The musicality of CJ’s Mirra Maze, the new project from London based singer-songwriter / musician CJ Mirra, is inspired by all the genres he’s loved throughout his life. And is pleased to announce a brand new release with the arrival of ‘Dreaming In The Valley’, co-written with Kai Campos (Mount Kimbie), released this October and will see CJ Mirra hit the road for a series of UK shows this November with PANCHIKO.
Flowing with fluid dynamism and introspective musings, ‘Dreaming In The Valley’ draws on a myriad of influences from celestial pop to pared down indie-folk sensibilities. CJ Mirra says: “Dreaming In The Valley was written when I was sharing a studio with Kia Campos (from Mount Kimbie), I’ve known him for years having worked on Mount Kimbie’s 2017 album ‘Love What Survives’. Kai came up with that wonky hypnotic riff. I’d been working on some lyrics about new life and rebirth when my partner was in intensive care while carrying our first child and wanted to make this beautiful bitter-sweet simultaneously joyful & melancholic track full of contradictions that sort of prop-each other up. I used some incredible very fluid sounding drum recordings I’d made with Kev Bales from Spiritualised that really brought the track to life. The feel of the music really amplifies those feelings from the lyrics and is the perfect next step into the Mirra Maze. It’s great timing too as another track I’d written with Kai called Bixby Canyon has just been released for the Allen Ginsberg Fall of America Vol.2 Compilation which also features Ai Wei Wei Phillip Glass and many other artist I admire.”
The ‘Mirra Maze’ debut tracks make for a dazzling listen, described as maximalist, neo-psych pop music through an electronic lens. With only one single out, (Self Medicate) CJ has already been invited on an EU tour with cult phenomenon, Panchiko and garnered support from the likes of Fontana (The Needle Drop), Under The Radar & 6Music.
The music recalls everyone from Toro Y Moi to Tame Impala via the emotional allure of Blood Orange, or the daring evolutionary instincts of LA Priest. It comes from a very pure and thrilling place, one of unbridled invention and a commitment to melody. Starting at the beginning, CJ had a nomadic upbringing – with Neapolitan, British and Australian heritage, his childhood was spent moving around Australia, as well as living on small island in the Indian Ocean. His family then moved to the British Midlands where he spent his formative years playing in a couple of experimental, genre-bending bands when a film director discovered his music after CJ had mistakenly shared it publicly on Soundcloud.
The director was Chris McClean, recruiting CJ Mirra to soundtrack to Beyond The Scars, a stunning look at cold water surfing. Plaudits and awards followed, with Channel 4 getting behind the film – suddenly, he was plunged into the soundtrack realm.
As word spread, CJ Mirra became a specialist in composing for surf films, his dreamy and evocative, widescreen electronics taking on a human tone. This has led him in 2021/22 to score two series of the hit Apple TV+ series ‘Make or Break’ about the World Surf League – the biggest surf competition in the world.
While scoring occupied his world, it was when CJ was sharing a studio in north London with Mount Kimbie that CJ’s Mirra Maze was born and the first demos of upcoming single, Dreaming In The Valley started to take shape. This psych- tinged, deeply melodic track was built around an arrestingly beautiful hook, driven by an infectious beat laid down by Kevin Bales from Spiritualised which is all the more apt for the spiritual themes explored in the lyrics.
It’s a fitting follow up to the debut single ‘Self Medicate’, a curiously infectious, beat-heavy, hypnotic piece, that flits between psychedelic electronics and lysergic melodies. Lyrically, he opts for something harsh and unrelenting, cutting into the acid-flecked phantasias the music suggests for a song about the casualties of addiction. In his words, “we all have the instinct to self-medicate with our addictions of choice, this, for me was filling the gap of finding a deeper sense of purpose.”
Mirra Maze is a life-changing shift in CJ Mirra’s work, “this project allows me to be deeply personal, and reflect a new dream-like reality, and talk to the people I love through these songs.”
With the debut Mirra Maze album close to completion, CJ continues to compose to picture. The musical output of working on the album naturally developed to embrace other cinematic endeavours, including CJ’s 2020 debut, award-winning, feature film score for Ruth Paxton’s acclaimed body-horror A Banquet and the BAFTA nominated, Sundance winning film, Lizard directed by Akinola Davies Jr.
https://linktr.ee/CJsmirramaze
https://www.tiktok.com/@cjsmirramaze
