Mieka Pauley

Artist Information

Biography

Mieka Pauley began as a solo artist in Boston. Her haunting voice and heartbreaking lyrics gained her more than a few fans, securing her bills with Citizen Cope, KT Tunstall, Natasha Bedingfield, Ben Kweller, Mason Jennings, John Legend, the Avett Brothers and many others. She's performed at the Newport Folk Festival, The Rock Boat and the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival, among other festivals; she's performed the national anthem three times for the Boston Red Sox; and she performed on PRI's Mountain Stage. She won the first ever Starbucks Emerging Artist Award and the New York Songwriters Circle Songwriting Contest, she's been nominated for multiple Boston Music Awards, and she was named Cosmopolitan Magazine's Fun Fearless Female Rockstar of the Year. She continues to constantly tour the country, performing over 150 shows a year.

So the music: Imagine Radiohead tiptoeing silently behind Patty Griffin as she makes her way backstage. Imagine Jeff Buckley in drag, singing along loudly at a Nirvana concert. Imagine Death Cab hiding in the back of an Emily Dickinson reading. She describes her music as "mainstream indie rock" and feels the contradiction perfectly describes her obsessions.

Instrumentation

Mieka Pauley - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar

Discography

The Science Of Making Choices [tentative], coming 2012
From The Mouth Of Paris EP, 2009 (independent, funded by Cosmopolitan Magazine) - produced by Mike Mangini and Brian Cassagnol
Elijah Drop Your Gun, 2007 (independent, funded entirely by fans) - produced by Brian Cassagnol
Out Of Car Wrecks And Hurricanes EP, 2006 (independent) - produced by John Alagia

Links

• Facebook
• Twitter
• MySpace
• Last.fm
• YouTube

Audio

• Marked Man [Live]
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• All The Same Mistakes (Elijah Drop Your Gun)
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• Colossal (From The Mouth Of Paris EP)
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• We're All Gonna Die (From The Mouth Of Paris EP)
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• Faster (From The Mouth Of Paris EP)
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• That Golden Room (From The Mouth Of Paris EP)
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• 9:45 (Elijah Drop Your Gun)
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• Secret (Elijah Drop Your Gun)
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• Draped In Blue (Elijah Drop Your Gun)
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Lyrics

• Marked Man
• All The Same Mistakes
• Colossal
• We're All Gonna Die
• Faster
• That Golden Room
• 9:45
• Secret
• Draped In Blue

Video

Mieka Pauley

Photo Gallery

Press

• SXSW Artist Review: The Mieka Canon brought haunting, powerful folk style to SXSW [+ Show ]
  

  The Mieka Canon's lyrical folk sound is reminiscent of Tori Amos with an edgier backing band, or per...The Mieka Canon's lyrical folk sound is reminiscent of Tori Amos with an edgier backing band, or perhaps a female version of Jeff Buckley. The band's unique blend of powerful, poetic lyrics accompanied by melodic, rock-influenced guitars mesmerized the crowd in the smallish venue, leading many a hungover partygoer to groove along before it even hit mid-afternoon.
  
  A highlight of the overwhelmingly good set included the haunting single "Marked Man" in which strings of all type were shunned for the power of voice and drum alone. The by-no-means cheerful lyrics drew the audience into the raw emotion of the song that would have easily done a lesser vocalist in.

• Beauty In The Business Of Toughness [+ Show ]
  

  Pauley, recently Twitter-friended by Rivers Cuomo-dueting Rainn Wilson and championed by Cosmopolita...Pauley, recently Twitter-friended by Rivers Cuomo-dueting Rainn Wilson and championed by Cosmopolitan magazine of all things, forms a kind of bluesy-folk rock and roll that doesn't pander to any easy clichés or dialogue, as that sort of music so often does.

• Mieka Pauley Goes Her Own Way [+ Show ]
  

  Fast-rising singer/songwriter Mieka Pauley has gone on to win the first-ever Starbucks Emerging Arti...Fast-rising singer/songwriter Mieka Pauley has gone on to win the first-ever Starbucks Emerging Artist Award, take the top award at the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest Songwriter Showcase, be named “Cosmopolitan’s Fun Fearless Female Rockstar of the Year” in the publication’s StarLaunch competition, and finish in the top three at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival’s Troubadour Competition – not to mention a plethora of plaudits for her self-released 2007 album, Elijah Drop Your Gun.

• Harvard alumna-cum-Fun Fearless Rocker Mieka Pauley [+ Show ]
  

  Mieka calls her music 'soulful alt-pop/indie-rock.' We just call it good shit. Think (a grittier) Sa...Mieka calls her music 'soulful alt-pop/indie-rock.' We just call it good shit. Think (a grittier) Sarah McLachlan meets (a well-adjusted) Bjork. Plus brilliant lyrics... In 2008 Mieka won Cosmopolitan’s Star Launch Contest (and the 10,000 bills that come with it) and in 2005 snagged top honors at Starbucks’ inaugural Emerging Artist competition. Not bad for a Harvard alumna who got her start gigging at Cambridge open-mic nights. Of course, most impressive to us (lovers of all things creatively-financed) is how Mieka makes her music: her first full-length album Elijah Drop Your Gun was funded in large part by fans. Media moguls, take note. Give the people what they want—and they will give you what you need.

• Mieka Pauley: From Harvard to House of Blues [+ Show ]
  

  Invitations to prestigious music festivals and songwriting awards have piled up over the past six ye...Invitations to prestigious music festivals and songwriting awards have piled up over the past six years. Playing an average of 150 annual shows means she’s logging thousands of highway miles, which she doesn’t mind at all.

• A Super-Sonic Wheels 2.0 [+ Show ]
  

  This Boston native is a cerebral singer/songwriter with a rock edge who deals with the complexities ...This Boston native is a cerebral singer/songwriter with a rock edge who deals with the complexities of maintaining relationships, the challenge of rising to the moment and the importance of learning from the past. Meika has been compared to Ben Harper, Cat Power and Neko Case, which should give you an idea where she’s coming from. And she’s dedicated as evidenced by more than 700 shows during the last five years.

• I think I'm gonna throw down [+ Show ]
  

  If you’re still walking around Boston not knowing who Mieka Pauley is, we really need to do somethin...If you’re still walking around Boston not knowing who Mieka Pauley is, we really need to do something about that. Her latest, Elijah Drop Your Gun, takes all the smoldering soul of her voice and all the concise urgency of her songwriting and soups them up with more straight-up rock gusto than her largely acoustic past had prepped us for.

• ...things we loved this month
  

  Mieka Pauley works half-whispered, lyrical magic on Elijah Drop Your Gun.... well worth the wait.

• Dog Ears Deserves to be Heard
  

  Mieka Pauley has a very listenable and soothing voice ... you will hit rewind.

• from David Ginsburg, Music Director [+ Show ]
  

  We believe that Mieka is a major talent and will break thru to the mainstream sooner than later. To ...We believe that Mieka is a major talent and will break thru to the mainstream sooner than later. To that end, we very much want to be a part of this development.

Setlist

anywhere from 30 to 90 minute set, mainly originals, interspersed with covers

Basic Requirements

Calendar