B3SCI fam Erin Feathers recently caught up with hotly-tipped British singer-songwriter Misty Miller. Having just released her Girlfriend EP last week, Miller has made her track “Little Drummer” available as a free download (grab it below) ahead of UK tour dates this March supporting both Jake Bugg and Tom Odell (on different stints). Check out what Misty Miller had to say about musical influences both past and present, her various side projects, and a blossoming career…
B3SCI: You list your key musical influences as Patti Smith, Iggy Pop and The Stooges, The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Irma Thomas, The Sonics, and The Gories. Surprise us with a couple random artists who color your musical outlook in a significant way…
Misty: Depends what you mean by surprise. A band called The Fat Whites who my drummer plays in. Blondie, maybe thats a surprise? Listen to “One Way Or Another” .. or “Dreaming”. She was so cool.
B3SCI: We’ve heard you mention that your musical palette varies from listening to performance. Do you think something like rap music could ever permeate your writing and performance?
Misty: Not in a really obvious way. If I saw someone do it and do it really well it would inspire me to perform with the same passion (or whatever it was about their performance that i liked).
B3SCI: Do you have a songwriting process and does your ukelele always play a role?
Misty: I havn’t written a song on my ukulele for about 2 years now. When I finished that album I was already starting to write songs on the guitar and have ever since. I don’t have process as such. It depends on the song and time.
B3SCI: Is there an instrument that you hope to learn someday?
Misty: I just wanna get better at guitar, really. Maybe play a few solos one day..
B3SCI: What has most influenced your musical evolution an vision as an artist?
Misty: The music scene I got involved with. I left college and started playing shows and meeting people around South London. The bands and people that I met influenced me a lot.
B3SCI: Tell us something quirky about Misty Miller…
Misty: Quirky eh?! I don’t like having clean hair. Or, I like to book bind.
B3SCI: What is your favorite place to jam and play music, aside from your gigs?
Misty: I have started rehearsing with my band at a mate of mine’s studio in peckham. It’s a small room but we work way better in there than in some fancy rehearsal studio. Or i just like play on my own if there is a guitar lying about in someones house or something.
B3SCI: If you could live somewhere other than London where would it be?
Misty: I don’t really have an answer to that as of yet. I would love to travel around America soon. Maybe after touring I’ll fall in love with a particular place.
B3SCI: What do fans need to know about Slit Lizard?
Misty: It’s a band I started with my friend Olivia. I couldn’t really play the guitar and she couldn’t really play the drums but I hadnt enjoyed playing and writing music so much until Slit Lizard. Heavily inspired by our friends band, The Midnight Barbers. A few of the songs off the EP were origonally Slit Lizard songs. “You Know What I Mean” and “Little Drummer”. My label weren’t too keen on the whole thing but without Slit Lizard (and Olivia) I wouldn’t have gotten away from playing music I wasn’t actually that happy with.
B3SCI: Tell us about the Girlfriend EP and where it leading Misty Miller…
Misty: I can’t tell you how good it feels to finally have this music out there and to be playing it in front people that actually want to listen now! It took a while to get my label to ‘get it’ and I’m so glad I didnt give up and decide to do something that I wasn’t really passionate about. Hopefully the next EP will sound as good and lead on to a killer album. I am not a natural in the studio yet but my band help me a lot.
B3SCI: How has your history growing up in an artistic family affected your experience as an artist?
Misty: Having music around me from a young age, being in the studio and backstage as a kid. All things those sorts of things. Making music my natural habitat.
B3SCI: It sounds like you dabble a bit with inking your own tattoos. What tattoo is next on your list?
Misty: Yeah i have about 6 or so now, all pretty shit, and all hand done. I have no idea what the next one will be.
B3SCI: We’re hooking you up with a ride in the B3SCI time machine. Where are you going?
Misty: Stonehenge “where the demons dwell!” But if i can’t come back to now then i aint goin’ anywhere.
Misty Miller 
(Facebook)
Reviewed by b3
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