Miranda launches her debut album, Lips' Decision on Wednesday 25th June, hosted by The Big Secret @ The Ginglik.

A super delicious night by candelight under Shepherd's Bush green, Miranda will be joined by Davide Mantovani on double Bass, Roy Dodds on percussion and Sian Lattimer on backing vocals. With super special guests.
The album will be launched at this exclusive Big Secret night hosted by Amity Fletcher @ The Ginglik. (Official release date...30 June..itunes etc)

Miranda coming to Berlin - Thursday 24th April!!
Schlot, Troubadour-Modern Minstrels, Berlin
For details: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=44208825240

Ladies 'n gents, I am humbled by the extraordinary support the myspace community have thrown my way by voting for me, out of 600 songwriters, to win the first Slicethepie singer/songwriter showcase. I won some cash to make my first album, Lips' Decision. Bada-bing! The album was recorded in February/March 2008 and will be released through Tunecore on Monday 30th June. I have in my hot liddle hands a beautiful hard copy album, with lovely 8 page booklet with artwork, lyrics 'n a personal touch...and super cute Lips' Decision badges! JOIN ME FOR THE ALBUM LAUNCH, HOSTED BY THE BIG SECRET @ THE GINGLIK ON WEDNESDAY 25TH JUNE!!!
Below are some silly Album Video Blogs I have been putting together during the course of making the album. More to come - also at www.youtube.com/mirandabarber. Love Miranda x

Video blog 4 & new song Eliza...

New ditty on ukulele, live at home...

Video Blog 1

Video Blog 2

Video Blog 3

Theremin Blog

Wanna know summink?

I'm from the sun and sand-kissed bays of the Mornington Peninsula, a stone's throw from Melbourne, Australia. In 1999 I came to the thick of London's feisty east, and since then I've been to-ing and fro-ing between the two places. In London I discovered a world of madness on the theatre and music scene and since then I've been thrashing about in it, for the instant pleasure of it, and because I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing which also affords me the right to say what I like.

I've got my fingers wet here and there, collaborating on live and recording projects with a few producers and artists including Dave Dix, Sam Semple, Charlie Winston, Tom Baxter, Max Greenwood, Vashti Gleave, Vonnie Debrett and Raison D'Etre.

I'm in love with a bloody good song, in telling a story and hearing them told well and exploring the voice that tells them. I'm into all the cracks, the gurgles, the lip smackings and the sounds of experience behind a voice delivering the news.

I am a DIY operation because that's how it is right now, but infinitely open to support and guidance! I hope you enjoy the journey!

My Tomorrow & Barber tracks...below

Studio photographs taken by www.myspace.com/stephdray

SOME WEE REVIEWS
This Australian born, London based singer/songwriter excels at crafting smoky piano lauded balladry with vintage croons. "Blues Day" starts off this 7-song EP (5 songs + 2 worth while bonus tracks) with the eerie presence of old time greats (Ella, Billie, etc...). While it's evident that Barber is a very capable musician, handling the elaborate keyboard work on this EP, she definitely possesses a monstrous talent as an accomplished vocalist. Her strange versatility as a seductive lounge singer meets operatic diva makes for some stunning moments. "Paprika Haze" is the EP's most straight-forward pop arrangement, and very immediate...but Barber is in her natural element when sparse and haunting pianos, guitars, and double bass lurk in the background of her powerful vocals. This is an artist who definitely won't stay on the outskirts of indie-dom forever. A major label talent for sure. www.theblackandwhitemag.com

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"Another rainwashed Wednesday evening at the old Troub threw up this particular gem. Aussie songstress Miranda Barber plays both the audience and the piano like a Broadway nightclub hostess in a Sinatra film. The rich, cigarettes-and-whisky harmonics in her voice give her songs a seductive mix of the vampish and the innocent.

... the mournful energy of her solo piano and voice is perfectly suited to the intimate confines of the Troubadour. Her songs are narratives occasionally bizarre, sometimes comic ...The soulful and world-weary number Eggshells, shows that Barber has the rare gift of projecting intimacy, seemingly singing for herself, but at the same time opening up a peephole into her personal world. On that form, she makes the tiny venue feel like a huge and empty hall, and the rain battering the roof sound a hundred miles away.'" Pete, The Small Fish Crew @ The Troubadour, 24.05.06 http://www.smallfish-online.net

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"Originally from Melbourne but based in London, Miranda Barber specialises in torch songs powered by energy-saving light bulbs. That is to say, the seven songs on "My Tomorrow" are redolent with all the heady mounrful balladry of Bessie Smith or Billie Holiday, but it's all executed with the sparse efficiency of Joni Mitchell or Damien Rice.

"Blues Day" is a slow brooding drama that builds upon a simple piano refrain and a fragile vocal that's not a million astray from '90s Oracle of Hearftbreak, Beverly Craven. Indeed, it's this kind of elegrantly fragile confessional that dominates proceedings. From the simple and forlorn "Eggshells" and the stately-but-spacey "No Air To breathe" to the beautifully lovelorn "My Roof Has Got A Hole In It". "As always, the smile fades away too soon," she sings.

Sometimes though, Miranda and her band like to shake things up ever so slightly. "My Tomorrow" has a disparate, jazzy feel, while the rich, slightly Beatley "Paprika Haze" is positively jaunty by comparison. It all makes this a more rounded listen, although everything is executed with grace and gravitas, naturally. Best of all is the smoky blues of "Too Damn Hard". The harmonies sound live and it's injected with a dark playful spirit. Proof, if needed, that sad songs can be fun. " www.overplay.com/reviews.asp

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"The second EP from Oz-born, London-based singer-songwriter Miranda Barber presents the listener with a lucky seven piano-based ballads. Whilst this is strictly a 5+2 bonus tracks release, those welcome extras easily stand alongside the 'proper' songs on their own merits. Barber's first, self-titled EP drew some almost subliminal Kate Bush comparisons in the vocal style but here she moves in a more jazz-influenced direction with double bass, subtle guitar and soft percussion. However, it's Barber's voice and her hands on the piano that command centre stage. Luckily, that's where it gets really interesting.

Befitting the depth and darkness of some of her lyrics, Barber guides us through some brooding, ominous musical terrain. Blues Day and the title song succeed in chilling the heart while keeping the listener involved and transfixed. Barber's rich, pure vocal gets straight to the emotional core of the songs with seemingly little effort, casting welcome elements of light and shade with subtly textured self-harmonies.

The achingly pretty My Roof Has Got A Hole In It might well drown you in its desperate melancholy before Paprika Haze lifts the mood with a shift in style whereupon it occupies that sublime showtune-meets-pop song otherworld practically invented by Randy Newman. A hot 'n' spicy invitation to get together driven forward by Barber's spiky piano chords, Eggshells rounds off the regular EP, pulling the mood back down and unflinchingly exploring the more obsessive side of love.

Whatever perceived modesty led Barber to include Too Damn Hard and No Air To Breathe as bonus tracks was a false one; the sheer quality of the songs more than warrants their inclusion. The former allows Barber scope to display the jazzier end of her range, while the latter provides a devastatingly chilling conclusion. A political twist on the murder ballad canon, it follows a young asylum seeker on his journey to a new life and a painful loss without descending into mawkish melodrama. Not an easy feat by any means.

My Tomorrow is a perfect showcase for Barber's talent; alternately soothing, chilling and mysterious, but always, always beguiling. by Trevor Raggatt, Wears The Trousers Magazine