Holly Miranda

Although initially known for her work with the Jealous Girlfriends, Holly Miranda launched her own career several years before the band’s formation. Raised in the suburbs of Detroit, she dropped out of high school at the age of 16 and moved to New York, where she finished her degree through correspondence courses and landed a record deal with BMG. Her debut album for the label was never released, however, and Miranda eventually left BMG’s roster. Now an independent musician, she made her proper debut with the release of 2001's High Above the City, a 20-track solo album that was sold during her tours of the east coast and Midwest. Two years later, Miranda crossed paths with producer Alex Lipsen and formed the Jealous Girlfriends, which released two albums and toured through the end of 2008, at which point the bandmates took a break to pursue different projects. Miranda used the opportunity to return to her solo career. Wasting little time, she released the Sleep on Fire EP in mid-2009 and began working on a full-length project with producers Dave Sitek -- a co-founder of TV on the Radio and the Yeah Yeah Yeah's most frequent producer -- and Celebration's Katrina Ford. The resulting album, The Magician's Private Library, was released by XL Recordings in February 2010. Miranda toured extensively in support of the album, including legs opening for Tegan & Sara, Florence + the Machine, and the XX. In 2013, Miranda joined forces with Scarlett Johansson, Julia Haltigan, Kendra Morris, and Este Haim to form a Go-Go's-influenced studio group called the Singles. In February 2015, the group was poised to release their debut single, "Candy," when the project was scuttled by a cease-and-desist order filed by the long-running rock band the Singles, originally based in Detroit. Meanwhile, Miranda was looking for inspiration for her next solo project and rented a house in the California desert near Joshua Tree. Miranda's muse thrived in the new locale, and she penned a new batch of songs that formed the basis of her third solo album, simply titled Holly Miranda. Produced by Miranda and Florent Barbier, the album was released by Dangerbird Records in May 2015. In May 2016, Miranda released Party Trick, a six-song EP in which she covered tunes by other artists, including Drake, Bon Iver, and Sparklehorse. Miranda next teamed up with Chris Maxwell and Ambrosia Parsley to record an album of original holiday songs -- Catskill Christmas was released in October 2017. Miranda's next recording project was her most ambitious to date. 2018's Mutual Horse was a richly produced effort that included contributions from Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio, and Maria Eisen of Underground System. ~ Andrew Leahey