#258 Steffany Beck & Miranda Easten
In the latest episode of the Songwriter Trysts podcast, host Rae Leigh sits down with two of New Zealand's rising country music stars, Miranda Easten and Steffany Beck. These talented artists open up about their journey in the music industry, their aspirations, and what lies ahead for them.
As New Zealand's country music scene continues to grow, Miranda and Steffany are eager to take their talents across the Tasman Sea. Australia, with its thriving music culture, is at the top of their list. "We really want to come to Australia," says Steffany Beck, sharing their plans to connect with Australian fans and immerse themselves in the country music community.
Connect with Steffany:
Connect with Miranda:
Transcript
Rae Leigh: Welcome to A Songwriter Tryst. We have a double duo, excellent trio type chat today. We've got Miranda Easton and Steffany Beck. Thank you for joining me. I like to start this podcast by getting you, the artist to introduce yourself, tell us where you're from and what you do, who wants to go first, because I don't normally interview two people at once.
Steffany Beck: Hey, we're a first timer. That's
Miranda Easten: cool. Yeah, my name is Miranda Easton and I have been writing songs since I was really young. I started out with poetry and got into guitar and my mum pushed me into a few choirs and things I didn't really want to do at the time. But, looking back, it was probably a good idea.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Miranda Easten: Yeah, I studied music at ARA Jazz School, which was great. Met a lot of cool musicians and collaborated with a bunch of awesome people. And yeah, so I've put out a, this is a very condensed version. That's
Steffany Beck: okay. We'll cover it. It's a podcast.
Miranda Easten: My, my debut album came out a few years ago, which was great.
I had some songs do well in Australia, which was cool. Music videos took off in the States, which was unexpected and cool. And they're still going over there on TV, which is nice. And yeah, just recently released my second album, which has charted at number six here in New Zealand, just a couple of weeks ago.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Miranda Easten: Yeah, Steffany and I have been working together for a wee while now and best friends and yeah, we'll get into our music side of things. Yeah. But also I should probably add born and bred in Christchurch, the South Island of New Zealand. Nice. Okay. Thank you. I guess it's my
Steffany Beck: turn. Yeah. I'm going to come back
Rae Leigh: to you.
Yeah.
Steffany Beck: Yeah. But we'll come back to the joint stuff. The duo stuff. Yeah. But hey, I'm Steffany Beck. And if you can't tell, I've got an accent originally from Portland, Oregon in the States, but I moved to Christchurch a very long time ago and I would say I'm now a Cantabrian. I love it. Love living in New Zealand.
It's amazing. And I guess with my musical journey, I definitely, oh, I'm one of six kids. I was always the loudest and most obnoxious one, and I would never stop making noise. So I was always singing, I'm number two,
Rae Leigh: but first daughter. So where are you in the line? I'm four. I'm number four. So I'm like, I'm the middle forgotten child.
Steffany Beck: Oh my gosh, that breaks my heart. Severe middle child syndrome. My sister who's number four also says the same thing. I always feel so bad when she says it, but being the first daughter, you get to experience everything first, but sometimes it's a little bit more responsibility as well, but.
Higher expectations on
Rae Leigh: the first kids, isn't there?
Steffany Beck: Yep, there is. And it's funny, by the time you get to the fourth one, they're like, Oh, the parenting gets really loose. They don't care at all. They're just surprised that you do anything. They don't have to wait to get a cell phone. Come on. It's, it's not fair, but whatever.
Yeah, so I, like Miranda, I did choir quite young. I learned singing at church and When I was in high school here, actually, in Christchurch, I started a rock band with a bunch, an all girls rock band, and we were not good but we tried, and we even did Rock Quest, and it was a good thing to start out, but that's when I really realized I had always written songs, but I realized then that I was a songwriter, and as well as a performer, and that I was like, ooh, there's something special about this, and then fast forward a couple years, I I won a songwriting competition, And I guess it was my first little big break, and I got to record my song professionally with an Auckland team, and they did a music video, and I was on TV and all that kind of fun stuff.
Oh, nice. And then from there I just struggled to find producers who you let me have a voice. So because I was quite young and I wasn't strong enough to stand up for myself at that time. So I started all these projects, but I didn't finish them because slowly but surely my voice drowned it out a little bit.
And I didn't feel like it was me anymore. And, but for me with my music, it's got to be authentic. It's got to be from my heart. It's got to be real. And but then, I guess fast forward a few years later I did my first debut album and Blue Eyed Girl and that project for me was just about building my confidence again and reconnecting with who I am as a songwriter and loving it.
And that just I was like, okay, I can do this and I really want to do this. So That gave me the fuel for the fire to do the project that I just did, Pillars, which I feel with that EP, I feel like I've just arrived. I feel like I know who I am, I know my vocal signature. I'm country pop. I didn't realize I was country for some reason I don't know, I thought I had to be something else that other people were like, Oh, you should be like the next Britney Spears, but I was like, Oh, she's great.
That ain't me.
Rae Leigh: That ain't me at all. This, I don't think even Britney Spears was really Britney Spears .
Steffany Beck: And which we all know that now. But it's, it takes, it's such a journey and I'm absolutely loving where I am now. Like I said, my new EP pillars I wrote all those songs.
I worked with an amazing producer who worked jointly with me. Like I was, it was a co-project and a sense of I was not. put aside at all. I was completely equal in the process. Who was
Rae Leigh: that? His name is,
Steffany Beck: Ben Edwards at the sitting room at Middleton and he's done, I don't know if Tammy Nelson, Marlon Williams Katie Thompson, a few big names in New Zealand.
And yeah, he was just, great to work with. And yeah, as Maria said my album also, my EP also charted at number six, which is so funny that we were the same number
Rae Leigh: at the same time at different
Steffany Beck: times, just like within weeks of each other. Which was so cool. Cause like it was the first time for us both.
So and then, I know. So it's so fun. And and now we also have our, so we've got our solo things happening and then also our, Like Saddle Up Sisters duo stuff going on as well. So there's a lot going
Rae Leigh: on for us. That is so awesome. And I wanted you to shout out to the producer because the story that you said at the beginning about producing and not feeling you had your voice heard and being pushed out of your own musical production is just such a common conversation, which we've had a few times on this.
Tell me about That, developing and figuring out that you love it and this is what you really want to do. And now you're out there and you've released a couple of albums now.
What does it feel like to really be living your dreams and living in your true passion?
Miranda Easten: I think. As humans, we are conditioned to never feel like we actually meet the dream. So the good things happen, but we don't notice them without pausing and looking back at where, like, where we really came from.
I find that when these really great things happen oh, you've charted and someone tells you, or we've got this fantastic festival we've just been booked for. I feel like the elation lasts about five minutes, and then you're thinking What's the next thing, or it's like a constantly.
It just, it doesn't matter how good something is. You're always looking to the next thing. And I think we can't help that. It's just a thing people do. So for me, I don't feel like. Oh, I'm living the dream. It's great. I'm always looking to that next thing. I do pause a lot and look back and think two years ago, if I could see this list of things I've achieved, I wouldn't believe it, I'd be like, who did that,
Steffany Beck: I totally agree with that because I think once you've achieved some of those wins, then your mind automatically goes to okay now what? How am I going to top this? But I think something that I've been trying to do first of all, I was starting this, as you said, fairly recent journey, but there's all that preparation of years of work going on in the background.
Like I actually came across a. I think it was maybe a to do list but it's actually a dream list that I wrote when I was like a teenager and it had all of these things that I wanted to achieve and for some reason it was within that year so I couldn't develop an unrealistic time frame but it's fun looking back at it now like actually how many things I've been able to actually tick off of dreams that I've wanted to do in my lifetime with my music and honestly, I just feel so much gratitude for those opportunities that they've come.
But I also acknowledge the hard work that we put into to make them happen. And because I think sometimes people can get caught up in the whole idea of thinking like, Oh you just got that opportunity or that you're just in the right place at the right time. You make yourself be in the right place in the right time.
Yeah. To that. Ready for when those opportunities come and also keep pushing your dream along and then other people join the bandwagon and it becomes This moving bus of a dream, I guess if you will. Yeah, but it's it honestly like with Miranda It's so important that she was saying to go back and reflect because like it's so easy to get caught up in thinking like okay What's next but?
Even if I just look at my Instagram account and just think all the things I did over the last couple weeks, I'm just like, Oh my gosh, that's right. I did that. Wow. It's so cool because we're humans. We forget.
Miranda Easten: Yeah. We have to be reminded. We were talking about it just before coming on the podcast, actually, just up on the wall.
You can't see it, but just up here. Yeah, right
Rae Leigh: there. My
Miranda Easten: giant board. And I think that the site, like I put things on one side that I'd like to work towards and And on the other side, when they happen we put them there and it's overflowing, like the side that's winning. She's running out of space.
Running out
Steffany Beck: of space. You need a bigger board. You'll have to send me a picture of that because I want to
Rae Leigh: see it. I love goal setting. And I love Tony Robinson's saying where he says most of us overestimate how much we can achieve in a year, like your one year dreams, but a lot of us underestimate what we can achieve in 10 years.
And it can be, it's a harder skill to learn to plan that far in advance. What are we going to do by the end of this year, but what are we going to do by the end of. Two years, five years, 10 years. Where do we want to be in 10 years time? And I'm like, I'm a big self development person, but I write it every year at the start of the year.
I have a list of what do I want to achieve? And I have learned to not put set goals on it. Like it'd be nice to have, if that happens this year, but they're just goals working towards what's it, what's that journey been like for you with your goal setting? You've got vision boards. Like, how do you set it up?
Do you have a ritual on when you do it? Or I always do mine New Year's Eve. I don't go out and party unless I'm being paid for a
Miranda Easten: gig. I keep mine going all the time really. And I'm always adding to it. And we're both list people. So we
Steffany Beck: write our lists together. We've got our own lists and then we're like, okay, we're together.
What's our list of things we need to work on? Yeah. Sure. And I you are on my
Rae Leigh: list today. Yep. daily to-Do list. You're on my list. , you're on my list.
Miranda Easten: I think with especially the vision board in particular it's more about being reminded every time I see it for, to look for those opportunities.
Yeah. Like it's not really just like wishing for stuff. It's it keeps me noticing which things work towards those goals that I've got.
Steffany Beck: Even with looking back and with Miranda and I working together on this Saddle Up Sisters, we did our headlining a national tour together.
We released a single together, which is charting in Australia at the moment. And we have a music video coming out for it, which we actually filmed our entire tour. So it's the whole tour in the music video. It's awesome. And it comes out in two weeks. Okay, so it comes out on the 26th of August, but We started working on this journey, particularly a year ago, we were planning, we were writing our goals down of things we wanted to achieve.
And then we actually met together and we would sit on both of our little laptops chipping away at our to do list and we would organize, our band rehearsals, the things that we needed to do. So we made basically SMART goals. Sorry, I can't remember what all the acronyms stand for at the moment, but
Rae Leigh: yeah, specific, measurable.
Steffany Beck: Attainable, I think. Oh, action, maybe that's better. Realistic and the time frame. Yes. We definitely stuck to those. And as Marina is saying, looking back on it now we achieved all the things that we wanted to. And some amazing support. The power of goals. Yeah. I know. And. And she's going up for your dreams as well and I think also, yeah, 100 percent because I think that's a big part of it.
When you don't actually believe you're good enough or you deserve it, or you're even worthy of success. You don't want to be a tall poppy, but it's not about being that. It's just being your true self and allowing yourself. To be that person you know is inside you and honoring that and I think that's something I've personally felt from doing this whole journey and my personal project as well is I feel like this is who I'm meant to be and I just feel so much joy in that yeah, I make mistakes.
I probably miss opportunities and, don't do it perfectly, but I learned. Exactly. We're learning, we're growing, and we're having fun doing it. And I think that's what really shows and I think that's why we're finding. the goals and the wins because of all that other stuff going on inside as well.
Miranda Easten: And another thing, just to add on that we've noticed how the tiny little wins you wouldn't think would mean much, how they've led to other things. Oh, yeah. Like just tiny wee details. Like we went to this thing and we met this person. Right person at the right time. And then, three months later, you're doing these fantastic shows, but it wouldn't have happened if you hadn't met this person.
We met this person and we didn't want to go to that
Steffany Beck: one thing, which we were too tired to go to, but we went anyway.
Miranda Easten: Yeah. Sometimes it is a bit of a jigsaw puzzle. It is. I don't truly think that anyone really has some big break. I think there's a whole lot of hard work that goes into every single little note.
It's
Rae Leigh: literally one step at a
Miranda Easten: time.
Rae Leigh: But like you said, it's showing
Miranda Easten: What's the worst that can happen, he said, but also what's the best that could happen, if you think about it that way.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. That's amazing. What's the best thing that could happen?
Steffany Beck: Yeah. And like the thing is you gotta put yourself out there, even if it's uncomfortable, because that's how you grow and that's how you actually get these kind of opportunities, is by showing up.
It's so uncomfortable, isn't it? Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah, of course it is. I think if it wasn't everyone would do it, and then everyone would be where they want to be, but being uncomfortable is actually not a bad thing, if it's pushing you to do something that actually would lead to a good thing.
Rae Leigh: It's not natural though, is it? Putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations as human beings. We've become quite comfortable in life, haven't we? Especially in Australia and New Zealand and in Western world. I can't speak for anywhere else really, but we've become extremely comfortable. And I don't know if it's actually detrimental to humanity being too comfortable.
Miranda Easten: Yeah. I'd say it is. A little bit of healthy stress here and there is, yeah, it's good. It is growth. Isn't it? That's the thing.
Steffany Beck: It's the growth. And cause I, used to think that, Oh, stress is not good. It's not healthy, but actually it is. It's just when it's prolonged. And there's no release of the pressure of the tension and that's when it could lead to health complications or some mental health issues and things like that, but I actually find I work really well under pressure when I have deadlines and I know she's expecting something from me.
I work for it. I'm just like, yeah, I can't brand it down or I can't let the team down. So it's it's really motivated. Let's push a little bit more. We actually
Miranda Easten: compliment each other
Steffany Beck: pretty
Miranda Easten: well. Yeah. Caving each other in shit.
Steffany Beck: It's not like anyone's you haven't done this. It's more oh hey, where are you at with that?
I'm like, oh yep. Getting onto it. And there's a lot of love, respect and unity in what we're striving to do that we just, we're like, yep, onto it. It's just, it's momentum. Yeah, we're working towards a vision.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. I absolutely love that. You sound really emotionally mature and you've obviously had massive growth with your mental health around understanding, like way more emotionally mature than a lot of people I know.
So how have you gotten to this space? Is it parental? Is it family experience or has there been something that's helped you learn these sort of tactics? Like, how did you learn that stress is actually okay?
Steffany Beck: Many things. I think naturally, with my personality and some of my strengths, I'm a very empathetic person. But that's like a superpower, but it also can be quite detrimental if you don't know how to, Because you're always feeling what other people are feeling and wanting to take on their pain and resolve it, but it's not yours.
Really, you're just there to be a support. So it's okay, how do I love but not take it all on? So I think it's just a lot of spending time with yourself and actually working on yourself and during COVID times, sorry to go back to that point. When there wasn't really a whole lot else to do, I just remember being like with myself thinking Oh, yeah, I was doing pretty good in life and but I was like, actually, there's some things I need to work on myself that I've noticed are holding me back.
And a lot of that was, Self worth and, feeling good enough is something I personally struggle with. And it's just finding tools and things with that. I believe, in like emotional clearing and addressing issues and realizing it's okay to feel those things.
But then what do you do with it? You don't always get to choose what happens to you, but you always get to choose how you respond. So it's I get. reviewing those things, looking at what can I learn from it and trying to take yourself back out of the situation. And I was also quite blessed that I was raised with parents that always taught me to honor my feelings and to teach me emotional intelligence.
And I for getting me started. And then I knew naturally where to go if there was like, if I was, feeling really down on something or going through some really tough challenges in my life, because we all do, of learning personal self resilience. And what does that look like? What does it feel like for you?
And everyone's different and it takes a lot of exploration. And sometimes people, as you said, are too comfortable dealing with where they're at and don't want to deal with
Rae Leigh: themselves. Do a deep dive, yeah.
Steffany Beck: But really, the only way to, I think, remove the little blockages we have inside is to deal with yourself.
Just own your stuff. And deal with it, accept it, take ownership, clean it out of the closet
Rae Leigh: and
Steffany Beck: make way for the person that you really
Rae Leigh: are. And I find sometimes we don't do it until we absolutely have to. Especially if it's really hard. Sometimes the universe is just no, you have to deal with this now.
And there's no trust, but I'm also a big believer that we don't get given things that we can't handle. And that helps me when I freak out. I'm like, if I couldn't do this, then I wouldn't be doing it. So say yes and work it out later.
Steffany Beck: Perspective. It really helps. And remembering those things that we've learned, like 100%, like I believe the same, like we wouldn't be given something that we can't handle and each thing we get better and we grow and we can handle a little bit more, a little bit more.
Oh, that one feels uncomfortable, but a little bit more, it's just all part of the human experience
Rae Leigh: of evolving, I think. Yeah. And that's that's a biblical term as well. Being the pastor's kid. God doesn't give you any temptation that you can't, or anything you can't handle, I think is the saying.
I can't remember where it's from. I should. Yeah. No, you're right. Yeah. Yeah. I used to be so good at memory verses and that was one of my strengths. I think it helped me with remembering lyrics and things, did they ever do that with you guys? You had to do memory verses and if you remembered the whole verse by the end of Sunday school, you'd get a treat.
Oh yeah.
Steffany Beck: It's
Rae Leigh: the best
Steffany Beck: way
Rae Leigh: to teach kids. Incentive, right? Oh, absolutely. And it trained my short term memory for sure. How about you, Miranda? Do you have anything to say on that?
Miranda Easten: I'm very complicated. I like complicated,
Steffany Beck: it's fun.
Miranda Easten: Yeah, I did not have the perfect childhood. I definitely didn't have like super supportive parents, my, my mom did the best she could with what she had.
But it wasn't great. Wasn't ideal. So my, my father left when I was really young and, she was doing the best she could, but struggling a bit. And it was family around, but my family never really talked about their feelings. It wasn't something that we would talk about. And so for me, I've had to self soothe most of my life.
And so I've always been seeking out advice from other places and, when I was a teenager, I started having wicked panic attacks, every single day for years, basically. And it took away all those special years. And there was a lot I couldn't do. I became agoraphobic.
I couldn't leave the house. Yeah, it lost a lot of friends,
Rae Leigh: so I had
Miranda Easten: this huge, I call it the dark ages. It was this huge period of time I would say a good, maybe almost 15 years of going through that. Where I had to rebuild myself from scratch.
Rae Leigh: Well
Miranda Easten: done, that's
Rae Leigh: so courageous.
Miranda Easten: Thank you. It is.
Rae Leigh: It
Miranda Easten: is. Yeah. So it was only really, I would say maybe the last eight years or so that I started to really learn who I am. Because I didn't know. I had no idea because I'd just been living in survival mode for such a long time, a bit of a prisoner in my own head.
Rae Leigh: And,
Miranda Easten: yeah. It's only a really kind of recent thing in my life to be emotionally intelligent, I watch Mel Robbins.
I love him. I meditate. I, I have lovely friends now and, a great supportive family and. Yeah it's a very different journey to steps like I'm so envious of the big family thing and like everyone, like sisters and brothers and my family, as lovely as they are, we're not like super close, there's not that kind of, so it's really lovely to have this friendship.
Like she really is my best friend and we're sisters. A lot of healing has come from this.
Rae Leigh: And the music as well, I'm assuming is probably been a massive journey for you. And I know for myself, I wouldn't be where I am now without the gift of music. How is it like that for you as well?
Miranda Easten: Oh, absolutely.
And writing is such an amazing outlet and I don't know where I would be without it. I've had
Rae Leigh: multiple therapists tell me I'd be dead if I didn't have music.
Miranda Easten: Yeah, I believe I would too. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That's why at the
Rae Leigh: beginning of this podcast, I said, music saved my life. And that's why, cause I probably would have been an overdose or, I would have, if I didn't have the music as the outlet, I probably would have looked for something that might've been more unhealthy.
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah
Miranda Easten: I see that in me as well, 100%.
Rae Leigh: Tell me about this more recent connection.
Saddle Up Sisters. Saddle Up Sisters. So what was the beginning of that? Where did that idea come from?
Steffany Beck: We actually met each other online. Cause I, funnily, I actually remember the first time I ever saw Miranda's face was in a magazine at my work. And I just looked at the pictures she looks cool.
I was like, I'd love to get to know her. And then I ended up finding her online or whatever. And we followed each other and we both listened to each other's music. And I don't know, there was just like a mutual respect and we would like comment on each other's stuff every now and then. But I just it was like one day a mutual place we would go to was having like a music, social networking evening.
And I was like, Hey, do you want to go to this? So we could actually finally meet in person. And she was like, yep. And she came and then it was love at first sight. Yeah, I know. But sister love at first sight. We even
Miranda Easten: said straight away, we're going to be friends forever. Best friends.
Steffany Beck: No pressure.
I know we just knew and we just have a lot of, yeah. And we just have so many dreams, goals and some life things going on that just. We really click and we can understand each other and be there for each other. And yeah, it was just like really hard to explain. It was just like,
Miranda Easten: okay.
Oh no, really? So then you're
Rae Leigh: like, we have to do something with this, right? Like we have to. Exactly. So who came up with the idea of collaborating and doing music together?
Steffany Beck: I think the tour was my idea and the song was your idea. And then we're like, let's put it all together. But yeah, we would meet at Coffee Culture and we didn't buy anything sometimes.
We just sit there and use their wifi. But then we started buying stuff because we met like every Saturday Saturday is like our day. We get together and we just. We plan, we strategize, like what is it we want to do? What are our goals? And then we make our little wee to do list of things that we need to do.
And then by the next time we meet, we're like, okay, where are we at with this? So we'd have our follow up catch ups. And we just knew hey, like there's these things we can do. Let's just go for it. Let's just do it. Yep, we planned and organized a national tour. We got two festival slots which is amazing and then we also got our CDs into JB Hi Fi and ended up doing it was a mini tour inside of our tour, where we did an acoustic live performance and CD signing at JB Hi Fi's in New Zealand.
So we did five of those. And then we had five of our national tour shows, and it just kept growing and evolving. And, but as you said, we just kept showing up. We're both super dedicated and we just, yeah, we just planned it. And then the song idea came along.
Miranda Easten: Yeah. So I was, yeah, I was writing and creating some music over in Rockfield Studios in Wales.
That's so cool. Yeah. And the song, this music just came up and a chap over there Chris Childs, he big name tours with Spice Girls, like cool guy. Yeah, he and I started working on the song, but it was like, Super unfinished and I ended up bringing it back to New Zealand and hanging out with Steph.
I was, I just pulled it out and I was like, let's finish this song. Yeah. So we did really quickly too. Very quick. I think it was a half an hour. Half an hour, yeah. That's
Steffany Beck: so good. And I recalled all the lyrics and I'm like, yep, let's do it. That's it. There's nothing else to do other than sing
Miranda Easten: it
Steffany Beck: and record it.
So we flew up to
Miranda Easten: Auckland recorded the vocals at Parachute. Yep. Parachute Studios. Wow. And yeah, a couple of producers. We had Emily Snape and Greg Paver. And he's amazing. He is the producer for like Melanie C and Kimbra and Upshop. He did Upshop as well, didn't he? Upshop. Men of Straight Preaches.
Yeah.
Steffany Beck: Really big name. It was really cool getting to work with him on this song. It was fun. That
Miranda Easten: was a
Rae Leigh: lot of fun. Let me just ask though. You guys are independent, right? Yes. Or do you have record labels and publishers? We're
Steffany Beck: both independent, self managed artists. Oh, so much work.
Miranda Easten: With publishers.
Yeah. Publishers. Okay. Yes, no
Steffany Beck: publishers, and we do have distributors, but we are our own managers. We call the shots.
It is pretty fun, but I actually think it's really important to know the mechanisms of your own business because music is a business. You are a brand, you are a product. I know people don't like to hear that, but once you get your head around that's how I think you can make those good decisions and move forward and making all those good decisions.
But you have the important part, which is the soul of it, which is the music, which is the talent, which is the heart. But you have to have all those other things in place to take it to the world.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. And your art is healing and people need it. And if they don't actually get it. Doing the service to the art and putting it out there for people to discover you and the art that you're creating, then it won't get to do the healing power that it can do.
Yeah, when you're naturally talented as well, it can be hard to see the value behind something when it can come so easily.
Miranda Easten: Yeah, absolutely. I know what you mean there.
Rae Leigh: 100%.
Tell me about what you are doing now. Where are we at right now?
What's everyone need to go and listen to
Miranda Easten: or,
Rae Leigh: go on, I know you're doing a lot. Morning
Miranda Easten: we're doing a dance lesson. Yes, we were working
Steffany Beck: on choreography for one of Brenda's music videos.
Miranda Easten: Yeah, so I've got a music video being filmed in a few days in Auckland and we're going up to, to do that together.
It's going to
Steffany Beck: be a lot of fun.
Miranda Easten: Oh yeah. There's a dance. We were sent yeah, by the choreographer and. It's pretty, pretty professional.
Rae Leigh: It's quite intense.
Miranda Easten: Are you both
Rae Leigh: dancers? Do you have experience dancing?
Miranda Easten: Steph has more experience than me. I
Steffany Beck: used to be on a hip hop dance team for four years.
So I love pop, lock and dropping it. It's fun to me. So I'm going to teach her some, pop stuff.
Rae Leigh: Pops.
Steffany Beck: Yeah. Keep getting them though. I like doing it,
Rae Leigh: but I look weird doing, I'm like very tall
Steffany Beck: and it's blinky about just having fun, and just
Miranda Easten: letting
Steffany Beck: loose.
Miranda Easten: Yeah. So a little attitude.
There's been a bit of that going, that's the job of the week really is to perfect this dance. Cool. Music video but yeah, the next thing is our own music video, which Yes, for
Steffany Beck: Hell and Back. As we mentioned before, we filmed the entire music video while we're on tour and the video just captures it perfectly.
It feels like a tour diary. It's just awesome. On the road, all these really special moments, our fans actually being in the videos as well and the locations that we performed at, the festivals, everything, it's all captured in this beautiful time capsule, which is the music video, and so we're really excited for that to come out, and so that comes out on the 26th of August.
It's like documentary style. Vibes
Rae Leigh: and a little
Steffany Beck: performance, live performance as well and captured in it. And it was really well done. It was,
Miranda Easten: yeah. You get to the end of it and it's Oh, we did a lot.
Steffany Beck: But it's also look, it was also like everything we did. It's right there. The notch on your belt. That's so good.
Miranda Easten: Yeah. Yeah. Awesome.
Steffany Beck: Yeah. It's gonna be really cool. So anyone who came out to the shows will have to look for themselves because they might actually see themselves in the video.
For sure. That's cool. When's the video coming out? The 26th of August. Yeah. So two weeks. About two weeks.
Miranda Easten: Yeah. We're planning to write some more together as well. Yeah. Because we've enjoyed doing that. We can't just turn it off,
Steffany Beck: So
Miranda Easten: there's going to be a bit of that and new music on the way.
For
Rae Leigh: sure. Cool. And any tours or anything like that planned for the near future? Not that you're announcing yet?
Steffany Beck: We're not announcing yet, we're literally at the beginning planning stages of some potential extensions and also some we really want to come to Australia. That's the point. Jump over the
Rae Leigh: point.
Steffany Beck: Yes, that's where we really want to come next and come and see the fans over there and just get amongst the music scene over there because you guys have such a thriving culture of music in Australia and country music as well it's all happening in Australia. So we want to go and be a part of that.
We have such an
Rae Leigh: amazing group of people here that's supporting like supporters as well as creators, but also just like super fans who just make it all possible.
Steffany Beck: Yeah, and that's the thing that's really important is those super fans, those people who really bring the support, the energy, because that's what helps us all be able to do what we want to do, so
Rae Leigh: awesome, but not announced yet, but we're all going to keep pressing. It's in
Steffany Beck: the words. So basically just got to follow along and stay tuned to be part of the journey and you'll see all the links. All right. Tell
Rae Leigh: me, you said you got your vision board in front of you. What what are the things that you look at and you go, it makes you the most excited?
Touring Australia. Yeah.
Grammys.
Steffany Beck: Yes, definitely would love to. Honestly, awards really aren't the most important thing, but I think it's a great thing to aim for, and like to strive for and recognize. The amazingness that is the songs that we put our heart and souls into I'd love to aim for an award of some type You know just you know another dream achievement recognition.
Yeah. Yeah, you know I mean as we spoke we're talking that even us being able to chart on the New Zealand top 10 albums Like that is such amazing recognition from the New Zealand music industry Which is actually It's huge because country music hasn't always really been a thing here and it's really growing and becoming more of a thing here and it just feels really nice to see that they're recognizing that space so much more and there's so much more honor,
Miranda Easten: recognition, and support of country music in New Zealand as well.
All of my wins have been international, until very recently and suddenly it's like New Zealand's noticing a little bit. It does feel good. It feels like an award. Chatting. It does. Chatting in New Zealand.
Steffany Beck: To say Hey, like the industry is like, Hey, we see you and we see what you're doing and we love it.
And it's Oh, that's great. Country music. We know people love it. I
Rae Leigh: keep going back to my pastor's roots, but Jesus always says even he wasn't accepted in his hometown. And it's so hard when you feel like everyone else is appreciating you and loving what you're doing, but your local area is yeah, but I find it really encouraging.
It's Jesus was kicked out of his hometown as well. So You know he didn't do too bad for himself. He did something good. And I think if you can model yourself off anyone, that's a good one to follow. Tell me now that you've been doing it a while and you have had some amazing wins and obviously it's been a big challenge as well.
If you were to give advice to someone just starting out or to other songwriters and artists out there who are watching your journey and loving what you're doing, what piece of advice would you give them?
Miranda Easten: Oh just don't stop. Don't give up. I thought you were going to say don't start. Yeah. Don't
Steffany Beck: even
Miranda Easten: go there.
Don't even go there. No it's all about little puzzle pieces, like I was saying earlier. Yeah. And it can sound extremely daunting when you look at it. It's one big thing. Like, how am I going to get to this? How am I going to get to that? Nobody just gets to that. It is just tiny puzzle pieces.
So just write down your puzzle pieces and one at a time. Yeah. That's the best thing to do. And definitely the road to success is just not quitting, really. We all could have stopped at any moment.
Steffany Beck: Keep showing up. Just keep going. And having little breaks when you need it. Yeah, exactly.
I know after our tour, we both were like, oh I think it was like four weeks. I was like, I felt like I fell off the face of the earth. Cause I just needed time to just chill and recharge. But now I'm like, You get back into so ready. I guess going back to what the question you asked and also adding on to what Miranda said is Realizing that everything is a learning experience and that every opportunity that you take you can learn something from it and it's to build you to refine you as an artist to find and discover yourself as well because as I said for myself for a long time I had all these voices telling me oh you should be pop, you should be this, you should be that but it's I'd never really stopped to think actually like experimenting and feeling what actually am I like and it takes time to find your Vocal sound like i'm totally true like heart and soul.
It's in there But I just had to unlock it and you know Now I just have so much fun playing with like I know what my vocal sound is and I have so much fun playing with It but you got to take time to discover it and just be patient like be patient Every artist starts as an amateur and it's worth trying and putting yourself out there.
Cause you isn't it exciting if you're like, how far can I actually go with this thing? If just, yeah, I would say everything's a learning experience. Be patient as you're finding yourself as an artist, but keep going. And yeah, just showing up. Crying. That's the only thing as an
Rae Leigh: amateur, being professional, be as professional as you can, no matter what.
Yeah, I love it. When I first started, some people had no idea that I was just starting and I was like, Nope, I've never done this before. And they're just like, Whoa, you just got to fake it till you make it a little bit and get out there. And one of my favorite questions to ask everyone. is, if you could collaborate with anyone in the world, who would it be and why?
Miranda Easten: We're both going to say Dolly Parton. Oh my gosh.
Steffany Beck: I'm just so obsessed with her. We both love her so much. I, one of the songs in my EP Pillars is called What Would Dolly Do? And she is, oh, you've got to have a listen to it. It's such a fun song. But she's just, Yeah, exactly. Cause she's just such a pillar of light.
I think her as a person, as a businesswoman, as a songwriter, like to me, she's like the whole package and she's fun and just over the top. And I just love that about her. And I think it's so fun to, to meet her, to even just like dinner with her, talk about stories and yeah, to sing with her would just be like, I could die and go to heaven now, good. I've done enough. I think
Miranda Easten: Neil Young would be a close second. Yeah. I love his lyrics.
Rae Leigh: Awesome. So touring, you've got new music coming out. How is the best way for people to support you? Is there anything else you would like to share with everyone before we finish up? And thank you so much for your time today.
You've been so generous with your wisdom and being so open. I really appreciate it.
Steffany Beck: Thank you for having us. Yeah. Thank you for having us. We've absolutely loved it. It's so great to have a mindful host and such wonderful questions that we think are actually real topics, real good stuff for people to hear and to know.
I guess probably the best thing is to just, if people keep following along on our journey and following us on social medias, we're on everything, listening to our music. As we said, we'd love to come over to Australia. If anyone's got any opportunities or shows they'd love us to come around to, just give us a holler.
We'd love to hear from you. And that's probably it that I can say anything from
Miranda Easten: you. Yeah. I think that covers everything. We are on everything.
Rae Leigh: I'll put the links in the description. Yeah. I'll put all your links and websites and socials. All of that will be in the description of this podcast and there will be a blog on the website SongwriterTrysts.com. au with this podcast, but it'll also have a little blurb and the transcript and All of your links. So it'd be really easy for people to go and follow you, listen to you, find out when you're in Australia and just support you as much as possible. And yeah, I'm just cheering for you. Absolutely. So hopefully we'll get you over here as soon as possible.
Steffany Beck: Thank you so much. Thank you so much. It's been an absolute pleasure. Really appreciate your time. You too.
