MIINA spent a couple of years building Where The Light Goes in stages. Three tracks came first, produced with Gus Van Go; a stretch of home studio writing followed; then came the sessions on Vancouver Island with Howard Redekopp and Erik P.H. Nielsen that filled out the rest. The debut full-length from Laura Mina Mitic, formerly the frontperson of Victoria’s Carmanah, is out now, and somewhere across its ten songs you can feel those separate phases clicking into place.
“I was pulling from experiences in my life that felt deeply human and relatable, and I was craving connection with people on that level,” she says. “The songs started flowing out of me, and that’s when I began to feel the album taking shape.”
Before she got there, she had to make a harder call. Carmanah was an established project with real history behind it; MIINA (pronounced MEE-NAH) is something she built from scratch. “Carmanah was a wonderful project that brought me and my music to so many sweet places,” she says. “Over the years, my partner and I shared the Carmanah stage with incredible musicians and had the chance to do some fantastic touring. I see that project as a bit of a diving board, and now I’m ready to leap and see where this next chapter, MIINA, takes me.”
Her partner Pat Ferguson made the jump with her. He’s now her husband, plays lead guitar on the record, and is, she says, “a huge part of the MIINA sound.” “Stepping into MIINA, I’m feeling bolder and more confident in my voice, both as a writer and a performer,” she says. “A big part of making the switch was trusting that change is good, even when it’s intimidating.”
The three-producer setup on Where The Light Goes sounds like it should produce a mess. It doesn’t. “Gus, Howard and Erik are all quite different, but their love for music is so clear, and each brings a unique energy to the table,” MIINA says. She breaks it down plainly: “Gus brings a cool, edgy, almost hip sensibility. Howard brings open-minded curiosity and a deep love for genuine creativity. Erik brings a gentle spirit and a real passion for capturing magical moments.” The album, she says, has “a sense of depth and movement. It flows cohesively, but you can also feel the push and pull of different creative perspectives throughout.”
Redekopp’s production credits include Tegan and Sara and Mother Mother; Nielsen has worked with City and Colour; Van Go has produced The Beaches and Metric. “Whenever I reflect on the credits for this album, I feel really proud to mention those three names,” MIINA says. “On a personal level, I love them all, and musically I was constantly inspired by their processes.”
Songs like Live My Life on Holiday and Archetypal Life take aim at consumption and comfort without tipping into self-righteousness, which is a harder needle to thread than it sounds. “Music is my outlet for being critical,” she says. “When you are feeling passionate or frustrated, it’s not always easy to be eloquent, so songwriting gives me a way to explore the ideas and tensions I notice in the world around me.” She’s deliberate about not letting the critique curdle. “I think art can be a powerful catalyst for change, but I’m also aware that too much polarization can be damaging. I want to create music that invites people in rather than calls them out. I’m an optimist, some days more than others, and I want to connect with people, especially those who feel, deep down, that something isn’t quite right. Instead of pointing fingers, I hope to build a sense of community and conversation through music that feels warm, open and engaging.”
Push It, the album’s final single, sits somewhere else entirely. It’s slow, intimate, built around the kind of care that gets squeezed out when everything speeds up. “I wanted to highlight the quieter, more intimate moments where you catch your breath, because those are the moments that allow you to keep going,” MIINA says. The video, made with longtime creative collaborator Matt Gladman, organized itself around hands. “I’ve always had this slightly random idea that I wanted to make a music video focused on people’s hands doing interesting things,” she says. “Since ‘Push It’ is a song about sensual connection, I leaned into that concept using hands as an intimate stand-in for the human body and for all the things that can be ‘pushed.'” The shoot took them through boutique hotels, antique stores, grandparents’ basements, and local small businesses. “I’ve always been drawn to hands. I find them strangely fascinating. They do so much for us and they’re how we physically shape the world around us.”
Celebration, one of the gentler moments on the record, came from an evening outdoors with the radio on. “It started one evening when I was outside, looking up and watching a handful of bats fluttering around. We had the radio on and a classical piece was playing, so it felt like the bats were dancing to the music,” MIINA says. “I remember I had been feeling pretty stressed leading up to that moment, but as soon as I paused and really took it in, a sense of calm replaced that anxiety. I had this thought: there is so much to celebrate if we just look around and notice it. That’s really where the song began.”
Good Enough is the record’s most direct emotional statement, written during a late-night session when she was, by her own description, “feeling a bit sassy.” “Coming out of a few experiences where I was made to feel small, I wanted to write an anthem for anyone who’s felt disempowered, whether by someone else or by their own imposter syndrome,” she says. “In the song, I’m speaking to that person who feels a bit untethered, trying to figure out where they belong, and hoping the music can feel grounding. Sass is good. You don’t have to be quiet or shrink yourself. You’re already good enough as you are.”
On March 25, MIINA takes the album out on a 20-plus date Canadian tour in a 40-foot vintage Greyhound running on recycled veggie oil, covering British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario. Joining as special guest is songwriter Dana Sipos, a longtime friend whose addition to the bill MIINA is pretty openly excited about. “Having her join us on this tour is such a gift. It’s amazing for audiences, of course, but selfishly, I’m just really excited to get to listen to her play every night.”
As for what she made the album for, she doesn’t reach for anything abstract. “I feel like my heart has been through a lot these past few years, and in many ways, it feels like the world has lost the plot a little. There’s a lot of emptiness, and it’s easy to get pulled into things that don’t really matter. The moments that feel most real to me are the ones filled with love, magic, and community. Those are the times when being human feels like such a gift. I want to connect with people who feel that or who are craving it. I hope this album brings a sense of comfort, strength, joy and resilience.”
Where The Light Goes is out now on all streaming platforms.
