Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with Nathalie Miller
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
When I was little, we had to drive to New Hampshire from Massachusetts to visit family a lot. The drive was probably not that long in retrospect, but as a kid it felt like forever. The backroads out there barely get any service, the radio was pure static, so we were totally reliant on whatever CDs we had. I remember us almost exclusively listening to Cat Stevens and The Foo Fighters. We must’ve listened to Moon Shadow hundreds of times.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
I found a poster I made when I was six years old that asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I drew a singer. I think I circled away from that for a long time, basically until college, because it felt unreachable. Coming back to it now feels like maybe if I don’t count myself out before trying, it doesn’t have to be so unreachable.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
The EP that I just released (like you used to) was tied together with a common thread of unusual heartbreak tied to my experiences as a woman. I was interested in writing songs that were specific and not romance driven. In the beginning of my writing, before I ever released anything, all I could write about was this one feeling in this one relationship and it was boring to hear about over and over again. Now that I’ve released two EP’s that don’t talk about romance at all, I feel more comfortable writing about it on my next project cuz I’ve sort of proven to myself that the well won’t run dry just because I get over a breakup. Which was something I was worried about for a while. On like you used to, I was exploring different kinds of heartbreak. The heartbreak of quitting something you’ve done your whole life, the heartbreak of a platonic friendship ending, the heartbreak that is intrinsic to familial relationships. I wanted to see what I had to say about things other than romantic love.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
If I were to describe the music with no references, I would say it’s girlish, folk adjacent pop, and celestial. In conversation, I often use other artists that I think my music could sit in a playlist with to describe the sound since indie-pop is such a wide genre. I think my music could be a good fit for fans of Lucy Dacus, Samia, Sufjan Stevens, and people who love the melancholic Chappell Roan songs (I love The Subway and California).
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
A lot of what I’ve learned from music is blocking out outside noise and not trying to define a project while it’s still being made. Sometimes we’ll be in the middle of recording a song and I’ll say something like “it’s too pop-ish” or “it’s not indie enough”, and I have to ask myself if I genuinely feel that way or if I’m letting outside forces shape my perspective of how the music should sound to be considered important. Going to an arts high school and then to art college, a lot of my formative years were spent in a culture that wants you to prove that you’re serious enough, that you’re niche enough. A song will usually pull in the direction it’s supposed to go in and fighting that because of some inner bias about what is cool and what makes you seem like a serious artist is a waste of time. Pop can be serious music. Girly sounds can make up serious music. Girlish experiences can make serious music. I’ve applied that to real life, too. What’s cool is whatever you think is cool.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
I’ll sneak a banjo into any song I can, even if it doesn’t make sense. Especially if it doesn’t make sense, usually. I also love hunting on synths for new sounds with my producer Brian Charles. A lot of the sounds we put into songs are non-recreatable even if we wanted to, which is fun to experiment with. I also love a string sounding synth and a live horn. But at the end of the day, I don’t feel any specific sound is essential to every single record. I think the through-line is that I write everything myself and Brian and I choose every sound on every song. Even if my tastes change, it’s all still from the same source. I guess the essential sound is our input.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
Not a recent release, but I’ve been rediscovering Broken Social Scene. There’s so much music these days that sometimes things get lost, so I’ve been consciously trying to go back to things I haven’t listened to in a while. You Forgot It In People is a no skip album for me. For more recent things, I love Devon Again’s EP In Order, Annie DiRusso’s deluxe album and Muck, and Know You by Kevin Atwater. Also Favourite by Fontaines D.C is one of my favorites to have come out in the past couple years. And all Lorde albums in general. She was my top artist this year.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
I’ve never written about something that hasn’t happened to me. I think that’s a skill I’d like to improve on in the future, but for now my personal experiences are the entirety of my music. I’ve been joking with my friends recently that anyone who dates me is lucky, because if they can be patient for a year or two after we break up, they can listen to my new music and they won’t have a single question about how I felt or my perspective because I’ve said it all publicly in song. I try not to think about that too much, though.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
When I hear a song I really, really love, even if it’s the saddest song you’ve ever heard, it gets me excited. I get like giddy that the song exists and I get to listen to it and feel like it’s mine. I hope someone feels that way about something I’ve written.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
I’ve learned a lot about letting yourself be misunderstood. Part of putting art out to the public is letting go of controlling the narrative. If someone in my life thinks a song is about them when I know it’s not, I try to just let them because it means they felt connected to it. When someone has a different interpretation of a song than I intended, that’s part of letting the song be theirs and not mine anymore. It’s not productive to spend forever correcting people and overexplaining yourself, which is something I’m naturally inclined to do. If it feels like the music is misinterpreted to a crazy level then that means I wasn’t specific enough and I can learn from that when I write again. A lot of what I’m learning is about shedding self consciousness. Nothing has to be embarrassing if you just let go a little.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
I have a list on my phone of goals that range from maybe doable to so impossible that I don’t even think about them. One of the most impossible ones is Glastonbury Festival. Closer to home in Brooklyn, another crazy one is Cherry Lane Theater. And while we’re talking impossible (partly because of its size and partly because it no longer exists), I would’ve died to attend Lilith Fair in the 90’s.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
I always say I’d love to collaborate with Shakey Graves. I love a duet that sounds like you can’t even picture a solo version, and he’s so good at that. I’ve said in the past Phoebe Bridgers because I love the way she dedicates herself to her collaborations. They never feel like side projects, just new focuses. Also, LCD Soundsystem or Big Thief would be a dream.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music?
spotify:
instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/nnaathali
website:
https://www.nathaliemolliemiller.com
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
My dream is always for people to feel connected to the music. Sometimes you find a song and when it’s over, the first thing you want to do is play it again. I hope that someone feels that way about something I’ve made sometime. My friend also recently said that the songs I’ve been writing lately are the most relatable ones I’ve written in a while, so hopefully other people feel the same as her when they hear them.
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
I try not to think about what a listener might discover about me through the music in case I get self conscious and start censoring myself. Maybe they can see themselves or their experiences reflected in me.
If you want here you can add a representative Youtube video to insert below the interview 🙂
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
When I was little, we had to drive to New Hampshire from Massachusetts to visit family a lot. The drive was probably not that long in retrospect, but as a kid it felt like forever. The backroads out there barely get any service, the radio was pure static, so we were totally reliant on whatever CDs we had. I remember us almost exclusively listening to Cat Stevens and The Foo Fighters. We must’ve listened to Moon Shadow hundreds of times.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
I found a poster I made when I was six years old that asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I drew a singer. I think I circled away from that for a long time, basically until college, because it felt unreachable. Coming back to it now feels like maybe if I don’t count myself out before trying, it doesn’t have to be so unreachable.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
The EP that I just released (like you used to) was tied together with a common thread of unusual heartbreak tied to my experiences as a woman. I was interested in writing songs that were specific and not romance driven. In the beginning of my writing, before I ever released anything, all I could write about was this one feeling in this one relationship and it was boring to hear about over and over again. Now that I’ve released two EP’s that don’t talk about romance at all, I feel more comfortable writing about it on my next project cuz I’ve sort of proven to myself that the well won’t run dry just because I get over a breakup. Which was something I was worried about for a while. On like you used to, I was exploring different kinds of heartbreak. The heartbreak of quitting something you’ve done your whole life, the heartbreak of a platonic friendship ending, the heartbreak that is intrinsic to familial relationships. I wanted to see what I had to say about things other than romantic love.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
If I were to describe the music with no references, I would say it’s girlish, folk adjacent pop, and celestial. In conversation, I often use other artists that I think my music could sit in a playlist with to describe the sound since indie-pop is such a wide genre. I think my music could be a good fit for fans of Lucy Dacus, Samia, Sufjan Stevens, and people who love the melancholic Chappell Roan songs (I love The Subway and California).
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
A lot of what I’ve learned from music is blocking out outside noise and not trying to define a project while it’s still being made. Sometimes we’ll be in the middle of recording a song and I’ll say something like “it’s too pop-ish” or “it’s not indie enough”, and I have to ask myself if I genuinely feel that way or if I’m letting outside forces shape my perspective of how the music should sound to be considered important. Going to an arts high school and then to art college, a lot of my formative years were spent in a culture that wants you to prove that you’re serious enough, that you’re niche enough. A song will usually pull in the direction it’s supposed to go in and fighting that because of some inner bias about what is cool and what makes you seem like a serious artist is a waste of time. Pop can be serious music. Girly sounds can make up serious music. Girlish experiences can make serious music. I’ve applied that to real life, too. What’s cool is whatever you think is cool.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
I’ll sneak a banjo into any song I can, even if it doesn’t make sense. Especially if it doesn’t make sense, usually. I also love hunting on synths for new sounds with my producer Brian Charles. A lot of the sounds we put into songs are non-recreatable even if we wanted to, which is fun to experiment with. I also love a string sounding synth and a live horn. But at the end of the day, I don’t feel any specific sound is essential to every single record. I think the through-line is that I write everything myself and Brian and I choose every sound on every song. Even if my tastes change, it’s all still from the same source. I guess the essential sound is our input.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
Not a recent release, but I’ve been rediscovering Broken Social Scene. There’s so much music these days that sometimes things get lost, so I’ve been consciously trying to go back to things I haven’t listened to in a while. You Forgot It In People is a no skip album for me. For more recent things, I love Devon Again’s EP In Order, Annie DiRusso’s deluxe album and Muck, and Know You by Kevin Atwater. Also Favourite by Fontaines D.C is one of my favorites to have come out in the past couple years. And all Lorde albums in general. She was my top artist this year.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
I’ve never written about something that hasn’t happened to me. I think that’s a skill I’d like to improve on in the future, but for now my personal experiences are the entirety of my music. I’ve been joking with my friends recently that anyone who dates me is lucky, because if they can be patient for a year or two after we break up, they can listen to my new music and they won’t have a single question about how I felt or my perspective because I’ve said it all publicly in song. I try not to think about that too much, though.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
When I hear a song I really, really love, even if it’s the saddest song you’ve ever heard, it gets me excited. I get like giddy that the song exists and I get to listen to it and feel like it’s mine. I hope someone feels that way about something I’ve written.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
I’ve learned a lot about letting yourself be misunderstood. Part of putting art out to the public is letting go of controlling the narrative. If someone in my life thinks a song is about them when I know it’s not, I try to just let them because it means they felt connected to it. When someone has a different interpretation of a song than I intended, that’s part of letting the song be theirs and not mine anymore. It’s not productive to spend forever correcting people and overexplaining yourself, which is something I’m naturally inclined to do. If it feels like the music is misinterpreted to a crazy level then that means I wasn’t specific enough and I can learn from that when I write again. A lot of what I’m learning is about shedding self consciousness. Nothing has to be embarrassing if you just let go a little.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
I have a list on my phone of goals that range from maybe doable to so impossible that I don’t even think about them. One of the most impossible ones is Glastonbury Festival. Closer to home in Brooklyn, another crazy one is Cherry Lane Theater. And while we’re talking impossible (partly because of its size and partly because it no longer exists), I would’ve died to attend Lilith Fair in the 90’s.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
I always say I’d love to collaborate with Shakey Graves. I love a duet that sounds like you can’t even picture a solo version, and he’s so good at that. I’ve said in the past Phoebe Bridgers because I love the way she dedicates herself to her collaborations. They never feel like side projects, just new focuses. Also, LCD Soundsystem or Big Thief would be a dream.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music?
spotify:
instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/nnaathali
website:
https://www.nathaliemolliemiller.com
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
My dream is always for people to feel connected to the music. Sometimes you find a song and when it’s over, the first thing you want to do is play it again. I hope that someone feels that way about something I’ve made sometime. My friend also recently said that the songs I’ve been writing lately are the most relatable ones I’ve written in a while, so hopefully other people feel the same as her when they hear them.
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
I try not to think about what a listener might discover about me through the music in case I get self conscious and start censoring myself. Maybe they can see themselves or their experiences reflected in me.
