From songs which vividly share the feel good escapism that music offers in 'So Right', to 'Reasons' which expresses a love for music and a partner, to 'We Wanna Know' which innocently questions the origins of hate, to 'On My Level' that reminds people who feel lost that their community is out there, to ' Lil Vicki' which thoroughly tries to remove the prejudgements of women who have been victimised by society's stereotypes, Mirrah's debut EP Life presents a beautifully meaningful collection of stories from throughout her life.
We caught up with the compelling multi-faceted artist to explore her personal insights behind the EP's creation. Life is just one of a three part set...this is just the beginning.
What is the concept behind the five track EP Life?
Mirrah: Number five is really important to me, it’s just a strong number. I love numerology. It allows people to get to know me as a humble handful – this is who I am, this is what I’m reflecting. It’s called Life because music is life to me - a human being has so many facets of life and I didn’t want to place one personality in one album because that’s not me at all. Just like the metaphor of life where everyday everyone is living something different, I’m many different reflections. I think as artists we sometimes get pocketed and people go, “Ok she’s changed now, why has she changed?”. I wanted to make sure that people understand that my life will always change, that’s why Life actually stands for ‘Live. Intentionally. Forever. Evolve’. I thought I’d make that clear so when I do change people can go, “Oh that’s Mirrah, that’s cool”. I wanted people to understand how important it is that you’re allowed to change and evolve.
When in your life do these stories come from?
The stories come from throughout my life. ‘So Right’ is because music saved me. When I was feeling down or being a single child where I didn’t have a best friend or someone I could confide in and trust, music allowed me to dance, to find myself and to become the natural performer I am that is comfortable in front of people. It made me more confident as an individual.
‘Lil Vicki’ has a bit of me in it. I saw friends of mine that were unfortunately sexually abused. I remember a lot of girls going, "She's a slut" and I remember being that friend asking if they were ok and they’d confide in me. But then I went through my own promiscuous ways trying to feel popular because I used to be the ugly duckling. I went to London and all of a sudden I was this exotic girl to date - I was like this is fun, people see me. I realised that all this dating wasn’t healthy. My best female friends were saying, “ Hey your name is getting around, you’re only 19, you need to slow down”. I realised I was just searching for someone to clarify me as a female. I've came from an abusive relationship and I’ve met thousands of fellow females that share to me that they’ve also been in an abusive relationship and it just made me go shit this needs to be shared. I’m 42 now, I’m a youth worker and I’m hearing the same thing from 9 to 16 year olds. It’s like why is this cycle continuing – we’ve become little victims, like all of us are victims to society and that’s when it was real personal.
When and why did you started working on this EP ?
It was two years ago. It felt very right. I now know my voice because of being on stage with L-FRESH. I kind of wrote everything down and then a year and a half ago I started recording it with Zig Parker who produced and composed the EP project. I said to L, yo I think I’m going to bring out an EP, and he’s like, “ Yeah that’s dope” and then the band was like, "If you need musicians we’ll help you out" and I was like what?! It was great and it made sense because we’ve been working together as a family. We have our own natural vibration together anyway. ‘So Right’ is even about when I’m touring with L and feeling so right on stage it’s like man, this is so cool, we got a good family and good vibe. I’ve luckily found all these people that resonate with every single song.
What's the backstory behind the acronym Live. Intentionally. Forever. Evolve?
Well the story behind it is that as an adopted child I acknowledged how important it is to just be grateful and live first and foremost. That throughout trials and tribulations growing up, you are born for a purpose. When you become a self believer, acknowledging and accepting your flaws, you realise you want to live with intention. You need to live with intention, because once you find your purpose and you put a stamp on it, then you learn to love life - when faced with negativity I don’t worry because my intention is to have a purpose and my purpose is to enjoy life regardless. I love forever. I love fantasy. I love long term wishes, especially when it's for positivity. I have a butterfly tattoo and I find that I love when I see things evolve – you start from the beautiful cocoon and you just blossom. I’m a forever student of life and I think a lot of people forget that people evolve in their own time. I wish for people to find their own personal reflection of evolvement - stop worrying about what other people think and just do.
Mirrah's EP Life is now available via iTunes or you can grab your hard copy via her website.
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