Jen Miller

We’ve had so much rain this month in Northern California that it’s been announced that we’re officially no longer in a drought. As the storms continue to batter the Bay, a balmy pop pick me up is just what we need. Washington, DC singer songwriter Jen Miller presents us with exactly that in the most enchanting manner on Down, her new collaboration with DC producer Jake Vicious. Dewy dulcet indie pop and summer frothy electronica are lightly dusted with just a touch of folksy pop on this phosphorescent hooking charmer. Down’s sound brings together some of our favorites like earthy Zella Day, jittery Grace Mitchell, tropical Cheat Codes, and more. The song serves as the lead single from Jen Miller’s forthcoming full length. - I Heart Moosiq

Standout Track: No. 3, “Edinburgh,” from 22-year-old Rosslyn-based singer/songwriter Jen Miller’s debut LP, Overgrown, which dropped last month. With its wistful, folksy feel and dreamy, reverb-tinged guitars, the song’s sparse accompaniment accents soulful vocals that recall the sultry tones of PHOX’s Monica Martin.

Musical Motivation: Miller spent her junior year in college interning for the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, where she was flooded with inspiration. “I met the kind of people I had dreamed of, drank too much whiskey, and—most importantly—had a love affair for the movies,” she says. But after returning to the U.S., Miller had trouble dodging daydreams and getting back into the groove of her daily routine. “I had all kinds of twisted emotions about my experiences abroad,” she says. “I wrote ‘Edinburgh’ about how it feels to long to be in another place.”

Crowdsourced: After abandoning hopes of a soccer career after knee surgery at 17, Miller taught herself to play the ukulele and began posting covers on YouTube, which led to some unexpected Internet fandom. “One of my YouTube covers got picked up by Perez Hilton, who reblogged it, and I grew a little, but loyal, following,” she says. Since the nod from the gossip king, Miller’s tunes have continued to generate plenty of buzz online: Overgrown, her second Kickstarter-funded album, bounced around the iTunes Singer/Songwriter top 20 for about three consecutive weeks. But though the distribution of Miller’s albums is fueled by her fans, her songwriting remains a wholly personal effort. “I wrote ‘Edinburgh’ for me,” she says. “So I think some of the lyrics are a little confusing/vague for someone who hasn’t experienced being in Edinburgh…oh well.”

Listen to "Edinburgh" after the jump. - Carey Hodges // Washington City Paper

I listen to a lot of music. I listen to all genres all day. This week (to name a few) I listened to Willie Nelson, St. Vincent, Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band, Dillinger Escape Plan, Langhorne Slim, Regina Spektor and WAY too much (not enough) Toots and the Maytals. I listen to music to dance, to tune out the pointless conversations surrounding me at work, to feel alive, to disappear in my own head and to make every moment in life that much better. The best reason to listen to music is to feel a connection with a song or an album or an artist. Good music, like all art, is about being vulnerable and putting your feelings out there to the world. There are few things more courageous a person can do then share their heart with the world.

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In her new album Overgrown, Jen Miller shows the world that you can be strong, independent and brave and yet remain emotional and vulnerable. After a great breakout EP Forget the Dirty Hearts, Miller is back thanks to the crowdfunding of her ever growing and loyal fan base.

Miller has clearly started to find herself in this second album. She has a sound that pulls from many genres and reminds me of Ingrid Michaelson, Regina Spektor and at times subtle hints of Explosions in the Sky. In Overgrown, the Ohio native really showcases her ability as a singer/songwriter and is a healthy reminder of how good indie-pop really can be. It is an album of self discovery, not just for the artist but the listener. Her work reflects so many of the feelings and thoughts every twenty-something year old deals with every day. She touches on the feeling of our carefree youthfulness and the residual feeling after a loss without closure. She reminds us of the duality of our own personal identities and the times we all said “fuck it” and made out with that person at the bar…even though you knew you would regret it (but it was totally awesome anyway). Overgrown, has got it all.

Jen Miller’s new album is available now for preorder on iTunes and will be released on Monday, July 14. Here is a look at some of my favorite tracks on this album…

“We Do it Anyways…”

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This track brings me back to college. Drinking with my best friends, dancing till 1 am, streaking, and finishing the night with pizzas on the porch and listening to the best music we could find with the best people and talking about “the real shit” that was weighing on our minds. I remember those heady conversations on the porch or the basement and thought, at the time, that I had the pressure of the world on my shoulders. We would talk all night trying to find ourselves and trying to find which direction to turn. Looking back…we were just kids. We had nothing to worry about. Jen sums this feeling up on We Do It Anyways… She reminds us “Life gets heavy when we grow old. Don’t know which way is right and which way is home.”

“Overgrown”

The title track is one that you can feel that Miller sank her whole heart into. It elicits personal memories of relationships (past and present) whether you want it to or not. It talks about real, honest love. (not the kind from a Taylor Swift song, but the kind that makes you feel alive.) It looks at the reality of love and what happens to our relationships as we grow personally and seek to follow our own paths. Overgrown isn’t about the sadness of growing apart, it highlights the fact that even though it is over, and you have both changed and grown, it doesn’t mean what once was, wasn’t real and honest love.

“Love Me Slow”

By far the catchiest tune on this whole EP and one of my favorites. Not only is it fantastic acoustic plucking followed by foot tapping instrumentals, Love Me Slow tells the story of time in almost every relationship when you agree to take it slow. We have all come out of a bad break up and are hesitant to enter into the next one. We try as hard as we can to not go all in to the relationship for fear of getting hurt. But there are those times, no matter how hard you try, you fall in love in the biggest way and it hits you “like a shark bite”.

“Edinburgh”

This is a beautifully deep and almost haunting song. It pulls at your heart with the feeling the one you loved is no longer being there. The haunting aspect of the tune is the feeling that there is no closure. That there once was love, but it is gone, without notice. Miller’s lyrics present the scene in Edinburgh so beautifully. You feel as though you are standing alone on cobblestone street surrounded by buildings that stood for centuries. Like a phantom limb you can feel someone standing next to you but when you look they are gone. It’s as if you can feel that someones hand in yours as you stand in the quiet solemn streets of Scotland at night only to look down and find your hand is empty. This track may be the ode to the one that got away, or maybe just a hope for closure for something that was real and true. Either way…it is powerful and moving.

Overgrown is an honest look into the heart of our generation. It is full of pure happiness and shots at the bar. It is full of the struggle of finding yourself while trying to find love and live your life with someone as they try to do the same. It’s about the reality of the world we live in and being not just decent to others, but being great to others. To be honest, this album, to me, is about being twenty-something and doing your best to figure your shit out.

Stop what you are doing, and buy this album. I promise, it is the real deal.
Check her out at JenMillerMusic.com. Read her story, listen to a few tracks and Pre-Order her new album ($9) for the release on Monday, July 14!! - Bald & Bearded

It might be the Malbec talking, but it still seems like the four-track EP is a plain-sight metaphor for the four-track recorder. The ethic of simplification aimed straight at the song count, in what is otherwise an ocean of low-cost digital self-production and 140-character advertisements.

Jen Miller’s debut EP Forget The Dirty Hearts certainly embodies that ethic of simplification, right down the title. Funded with a better-than-hoped Kickstarter campaign (two lucky buggers won the name-your-cover prize), the album is condensed down to a guitar, a wry and smokey voice, a diary full of verses, and noninvasive percussion. It starts — at least after iTunes inevitably jumbles everything around, it starts — with the landlocked reggae cut “Dirt.” Here her written manifesto (“Whatever you do in life will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it”) is set to acoustic guitar and her benignly acerbic vocal tones. “I can tell you about chemistry, that six equals three plus three … I can tell you that I miss you.” Even if there is a room full of singles at the start of Miller’s live performances, no doubt they will all be paired off by the end of the show. This is music for the early hours of a love affair, those jaw clenching first moments when infatuation is almost too much to take.

Save some butane in the cigarette lighter for the album’s proper opening track, “Doo Da Doo.” Somewhat starker than “Dirt,” it sets out with aching guitar set to dim lighting and her near-whispered regret: “I hate to admit, but if you asked me I’d come crawling.” Her posture straightens a little for the chorus, backed by marching guitar and cymbal swells. Her sense of humor returns, too: “We’re walking, running/ we are coming undone-ing and doo da doo, I’m scared of you.”

The album name comes into better view with the track “Forget Your Face,” a rich pop anthem that bridges the valley between folk and full-canvas baroque. By point of fact “Steal My Heart” steals ours, with timeless, ringing guitar and her just-above-heartbreak delivery. And for those who have saved room for dessert (read: all of us), Miller’s website teems with YouTube videos of her various covers. It’s impossible to pick a favorite, so let’s agree on “anything but Gotye” and select one at random. “The Scientist” by Coldplay, you say? Absolutely:

Pick up a copy of Forget The Dirty Hearts on iTunes, scramble the track order, and pour a few more ounces of Malbec. - The Muse In Music

Jen Miller received an honorable mention for Perez Hilton Britney Spears Contest. - perezhilton.com

Kilka świetnych, mocno zaangażowanych utworów, a także cała masa kawałków, które zapadają w pamięć. Z różnych powodów. Przed Tobą Neuzik 47.

Zastanawiałem się, jaką narrację wymyślić do 47. playlisty Neuzik, ale właściwie żadna nie leżała mi w stu procentach. Dużo wydarzyło się na świecie przez ostatnie siedem dni. Jak przełożyło się na wydawaną muzykę?

Zacznijmy jak zwykle od liczb. Tym razem przygotowałem 12 utworów na SoundCloudzie i aż 19 na Spotify. Wyłącznie na Spotify posłuchasz: nowości od Emilie Nicolas, która wraca po dwóćh latach; kolaboracji Aliny Baraz (tej od Galimatiasa) i Khalida, czy w całości Maggie Rogers oraz Watta & Post Malone. Do tego pojawia się finalna wersja utworu Toma Trippa, czyli mocno hype’owanego, pierwszego podopiecznego wytwórni Nao – Little Tokyo.

Na obu plejkach znajdziesz natomiast pozostałych: Flint Eastwood oraz CocoRosie wraz z Anohni wydają utwory mocno nacechowane politycznie, Rodes Rollins i Cat Pierce wydały single oscylujące wokół tajemniczych historii, inspirowane americaną i/lub substancjami stymulującymi. Młoda Jen Miller publikuje pierwszy, autorski, solowy singiel, a Celine Cairo chce spróbować sił poza rodzimą Holandią. Sofi Tukker wypalili z „Johny”, który dorównuje jakością ich poprzednim utworom. Nowojorka May brzmi jak Låpsley, a londyńczyk Bearcubs jak James Blake w najnowszych kompozycjach. Zestawienia kończą świetne kawałki od Lyves i tria LEØ – oba projekty wydały świetne EP-ki.

Dużo tego? Nie do końca – długość playlist oscyluje w granicach godziny, a więc to idealne zestawienie na spokojne popołudnie z kawą lub herbatą i dźwiękami. - Pan Od Muzyki

Nashville-based indie recording artist Jen Miller makes her way onto our pages with her upbeat electro-pop track “Down.” Produced by Jake Vicious at House Studios, the song serves as the first release off of Jen’s forthcoming EP, due out later this spring.

Stream “Down” above and don’t forget to follow the Ohio-native on Soundcloud to check out her full catalog. - New Sick Music