We recently connected with Miranda Xu and have shared our conversation below.

Miranda, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I have always had a strong interest in music. At the age of 4 my parents brought me to an instrument store and asked me to pick an instrument as my birthday gift, and that was how I started to learn the piano. As soon as I started my piano lessons, my teacher was impressed by how I was so patient and interested in learning piano and music compared to the other students my age who could not sit still.
When I was 14, like all other teenagers struggling with finding themselves, I went through a rough time, but I realized that music was and will always be there for me. That inspired and motivated me to create music and share it with the world and maybe reach out to others and inspire them the same way music has inspired me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a music producer, film music composer, DJ and songwriter.
Artists give me references on the specific style of music they want and I write songs for them accordingly. Some of them also bring me their lyrics or toplines and I produce for them. I make all genres of music depending on the request of my clients, but I am most confident in producing in the style of R&B, hiphop, electronic and classical music. I also score for films and TV series. I have worked on many short films, independent films, TV series, and broadcast series. I score for commercials/advertisements too. I also perform as a DJ. I write and produce my own songs and I’m planning on releasing my first EP in early August under the artist name Xiranda.
My background in both classical music and synthetic music is what sets me apart from other musicians. With the knowledge about synthesizers, I do creative sound designs when scoring for films and blend them with the use of an orchestra. In pop music production, I also incorporate my classical knowledge and training, which add more depth to the songs.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Honestly all that an artist wants is an audience. No matter how many people that would be, how their commentaries are, or in what way they hear our works, all that we want is to be seen or heard. As a musician, music is the primary way I convey my messages, even more than daily communications and interactions with humans.
And because I feel this way, whenever I hear something I like from other musicians, I leave a comment to let them know that I appreciated it. For musicians, or at least for me, the best motivation is the reaction from my audience. I feel like my existence is validated when I see people interacting with my music, either at live performances or online. No matter if the reaction is positive or negative, at least it means that my message is delivered, and my effort is not going no where.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

The life of a freelancer is kind of different from the people with a 9 to 5 job. We don’t have specific tasks delivered to us by our managers, and we have to hunt for tasks every day to earn a living. I have been actively looking for gigs and opportunities, which also means that I experience rejections every day. It’s not always easy, and I’ve experienced a hard time with it,
I used to be a singer-songwriter under a record company, driven by the dream to release my own albums and hold my own concerts. But I went through many rejections such as performance at venues or auditions for TV shows. My record company also gave up on me because I was not profiting, and explicitly told me that I am not meant to be a musician. I was down for a period of time and thought I was not talented enough to continue my career. But I finally gathered my courage and decided to try again, reached out to every single opportunity I could find, and my career slowly started to unfold. Now every time when I see the music I produced being released on streaming platforms, or when the artist I work with are growing, or when the audience dances to my music at my own DJ performances, I know that I made the right choice to try again.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.mirandaxu.site/
• Instagram: xirandamusic
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miranda-xu-75601515a/