Harvard Alum Dazzles in Show

Mieka D. Pauley ’02 has been on a very, very long road trip.

Since graduating from Harvard, singer-songwriter Pauley has been playing more than 150 shows a year in venues across the country, from New York City’s “The Living Room,” to Chicago, Atlanta, St. Louis, and Cambridge’s own Club Passim, where she got her start at open-mic nights as a freshman.

When we spoke last week, she was driving from Pennsylvania to New York to compete in the New York Song Writer’s Circle (she won Grand Prize.) It’s another notch in her belt, which also includes a recent semifinalist position in Cosmopolitan magazine’s Star Launch competition and a Starbucks Emerging Artist Award.

Between Pauley’s constant road trips—she’s a self-professed “urban hiker,” who confesses to live out of a bookbag—she’s put out two full-length CDs. The most recent one, “Elijah Drop Your Gun,” was funded entirely by fans, including seven $1,000 donations.

As an undergraduate, Pauley performed in the College’s annual Springfest—a predecessor to Yardfest—and also impressed the management at Club Passim.

She won a spot in one of Passim’s “New Faces” shows, invited as one of the best of the club’s open-mic nights.

Matthew W. Smith, the manager of Club Passim, said he sees Pauley as a dynamic musician whose song writing “keeps on getting sharper and sharper.”
“She sells out Passim pretty easily,” he said, describing Pauley as a folk-based act with a rock sensibility. “She can pull it off with or without a band. When she’s solo, it’s just as powerful.”

Despite Harvard’s reputation as an incubator of pre-professionals, Pauley said she didn’t see attending Harvard as incongruent with her musical interests.

When she visited Cambridge the summer before her freshman year, Pauley says the streets were awash with musicians and there was something about the creative spirit of the Square that “really jove” in her head. “I extra fell in love because of the street performers,” she said.

Pauley’s analytical side also drew her to Harvard. “I was very math-y and science-y and the opportunity to go to Harvard was huge in my head,” she said. (“I studied physics and it kicked my ass,” she said. That’s when she switched to biological anthropology.)

But by her junior year, her performing schedule started picking up so that it wasn’t possible to continue as a musician and full-time student.

After talking to the head of her department, she wrapped up classes a year early so she could get a job to fund her growing career.

While working as a secretary at Harvard Business School, she picked up a manager, an agent, and continued street performing: the “boot camp for musicians,” according to Passim’s Smith.

That arrangement didn’t last long. “I was not officially fired,” she said with a laugh. “I was told by my boss when my last day was. I’d play New York, and come in smelling like Greyhound and no showers.”

That’s when Pauley began street performing full time. Just performing doesn’t make much money, but with CDs to sell, she was able to make $250 in a day—enough to pay her rent and hit the road.

Now making music as a living, Pauley said she is happy with her success, but of course, is always looking to improve. One thing she isn’t looking for is being signed to a major label, citing creative control as a major concern.

“Because the industry is up in the air, I don’t want to attach myself to anybody until I see some steady route,” she said.

With the support of her fans, who donated $17,000 for her new CD, it’s not surprising that Smith describes Pauley as a commanding presence on stage.

“She really involves the audience,” he said. “They’re on top of every word she’s saying.”

—Staff writer Lingbo Li can be reached at lingboli@fas.harvard.edu