Erin Muir

Check out this interview from VENTS MAGAZINE:
http://ventsinterviews.blogspot.com/2010/09/erin-muir.html

How the did started with all this??
I started from a very young age- when I was five, I began studying classical music and by the age of about 12 I was writing my own songs. I taught myself to play guitar and started performing just after high school.

What's the message to transmit with your music??
The message from my album, Poet's Lovely Daughter, and the video that we just did for it, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb8gPP0L1gU , is about being open to passion, to love, to experience life beyond your intellectual concepts of it; and I think that the message is for me, too, as well as my fans and listeners!

What's your method at the time of writing a song??
I sit down and practice and write every day, but when an actual song comes, it comes all in a flash of light. And it comes when it comes and I just pray to have at least some pen and paper handy! For example, the other night I had a really cool show at King King, a club in Hollywood, where a dance troupe performed live to my songs! It was so inspirational I couldn't sleep all night and finally I just gave in, got up, went to the piano and listened- and boom! in about five minutes, the skeleton for a brand new song just was borne right out of me- and THEN I could go to sleep.

Which is your music influences??
Well, as a songwriter, I am greatly influenced by Leonard Cohen, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Carly Simon, Sting, and Annie Lennox. And Prince! As a composer, on that side of things, I'm influenced by Henry Mancini, Debussy, Schubert, and Pucini and Mozart. I'm also heavily influenced by Nina Simone, John Coltrane, Indian ragas, Led Zepelin, of course John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Elton John, Elivs Costello.

What plans do you have for the future??
Well, I'm writing a musical that is going to be like a world music pop musical! And I'm going to record it as an album AND a musical.

Which has been the funniest prank you have been or took part while on tour or after a show??
Well, there have been lots over the years! There was the time I woke up on a yacht headed for Cuba.... we had gone to party on a yacht after a show in Florida and the gentle rocking of the sea was so relaxing I fell asleep. When I awoke, we were at sea! When I asked where we were going, the band said, "Cuba!" I had to remind them that it would have been illegal for us- if we even made it- as US citizens- sadly.... did we make it? No puedo tell you.

If you were stranded in the middle of nowhere after a show or while on tour. The help is 65 miles away from where you and your band (If any) are, ¿Who would you send to look for help? And if while the rest wait, there's no food and the only way to feed yourself is by eating each other, ¿Who would you eat first?
Well, this has happened to me and they sent me to look for help because I was the only girl amongst four guys. hahaha! They figured I'd have a better chance getting people to help us! And I did.

Since I'm not in a band anymore and I often travel solo, I guess I'd have to eat myself. I guess I need my left foot least of all....

Which country you would love to play?
Anywhere and everywhere in South America!!

With which bands you would love to share stage??
ANNIE LENNOX! Imogen Heap! Nitin Sawhney! Madeleine Peyroux, Sting, Prince! Paulo Conte, Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen, and Jeff Buckley. Okay, Jeff Buckley is dead, but since we're dreaming......

Are you OK, with the direction the band is going actually?
I LOVE the direction the band (myself) is going because that direction is a supernova explosion of here.

Check out more of this artist by going to: http://www.myspace.com/erinmuir - VENTS Magazine

press inquiries: contact





SONGSTRESS ERIN MUIR INTRODUCES

A HAUNTINGLY SEDUCTIVE NEW VOICE

TO INDEPENDENT MUSIC SCENE

WITH ECLECTIC DEBUT ALBUM....
“POET’S LOVELY DAUGHTER”....

....

To the uninitiated, singer-songwriter ERIN MUIR’s upcoming release Poet’s Lovely Daughter may sound like the work of a well-established artist – masterful, mature and confident, the record puts Muir’s accomplished songwriting and uncanny, haunting voice on full display. What a surprise, then, to find that this eclectic ten-track album is the artist’s debut, an impressive start to what looks to be a promising career. With ace producer Bernie Larsen, Muir has concocted a sublime, moody album, with inventive arrangements that weave tremolo guitars, electronic whispers and acoustic ambience around her sulltry contralto vocals. ....

....

The album displays an expert versatility while maintaining a consistent, undeniable vibe. String-tinged opener “Supernatural” invokes flamenco rhythms and Latin pop motifs, atop which Muir intones like a cross between Fiona Apple and Annie Lennox, “In these lines I do not promise anything true or false/But in all ideas and in all songs hide the secret laws of love/Love will open up your eyes to what is truly here.” “Heart Given” finds Muir against a spacey, bluesy slow-burn; an semi-autobiographical tune that recalls a sprawling Midwestern open road as the backdrop for loves lost and found: “No rivers/Heart given/Kneel down and let me pray/No sinners/No winners/Just the light at the end of the day.” Elsewhere, “Shadows and Silt” embraces salsa rhythms and Spanish guitar behind a tale of rapturous new love.....

....

Title track “Poet’s Lovely Daughter,” a reverb-drenched, Eastern European-like tribute to a modern-day witch friend of Muir’s, found the artist living out the song – in a. While working on the track at the mixing board, which concerns “ a witchy woman being burnt at the stake, either figuratively or literally,” according to Erin, the singer literally caught aflame. “I was mixing the song, and my back was to her,” recalls producer Larsen. “She said she was on fire. I said ‘I know.” Then she said ‘No, no, no, I’m on fire!,’ and I turned around to find her shirt was engulfed in flames.”....

....

“These songs are definitely passionate and very raw, honest and vulnerable,” says Muir. “Music is such an amazing conduit – it doesn’t only affect your intellectual mind but your entire body.” A former student of Saint Olaf College’s School of Music, Erin dropped out to pursue her true direction, both geographically and musically, years ago – and Poet’s Lovely Daughter finds the full realization of that music. Both subtle and striking, moody and affective, it’s a debut you won’t want to let pass you by.....

....

http://www.myspace.com/erinmuir ....

.... - Gorgeous PR

"Deep, dark, haunting..."
Amy Lotsberg- Collected Sounds
http://www.blog.collectedsounds.com/?p=6218


"Passionate, tender, sexy and entrancing."
The Tank- NYC
http://www.thetanknyc.org/?q=content/erin-muir


"Rich and lean, understated and arresting..."
Jonathan Tuttle- InnocentWords.com
http://www.innocentwords.com/tabId/807/itemId/715/Erin-Muir-Poets-Lovely-Daughter.aspx


"One of those female voices that is surprising in its depth." ((or could simply read "Surprising in depth..."))
WLUV 91.5 FM- Lexington, VA
http://wlurradio.blogspot.com/2009/11/erin-muir.html


"A sublime, moody album, with inventive arrangements."
Drainu182- Audioperv.com
http://theaudioperv.com/2009/08/21/erin-muir-readies-new-album-poets-lovely-daughter/
- Various

http://www.rockwired.com/2010winners.html

BEST FEMALE ARTiST:
http://www.rockwired.com/erinmuir.JPG
ERiN MUiR FOR HER ALBUM
‘POET’S LOVELY DAUGHTER’
READ THE EXCLUSiVE ROCKWiRED iNTERViEW WiTH ERiN MUiR
HERE!!! - Rockwired Magazine

I am so honored to be nominated for Rockwired.com's Best Female Artist of the Year award~
;-)
http://www.rockwired.com/2010ballot.html - Rockwired.com

Erin Muir

Frequently Asked Questions

HOW DID YOU WIND UP IN INDIA?
I’ve always had a fascination with yoga and meditation; the stories I could tell you about cutting class to study them back when are hilarious! But seriously… after moving to Los Angeles (from Minneapolis), I began working with acting coach Candace Silvers, who’s an extremely astute observer and teacher of human behavior. Every year, she takes her students to India to work with a teacher in Rishikesh (where The Beatles met the Maharishi). She told me my future absolutely relied on going there. Though I didn’t have the funds at the time, I somehow knew it would happen… The next morning, an overdue check arrived for the precise amount needed to cover the plane ticket. I nabbed it, then turned to creative fundraising to handle related expenses. When Candace saw how committed I was, she offered to cover the difference if I paid her back. I was really, really touched... She was right on too… That trip completely changed my life!


YOU PERFORMED FOR PRESIDENT CLINTON AT THE WHITE HOUSE: GIVE US A PLAY BY PLAY.
I arrived in Washington as part of John Jacobsen's "America Sings"- a gathering of young vocalists from across the country. The day of, we met senators, representatives- all sorts of world leaders. It was kind of a blur because I was seventeen and so darn nervous that I’d barely slept all week. We went down the line, shaking hands and suddenly there was Hilary… then Bill... He was just as charismatic and charming in person as on TV. There were throngs of people everywhere and everything happened so fast. The music began… And I was so swept away by this feeling of great elation and light... I stepped forward for my solo and the thrill of the meeting, the music, the moment, the energy… Everything about it was so uplifting. We met Senator Paul Wellstone after, who was still alive at the time. Being from the same state, he invited us to his office and gave me a personal tour of the Senate Building. It was an amazing experience. I could go on and on…


YOU’VE BEEN NOMINATED BY ROCKWIRED FOR FEMALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR WITH “POET’S LOVELY DAUGHTER”. ITS CMJ SINGLE “BLACK BUTTERFLY” CAUGHT MY ATTENTION; WHAT INSPIRED THE SONG?
I wrote it sitting in the back of my 1973 Vogue RV on Harvest Gold cushions… I’d run away from college and sacrificed everything to go on the road with International Girl. We had a lot of crazy experiences- some fun, some scary and everything in between. We’d ended up touring to Florida to play in a Spring Break cover band. A lot of musicians look down on cover bands, but I’ll tell you, I learned more about song writing and structure in one year of that than in my entire academic life! Plus, we almost randomly wound up in Cuba, but that’s another story for another time.


PRAY TELL ABOUT THE CUBAN CONNECTION!
That's one of those crazy touring stories. We were still down in Florida playing covers and people would often invite us over to their mansion/house/apartment to party afterwards. One night, this particular fellow who came to shows invited us back to his yacht. By about 4 a.m., I was exhausted and fell asleep while the rest of the band was living it up. The next morning, I woke up still on the yacht. Michael (our drummer) and the aforementioned fellow piped up that we were on our way to Cuba for cigars and Dulce de Leches. Groggy as I was, I was pretty clear that was NOT a good idea. Don't worry… we never made it to Cuba. Or at least, if we did, I can't tell you about it!


HAS ACADEMIC TRAINING EVER INTERFERED WITH PLAYING IN A ROCK BAND?
Naw. As the Dalai Lama said: “Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.” I began piano lessons at 5, but always wanted to be a singer. At 13- after a great deal of begging and pleading with my parents- went to study voice with Teri Larsen at St. Cloud State while continuing piano with Dr. Edward Turley (Dean of Music, St. John's University). On the other hand, my Dad was a huge Jazz and Blues buff, so we listened to lots of that; there was also this great college radio station [KVSC] that played pretty much everything. At St. Cloud State, world music was a trend. I was constantly exposed to so many different KINDS of music… I’m really grateful for that. Balancing the academic with the heart is what that I strive for, always. Well, that and breaking the rules!


HOW DOES THEATRE INFORM YOUR LIVE PERFORMANCES?
I’ve very thankfully done my time as an actress in various films here in Los Angeles… Musically, I spent several years performing in cabarets. You can’t be afraid of an audience- especially in that environment- or they’ll sense it right away, or worse yet, leave! There’s a lot to handle performing in that arena- hair pulling fights, back stabbing, bustiers; and that's just on stage. I loved it… It’s influenced my song writing, my love of falling into a song, passionately expressing it and of course… my style! We’d always put together these amazing outfits- all very Folies Bergeres- with ruffled bottoms, corsets, top hats and stockings. Or long length evening gowns, wigs and ginormous false eyelashes. I love the camaraderie of the theatre, I try to carry that into band situations. Depending on the venue, I also always try to carry a little burlesque torch with me too!


HAS LIVING IN HOLLYWOOD INFLUENCED YOU AS A SINGER-SONGWRITER?
Certainly! Hollywood has everything. Literally… Everything you could want is here. That doesn't mean you get to go grab it at will, though. Whatever you’re putting out, you’ll see and find. That means, if you desperately want fame, it's here. And whatever you secretly (or outwardly) believe you must do to obtain it and believe about having it will come true. It's like a metaphysical candy store and it’s so easy to choose what's bad because it looks good. That said, there’s a very special creative energy here. Some of the most dynamic, brilliant artists and entertainers in the world live here; it's hard not to find that energy infectious and inspiring. Since everything’s here, there are many ways to be of service, to be kind, to give back. There’s lots of cultural blending. Being here is an extension of all of my life, which has been full of cultural as well as stylistic mixing and matching, which I try to bring to my work.


YOU JUST CAME HOME FROM TOURING “POET’S LOVLEY DAUGHTER”… WHAT’S NEXT?
I’m heading to Austin, TX to play a March 20th date at the Red Gorilla Music Festival. Also just finished starring as "Vangela" in a film called "Pretty Boys," about a Bowie-esque Glam Rock band and their trials and tribulations finishing a sophomore album. I play the band's manager/lead singer's girlfriend. It was directed by Everett Lewis; they’re editing and premiering the film in 2011 at various film festivals. I’m also working on a book- “My Life As A Phone Psychic”. Among the many, many day jobs I’ve held, one was "phone psychic." I originally wrote a play about it, which we produced in Minneapolis. My sister recommended I reincarnate it as a novel, since I'm such a voracious reader. I absolutely love the art form and format of that, so I did, and am in draft two. Thanks for asking and stay tuned!
- Brooke Aldridge

A radio show featuring me:
http://www.lagenx.com/storage/LAgenx-082909.mp3 - LA Gen X

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=41296

SONGSTRESS ERIN MUIR INTRODUCES
A HAUNTINGLY SEDUCTIVE NEW VOICE
TO INDEPENDENT MUSIC SCENE
WITH ECLECTIC DEBUT ALBUM
“POET’S LOVELY DAUGHTER”

To the uninitiated, singer-songwriter ERIN MUIR’s upcoming release Poet’s Lovely Daughter may sound like the work of a well-established artist – masterful, mature and confident, the record puts Muir’s accomplished songwriting and uncanny, haunting voice on full display. What a surprise, then, to find that this eclectic ten-track album is the artist’s debut, an impressive start to what looks to be a promising career. With ace producer Bernie Larsen, Muir has concocted a sublime, moody album, with inventive arrangements that weave tremolo guitars, electronic whispers and acoustic ambience around her sultry contralto vocals.

The album displays an expert versatility while maintaining a consistent, undeniable vibe. String-tinged opener “Supernatural” invokes flamenco rhythms and Latin pop motifs, atop which Muir intones like a cross between Fiona Apple and Annie Lennox, “In these lines I do not promise anything true or false/But in all ideas and in all songs hide the secret laws of love/Love will open up your eyes to what is truly here.” “Heart Given” finds Muir against a spacey, bluesy slow-burn; an semi-autobiographical tune that recalls a sprawling Midwestern open road as the backdrop for loves lost and found: “No rivers/Heart given/Kneel down and let me pray/No sinners/No winners/Just the light at the end of the day.” Elsewhere, “Shadows and Silt” embraces salsa rhythms and Spanish guitar behind a tale of rapturous new love.

The title track “Poet’s Lovely Daughter,” a reverb-drenched, Eastern European-like tribute to a modern-day witch friend of Muir’s, found the artist living out the song – in an unexpected manner. While working on the track at the mixing board, which concerns “a witchy woman being burnt at the stake, either figuratively or literally,” according to Erin, the singer literally caught aflame. “I was mixing the song, and my back was to her,” recalls producer Larsen. “She said she was on fire. I said ‘I know.” Then she said ‘No, no, no, I’m on fire!,’ and I turned around to find her shirt was engulfed in flames.”

“These songs are definitely passionate and very raw, honest and vulnerable,” says Muir. “Music is such an amazing conduit – it doesn’t only affect your intellectual mind but your entire body.” A former student of Saint Olaf College’s School of Music, Erin dropped out to pursue her true direction, both geographically and musically, years ago – and Poet’s Lovely Daughter finds the full realization of that music. Both subtle and striking, moody and affective, it’s a debut you won’t want to let pass you by.

- All About Jazz

ROCKWiRED iNTERViEWS ERiN MUiR

SUPERNATURAL
ERiN MUiR TALKS TO ROCKWiRED
ABOUT HER DEBUT CD POET'S LOVELY DAUGHTER
WORKiNG WiTH BERNiE LARSEN
AND GROWiNG AS A PERSON (iN AN RV)
http://www.rockwired.com/erinmuir.JPG
iNTERViEWED BY BRiAN LUSH
Music is more than a way of life for singer-songwriter ERIN MUIR - it was odyssey as epic as the ILIAD with our heroine’s story beginning in an unassuming, provincial town called Sauk Rapids in Minnesota. As a child, MUIR displayed an amazing aptitude for music which she has since chucked off to musicality running in the family. After studying classical music at ST. OLAF UNIVERSITY, MUIR joined a band and hopped aboard a 1973 VOGUE RV and toured the country for four years. While it wasn’t the first class treatment she would’ve received as an opera singer, the years on the road proved to be character building. Following the band’s demise, MUIR settled into LA life and immediately found work as an actress and lived it up until she came to the realization that music was what she was supposed to be doing. Life experience and MUIR’s own quirky musicality have come together to form her debut CD ‘POET’S LOVELY DAUGHTER’. Produced by BERNIE LARSEN, ‘POET’S…’ is an album that is almost entirely too seasoned to be a debut. With stellar moments such as SUPERNATURAL and HEART GIVEN, try shelving this CD somewhere in between ANNIE LENNOX’s ‘DIVA’ and FIONA APPLE’s ‘TIDAL’.

ROCKWIRED spoke to ERIN MUIR over the phone. Here is how it went.

How does it feel having all of the work done and the CD ready for people to hear?
I’m excited. As a matter of fact, I’m tremulous with excitement. The work that is behind me was so much fun! There is nothing like being in the studio and being in the moment. Now that it’s all finished, this is the part of the work that I’m unfamiliar with. It’s very exciting.

I was reading that you are from Sauk Rapids Minnesota.
That’s right! ‘Where the Sauk River meets the Mississippi River!’

Describe growing up in such a community.
Well, it’s your very typical small village along the Mississippi River in Minnesota. It’s built up on a hill and it’s quite beautiful in the Fall and the Spring because if you cross the Mississippi River, you see the hill and you see all of the trees and you see all of the different colors – especially during the Fall. I actually grew up on the edge of town near a huge forest so my playground was the woods. So I guess ‘bucolic’ is the word I would use to describe where I grew up. My family was a little atypical for the area because largely the beautiful, small, clean Midwestern towns, football is one of the most important things in life. Everything is centered around it.

Its one of those communities where they burn your house down if you don’t attend a game.
Yeah, but it was weird because my dad was the football coach at my high school. Because of that my family was kind of famous in a town of a couple thousand people. For me, it was kind of strange because I was the weird kid that did theater and music and quoted Aristotle. I was kind of precocious like that.

Talk about how music was introduced to you.
I had the benefit of growing up in a very musical family. My mother always played piano and my aunt DEBBIE was a classical pianist. She was a performer until she got married and had children so she became a church musician. My parents co-founded a Church and there was a huge musical tradition in the ELCA. I grew up singing in church every week and I started piano lessons at the age of five. By the time I was in my teens as a singer and piano player, I had been introduced through the church choir to the dean of music at a local college. That was when I really started studying music heavily. I would practice for hours and hours everyday but it was always in me. It wasn’t an assignment for me. I’ve always loved music. I’ve always written songs. I can’t remember when I wrote my first song.

I’ve interviewed artists that have studied music in classical settings and I’ve heard over and over how studying music nearly killed their passion for music. Was this your case?
That wasn’t my case. I had some amazing teachers and I still love classical music. I still practice everyday. There was this other thing going on at the time that I was studying classical music. My dad was listening to a lot of blues and jazz and I couldn’t escape pop and rock n roll. I was having all sorts of world music around me at the university. The school had a huge population of students from around the world. I had all kinds of music around me. So classical training never made me lose my passion for music. I still love Classical music. I still practice it and I still sing it for fun. However, I will definitely say that the lifestyle of a classical singer isn’t one that I would want for myself. I don’t know that I want to have to spend my day speaking in whispers, but I don’t know if that is actually true. I’ve known some Classical musicians that were really cool and who are trying to find away to do what they do in a more contemporary fashion. I feel like I’m not “not” Classical because you can hear the Classical training in all of my songs but I’m not strictly that. You know what I’m saying.

At what did writing begin for you?
It happened from the start. I come from a long line of storytellers. The other side of my family is Scottish. I was used to being a storyteller after being surrounded by storytellers. It’s the thing that we do when we get together as a family. We tell tall tales. They start small and they get taller. I had also always been a voracious reader. I started reading when I was three years old. I was the weirdest kid. I would skip class just to go to the library. As far as I can remember, I had always written stories and I started writing little songs about boys that I had crushes on when I was in the first or second grade.

After school, you threw everything to a trailer and just kind of traveled around. Describe what that was like.
That is the part of me that no one can explain. I’m one of those people that just suddenly decide to do something and I do it. I had an opportunity to be singing in a band. I knew I didn’t want to be an opera singer. I knew that I wanted to write my own songs. I saw this opportunity and I took it. There was something very exhilarating and exciting about doing this. At the time I was thinking ‘This is great! I’m going to do this’ but now I think that it was exciting to take everything that I had learned about life and put it on the road just to see what would happen for better or for worse.

What moments were difficult about that experience?
First of all, living with between three and five guys at any given moment on a tour bus for even three weeks was a new experience for me. It was like being one of the guy even though I wasn’t. You hear things that you wish you hadn’t heard but you are glad that you heard them because it’s a great education. Before this experience, I didn’t know how to drive. I didn’t know how to drive a stick shift, and I didn’t know anything about car repair. I’m not saying that I was non-resourceful, but I wasn’t used to really taking care of myself. When you are flying like that and you run into crazy people that want to engage with you, you have to learn when to walk away and when to stand up for yourself especially when bar owners don’t want to pay you. Sure I had the benefit of the band and the guys around me but I learned how to be a lot stronger through this experience. That is the sort of education that is not always easy but it is definitely worth it.

I forget how long you had kept that up.
I did that off and on for a bout four years. There were a few different incarnations of that band. It wasn’t always the same group of guys but it was always me and the same drummer. Then we had the same guitar player for several years and then the same bass player for about three years.

Eventually, you settled in Los Angeles. What was that like?
Los Angeles is a reflection of who you are as a person. It is what you make of it. The danger is that people come to Los Angeles with an idea of what it’s going to be and you will find a way to match that idea. A lot of people come ere thinking that they are going to be famous in about six months time and that’s ridiculous. I’m pretty sure that they are secretly thinking that in six months they won’t make it and they’ll head home when those six months are up all so they can say that they gave it a shot. For me I had this idea that it was going to be a circus and it was. I’m one of those people that an adventure just happens to. OF example, within two months I became SAG and I got a job. The only person that I knew barely was my producer BERNIE. I put myself out there to meet people and have an adventure and I did. I fell in with a weird Hollywood party crowd and it seemed exciting at first because these were famous people that I was partying with but at the same time it wasn’t fulfilling.

What got you away from that scene?
I realized that I needed to be doing music. Some time had gone by and even though all of these things had been happening, I had realized that I wasn’t being myself. Music was the whole point in the first place and I wasn’t doing any of it. I had been doing what I thought I was supposed to be doing in order to be a musician in Los Angeles. But I came to realize that being a musician in Los Angeles is the same as being a musician in Minneapolis and is the same as being a musician in Paris. For whatever reason, I assigned this different value to Los Angeles which was false and I realized that I was unhappy because I wasn’t singing. I wasn’t singing my songs and doing my stuff. Los Angeles is jus another city with another set of people some of whom are sharks and some of whom are artists. Everyone is doing the best they can - whatever that means for them. So, one day, I called BERNIE and said “Let’s make a record!”

Describe working with BERNIE LARSEN.
I feel so lucky to work with him. First of all he is an amazing listener. He has his own vision and he had his own hearing but he’s not just coming from where he is but form where you are. I could bring a song into him. I had the benefit of knowing him before working with him so he knew where I was coming form already but I’m of the opinion that he will do this for everyone. He will hear where you are as a singer or a songwriter, and he will come to where you are with his vision, and together we will create something. It really was a partnership to create these songs.

Did the songs on this album come other periods in your life or were they written specifically for this release.
They were written for this album except for BLACK BUTTERFLY which is a song that came to me when I was living in that 1973 VOGUE. We were living in Minneapolis and we were about to go out on a tour to the south. It was the tour in which the VOGUE broke down and we ended up crashing at the drummer’s mom’s house in Naples Florida. We were sitting parked in front of my sister’s house in Minneapolis and it was getting really cold. That song came from being inside of a 1973 VOGUE RV and I was freezing cold. Aside from BLACK BUTTERFLY, the other songs were written for this record although I truly believe that BLACK BUTTERFLY was truly written for this record. I just didn’t know it at the time.

Explain how songs get written for you.
Everyday I practice and everyday I write. Everyday I do something for at least an hour to keep myself present. Often I’ll be writing lines I’ve written a thousand times before and all of a sudden there is a feeling of openness that comes to me and I know right then and there that I have to get my paper and my pencil because the song is coming. It is like going through nine months of labor and all of a sudden, you’re water breaks and here you are. The song feels like it’s coming all of a sudden and you’ve got to be there and take the song as it comes. Usually it will take me about five or ten minutes to write it all out. The structure, the lyrics and the words all come to me like that. The songs come from a magical place but hey do require all of these other ingredients to be stirring up within you in order for them to be born.

From the album, what moments stand out for you the most – musically speaking?
That changes often. I love on SUPERNATURAL that very opening and how thunderous and exciting it is. You just know that something is about to happen. That always takes my breath away. When you are in the middle of recording it, you don’t know that that is what is going to happen. You get a feeling like it might but when you hear it later, it’s amazing. That very first opening moment to SUPERNATURAL just excites me. I also loved when we were doing HEART GIVEN. It was a song that BERNIE and I wrote together. There are moments where I would be singing and he would suggest something to an emotional aspect about the performance and I would just let that re-frame me and let it fall through my being and re-sing it and I love that I get to hear that now. I can hear those shifts and changes in mood. It’s exciting to me to be able to hear that.

From the time you stepped onto that 1973 VOGUE RV up until now, what has been the biggest surprise for you?
I did not expect to fall in love with music over and over again. It never dies for me. It is such a passion and such a beautiful gift in life to be able to fall in love with singing everyday.

What would you like someone to come away with after they’ve heard this CD?
I would love it if it opened up someone to their own passion in life. I feel very grateful to have a passion like music an to be able to engage in something I love so much. I would love for people to listen tot his record have their own love and passion open up for them. Whatever that is.
- www.rockwired.com/erinmuir.html