Meet Signe Miranda: singer, songwriter, coach, author!

Signe Miranda is many things, and just one of them is being a pretty swell lady to know; sweet and kind and also a creative supportive force on the music scene! She is lead singer of Signe Miranda’s Veranda, an alternative roots-rock band, and she also teaches The Song Creation Formula process and literally wrote the book on it! Here I am reading it! Those are smudges of milk chocolate on my brow. That’s how I Rolo.

I posed the People Profile questions to Signe and this is what she said:

What is your career? Is it the same as your passion? What is your passion?

My career is songwriter, musician/performer, live sound tech, author and songwriting coach. My passion is having fun sharing the joy of music with people and inspiring people to embrace their creativity, passion and purpose. Often when people ask that question, they mean “what do you do for a living.” I see a career as something that I’m continually working at to expand my experience of mastering it. I do other things for fun and to support my career – working in an office, concert production work and other fun stuff that comes up.

What are the greatest challenges and greatest rewards of your career?

One of my greatest challenges with my career is creating the time and space to focus on being in a creative place, when there are a lot of administrative entrepreneurial activities that go along with being my own record label, my own booking agent, manager, web designer and marketing manager, while having a part time day job and multiple facets to my career.

The rewards are boundless – being in creative flow is one of the most amazing feelings – writing songs & sharing them with an audience, rehearsing, recording and playing shows with my band (Signe Miranda’s Veranda), creating and leading programs that assist people in writing their first song when they never thought they could write a song.

What is your advice to others embarking on similar career?

Follow your intuition. It will always guide you to the place where you belong. You’ll always be where you’re meant to be in a greater sense – although the journey flows if you’re in line with your intuition, while if you continually resist what is, the journey becomes a chore; and it’s all about the journey. Most artists create and share their art because they find joy in it and sometimes we think we need to do certain things because that’s what’s necessary to accomplish certain things. The path is different for each of us, so be your own guide and don’t get too frustrated allowing the “paperwork” to take over the creative work. Remember why you love it and keep that love alive.

What does it mean to be an artist?

To be an artist is to be free to create and experience the flow of life, transforming it into something through which the feeling or emotion can be shared with others to create an experience that transcends the one who created it.

5 years ago, did you expect to be where you are today? Why, why not?

Five years ago I certainly didn’t expect to be where I am today. The thought never entered my mind at that time, that I would write a book and become a best-selling author and interview some of my favourite songwriters, do seven solo tours, driving across the country alone and having the most amazing time, traveling all over the place volunteering at personal development events, taking courses, working with a coach to expand my career and my awareness, creating and leading songwriting workshops, while still in the same day-job which allows me the freedom to travel, and playing in a band with such amazing musicians.

Where will you be in 5 years?

That’s a fantastic surprise and gift. I could guess; I could plan and everything gets turned upside down and shaken up. I will be wherever I lead myself to, one moment at a time. That’s not the answer I would have given six months ago. It would be really fun to be touring with my band, playing shows (band and solo) across Canada and the US, in Europe (especially Norway), Australia, New Zealand, anywhere the music leads me. I would love to travel to so many places – hiking mountains, visiting archaeological sites (particularly Egyptian, Roman and Mayan), playing sports and enjoying this amazing thing we call life.

I love recording albums, touring, creating and leading workshops and always learning – so I see that continuing to be a huge part of my life.

What would you say to your 8-year-old self?

Remember to play. It doesn’t matter what your age is, adults get to play too. Always remember that.

What would you say to your 80-year-old self?

Remember to play. Life is to be enjoyed. “Life is for laughing, loving and living.” (Ed Foreman)

How lucky are you and why?

I am so lucky, if you define lucky as amazement of how spectacular life can be, where things unfold in a surprisingly interwoven way, like we’re living a story that we wrote and forgot what the plot was going to be. Sometimes I forget how movies end and can enjoy them with fresh perspective. Life is kind of like that. Nothing is random.

What would people be surprised to know about you?

If I give away all my secrets, then nobody will be surprised anymore. 😉 I teach tennis and one summer it was one of my tour-funding vehicles. I’m a certified NLP practitioner.

What makes you laugh? What is fun for you?

Really funny movies make me laugh – they have to be really really funny, ridiculous conversations – usually brought on by lack of sleep, and sincere joyful abandon (being in the moment and allowing the joy of the moment to overwhelm the senses – usually involving outdoor activities and/or silliness.

What I find to be the most fun is playing music, road trips, personal development courses, watching movies, hiking mountains and taking pictures of scenery, experiencing new places – particularly involving mountains and water – driving through the Rockies, overcoming fears – i.e. bungee jumping, starting conversations with people who I’m nervous to talk to, going to amazing concerts, doing live sound for concerts, dancing to joyful music, playing sports (especially badminton, tennis, table tennis, basketball and whirly ball – look it up – it’s the awesome-est sport that no-one’s heard of).

What makes you question humanity?

Philosophy encourages me to ponder purpose. It puzzles me that sometimes people get so caught up in being right that they lose perspective on their purpose.

What is your favourite quote?

I don’t have one favourite quote. It’s always changing. The one I mentioned earlier seems appropriate at the moment, “Life is for laughing, loving and living.” (Ed Foreman)

Is there anything else you’re involved in that you’d like to plug or point our attention to?

I’ve recently launched a crowdfunding campaign for the new album I’m recording with my band, Signe Miranda’s Veranda. It’s called “Heart Wave” and I’m really excited to be recording with these awesome musicians that I started working with over the last year and a half (Shamakah Ali & Rob Brown), as well as Brian Allossery, who has an awesome sense of how to arrange my songs in a way that really inspires me. I’m excited to have guest musicians on the album too – Peter Nunn and Bob Egan. We just started recording the first four songs at Rouge Valley Studio with Jeremy Trites and we’re releasing one single at a time every couple of months, starting next month. My purpose is to share the joy of music with as many people as I can and people can get involved by donating and/or sharing our crowdfunding page – http://smarturl.it/fundheartwave

I’m about to head out on my fifth west coast tour in September, playing shows and leading songwriting workshops (The Song Creation Workshop/Experience) from Vancouver to Edmonton – to share my book “The Song Creation Formula” and to launch the first single from “Heart Wave.” – http://www.signemiranda.com/

I attended the Coalition Music/Canada’s Music Incubator Artist Entrepreneur Program last year and it was an absolutely amazing experience – helping me grow as an artist, focus and expand – http://www.canadasmusicincubator.com/

Brian Allossery (singer, songwriter, musician, producer) has this awesome social networking site for artists to connect with eachother and share their art – musicians, poets, painters, writers… from all around the world – http://lazypoets.com/

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