@story MARCUS COKER
@images TONY LI AND LAUREN de MIRANDA
Fort Smith native Lauren de Miranda was recently awakened by a 200-year-old pine tree that fell on top of her Los Angeles home. “The brick was collapsing, the house was caving in,” says Lauren. “I thought bombs were exploding because the noise was so loud.” Her plans for the day quickly turned. She picked up the phone and called her contact for the hit TV show Glee. She would be unable to make it to work that day.
When she finally made it to the set, she was cast as an extra during this season’s “Prom Queen” episode that aired May 10. Lauren was the one wearing a leopard-print dress at the big dance.
“I got to be there for three days with them [the cast of Glee], with everyone,” says Lauren. “I’m low on the totem pole, but I’m there. I wasn’t speaking or singing on the show, but I went on to meet the director and cast and crew and hand out my CD.”
Lauren’s CD, titled “New Life,” features four original songs, all written by her. And although she’s recently been seen acting on Glee, The Young and the Restless, and The Bold and Beautiful, music is her primary pursuit.
“I enjoy acting, but I keep my focus on music first and try to prioritize it that way. It’s really funny. If you’re in L.A. and say you’re an actor, people roll their eyes and say, ‘Okay, she’s a waitress,’ just because everyone in L.A. is an actor. But they don’t get any jobs and they’re waiting tables. But when you say you’re a singer, people get really intrigued and they’re interested. So I always bill myself as a singer even when I’m on an acting set because people respond to it much better.”
Lauren prefers not to discuss her age, but will say that she can be anywhere from seventeen to twenty-four when acting. For the pop music industry, it’s good that she appears younger than she is. Put her in the right outfit, and she could be any high school or college student. She’s the all-American girl.
Growing up in Fort Smith, Lauren spent most of her free time at Western Arkansas Ballet. She was in their annual production of The Nutcracker Suite for fifteen years. At nineteen, she enrolled in college in Phoenix, Arizona, as a dance major. After one year, she dropped out for a semester when she was recruited by Run DMC Productions to join a girl band.
“That [dancing] was just so hard on my body, and I wanted to eat food and maybe have friends. It was so all-encompassing,” says Lauren. “I started to follow other passions I had that I put on the back burner because of dance.”
The girl group wasn’t the best fit for her, so she tried a short solo career, also with Run DMC. She ended up back in college in Arizona the second semester of her sophomore year. Although she was still focused on a music career, Lauren pursued her “fall back plan” and obtained a degree in political science international business. Simultaneously, she started writing her own music and performing. Her first live show was at the Hard Rock Café in Phoenix.
In 2008, after completing her “New Life” CD, Lauren approached KISR 93 in Fort Smith about playing her music. “They said, ‘We’re going to start playing it tomorrow.’ It was playing every hour on the hour.” Over the next year, the song got picked up by Clear Channel Radio and was playing on about fifty stations across the country. It even made it to the top 100. “Maybe seventy-three,” says Lauren. “Above me would be like Miley Cyrus, below me would be like Adam Lambert—all major artists. It’s very, very rare to see an independent artist in the top one hundred in radio.”
As an independent artist, Lauren’s not backed by a major label. Or really any label at all. The downside means she has less help with promotion. The upside is that she has more say in how her music is used or distributed. “I would love to be with a major label, [but there are] really cool ways to do it independently. [Now] I own all of my music and have complete creative control. It’s a rare situation.”
Since her song’s radio success, Lauren has performed many times at George’s Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville, as well as the Amp. She even opened for Gavin DeGraw, Pat Benatar, and the Gin Blossoms. “It was great for them as well because I could promote in Fort Smith,” says Lauren. “I had people driving up, because it was my one of my first shows in the area.”
She’s also been seen in several music videos, including “Halfway Gone” by Lifehouse and another video by Enrique Iglesias. “I auditioned for [the parts] because I want to be around these artists that I strive to be like,” says Lauren.
“I like constant change, and I’m very impulsive. I’m getting to live a very blessed life at the moment. I can pick and choose the jobs that I take. My taxes are going to be a mess, [however]. I’m on a different payroll every other week.
“I am definitely the odd ball in my family. My father is a pediatrician, my mother is a pharmacist, and my brother just finished his residency and is now a doctor himself. They don’t quite get exactly what I’m doing or why I’m doing it. They are [supportive], but I think they’re scared. They’re a little bit nervous. It’s not stable, and they just don’t understand. There’s a very defined path if you want to be a doctor; these are the steps to take to do it. With music, that’s not the case; there are no steps, there’s no defined path, there’s no test. You can’t take the boards; there’s nothing with music to say, ‘Yes, you are qualified to do this.’”
Lauren knows there’s a lot of competition in the entertainment industry, that things aren’t always reliable. “Most people that make it are the ones that just wait it out, that don’t give up.” It doesn’t seem as if Lauren could ever quit doing something that means so much to her. “Music is that connecting thread that makes people identify with one another. You see your common experiences. You feel the same frustrations. I think that’s what makes a really good song. I know what you’re going through, and you’re not alone.”
Chances are you’ll be seeing and hearing more of Lauren. She doesn’t know what the future holds, but is more than content where she is. “I’ve always felt in my life that I was exactly where I was supposed to be. I’ve never had that feeling of, I took a wrong turn somewhere and what I’m doing is not really what I’m supposed to be doing. I still feel that way, I still feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. Whether it will go as far as I would like it to, I don’t know yet, but I’m happy. [This] is what I love.”
For more on Lauren, visit her at laurendemiranda.com. Or check her out at the following links:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/new-life-ep/id277413793
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lauren-de-Miranda/45958365494