Interview with Miriam Stockley, Singer, Composer, Remarkable!
May 16, 2012
I am learning about the power of the Law of Attraction. This is one way it has worked in my life. I have dreamed of Miriam Stockley long before I met her this year. In 2000, I took a year off from being a psychotherapist and had a position with the Vice-President of MBNA credit card corporation. I was a chef and I listened to music while I cooked pork loin stuffed with dates.
The family had an extensive music collection. One day I popped in a CD entitled Adiemus and Miriam’s voice rocked my world. I had never heard anything like it before and it soon became one of those albums that we all have, which we play over and over till all your family wants to scream. In the car, in the shower, all the time and singing at the top of my lungs speeding down Interstate 95.
Then, 11 years later I went to Africa. While I was with Linda Tucker and the White Lions of Timbavati, Adiemus went with me on my iPod and Miriam’s voice was the voice I heard as much as the roaring lions themselves. As I flew home from South Africa I heard myself say, “I would love to meet Miriam one day”. The Law of Attraction kicked in instantly.
One year later, through my magical partnering with Richard Gannaway and AO Music, where Miriam Stockley is a principle singer and creative spark, I finally met Miriam in her lovely home in Florida. A dream come true for me. I fell further in love with the special person she is, her yummy husband Rod and her extended family of two cats and the queen herself, Minky ( a larger than life Chihuahua). I learned about Miriam’s Johannesburg, South Africa upbringing and her life as a soulful singer.
At the age of eleven, Miriam and her older sister Avril formed the group, the Stockley Sisters, and had a hit in 1976 on the South African Top 30. Later in her life, she moved to London to further pursue her musical career and in 1991, Miriam became a part of the dance group Praise whose single “Only You” reached number four on the UK charts. And in 1995, she worked with Karl Jenkins as the multi-layered vocalist on his first Adiemus release which skyrocketed to fame.
Miriam worked as backup singer to some of the world’s most famous recording artists, including Tina Turner and George Michael.
She released her third solo album, a collection of rearranged classical standards entitled Eternal , in 2006.
Beginning in 2006, she joined Richard Gannaway and Jay Oliver as a primary member of the world music group Aomusic and helped to create the theme music for the 2008 Summer Olympics. AO is about to release their fourth album in 2013 and has been considered for the Grammys in World Music for the past two years.
In 2011, Miriam was invited to give a private performance for the Education Without Borders International conference in Dubai.
So, while I was graciously hosted by Miriam and Rod, just minutes from Disney world, I found a soul sister, a warm and infectious woman whose whole heart is in the music she sings and who carries a vision for changing the world, for creating inspiration. She is generous, witty and in love with life. Miriam was willing to answer a few questions that I think you will find intriguing and hopefully will introduce you to the world of her heart stopping and heart opening music.
MAYA Thank you Miriam for joining me today. I am so excited to talk more intimately with you.
MIRIAM I am happy to be here Maya.
MAYA When did you know you wanted to be a singer and when was the first time you acted on this desire.
MIRIAM As a baby, my dad would climb into my crib and sing to me – he had a gorgeous, gentle voice. He taught my sister and I to hold pitch and to sing harmonies when we were very little. I would try to emulate Barbra Streisand as a very young child and by the time I was 8, I was performing in pretty sophisticated school productions like The Mikado. I was a pretty fierce Katisha. By the time I was 11, I was playing Beethoven’s Pathetique – by ear, which infuriated my piano teacher.
I had also cut my first single and recorded my first TV jingle – Allied Building Society (in two languages!). I watched three session singers (backing vocalists) walk into the recording studio, pick up a piece of music and sing in perfect three part harmony on my record! I though this was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.
I was pretty much sold on the music business from that day forward and I decided that I wanted to be just like them.
MAYA What was your biggest break and what was your biggest disappointment?
MIRIAM I was a bit of a child star – together with my sister in South Africa during the late 70′s. We kind of merged into fame at that point, mainly from having been seen so many times as backing singers on TV. We used to dress quite outrageously, so people remembered who we were. We had a couple of hit records around 1977 / 1978 and we won a prestigious award – the equivalent of a Grammy in 1977 for best up and coming artists.
I moved to the UK after that and started back in the studios again. I had a hit in nineteen eighty something in the HIgh Energy charts, then I recorded a TV ad for Fiat Tempra in 1991, which launched me into the spotlight once again with a group called ‘Praise’. We had a top 3 hit in the UK charts and we made an album.
Then came Adiemus a few years later after Karl Jenkins and Mike Ratledge heard that I did Afro-Celtic wailing . I was called in to sing on a Delta Airlines commercial. They were really desperate to land the account as it was a world wide campaign, and they had pitched it slightly wrong. I gave it the African touch and the next thing we knew, the telephone lines were going crazy.
Since then I have had many high lights in my career and a few disappointments.
My biggest disappointment was being refused permission by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber to sing a duet with Michael Crawford entitled ‘Music of the Night’ from Phantom of the Opera – which was debuting in Los Angeles. I had recorded my part in secret and I was on the way to the airport en route from London to LA, to finish up the last line of the song, when the call came through. Apparently Mr Crawford was under contract to Lloyd Webber – the latter, who had (quite frankly), his head shoved well up his own backside. He said that the piece was not written as a duet and he flatly refused to allow my voice to be on the track. I lived to see another day.
MAYA How has Adiemus changed the course of your career?
MIRIAM Adiemus definitely opened up a few more doors – the ones that had been closed to mere backing singers. I was a recognized, well respected artiste now, singing sophisticated music and jetting off to foreign lands to perform and promote like a real artist. My sound was pretty much set in stone at this point and because I had that platform, I was able to make further albums as a solo artist and other writers / producers from around the world came to know and recognize my sound. I had many offers to co-write and record with different producers.
MAYA What was it about AO that made you want to become involved and what vision do you have as you move forward with this next album? Why does the music and the children speak to you?
MIRIAM AO stood out from so many of the other artists, composers and producers who were approaching me to collaborate on their projects.
As soon as my husband Rod and I heard their music, we were blown away by the musicianship and professionalism of this duo. It was very hard to turn this project down.
As I have become more entrenched in the projects, my emotions have also been swept up by the message that AO is conveying. Children and animals are one of the purest forms of life. Just about everyone can relate to a child’s voice, a child’s face and a child’s suffering. As a mother of two, I feel the pain of so many suffering children out there – those who have been, through no fault of their own, displaced by war or natural catastrophe. I am now in a position where I can help to bring about awareness and help raise much needed funds for these kids.
MAYA Tell me a little about your family and your marriage to Rod….something that you feel is unique, (which clearly you could say a lot about).
MIRIAM Rod is the other part of my being. He is a gentle man who has endless amounts of patience. We have been together for over 100 years and despite the usual ups and downs, we have a good, solid marriage. We met through a mutual friend in London. Rod is a recording engineer by trade and he was busy working with a team of producers, who, at the time, were enjoying much success with their artists.
Rod has a long background in recording – engineer to some huge stars such as The Who, Joe Jackson – to name a couple. We fell in love pretty quickly – I was going through marriage problems at the time, having married very young the first time. After I spilt with my first husband, I became pregnant with my baby boy Leigh – who is also pursuing a career as a recording artist / writer in Nashville.
I have a daughter who also lives up in Nashville, so Rod and I are frequently making trips up there to see them. I will never get used to them being so far away. It doesn’t get any easier, in fact I cry every time I have to say goodbye to them.
When the kids were little, Rod would always be there to help raise them. He put my career ahead of his, having turned down the opportunity of working in LA at the inception of The Traveling Wilbury’s – consisting of George Harrison, Jeff Lyn (with whom Rod was working at the time), Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan…. OUCH!
He gave the gig away to a friend of ours – who eventually went on to become a very well respected mastering engineer in Nashville to artists such as The Dixie Chicks. Rod gave all of this up for me and for the kids – my son was only one year old at the time. I can’t say enough about this man, who to this day still believes more in me than I do in myself, and who tirelessly works with me on all of my recording projects. Ours is a unique and magical partnership.
MAYA Miri, you clearly have a deep love for animals. Could you talk about that for a minute?
MIRIAM My other passion – besides martial arts, my music and my family is animals. I have been brought up with animals and I have always had pets around me. They bring total joy to my life, each and every day. I can be feeling a bit despondent or frustrated with the day, yet as I enter my home, my little dog Minky or my bellowing Tonkinese cat, Casey, are always there to greet me with enthusiasm. It is true what they say about animals prolonging one’s life. I truly believe that.
MAYA Thank you so very much Miri for giving us a window into your extraordinary life, your passions and your music. It is such a pleasure to finally meet you!
And my next interview will be with an amazing group in Connecticut who have an animal sanctuary that you will want to hear about. I met Paula, who is a spokesperson for this amazing organization when swimming with Dolphins in the Bahama’s. So check back regularly. Till next time:
“ Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love .” – Mother Teresa
