Mira Aroyo

Mira Aroyo (, ; born 11 July 1977) is a Bulgarian-born Israeli-English singer, musician, songwriter, DJ, and geneticist. She is best known as the keyboardist, co-lead vocalist, and co-songwriter of the electronic band Ladytron, which she co-founded in Liverpool in 1999. She writes and performs her Ladytron lyrics in both Bulgarian and English.

Early life
Aroyo was born in Sofia on 11 July 1977, the daughter of Jewish parents. She moved with her family to Israel when she was 10, and later to England. The first musical instrument that she played was the guitar, having also played the accordion when she was younger. Although her parents were uneasy about her decision to pursue music, they were nevertheless supportive and respectful of her choice of vocation.

Career

Scientific career
Following the completion of her undergraduate education, Aroyo pursued postgraduate research studies in genetics; she was a D.Phil. student in the Division of Molecular Genetics at the Department of Biochemistry of the University of Oxford, where she was supervised by Dr. François-Xavier Barre and Professor David J. Sherratt. In 2003, the Department of Biochemistry noted that Aroyo was a postgraduate geneticist and recognised the release of her band's second album, Light and Magic.

Contrary to claims that she completed her D.Phil., specifically in or around 2002 (though it has also been claimed that, as late as 2008, she was still a D.Phil. candidate), Aroyo left science and her D.Phil. programme before completing it and graduating. In an interview with The Sunday Mail, she explained that, "We all had jobs when we started Ladytron then little by little we ditched them. I was a geneticist doing a PhD and realizing lab work wasn't for me. We were doing Ladytron at the same time and I was enjoying it more. It was easier and more fun". In a later interview, when asked, "Apparently you were enrolled as a PhD student in Oxford. Seems like a pretty prestigious post did you ever have any doubts leaving academia for Ladytron?", Aroyo replied, "Yes. For the first 3 years of Ladytron I was juggling both, until it became apparent that I would be compromising both if I continued that way. I was young and it seemed a lot more fun at the time to travel the world playing music".

Musical career
In the summer of 1999, Liverpool-based producers and DJs Daniel Hunt and Reuben Wu met students Helen Marnie through various DJ gigs and Aroyo through a mutual friend. Sharing similar interests in music, they formed the electronic band Ladytron in the same year. Since then, Aroyo is the secondary singer of the band, and also plays synthesizers and contributes to songwriting.

Aroyo also collaborated with the indie pop band The Projects. The song "Don't Eat Meat" featured her as vocalist. She also collaborated with John Foxx & The Maths for the song "Watching a Building on Fire".

Film and TV Production career 
Aroyo was a producer of the 2018 documentary "Can You Feel It - How Dance Music Conquered the World". She is the Director of History 101, a 2020 TV Series on Netflix.

Personal life
Aroyo married photography curator Harry Hardie in 2010. Their daughter, Noa, was born on 23 February 2012. They live in London.

Aroyo is a pescetarian and an advocate for animal rights. She has an interest in architecture and presented a 15-minute short film, titled The Folly about "the cottage home of an elderly lady who has to adapt to her remote surroundings as she gets older".

Instruments
During Ladytron's live shows, Mira Aroyo plays synthesizers and occasionally sings. Her primary synthesizer is Korg MS-20, which she used since the band's beginnings.

Aroyo played live the following instruments for the band:
Korg MS-20, Jen SX-1000, Stylophone, Speak & Spell (604 tour);
Korg MS-20, Roland Juno 6 (Light & Magic tour);
Korg MS-20, Korg MS2000B (Witching Hour and Velocifero tours);
Korg MS-20 (Best of 00-10 and Gravity the Seducer tours).

On the early part of Witching Hour tour, Ladytron used to name their four identical Korg MS2000B to be easier installed on stage. Her MS2000B keyboard was named Babylon.

Discography

Ladytron

604 (2001)
Light & Magic (2002)
Witching Hour (2005)
Velocifero (2008)
Gravity the Seducer (2011)
Ladytron (2019)
Time's Arrow (2023)

References

1977 births
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Musicians from Sofia
Bulgarian pop singers
21st-century Bulgarian women singers
Living people
Bulgarian people of Jewish descent
Bulgarian emigrants to England
Bulgarian Sephardi Jews
Ladytron members
Women in electronic music
Bulgarian emigrants to Israel