Mitchell Mirande

One of the challenges facing the singer-songwriter, voice and guitar driven song is how to sound big. Not big in the bombastic, U2 stadium rock sense but in knowing how to take these simple elements and lift them off the musical page, make them sound robust and accessible, set them apart from the pack. Some do it by deft and intricate guitar work, layering vocals, production tricks and other gimmickry. Mitchell Mirande does it simply by writing great songs, delivering them with competence and confidence and then adding just the most perfect touches of texture and wash.

It seems pretty obvious really, why dress a song up to create some sort of pretend elegance when you can strip it back to actual eloquence? And Hold On is eloquent, in that same way which makes the transient nature of watercolours more powerful than the vibrant nature of oil paintings, a combination of keeping things musically simple, though far from simplistic, musically ethereal and that fantastic voice of his. Letting the music breath and the vocals soar, a vocal which seems to blend romance and honesty and a soulfulness with a delivery that most rock singers would kill for.

Get the basics right and sometimes the rest will just naturally fall into line. - A&R factory

Seattle, WA pop singer/songwriter Mitchell Mirande crafts deceptively straightforward songs that speak from the heart of the human condition. He transitions gracefully from plaintive to soaring; his voice a gleaming pure thing, edges torn with emotion. On his new self-titled EP, Mirande has delivered an astonishingly mature, cohesive record that marks his initial ascent into the ranks of timeless balladeers.

A native of Klamath Falls, OR, Mirande grew up immersed in music. His father, sensing his son’s creative bent, started him on piano and guitar lessons at an early age. In high school, he and his friends joined the choir. He excelled vocally, and that was all it took for Mirande to redouble his efforts at mastering guitar and begin writing his own music. Mirande started his “official” career playing shows in his hometown to small audiences.

Mirande relocated to Seattle, WA for college. Steeped in the world of turn-of-the-millennium acoustic pop, he wrote and self-released a short EP called My Way in the spring of 2015. Passed around to his fellow students at the University of Washington, the record soon began to spread organically, and Mirande found himself an in-demand performer within the school’s Greek scene. As he finished his biology degree, the house shows gave way to club dates, and Mirande made the difficult decision to put med school on hold to pursue music.

When it came time for Mirande to record new music he was determined to move beyond the sparse aesthetic of his first records. “My Way was recorded quickly and with minimal production” explains Mirande, “I’m proud of the record, but this time around I wanted to really try and capture the songs as I hear them in my head.” Recorded in Los Angeles, CA with production by buzzing duo X Lovers, Mitchell Mirande wraps his earnest songwriting in a wash of gauzy, ethereal sonics.

On Mitchell Mirande our protagonist delivers painterly vignettes of the ache and urgency of young love. “I write about real experiences, and I know other people go through the same things,” says Mirande. “The musicians I love write songs that make me feel something. I hope I can give that feeling to someone as well.” It’s safe to say he’s succeeded, as Mirande’s music effortlessly transports the listener back to those bittersweet moments when nothing else at all mattered but the person whose very soul seems to be a gravitational force, pulling on your heart from across the room, across the distance, or across the years. - Sound and Silence Media News