By Brett Ratner

Songwriter/vocalist Audra Coldiron has a secret identy.

By day, this mild-mannered student of Nashville's Belmont University studies music business and works part time at Sony/Tree publishing. By night, she transforms into "Supergirl," able to sing upbeat original pop songs in a single bound.

Coldiron, with her former band Merry Madness, built a considerable buzz in Nashville and the surrounding area. Along with a steady performance schedule they appeared on Star Search and opened up for perennial Nashville favs Fleming and John. Coldiron has since broken off the relationship with her bandmates to go solo, a decision she says affords her the freedom to better express her musical directions and unique personality.

"As a child, I wanted to be Wonder Woman," Coldiron said. "And I think my mom overemphasized Holloween, I never stopped dressing up."

Audra's ability to dress up at gigs has become a trademark of hers, in particular, her "Supergirl" persona. Her lifelong fascination with the "Superfriends" permeates her music as well.

"My song 'Antidote,' [which has received a degree of local Nashville airplay] is a good example," Coldiron said. "When I was writing the song, before I even introduced the superheroes into the theme of it, there's this word 'antidote,' all I could ever think of was [in mock superhero voice] 'We've got to find the antidote,!' in every cartoon that we've ever seen. And the Superfriends were my favorite, so I started to name off all the superheroes I could think of from the '70s and the '80s."

As of Spring, 1996, the trend in music seems to be brooding, introspective songs of angst. Audra's music takes a slightly different direction.

"It's cutesy, but not throw up, cutesy," Coldiron said. "I would like to think that it's cool, but not too serious, so you don't get bogged down. You have a good time."

But will cool and cutesy fly in the era of post-grunge sonic sludge?

"I sure hope it will, I'm banking on it," Coldiron said, noting that there is serious content to a lot of her material.

"I don't know if there's an underlying theme to what I do, I just like to have fun," Coldiron said. "I like to entertain. I'll sing about monsters, but I like to have a range of emotions too. For example, I also have a song called 'Little Sister,' which is a song for my little sister who lost her first love in a car accident. [The song is saying] 'It's okay Brooke, it's okay, but get used to it, 'cause this is the way it is, man!' [Of her collection of songs] There's a sad story, and there's one where I try to be sexy, there's one that people listen to and say, 'that's the most arrogant song I've ever heard in my life!'"

Though she downplays it, Coldiron's versatility as a songwriter likely stemmed from exposure to an eclectic array of music, from classical training on piano and vocals, to an affinity for the Beatles.

"I don't really think [Coldiron's musical direction] started with classical," Coldiron said. "I do like to listen to classical and the dynamics of it. It appeals to me, the way it will get loud and soft, slow and fast. But my musical influence is mainly the Beatles. The whole underlying foundation of the Beatles. You can't really get any better than that. They just had a certain Beatlesesqueness about them!"

So how does Paul and John manifest themselves in Audra's tunes?

"I borrow a lot from their chord progressions and styles," Coldiron said. "The way that they would throw in a chord that fits with the note, but it's not in the key signature. That appeals to me. Progressing on , I think I use more of a modern beat type of thing than the Beatles would have done. But the Beatles are much more complicated than I am."

With the aid of The 10 Incantations, her self produced album/demo, Coldiron is making serious strides towards a successful music career.

"Future goals are to increase market share by 10% for three to five years," Coldiron said jokingly. "Well, just like everyone else, I've got my own demo, and I'm looking for some kind of help from some kind of label. Managers, anybody. I work at Sony/Tree now, and some people have taken interest in my music, but it's an indirect type of thing because they are all involved with country there, and I'm definitely not country. In fact people ask me where I'm from and look at me like I come from a different planet."

Probably planet Krypton.