Interview: Shira Shares Her Incredible COVID-Era Love Story & Releases Video for 'Out of the Blue'

Shira, the self-described "fairy-folk" singer-songwriter, released her new single, "Out of the Blue," today alongside a new music video.

Her last single, "Wait For Me," featured on ABC news (Watch here), followed her own love story
shaken by a forced separation due to COVID travel bans. "Out of the Blue" is somewhat of a prequel love song to that story.

BroadwayWorld had the pleasure of speaking to Shira about her unbelievable COVID-era love story and the ways her own music has almost foretold major events in her life.

Read the full interview and watch the music video for "Out of the Blue" below!

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Tell me a little about your musical background.

Growing up in high school, I used to only sing jazz. And then I kind of discovered that all these songs that I loved were all from musical theatre. I did a deep-dive into that, and fell in love with musical theatre, and at the same time I grew up in a house with two hippies, so all we listened to at home was, like, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell, and Carole King. All of that.

So that's kind of, I think, who I am musically. It's all of that kind of thrown in together.

This new song, "Out of the Blue" - especially the video - gives me such "When Harry Met Sally" vibes.

You got it! That's exactly what we were going from.

And, when you see the interviews, it's exactly that. We wanted to introduce these couples to the people before the video comes out. So it's like, how did you meet? How was it "Out of the Blue" for you? What was the moment you knew?

Actually, my favorite part of those interviews was asking, "What do you wish for the future?" These couples weren't in the same room at the same time when we were doing this, and all of them said some version of, "More of the same."

When the fourth couple said that, I was like, wow! I think I got the right ones.

You mentioned the song has been more universal than you expected when you wrote it. Can you tell me a little bit more about that and how it feels?

I wrote it for two friends of mine who kind of found their love later than expected, at a point where they didn't really thing it was going to happen. And then, fast forward a year later, I kind of found my person completely out of the blue. I was on tour in Europe, and my first stop was Barcelona, and there he was. And I hate that cliche, but it's like, "When you know you know!" That's how it was for us.

Then, one of the couples in the video, actually - it's so funny, I asked them to take part, and they hadn't heard the song before because it's new. I sent it to them, and they called me, and they're like, "We're doing the video, and, also, can that be the song for our first dance? Because we were looking for a song and it feels like it was written about us."

In concerts, too, couples have come up to me and said, "I feel like you wrote it about us." I think for everybody, to an extent, when you find your person it feels like it's out of the blue, even if it's a person you knew beforehand. You know?

For example, one of the couples - they met when they were 14. They were together through high school, and then they were separate for five years, and they made their way back to each other. Even they say that, to an extent, it's like - she walked into my homeroom class and, like, there she was. Whatever it is it always feels like it's out of the blue.

When was a time you related to something in a way you weren't expecting?

It's interesting - so, I released four songs over the pandemic as part of a seven song live session that I recorded with my band. And in March of 2020, I was supposed to play a huge showcase festival in LA. And, of course, it was a few days before everything shut down and that didn't happen. But my whole plan was to release the songs and everything!

And it's so funny because, when I wrote these songs, it was before I met who is now my husband. And it feels like all of that was a prequel. When I listen to these songs - "Out of the Blue," and "Birds of a Feather" - it's a lot of songs that are like, "I know you're right around the corner." A lot of things that I say in the songs are literally him. It's kind of insane.

I don't know, maybe the songs were like a siren call. I'm a little bit like a hippie, I-believe-in-energy sort of thing. I believe in that. It was like a siren call and then it came back. It's like, when I sing them now - and I just had my first live concert in a year and a half. I did a little thing in the park and 40 people showed up, it was nice to dip my toe back in the water. I just kind of did it last minute.

I was singing these songs again, and he's here, and he's sitting in the audience, and I'm like, it's amazing. All of these songs were about him and I didn't even know it.

It's amazing how creative work can be almost prophetic in that way.

100%. And I also believe that creators, when you're creating something, like really creating something out of a deep place - it's coming through you. It's not 100% you. It's like, you know, a waterfall. The water's falling on you, and then what comes out is a little bit of you with it. It's not 100% you. The song, the creation, the play, whatever you're doing - knows better than you.

What was the pandemic like for you and your practice? What have you missed, and what are you excited to get back to doing now that it's not OVER, but things are starting to open up?

I appreciate you saying that, because I feel like people are like, okay, back to normal! No, no, not yet! We're not there yet! And to an extent maybe we'll never be. I don't like saying back to normal and I appreciate that you didn't.

For me - a little personal aside is what ended up happening is my partner is from Spain, from Barcelona. And I was in New York in March, and he was in Spain in March, and he was about to move here in May, and then everything closed down. He couldn't come, I couldn't go anywhere, and we were separated for six months because of travel bans until I found a way to go over there on a student visa and be with him for another five months.

Then we eloped to Gibraltar and came back here. It was like a whole saga. It's a story we'll tell the children that day!

I can't wait to hear the songs about that.

I know, right? So, for me, most of this past year I was in survival mode more than anything. Emotional survival, financial survival. For the first half of the year, I was not creative at all. The fountain was shut off. And then there was a whole part of being angry with yourself that nothing's coming out, so you're adding fuel to the fire, and judging yourself, like, "Use this time!"

But it's like that old saying. And of course you have the friends next to you who are like, "I wrote five books!" Like, okay, good for you! And then when things started relaxing a little bit for us on a personal level, I could kind of write. I don't write while things are happening, I usually write after the fact - or before the fact! But when you're in the mud, for me, it's really hard to be creative fully.

So, when I knew I was going to finally go to Spain, I wrote a song called "Wait For Me," and then I released it - just me and the guitar. I made a video out of my journey, in the middle of the pandemic. I did all the airports. It was a crazy experience. And I released a video with that, and then ABC News picked it up, which was really cool because they found the song and they were looking for people who had kind of a COVID story like us.

When we eloped, they were like, we want to come to the wedding! So it was me and him and the witnesses to our wedding were the ABC News anchor and the camera guy. And of course my Jewish mom is like, "I'm just happy it was on film."

I don't know if you feel that way, but I feel like time went so quickly, but didn't move at all at the same time.

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