Earlier this month, we sat down with Canadian singer-songwriter MIINA ahead of her Toronto stop at The Baby G on her Where the Light Goes album tour. This marked her first Toronto performance under her latest project. In conversation, she reflects on Where the Light Goes, the themes of connection in her music, and collaborating in the songwriting process.
SYHANN: Your music talks a lot about connection and people and even nature. Is this something that's intentional or do like come naturally to you?
MIINA: I guess a little bit of both. When I'm songwriting, I'm kind of just pulling based on reflection and those concepts are often on my mind. So, it just sort of naturally comes out of me. But I'm also really proud to make music, I think that maybe kind of creates conversation and creates connection, especially given the way the world is right now. I think we kind of need to have music that pulls us closer together instead of divides us. So, that's that's intentional.
SYHANN: Your music feels sunny but also deep at the same time - as if there's a light and then something underneath it. Do you feel like that's that duality reflects who you are as a person?
MIINA: That's a that's a lovely question. Yeah, I guess it kind of does. I do feel like I am a glass half full kind of gal, but at the end of the day, I also have a lot of empathy and I'm a very sensitive person. Sometimes that can be a strength, but sometimes it can also just make for a little bit of a tortured soul. And I do get anxiety and all of that stuff that I think a lot of people can relate to. At the end of the day, I still have a lot of hope. I love creating art and I love connecting with people and I do see the the good in society still too.
SYHANN: I was listening to your song "Hiccup". It's such a great song, by the way. I love how it turns anxiety into something calm. When you wrote that, were you trying to process something personal or reframe it?
MIINA: That is cool that you brought up that song because that is the one co-write that I've done and that was with Lowell, who's an amazing Toronto-based songwriter who's doing so well right now, and it was such an honour to work with her. And we kind of sat down and and we were like, “what do we want to sing about together?”. And at that time I was sort of going through a hiccup and so I brought that up and we kind of talked about how you can be spiraling a little bit sometimes, but just coming to your senses being like “this is just a hiccup” and “I got this I can get through it”, and there's a bit of a “you and me” in that song too. So it's a little bit about supporting yourself and someone else as well.
SYHANN: Your new album came together as a reflection of everything you were going through at the time. So when you finally stepped back and listened to it as a whole, what did you realize about yourself that you maybe didn't see like whilst you were writing it?
MIINA: When I was writing those songs — and some of them were written over like a couple years period of time — there was just a lot that had been happening in in my life. I recognized that the album was telling a little bit of a story of being an empath in this world, and all of the things that we're all going through as part of this weird human experience. Stepping back from it, I sort of realized that it was like a pep talk in a way to keep on keeping on. There’s a song literally called “Worry”. And then there's another song called “Good Enough”, and that's very much like a pick yourself up and don't listen to the haters, whether that's [in your own mind] or external. And also there's a little bit of grief in there and and dealing with with that tricky emotion, too. At the end of it, I was like, "Oh, yeah. I think I'm kind of giving myself and maybe other empaths out there like a little bit of a pep talk to, you know, keep on pushing."
SYHANN: Do you think you could have made the album if you hadn't gone through that period of change?
MIINA: I think it would have just maybe been a a different album. Everything that I was going through, whether it was good stuff or harder stuff, I'm grateful for it — just for the opportunity to be alive really and then to create as a result. So yeah, it probably would have been just a bit of a different album. It is a gift to feel deeply. It can be a curse, but it can be a gift, too.
SYHANN: Which song of yours do you think your friends would say is most you?
MIINA: On the new album, there's a song called “Celebration,” and I think that it's kind of a quirky, chill little tune. I wrote it after one night my partner and I were hanging outside. We had the radio playing. There happened to be a classical music piece playing on the radio and I looked up in the sky and I saw a whole bunch of bats just flying around. It was so beautiful and it really just made me think that you can get so caught up in your own experience and whatever you're going through and sometimes you just need a little nudge from the world around you to slow down and see something that's beautiful and take a moment to just sort of be in that. So I wrote a song called “Celebration” that's just sort of saying these little moments are beautiful and so are we. And so I think in a way that song maybe is one that kind of could represent me as a human, you know, like taking it all in and then finding a little bit of hope or joy in there.
SYHANN: Do you feel like you're making music more for yourself now or still thinking about how other people see you?
MIINA: It's crossed my mind before to be inspired by other music that's really sounding amazing that I hear and I'm like, "Oh, that sounds really cool." I wonder if I can be inspired by that and create something like that. It's nice to have those influences. But at the end of the day when I go into songwriting mode, I'm kind of in my own little world, and I'm thinking about songs that I would like for someone to write so that I could listen to and then I'm thinking, well, maybe I can create that song and that can be that for someone else.
SYHANN: What's been a moment in your career so far that felt really small on the outside but was huge for you?
MIINA: I reached out to Howard Redekopp with a couple of songs and I said, "Hey, I've got a demo um that I would love for you to hear." And he said, "Sure, come on out to the studio and let's hear it." And I wasn't sure if this was going to be just a friend listening to a song and giving feedback, but in the end, he was like, “I want to produce this with you”. So, he became the producer, one of the main producers on Where the Light Goes. What kind of started as like a small moment of sharing a a demo from my humble home studio turned into opening the door for this whole album to exist.
I have another really cool one. I was asked to be on a cooking show with an amazing musician named Michael Kaeshammer. I almost said no because I'm a horrible cook. And then I was like, you know what? I should go out of my comfort zone and just say yes to this. Like, why not? And so, I went on this cooking show and it's filmed at a at a local TV station on the island. And I met my manager there because she's also his manager. It was really awesome. So, say yes to the cooking shows.
SYHANN: If someone was hearing your songs for the first time tonight, what do you want them to leave your set remembering about you? And not just as an artist, but as a person in general.
MIINA: I think that my goal as an artist is to just create a space, physically and sonically, where people can just sway and feel comfortable and kind of get taken away with us on a little bit of a feel-good journey. There's some songs in our set that hit a little bit heavier. So those are really fun to play live. And then there's some songs that are just a little bit sweeter and slower. I just want people to come out and feel connected and whether it's to us, or the community they come with, or maybe they're on a solo date and that's really beautiful, too. Just to feel uplifted and resilient and maybe even a little bit of extra strength to go on and and make the world a bit of a better place too. You know, we need each other.
SYHANN: I go to a lot of concerts solo and I love like discovering new artists and just being in the room and not having to have all these distractions, you know social media and stuff like that. That's really nice like message.
MIINA: And a lot of people should do that more if they if they haven't discovered it yet. It is a cool experience to go to a concert alone and just sink into it.
SYHANN: Where do you see yourself in five years in terms of your tours and music?
MIINA: In my dream world, I would be another two or three albums in, doing kind of similar tours to this one, but just building on fan bases and building on those communities and continuing to visit both the bigger spots and also the smaller spots. I would love to be bringing our music abroad as well, maybe not to the states right now, but maybe again one day. I really love the idea of collaborating with more songwriters and other musicians, too. Yeah, just continuing to keep on keeping on in this industry.
Watch the video here, and check out MIINA’s official website for more information on her tour!