Are you finding it difficult as a solo artist in the music industry?

  I don’t know if I could say that it’s harder to be a solo artist, compared to being in a band, but there’s definitely more that I have to do by myself. It’s times like those that I wish I had four other permanent fixtures to help take on the work load.

How did originally decide to become a musician?

  I started teaching myself how to play the piano when I was around 9, and the guitar when I was 13. It definitely evolved from there and developed into this passion and way of life for me now.

How do you find how your influences reflect your music?

• My influences tend to get mixed up together and then whatever comes out usually is a reflection of that. I’m not specific to one set genre.
• I tend to say that my music is pop with soul and jazz influences with a little bit of folk. It’s definitely a mixture, but it’s given me a defining sound.
  

Has living in a vast variety of Countries reflected the way you look at music? or reflect in your writing?

  In way I guess you could say it has reflected upon my music, although I don’t really tend to think so. Living in different countries has affected me as a person more so, than my music stylistically. But the impact those different environments had on me, has made me who I am today and I think that kind of comes out in everything that I do.

Was it difficult to recruit other musicians for your album?

  It wasn’t actually. It’s funny. I met one of the producers, Michael Chase, at a CPR training course a couple of years ago, and his best friend, Andrew Miller, is an amazing drummer, so when he came on board everything just clicked. The two of them really took this project under their wings and I don’t know what I would’ve done without them.

Where does the inspiration come from as you create your lyrics?

  My inspiration comes from a lot of life experiences, and not necessarily my own. I observe a lot and tend to be very quiet in nature, coming off extremely shy at times, but I’m usually just taking everything in. And when I write a lot of different parts of life/instances can come together to form one song, although it may not have necessarily actually happened that way.

Now your vocals is one of the items which I admired the most on the album I was wondering if you have ever had any vocal training?

  Thank you! That’s so nice of you. I’ve never had extensive training but I had to take one semester of vocal lessons when I went to college as part of my degree. Let’s just say it wasn’t the highlight of my college experience. We had to do formal recitals and I definitely felt so out of place.

What is your favourite song to perform off the album live?

  My favourite song to play is “Wreck.” For me it has this eeriness to it which allows me to totally connect with everything about it – the lyrics, the music. It’s funny, because after I wrote this song, which was after I had just quit my job while living in Vancouver and realized that that probably wasn’t the smartest thing to have done, I googled my name and this page popped up with the title “The Wreck of Manuela.” Apparently there was this ship named, “Manuela” which was shipwrecked! It was very weird at the time, but now it just kind of hits home a lot more.


How do you find people take to your music?

• I think people often are surprised when they first hear me.
• I can see them as I walk up on stage, and I know most are probably expecting the same female singer-songwriter style – very mellow for the most part. Then as soon as I start singing and playing their expressions change and they’re somewhat surprised – that’s my favorite part of playing live – seeing people’s expressions if they’ve never heard me before.
  

Where can people pick up your album?

-My album is available on iTunes. You can also go to your local HMV and order my album from them in-store, or if you want a hardcopy you can get it from myself at manuela.bigcartel.com, and I will personally ship you a copy.