AM: What advice would you give to beginners who are nervous?
LIRA: Avoid being around too many people- this can scatter you and cause you to be unsettled. Breathe deeply and try to be calm. The nerves disappear anyway as soon as you get on stage. Oooh and let yourself go and have some Fun!
AM: What do you like most about your profession?
LIRA: I love that I can touch so many people with my music and travel around the world. I’ve been able to meet some icons like Oprah.
AM: What do you like least?
LIRA: Sometimes I wish I had a body guard or 2 (certain public events arrange this if I need to go into audience areas for signing sessions etc) in some situations but mostly people approach me respectfully.
AM: How has becoming an artist changed your life? How have you changed?
LIRA: It’s wonderful when you can be a role model to so many young girls in South Africa. I can bring a feel good element to music and inspire people - especially coming from a township where the you get older life becomes quite desperate. I feel fulfilled.
AM: What are you listening to lately?
LIRA: I’m loving Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain.” I love Amy Winehouse’s “Love is a Losing Game.” I’m also listening to some of my own songs specifically “With my Eyes”.
AM: What song of yours are you most proud of? Why?
LIRA: I don’t have a specific favorite track but there is “Abba” which I completely composed and I think is one of my more clever compositions. You always want to raise your own bar as a composer and so learned to play the guitar to use it as a compositional tool and it’s one of the tracks where I was just jamming and I think a beautiful piece of work came out of that.
AM: What would you be doing if you weren’t a singer?
LIRA: Probably a teacher. Most of my relatives were teachers and it felt like a natural choice. Or maybe an architect - I wanted to do that before I got into finance.
