Posted: Wednesday 18th October 2006

Entertainment Focus were lucky to interview upcoming Texan singer Misha Williams recently. We managed to get the lowdown on her debut single She's Got It and album Take It Like It Is as well as finding out a variety of interesting tidbits for you lovely readers. If you're not familiar with Misha yet then you will be soon.

EF: How are you?
Misha: I'm good. Just got myself a Starbucks coffee so I'm good.

EF: How are you finding London and the UK?
Misha: I really like it. I've actually been here quite a few times before this. I've just been working with my producer John Ravenhall and recording and getting everything done for the album. I started coming here about 5 years ago and I'd come up every summer for about a week or two but now the album's finished so we're just going full-steam ahead.

EF: What have you been up to?
Misha: I did Big L Roadshow a couple of weeks ago and that was really a lot of fun. I got to see different parts of England, up the coast and everything. I've been to a few radio stations and done some performances. I'm actually about to do a big radio tour all over so I'm going to hit all the radio stations all around I think. It'll be fun.

EF: Tell us about your debut single 'She's Got It'.
Misha: It's a song I wrote with two Danish writers who I worked with on a lot of the other tracks on the album. I really like the idea behind the song because it's a very different idea. It's basically about a girl who is naturally beautiful and she just goes on living her life, doing what she wants to do. She just doesn't pay any attention to the fact that she's beautiful and a lot of people look at her and think she must be conceited or that she thinks she's the coolest thing on the planet. She's not like that. People are misjudging her without even knowing her or talking to her. It's an interesting idea. The song realy shows that everyone can have something special.

EF: Is it a situation you've been in?
Misha: In the entertainment industry a lot of people automatically judge you. You see things in tabloids and hear things about celebrities and they just nitpick at people. It's an eye opener to show that people aren't always who you think they are at first appearance.

EF: Tell us about your album Take It Like It Is.
Misha: The album is really fun and positive. It has a lot of upbeat songs. I really hope it puts people in a good mood. I hope people can take something from the lyrics and make it into something positive in their life. Things that I have written about may have a completely different connotation for somebody else. They might relate it to a completely diferent situation in their life but it all works out.

EF: The lyrics on the album talk about being young and not taken seriously. Is this something you've encountered?
Misha: From time to time. You grow into your maturity level. When you're young and move into being an adult sometimes people don't take you too seriously because they still think of you as a kid. I think for a lot of teenagers and young adults that's the case. Parents and even people in the workplace look at them and think they're young, they don't know what they're talking about. It's another example of judging someone. They could have done 5 or 10 yars research on what they are about to do and people have no idea.

EF: Do you have a favourite track on the album?
Misha: Well, it's really, really hard because I have special connection with every track because I wrote or co-wrote all of them. I have different life experiences put into each track. I think I would probably say Out There which is the b-sie to the single. Firstly it's one of the tracks I wrote with my sister Melissa and it's really special to me that we were able to write songs together on the album. My family has always been involved in what I do, so having my sister involved really means a lot to me. She's so talented and we work really well together. Secondly Out There is a different sound to the rest of the album and I like to try different things.

EF: You studied the music business, sound engineering, piano and guitar whilst still at school. Was that hard?
Misha: I started playing guitar about 6 years ago but in more recent years I've developed those skills and have more control with it. When I started at college I decided I wanted to focus on music, that's all I wanted to do with my life - have a career in the music industry. I want to learn about the business side of it, I want to learn how to record other people. I want to learn how to record myself. i want to learn how to make an instrument sound good with a microphone. I want to learn everything about it. I appreciate well-crafted music and the knowledge behind a song.

EF: When did you realise that you wanted to be a singer?
Misha: I'd been performing for about two or three years and when I was 13 or 14 I won a competition and got the opportunity to open for a country singer named Lee-Ann Womack. It was a very professional environment and for a 13 year old that was amazing. I was there on the stage thinking 'Oh my god. This is it!' and it was a feeling I wanted to have everyday. That was the moment in time that I knew I wantd nothing else.

EF: Do you think it's harder to be a credible artist when the industry is full of reality show winners and socialites turning popstars?
Misha: I hope the public can distinguish between real musicians, people who realy love music, and people who don't necessarily feel the same way. I think it can messy sometimes and people arn't always aware of that. I think it's getting better. I think people are getting more into real music and real talent. I hope it stays that way.

EF: What part of being a musician do you like the most?
Misha: I love performing songs that I write. I've done a lot of performing other people's songs but if it's my song then it's me and i can completely let go on stage. I can completel be me and it's such a great feeling just to be able to let go and get it all out there.

EF: Do you play an instrument on stage?
Misha: I bring the guitar in every so often to bring a different element into it. It's a lot of fun.

EF: Who were your influences growing up?
Misha: When I first started I absolutely loved mariah Carey's first album. I didn't discover her until her Daydream album but I went back and listened to all the other ones. I fell in love with voices that had a great range. At night I would listen to Mariah Carey on the headphones so no one knew I was still awake. Other artists that inspired me back then were Celine Dion, Shania Twain and Martina McBride. Great country power voices.

EF: If you could collaborate with anyone who would it be?
Misha: If I could have written with the Beatles that would have been awesome. I'd really like to write ith John Mayer, Michelle Branch, Keith Urban and Rob Thomas. Those are my main four. I would love to write with any of them.

EF: Would you consider following a more country style?
Misha: I'm not sure I would go that far country because I've done that all my life and I really think my sound is more where I am now. Who knows when I get older? I may completely change my mind. At the moment I wouldn't go in that direction.

EF: What is on your iPod at the moment?
Misha: The Wreckers. Also a Norwegian band called Big Bang. They are my favourite band and so amazing. They are getting pretty big in LA right now. They have four or five albums and I could listen to them any mood, any day, any feeling whatever. You should check them out. I was listening to Ashlee Simpson the other day. I really like Kelly Clarkson too.

EF: When are we going to see you performing live?
Misha: I don't have a lot of information about that at the moment but I'm definitely going to be at some point. We're going to try and set up some tours. I have one gig coming up at a school near Hammersmith. We are thinking of maybe doing a school tour. We'll see how this one goes first.

EF: Have you anything else you'd like to add?
Misha: I have one more point to make about my sound and the style and direction I'm going with. One of my goals is to do something positive in the industry. I'm not one of those people who wants to be in the industry for fame and fortune. I want to do something positive. It's one of the reasons I love writing positive things. One of the most difficult things that girls deal with is peer pressure and fitting in. Some girls change themselves to fit in. It's really important to be happy with who you are and how you look and dress. If you think doing something funky is funthen don't let someone else tell you it's stupid.

Read our review of Misha's debut single She's Got It

Visit Misha's Official Website

Visit Misha's MySpace Profile