Miller Blue is this week's CLOSEUP Artist Spotlight

This week, Shropshire lad Miller Blue chat to CLOSEUP for our Artist Spotlight feature ahead of their London headline show at Colours Hoxton.

Miller, it’s great to have a chat! We love your music as you well know. This week you take on one a huge London headline show, what should we expect!?!

Likewise! Yes, i’m very excited for the show. Expect good energy… I love making sure people feel part of the show, I want it to be as immersive as possible. As for the music itself, I’ll be playing all of the new tracks off of the upcoming EP. Really looking forward to sharing this new stuff with everyone.

What part of the musical process do you enjoy most, and why? is it performing live, creating your tracks or..?

I think I love each aspect for a different reason. There’s nothing like when an idea first sparks and you can start to materialise exactly what it is you’re hearing in your head. At the same time, I absolutely love diving deep into the production side of my tracks once they’re written.

Working out the best way to paint out the story sonically. I think that holds the dearest part of my heart when it comes to making music, it’s so personal and lasts forever. But of course, performing the songs is great too, just completely different. Getting to recreate them with a band full of people you love is fun.

Your tunes have been listened to millions of times across the world as Spotify informs us, Spotify is now such a big player in the industry, how important do you think it is for acts?

It’s definitely a big aspect for any artist. The streaming revolution has levelled the playing field hugely, allowing almost anyone to have a chance to reach people all over the world with their music. I definitely feel it’s allowed me to remain myself artistically without having to compromise in order to reach more people.

With playlisting I feel streaming services has also really helped listeners find artists similar to what they’re fucking with, which great. However I do feel streaming numbers often loom too heavily on artists minds and it is very easy to get caught up in this and can lead to not keeping up the other necessary aspects of releases: radio, press, socials etc.

If you created a Miller Blue Festival, and could pick three headliners, who would you go for?!

Wow, very hard question to answer. But I like it. Based on what I’m currently listening to I think id go for Duckwrth, Frank Ocean & Flatbush Zombies.

Duckwrth, because I love his energy and I think as well as his music being great he’d just be great with the crowd.

Frank, well because he’s Frank.

Flatbush simply for nostalgia for me. They were one of the first acts I ever saw live and it went off. They sculpted a lot of my time spent with friends in my teenage years so I’d love to have them play at my festival 100%

With 2020 on the horizon, tell us what your plans are for this year?

It’s already been a busy start for me. My EP ‘Sunflower’ is finally finished and ready for the summer. I cannot wait to share it with everyone. We plan to get some European shows sorted alongside the release. But for me a big part of the year is going to be writing and recording my debut album. I’ve already written so much, once the next project is out i’ll be putting my head down and starting the recording process. I truly am so excited.

I’ve been writing and producing for others also so 2020 is going to be a hugely collaborative year for me. I love exchanging energies and stories with others and have been really enjoying traveling, meeting new people and just enjoying myself in the work I’m doing. Feeling very blessed.