The Beat. The Beatstalkers. The Beatles. Putting the word “beat” in your band’s name is not exactly a new idea. But Miranda Zipse thought that calling her soul-punk group Miranda and the Beat just made sense.
“We originally started out as a duo,” explains the singer-guitarist in a phone interview. “It was just me and a drummer,” childhood friend Kim Sollecito. “So it was just a very literal reason why we said ‘Miranda and the Beat.’”
Zipse and Sollecito moved to New York in 2018 and at one point were joined by a female bassist. The band went through several personnel changes before arriving at its current four-person lineup, in which Zipse is the only woman. The group released its self-titled debut album in 2023.
While the band has a garage-rock sound, most of the songs are midtempo, which better showcases Zipse’s expansive voice and sultry delivery. “I’ve been singing as long as I can remember. I think I came out of the womb screaming,” she jokes.
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Zipse’s current style began to develop when she was in middle school in a small town in California. “I discovered the guitar and got really into it,” she says. “Classic underground soul singers like Wendy Rene and Little Ann really inspired me,” along with the “Nuggets” compilations of mid-1960s garage bands.
The guitarist says her playing was strongly influenced by Wu-Tang Clan samples and spaghetti Western movie soundtracks. “Your style is like a freaked-out version of all that,” suggests the band’s Farfisa organist, Dylan Fernandez, who joins the singer for the interview.
The rest of Miranda and the Beat’s current lineup is bassist Alvin Jackson and new drummer Jordan Levine. Despite Zipse’s West Coast roots, Miranda and the Beat is emphatically a New York band.
Share this articleShare“New York is a big part of what we do,” Zipse says. “It really shapes the sound. It’s not an easy place to live. I think the grit of the city is reflected in our music for sure.”
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“Post-covid, it doesn’t feel like there’s a unified scene” in the city, Fernandez notes. “But we’re definitely a New York band.”
They skipped town, however, to record their second album. Garage-rock singer King Khan, a Canadian of Indian descent who’s now based in Germany, is a close friend of the band. “We went and lived with him for a week, and we wrote and recorded everything in five days,” Zipse says.
The instrumental tracks were recorded live — “the way it should be,” Fernandez declares. Zipse does her vocals separately, with intricate additional parts sometimes added. “Most of the vocal tracks I do in one take, but then go back and add stuff,” she explains. “The band also does backing vocals.”
While Miranda and the Beat has played D.C. several times, it’s always been at bigger clubs than the Runaway, where this weekend’s gig is set.
“I was looking at it online,” Zipse says. “It looks like it’s a really small venue.”
“Those are always the most fun shows,” Fernandez interjects.
“Yeah,” Zipse agrees. “We’ll get wild in there.”
March 1 at 9:30 p.m. at the Runaway, 3523 12th St. NE. therunawaydc.com. $15.
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