Mira Veda

Her voice has been on air, on BBC Radio (UK) and WorldSpace. She was nominated as Best International Artist by the UK Asian Music Awards in 2005. She is among one of the most downloaded artists on iTunes (Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, the US and UK). Mira also worked on spiritual guru Deepak Chopra’s last album, Gift Of Love II, along with actress Lisa Bonet. That was followed by a collaboration with George Brown from Kool And The Gang, and a performance at Michael Jackson’s benefit concert What The World Needs Now at his home, Neverland Ranch, in 2004. Over the last two years Mira Veda has had the international music scene sit up and take notice of her – and how!

The Indian-born, Canadian-raised Sikh girl drew inspiration from Sade, Lou Rawls, Etta Jones, Erykah Badu, George Michael, and Michael Jackson, and always wanted to make a living out of her voice. Despite her traditional background (“We were taught to be practical and make money instead of wasting our time following dreams”), Mira continued playing her favourite western music instruments – the clarinet and saxophone – in her free time. This took a back seat for a while, but at the age of 23, fresh out of college, she decided to go back to vocal classes. There, she realised her true calling lay in creating music instead of settling down to a regular nine-to-five job.

It took her a year to track down Canadian producer Chin Injeti who proved to be a turning point in her career. “He heard me out and made me realize that I could write my own lyrics.” Shortly after, she met producer Larry Batiste, at that time the president of the Grammy’s San Francisco chapter. “He just took me on and wrote some songs along with me, which evolved into my debut album, Infinite Love, which is about understanding yourself through relationships around you.” Creating music was great fun, selling it wasn’t. Mira felt that the record companies she approached were stifling her creative freedom, so she went ahead and started her own recording label, Veda Records, and released her album under it. “There was nothing they could to that I could not do. I know labels have a huge marketing budget, and that is a major advantage if you want to be famous, but I really want to make good music first.”

Her conviction worked in her favour and Mira’s work did get noticed. A song she wrote, entitled “What the World Needs Now,” was noticed by the producers of a Michael Jackson benefit concert. They felt it exemplified the racial unity theme of the event, so she was invited to perform there. “It was a surreal experience, I saw all his exotic animals and mingled with Ashanti and Mike Tyson.” Along the way, she also made friends in the music industry… Friends in high places: Prince, Deepak Chopra, Blair Underwood and Queen Latifah, amongst others.

Last year after touring Europe, she decided – after a six-year break – to revisit India. “I wanted to reconnect with India. Whatever I know of it is through Indian movies and music. I did not know the taste, sound and feel of my country. I have truly discovered the richness of my culture.” The year 2006 will see her working on her second album, which will include a lot of dance and world music with kirtans playing in the background. Like her cousin Jay Sean, the dusky singer hopes to break through the Indian market as well. “Seeing Juggy D and Jay perform just inspires me to get my music to Indian.”

Mira is also extremely aware of social issues. She donated a portion of the proceeds from her album to DIYA-global, an organization for abused women. She also started a NGO, Little Muse, along with actress Renee Wilson (who played Pat Lyle in the film Ray). “I am trying to make people socially aware and through music performances make social responsibilities look cool.” Currently a voting member of the Grammy’s San Francisco chapter, she is also working towards getting the board to recognize South Asian music as a separate category. “If Latin music can be recognized as a separate category, and now even Hawaiian music has got itself one, why can’t South Asian music get its own section, instead of being slotted into the world music category? I want my community to be known for its talent. We have contributed to the Western culture in a major way; a lot of hip hop music has some Indian tune in the background. They have borrowed our culture and spirituality, and we need to claim it now.”

Karishma Shahani
- ELLE Magazine

Working with widely known and popular artists like Karsh Kale and Chebi Sabbah, it’s her debut album Infinite Love that has made a splash into the music world and has made her name a staple in the South Asian community. - ImagineAsian Radio

Washington D.C: Popular R&B recording artist Mira Veda was chosen to perform for Senator Hillary Clinton and a distinguished crowd of Washington area Sikhs last week. The event, held at the home of Dr. Rajwant Singh, gave members of the Sikh Caucus an opportunity to interact with Senator Clinton on many issues of importance to the community. Mira, whose current album, 'Infinite Love' is being readied for its U.S. debut, flew to Washington from her West Coast home especially for the event.

Mira, who performed 2 songs for the event, chose the hymn, “mera pyara preetam satgur rakhwala” to honor the Senator. “The hymn expresses how we all feel about bringing an end to this turbulent time that we live in. It’s a prayer of protection and peace,” Mira explains. “Our country is dealing with so much turmoil and instability, and I realized that this would be a wonderful opportunity to extend a prayer for Senator Clinton that she finds the greater space within herself to continue on this courageous and arduous road.”

Mira began her musical career at the age of 10 when her parents encouraged her to sing at the temple. In the early years, Mira would learn classical hymns in raag and sing them with a ready tabla player and harmonium every Sunday. As she grew older, the restrictions of classical religious music could not contain her and she looked to other styles of music to expand her awareness. Her interest led her to blues and jazz where she would sign out tapes from the library to build another dimension to her repertoire of influence. She listed to Etta James, Lou Rawls, and Sarah Vaughn.

She wanted to explore the roots of her beginning and provoke the cost of being an Indian woman in urban culture. Among those that collaborated in this creative adventure was Larry Batiste, President of the San Francisco Chapter of NARAS (The Recording Academy®). Larry, a music business veteran, brought the provocative sound of R&B and Hip Hop into the title track, “'Infinite Love'.” Having worked with greats like Kenny G, Michael Bolton, Shanice and Whitney Houston, Larry offered a transgressive currency into urban culture.

'Infinite Love', from first concept, took nearly 2 years to complete, and still Mira says that the album is just the beginning of her exploration as an artist. She has created a reflection of human relationships; she says “'Infinite Love' is about love, longing, pain, and shame, everything that you and I experience. - www.redhotcurry.com