HOLLY MIRANDA with Braids at El Mocambo (464 Spadina), tonight (Thursday, May 20). $12.50 advance. rotate.com.
After a decade in the music business, the spotlight is finally finding Holly Miranda.
[rssbreak]
“My uncle told me when I was 16 – that was 11 years ago – that it takes 10 years to be an overnight success,” Miranda says from her Brooklyn apartment. “I laughed at him. Now he’s laughing at me.”
Miranda’s official debut album, The Magician’s Private Library (XL), is her latest attempt at a solo career. Ten years ago, not long after moving from Michigan to New York to make it as a musician, BMG offered her a recording contract that she turned down.
“They wanted four records, along with publishing, merchandise and just everything thrown into one agreement. I was 17 at the time, and I think they figured I was so young and dumb that I would just sign anything. Now the master is locked in a safe somewhere and I’ve never even heard it.”
Despite that experience, Miranda maintained her desire to make a solo album throughout her seven-year tenure with the Brooklyn rock band Jealous Girlfriends, now on indefinite hiatus. (Another earlier solo effort, High Above The City, was only available at shows.)
“The Jealous Girlfriends was kind of a writing collective,” she says. “We’d bring in pieces of songs and tear them apart and put them back together, but these songs felt a little too personal for that. So I set them aside with the intention of making a solo record.”
The Magician’s Private Library took shape under the guidance of TV on the Radio guitarist Dave Sitek, who’s produced everyone from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to Scarlett Johansson. His grand, ethereal arrangements match Miranda’s dreamy subject matter, resulting in a distinct sound that’s already attracted the interest of the New York Times and Kanye West.
“You work with Dave Sitek because you want a Dave Sitek record,” Miranda says. “My demos were already a bit bizarre, but he took that atmosphere that I’d created to a higher, stranger level.
“I’ve been trying to make this record for a long time, so I’m glad it’s getting some attention.”
music@nowtoronto.com
