me at a certain point: if I get a sync and have my song in a TV show, that's where all the people my age are going to hear my song. They're going to be watching Grey's Anatomy or whatever, and they're not necessarily going to come to my show—that would be their introduction to me. I definitely feel like if things had continued as they were, and I still had the same touring record sales and record sales in general were as they once had been, then I wouldn't have had to reconsider my stance on doing syncs and placements in TV Land. But it's also a little bit hard as an artist to see people who I think of as musical peers all deciding to do this thing, and me being really stubborn like, “No! That's not punk rock enough!” And then I end up kind of shafted.
What's next?
I am working on a new solo project. My bandmate Christopher and I have been writing. I don't write that fast, and I just don't get things done that fast. I don't have a huge team behind me. K helps me out a lot, but K is a really teeny record label, and I don't do any social networking. So it's kind of like, just me, guys, floating around.
