Lana Mir sounds rapturous.
“Every song is very specific and has a very specific vibe and every song is different and individual. If you were to listen to a song by itself you wouldn’t need to hear the rest of the album but if you heard the whole album it would fit together.”
Lana is discussing her first album, the very wonderful self named debut dropping August 24th, 2010. A pop? Jazz? Brazilian? 60s? Current? album being released by Unfiltered and written with Bruce Driscoll and Andy Chase.
And though she is still just 25 years old it has taken Lana, several years and several continents to get here. When Lana was born, 1985, the USSR still existed and the world was a mess. An only child she was raised in Kiev and obsessed with music from early on. “By 1991 the Ukraine was free for the first time,” Lana explained over the phone yesterday, “But there was no internet and very few television stations. There was an hour of Western music a week. Some music magazines. But nothing 24/7. I loved Sinead and Bjork.”
Lana was singing in her school choir, “The Ukrainian All Folk Choir” and by the age of 13 recording songs. “I was recording my own songs. It was very primitive, just a cassette player. Also, I was an only child and I wanted to go and sing. My Mom was very sad when I left, my dad was…
“I went to France and my High School friend called me and told me to come to the States. I went to the States, Sausalito and next San Francisco and then I moved to New York. Just for a coupla months. But then I realized I could get a student visa and I stayed.
“I went with nothing, my Mom had told me I had to learn English when I was ten years old so I had that but i had nothing else.
“It was amazing. I was working with jazz musicians, these were the greatest jazz musicians and I was learning from them.”
Lana had a Friday residency at a Russian restaurant called “Any Cake”, also playing with jazz musician and really, like any musician you might admire, giving everything to her music. All her time. Lana self-recorded a demo tape of jazz cover songs including a cover of Jovan in Portugese. She doesn’t speak Portugese and learnt it phonetically!
Andy loved her voice and they have been collaborating ever since. Andy is the man behind Unfiltered Records, a member of Warner Bros Independent Label Group. I’m guessing everybody is on the same page when it comes to the majors. YOU MUST HAVE DISTRIBUTION. So that is real good for Lana.
When I suggest to Lana that the EP, Goodbye Girl is jazzier and the album poppier she demures. “No that’s not the way it is. You think that because the EP is more focussed but I am not one or the other. I am both..”
Mike Nessing will be writing the review and we will post when we get closer to the release date.
I went to see Lana last month at Arlene’s Grocery and while it is a pleasure to see such a wonderful musician in person, and though I enjoyed the concert, i did think she was stuck behind a glockenspiel and a little withdrawn from the audience. Which is essentially what I wrote in my review and what I said to her over the phone. Lana takes my reservations professionally. “To be honest? We are a new band and we were not 400% comfortable. It is a learning experience and every date will be different.”
And Lana will certainly get there but she has come a long way already. “My Mom can’t wait for the album to be released, it will be the day before her birthday. She has an advanced copy and she brings all her girlfriends round to our home to listen to it.
“When I left Kiev for New York, this was my dream.”
