In April, Post-Burnout spoke with the Irish singer-songwriter Miranda Faul. At the time, the year was still young and full of opportunity. When we caught up again in January, we asked how the year had been for her in retrospect. “It was a busy year,” she reflects. “I did a lot of writing, a lot of productions, I started gigging with my band. It kind of flew by. It was really just amazing experiences.”

Being a fan of acoustic folk and writing music in that style, Miranda has been working with the acclaimed pop producer Cian Sweeny to merge their two styles and create a unique fixture. “When I started… – it feels like a lifetime ago, because – …when I started in 2022, I hadn’t really found a producer or a studio sound that felt like what I wanted,” she says. “So, it was only really last year, in 2024, that I started working with Cian and found that sound.”

Beyond this collaboration, Miranda’s novel sound came from maturity and self-acceptance. “The reasoning behind the order was stylistic as well, in that, over the last year or two, I was trying to figure out what my sound is, and people would say, ‘Oh, but that one’s very pop, that one’s very folky. What’s your sound?’,” she explains.

“And something that I’ve been trying to accept for myself is, as long as it’s my voice, it’s my writing, it’s my overall style, it’s OK to have the more gentle songs and the more upbeat songs.”

We then asked how the distinctive sound from this collaboration is replicated with her band in a live setting.  “At the moment, my band arrangements would be quite different to my studio sound,” Miranda responded.

“We’d try to recreate some basslines, where my drummer would try to replicate the overall vibe of the beats, but I think, at the stage where I’m at now, it’s a bit of a different sound. Like, I would love, eventually, to have some backing tracks to maintain some of the synthpop elements, but, for now, it is quite different.”

But it seems like the band dynamic will play a greater influence on the structure of the studio recordings of her songs, going forward. “The way it’s gone over the last years, I was writing a lot, but usually in a moment when I was really upset or something dramatic… – well, in my own head [Laughs] – …something dramatic in my life had happened, and usually it’s the ones that I sit with them after and think, ‘Oh, I actually think that might be a good song!’,” Miranda says of her process of selecting songs to release.

“I always start by making my demo, I’ll send it to a few people. I like to try them out on open mics, because, with some songs, people say, ‘Oh, that song really has a hook; it was stuck in my head.’  I will go off, getting those bits of feedback, and try it with the band, and then, once I reach the point that I want to record it, it’s usually quite quick. Like, once we go in, record it, find the sound, get the production done, I don’t sit on them for long. [Laughs] I think, ‘OK, that’s done. That needs to get out!’”

Like a lot of artists, Miranda mainly feels inspired to write during despondent moments, which she feels may give people the wrong impression of her as a person. “I’ve written some very dark songs [but] I wouldn’t say that my overall life is very dark,” she says.

Through naked vulnerability and sincerity, Miranda’s lyrics cut through the delicacy of her slower songs and grooves of her poppier numbers to really sting the listener with her pain. We asked if there were songs that she wrote that felt too fresh to release.

She responded, “Every song feels too fresh and too vulnerable, but I do it, anyways, and then I panic! [Laughs] One of the songs that I’m recording soon, to release in the first half of this year, is about a very fresh situation. So, I wrote the song in October, and the person I wrote it about, I think they will hear it and be angry at me. [Laughs] But I think my number one priority is, ‘If I think this is a good song and want to release it, I’ll deal with the consequences after!’”

The elements of Miranda’s music and lyrics discussed in this article can be heard on her debut EP, Rise & Run, which was released on the day of this article’s publication. “So, these songs, they’re mostly songs that I wrote in the last year,” Miranda explains of the EP’s background. “But the main track, ‘Rise & Run,’ is one of the first songs I wrote. I guess it would’ve been five years ago, now, but it, overall, tied together what is my sound now on the EP.”

Rise & Run acts similar to a composite novel, where each isolated track is akin to an individually complete story, but, when the songs/stories are put together (in the case of the stories, in a book; with the songs, in an EP), each contributes to an overall motif.

“It’s about me, and all of the songs are about difficult relationships,” Miranda says of the EP’s themes. “I’ve got childhood dynamics and relationships with parents in there, and then romantic relationships, as well, and I think just ending with ‘You Would Have Let Me Down’ was about taking a stance of, ‘I can actually walk away from these situations and put myself first.’”

With her debut EP out in its first month, we conclude the interview by asking what Miranda has planned for the rest of the year. “The main thing I’m focusing on in 2025 is a couple of releases I’ve got lined up, that I’m excited about,” she responds.

“I’m hoping to get some more support slots, some festivals – which will be my first festivals – and I’m hoping to get over for a London gig with my band, and hoping to branch out to some different towns in Ireland.”

Miranda Faul’s debut EP, Rise & Run, is on all streaming platforms from today. You can keep up with Miranda through her Linktree.

Tune into POSTBURNOUT.COM Interviews… tomorrow to hear this interview in full. Available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music Podcasts.

Aaron Kavanagh

Aaron Kavanagh is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Post-Burnout. His writing can also be found in the Irish Daily Star, Buzz.ie, Totally Dublin, The GOO, Headstuff, New Noise Magazine, XS Noize, DSCVRD and more.