Today we’d like to introduce you to Miranda Finn.
Hi Miranda, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
From the moment I learned how to talk, I was also singing. All day, every day, consciously and unconsciously. As a toddler, the only song I knew by heart was “Happy Birthday,” so I would go around singing it over and over again. By the time I could read and write, I was making up my own lyrics and melodies. I have memories from first grade of sitting in the school library at lunch with a white-and-blue lined sheet of paper, scratching out words with my no. 2 pencil that came with melodies floating in my head.
Around age 11, I met a Hebrew school teacher at my synagogue who produced music out of his apartment in Hollywood. He got on the phone with my parents, and a few months later, we had written and recorded a 5-song EP, which we released on iTunes that year. I remember feeling utterly mind-blown hearing my own songs all professionally recorded and produced for the first time. It was an exhilarating and addictive feeling!
I joined a competitive show choir program in high school and spent those four years learning how to dance, sing, and blend in cappella groups, design my own performances, and command a stage in front of a live audience. I took a break from releasing music publicly but continued writing songs in my free time to express myself and help me process the trials and tribulations of high school. During my senior year, I won the Youth Arts Foundation “Outstanding Original Song” for my senior performance of my song “Addicted to Love.”
A few months later, during my first semester at Wesleyan University, I released my debut single on Spotify, “Run Away With Me,” with Eric Palmquist and Jim Roach of Santa Monica Recordings. I released two more singles during my college years, “Coffee Fiend” and “Dark Alley Dangers,” both produced by my friend Yehuda Kelman (aka. KLZ). I designed my own major curriculum at Wesleyan, one that fused my creative passions for music, songwriting, and poetry with my intellectual interests in feminism, gender and sexuality studies, activism, and sociology. I performed my music at all kinds of events around campus, from frat parties to farm festivals to burlesque shows.
After graduating with my BA in 2022, I left Wesleyan’s quirky Connecticut college town and moved back to Los Angeles. I started interning at a music studio in DTLA and released my 4th independent single, “Pineapple Pizza,” that October. I promoted it on TikTok relentlessly and organically hit 10k streams!
Last May, I produced my own live music showcase, STARGAZERS, where I performed a set of original music and booked a lineup of incredible queer, trans, nonbinary, and female artists to accompany me on the bill. It was my first time producing, promoting, hosting, and ticketing my own event, and I learned so much! Overall, it was an amazing night, and I felt so loved and supported by a community of friends, family, and fans who came out to the show.
This past June, I released “Scintillate,” a song that flowed out of me during a late night in the studio when the universe within me aligned perfectly with the stars. In the lyrics, I reflect playfully on the hum of energy that I can feel pulsing through me when I am creating and vibrating at the same frequency as my higher self. This song mirrors my current stage of evolution in my music, writing, and life, one that is deeply spiritual and soul-driven, where I am seeking out conversations with the universe and with my divine inner being. It may sound a little woo-woo, but it’s inspiring me to ground myself and my music in love, joy, and passion.
Finally, over the last several months, I’ve been getting back to my love of performance, gigging at live venues all around LA. I’ve played at The Viper Room, The Write-Off Room, El Cid, Molly Malone’s, and more. It is such a thrill to have the opportunity to share my music, my passion, and my joy in front of a live audience. I am so beyond grateful to all who have been attending my shows!
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I think all artists’ paths are full of twists, turns, bumps, and trapdoors. When I released my first EP, I was just 11 years old, and there were mean girls at school who commented nasty things on my YouTube page and friends who stabbed me in the back out and broke my heart. I was bullied by upperclassmen girls in my high school choirs, too, who wanted to keep me from getting solos and kick me out of group numbers… Even my high school choir director pulled one of my performances from the show! People want to dim your light when you shine bright enough to blind them.
More recently, I’ve been facing the inner bullies – the voices in my head that tell me I’m not good enough, that I don’t have what it takes, that I missed my shot, or that I’ll never reach the stars with my music the way I’ve always dreamed. But that’s what all the woo-woo is for! Taking time to meditate, examine my limiting beliefs and reshape them, establish daily mantras for myself; all of these things are helping me heal some of my deep attachments to fear that have been festering and haunting me, maybe even since childhood. It’s not a quick or easy or simple journey, and it may not even be one that has a destination. I’m re-learning how to learn, how to believe in myself, and how to give myself the love and support I need to keep making music that feels authentic and joyful.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
Singing, songwriting, and performing are the bread and butter of my life. Those are my specialties. I think people know me for my soulful powerhouse vocals, my creative and unique lyrics (like “we flew through outer spaces and macaroni skies / when the swimming pool tasted like peanut butter pies, I knew I was falling in love”), and my ever-changing hair colors and styles! I love using my hair to shapeshift and evolve – these days you can probably catch me changing up the cut and color every couple of weeks, and I often style it a little differently every day if I can!
As a non-binary artist, my hair in particular has been a key facet of my identity. I had long, “feminine” hair most of my life, and for a long time the societal messaging that I was conditioned to buy into made me believe that I could not be beautiful, attractive, or worthy without looking feminine and girly. I started cutting my hair shorter and shorter toward the end of my college years, and after three whole years of thinking about it, finally shaved my head last summer! It was the most liberating experience of my life. I’ve been growing it out into different short styles – mullets, bowl cuts, you name it – and experimenting with what makes me feel the most like myself.
What’s next?
Lots of big things on the horizon! I have a new single that is almost ready for distribution. It’s called “Vicious,” and I’m so excited to officially “come out” in my music by adding this explicitly queer, sapphic anthem to my discography. This song is about longing, unrequited love, regret, and what-ifs. I wrote it after a late night at a queer party in LA when I spotted someone dancing near me in the crowd who I kinda fell in love with at first sight. I danced next to them for quite some time, trying to work up the confidence to introduce myself, dance with them, flirt, anything! But ultimately, they disappeared before I got the chance, so naturally, I wrote a very emotional, hard-hitting love song about it. I’m so excited for this release to hit the soundwaves as it marks a huge step in building my queer artist empire!
Follow @mirandafinnmusic on all platforms to stay tuned for the “Vicious” release date and come say hi at one of my upcoming shows!
March 2nd at Junior High LA
March 9th at the Gay Agenda Showcase at The Print Shop LA
March 19th at Grant Owen’s We Found New Music Showcase at Hotel Ziggy
Ticket info will be posted on Instagram @mirandafinnmusic
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/MirandaFinnMusic
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mirandafinnmusic/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0wd6-hqKb3Xny68dx6BbfA
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@mirandafinnmusic
Image Credits
Cole Beldyn
Larsen Asher Phoenix
Hannah Hotchkiss
