By: Staff
Emma Miller's Stunning Vocal Performance Shines in a Beautifully Crafted Song, “Downstairs”.
The soft and gentle piano opening sets the tone for the beautiful lyrical display to come. Emma Miller, showing her true ability, delivers one of the most impressive and incredible vocal performances to date. Miller possesses sweet vocal tones with outstanding power and control that automatically captivate the listener, leaving no other stimulus in the room to matter. Utilizing a technique where the focal point of the song is solely her voice and the instrumentation is staggeringly beautiful creates the sensation of how one, single beautiful and fully bloomed rose can outshine and impress above an entire bouquet.
She exclaims, “I’m scared of falling,” which solidifies the tone and message of this song and makes it relatable, allowing us to instantly connect with this lyrical dissemination.
We were really floored by the soaring vocals. When we use that term, it is not used lightly, as soaring means the sensation of the vocals carrying long and far and fully encompassing the entire room—something that was absolutely accomplished. Utilizing the falsetto technique combined with all of this doubles down on the sheer masterful execution that proves her ability surpasses others.
“I don’t want to go downstairs, because it’s only at the bottom.”
Again, what a powerful statement that will inevitably be the saving grace for many future generations who will find the will to forge ahead because of this inspiration. Outstanding lyrical display!
The supporting musical arrangement is simple, but its simplicity is completely outdone by its beauty. It is also perfectly combined with the vocal display, creating an outstanding and amazing final result.
By the time you get to the end of this song, your emotions will be high, and the ending will leave you yearning for more.
Finally the engineering of this song rivals that of a major label production. Impeccably clear recordings with beautifully laid mix and mastering techniques. Bravo to the whole team!
You can find this on any major platform and see below for links to take you straight to some of the profiles.
Make sure to playlist, stream and share Emma Miller's “Downstairs” today..
Powerful Quote about this Artist:
“With previous releases gaining traction across the UK and beyond, Miller has garnered praise from the likes of BBC Introducing, Earmilk, Clash Magazine and Spotify editorial playlists. Her distinctive voice has drawn comparisons to artists like Laura Marling and Phoebe Bridgers, while her poetic songwriting has earned her a loyal and growing fan base.”
Wait, there's more!
We caught up with this exciting and emerging artist, for:
“The Cage” Music Blog, to talk about music and learn more about them.
Here’s how it went:
Begin Interview
Emma Miller, can you walk us through your songwriting process and where the inspiration comes from for this latest project, “Downstairs”? Especially can you elaborate on this quote we found, “Emma’s ability to capture raw emotion as she paints the picture of someone trapped by their fear of failure.”
Downstairs came from spending an evening playing around with the sounds of the synths, pianos and bass parts in my keyboard. The descending piano line conjured the lyric ‘I don’t want to go downstairs’ and from there I leaned into that metaphor. At the time I’d been living in London for a few years and struggling to see how my career in music would ever happen. There was a real sense of being in limbo - I knew I wasn’t putting my all into music and on some level I even questioned if I wanted everything that that life would entail. Equally, the idea of calling it a day and following a more conventional path was a frightening thought, what if you just couldn’t cope with either outcome? In terms of ‘capturing raw emotion’ as you put it, I was in a pretty vulnerable place at the time and as a songwriter you tend to channel those emotions into your work. Along with the slightly ambiguous lyric, perhaps there’s enough left unsaid in the song that people can find themselves within it and tap into what I was trying to capture.
Can you describe to us the theme for your artwork we saw on Youtube and what was the inspiration and intention for the observer to absorb from it?
Ah well now we are into interesting territory! All of the artwork from the singles comes from a Music NFT collection I have on the blockchain called ‘Artifacts’. The art was a collaboration between me, my Mum and talented graphic designer Laura Whitehouse and moths are at the centre representing the lyrical themes of coming out of the darkness and into the light. When I decided to put these songs out as singles I chose 4 artworks that had been collected by my Music NFT community. The one for Downstairs is from an incredible collector of mine called Phil - if you want to see the original NFT it’s token #133 on the collection marketplace on Opensea.
What instrument do you not play, but wish you could conquer?
Guitar! As a keyboardist it is the worst lugging a huge keyboard around when you’re travelling for gigs. With a guitar you can throw it over your shoulder and even if there’s no power you can still perform acoustically and blow people away…alas the keyboard isn’t quite so friendly to work with.
What has been the most motivating force in creating your music?
Talking to people it’s connected with. Even just having a few people begin to back you and believe in you as an independent artist can be transformational. Having that has given me huge motivation to create as I can picture the people who will love it and want to listen. Today I have a huge ambition to explore other genres and I hope in the coming decade I’ll get to release a full folk album, hip-hop album, dream wave and more. I’d lost that sense of excitement about creating until I got the sense of having a bit more external support from an audience.
If there was one thing you could change about the music industry, what would it be?
We could go down a slippery slope here, but the worst thing the music industry did to music was to make it free. We’ve lost that sense of ritual and appreciation of music as art in recent years. There needs to be a radical shift in how we perceive the innate value of music and step away from the free economy where artists aren’t rewarded for people consuming their work.
Where do you see your sound and artistry heading in the future? Are there any exciting new directions you're exploring?
Yes! I’m in the midsts of finishing a hip-hop album with LA rapper Eligh and it’s one of the most fun and liberating projects I’ve ever been a part of. It’s allowed me to access a different part of my creative brain and I’m so excited to continue to play with new collaborations and musical territory. Working with Eligh was also one of the easiest most natural things, so it feels special to have connect with him.
So many artists talk about the extreme desire to conquer and perform at live shows and all of the obstacles they encounter. We see you have been so successful and bring fans from all over the world.
“Emma Miller’s journey has taken her from intimate Scottish venues to notable stages across the USA, where her performances have been lauded for their emotional resonance and captivating presence. At her recent headline show at Gordon Castle in north east Scotland, her fans traveled as far as Hawaii, Colorado, Berlin, and Romania to witness her perform a special homecoming show.” What was the emotional moment like for you when the love and adoration of fans makes them go far beyond the car drive in a local city to see you?
In the music industry there’s this idea that in order to ‘make it’ you need thousands or millions of fans. Over the last few years I’ve begun to understand how important it is to value the few people who connect with you and not chase empty vanity metrics. As a business, I’ve managed to sustain myself through cultivating connection and relationships with a couple of hundred people, not thousands. From that group there is an even smaller section who engage with me and my music and travel to shows on a regular basis. It is so much more meaningful to form relationships with those people and it’s truly changed how I think about engagement or ‘reach’ with my music. In August I invited 23 of my music community to my family home to watch a premiere of a music video. I cried my eyes out as it all began to sink in that they’d created this moment with me.
We saw an IG post where you said you were going to quit music and thankfully did not. Can you tell us why this happened and how you found the strength to continue?
A lot of the reasons why I quite were to do with my mental health. I couldn’t cope with getting into my late 20’s and feeling just as uncertain and unstable with where my life was. I began feeling anxious and low and a huge weight was lifted when I turned my back on a career in music and began training to be a therapist in 2021. What I hadn’t expected was how much joy and freedom returned to me in my songwriting. I rediscovered all the reasons why I loved making music and knew that no matter what happened I would be able to hold on to that outlet through life, whether it made me money or not. The reason I was then able to go into music full time was teaching myself how to release my songs on to the blockchain in 2022. I spent lockdown online hanging out with a diverse group of music fans who encouraged me to take the first steps into the world of ‘Web 3’. Today I straddle putting music out on the blockchain, traditional releases on streaming and playing live shows.
What advice would you give your younger self?
To take more risks. So much of my 20’s was spent being far too conservative in my choices and often resulted in no action being taken at all for fear of it being the wrong decision. What I’ve learned is it is so much better to commit to a fork in the road whole heartedly and embrace the zig zag. It’s how you understand what you like and don’t like, where your skills lie and so many unexpected opportunities can come from simply jumping in feet first.
How do you feel about social media?
Like everyone I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I hate how much of my time it consumes, I hate the validation I seek from it, I hate that I struggle to be myself on certain platforms. I love that the likes of Twitter Spaces gave me a place to simply show up and play my songs and discover an entirely new audience. I love that every now and then something does resonate and I do reach new people and get to connect on a slightly deeper level. Someone who is currently a big inspiration for communicating on socials is fellow Scot, Nina Nesbitt. She comes across as totally herself and it’s been exciting seeing her get creative with the launch of her album. I’m still learning a lot about myself when it comes to socials. My aim is not to consume so much of it.
End Interview
Check out this latest release and listen to more of Emma Miller on Spotify & YouTube.
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