BEVERLY — Miranda Winters was supposed to be enjoying herself last summer.
The singer and guitarist for the excellent tempo- and time-signature-warping Chicago rock outfit Melkbelly had recorded her debut album, “Lawn Girl,” under her solo moniker, Mandy. It should have been a time for celebration. Instead, she had a vocal hemorrhage.
“I have asthma, and every time I get any kind of a cold it just goes full bronchitis,” she said during a recent conversation with Block Club, during which she was once again fighting off, yes, bronchitis.
“So I expected it [the hemorrhage] to happen eventually. I knew exactly when it happened — I was a recording a song. Thankfully, we got it in one take. And then I couldn’t make any sounds for, like, two weeks.”
Not an auspicious way to begin preparing for the first solo album of her career.
But Winters was able to make great harmonies and killer melodies out of a less-than-ideal situation.
“It’s actually a blessing in disguise, because since then I met with a vocal coach, which I’d never done before, and I have a speech therapist now,” she said. “So I’m learning all these cool techniques that will allow me to, you know, be able to sing.”
The new training couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. Winters said she’s finally found the musicians to join her in Mandy — an all-women collective that she said is a different kind of experience than the decade-plus years she’s spent with the three men who make up her Melkbelly bandmates.
Winters recorded “Lawn Girl” with Linda Sherman (guitar), Lizz Smith (bass) and Wendy Zeldin (drums) at Electrical Audio with Taylor Hayes, recording and producing many of the tracks herself.
Asked about the differences, Winters described basic changes — “The vibe is different. The conversations are different. I can get away with more” — before settling on the key element.
“It’s a blast,” she said. “It’s more fun than I could have imagined.”
The fun comes through on the record. The appealingly ramshackle, DIY vibe of “Lawn Girl” is crafted into a tight nine songs and 24 minutes. Both seemingly disparate qualities — the loose rough-hewn style and the contrasting directness of the overall album — were thoughtful and deliberate decisions by a serious artist intent on capturing the right vibe and sound.
“Ever since I started making and recording music when I was young, those were the elements in recordings that I was listening to that I really loved,” she said of the almost incidental sounds that animate the album, like the involuntary sniff caught on mic near the beginning of her quiet, unexpected cover of “Now That I’m A Woman” from “The Last Unicorn.”
“I love songs that are really raw sounding when they’re recorded. Elements like that [the sniff] in these songs, I was really excited about being able to keep. Because obviously once a song gets sent to the rest of the band [in Melkbelly] it’s no longer just mine. So the edits that happen — inevitably, things get cleaned up or taken out.”
Similarly, Winters had full control over what form the album should take.
“I was talking to friends who are engineers and musicians and we’re talking about what it is that makes an album. You know: Is this acceptable? Nine songs? Is this acceptable? 24 minutes?” she said. “I feel like it’s a complete sentence, and to stretch it out any more would have just felt like it was watered down.”
Winters had excellent instincts on crafting a stellar record — “Lawn Girl” is an off-kilter slice of superb indie that would’ve been right at home nestled among the slacker-rock sounds of the mid-’90s (those Breeders comparisons she’s received over the years aren’t going away any time soon with this release). And she said the years she spent writing the songs that make up her solo debut were leading up to the right moment to finally release it into the world.
“Every member [of Melkbelly] has had a child in, like, the last four years, and it’s a pretty mind-melting experience,” she said. “Having had my second and final child, it’s like a little bit of a crossroads. Because that idea of having a family has always been a little bit of a hurdle when it comes to being a professional musician. And I’m like, ‘OK, so that’s happened.’ I needed to prove to myself that I can continue making something and have a new project to put out there and keep moving.”
While Mandy is ready to take on the world, Chicago remains an invaluable source of inspiration. After being reminded of a Tribune interview she did a decade ago in which she listed the primary influence that shaped the mentality of Melkbelly as “Pilsen,” Winters is just as local community-minded as ever in her new home of Beverly.
“We just moved out of Pilsen, which is crazy. But, I mean, it’s still the same friends. The net has expanded a little bit further, but it’s family — my Melkbelly family, and Liz and Linda and Wendy who play on the album,” she said. “It’s kind of like a new angle on Chicago that I’ve got.”
Miranda Winters fans can check out her new musical angle on the Mandy release “Lawn Girl,” which is now available on Exploding In Sound Records. She soon heads to Europe for a May 4 show in Belgium, but she hopes to play a record release show in Chicago this summer.
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