By Shamsiya Hussainpoor
Pakenham resident Miranda Eno is one the three young artists selected for the 2024 Cardinia Shire Music Residencies Program.
The music program is intended to support emerging musicians by providing vital industry knowledge and experience to advance their individual careers.
Through a tailored program delivered by Cardinia Arts and local industry whiz Daniel Kelaart, each musician recorded a new song in a professional studio and took part in a series of professional development activities.
The selected artists were chosen from a collection of diverse applicants, representing a variety of genres and high-quality musicianship.
The three musicians who were selected for this program were Jon Collins, Sage Kelly, and Eno – each artist received a sum of $500.
The 22-year-old is known for performing with her guitar on open mic stages around Melbourne with sounds in pop, rock and R’n’B, she also uses ‘loop station,’ for those who don’t know what a loop station is – it’s a device where a musician takes a short or long snippet of music and repeat it again and again – on a loop.
“[The loop station] allows me to do a lot more, for example it allows me to be like a one-man-band kind of thing, because I can put beats down, I can put harmonies, I play and sing at the same time,” Eno said.
She started taking her music career more seriously from the beginning of last year, where she attended two open mics a week throughout the year in Belgrave, South Melbourne, and Elwood Lounge.
“I attended the open mics to build up my repertoire of cover songs to get to a place where I could do three hours’ worth of music to play at pubs and other places,” she said.
“This year my goal is to put an EP out, this will be coming out in September.”
She had her first guitar at the age of eight and growing up her dad also played the instrument.
She was at the stage of looking for a producer to start recording her EP, when the announcement of selected artists for the program was made.
“I was at the point where I wanted to do my EP at the start of the year which I worked on it for a couple of months, I was ready to find a producer when I got the call that I was accepted and it was the most perfect timing,” she said.
“I had never worked with a producer before, and they paid me some money to be involved in this, I was happy to do this for free, but the money was just a bonus.”
“It’s a really good program for musicians just starting out and wanting to put some music out there.”
Through the Music Residencies Program, and working with the producer Daniel Kelaart, she has released her first singles last month called, ‘Elephant in the room’.
“Music is something everybody enjoys, it’s a very competitive industry and very hard to be successful in it and a lot of musicians can’t sustain themselves just by doing gigs – we’re often pushed to get second jobs to survive,” she said.
“It’s really important that councils put money and support the music industry, because without musicians, there would be no music and without music it would be a pretty boring place to live in.”
“I was working as a casual at a servo station, but I’m trying to look for something full-time at the moment to save up and move out closer to the city where there’s more opportunities to grow.”
Life as a hustling musician is difficult in the outer suburbs of the city, especially the commute when carrying things.
“It is really hard travelling with all my equipment, I can’t drag all my equipment onto the train all the way into the city, it’s just not practical, it’s disappointing I live out here, but I can’t really control that at the moment,” she said.
She wants to continue working on her music full time but taking care of other responsibilities is a priority – music remains a side hustle for now.
Eno has two new singles coming out later this month.
