Jake Miller - Beyond The Stage Magazine - May 2018

At first glance, something extremely notable about Jake Miller is his presence on social media. Whether he is interacting with fellow artists about their most recent releases, gaining the attention of major radio stations or engaging with his fans, it’s definitely apparent that he runs his own social channels.

Across the board, Miller’s presence is honest, sincere, relatable and trustworthy. Fans share open, candid conversations via direct message and Miller answers, giving life advice, a needed pep talk, a promise for new music and more.

When a fan comments on Miller’s Instagram post, asking for him to write lyrics for a tattoo, Miller replies and sends them a photo via Instagram’s built-in messenger platform.

“Its really cool [to see fans with my lyrics tattooed]. I have a John Mayer tattoo and it means so much to me, so I can only imagine how my fans feel when they get my lyrics tattooed. I have that same feeling towards John Mayer, I look at him like a God in terms of music, so to have people look at me like that is incredible. Every single day at every show, I see at least five to ten tattoos that I have written lyrics for them by hand and they have gone and gotten them tattooed. That is just incredible. More people are coming to me in the meet and greet and saying, ‘Can you write this lyric out?’ Even some of the songs that I just put out on this album two months ago, fans are already going and getting the lyrics tattooed. That will forever be the coolest thing to me,” he said.

His fans constantly drive him to create music, resulting in two albums dropped just in one year, all which Miller self-wrote and produced.

“I would describe my sound as pop mixed with a little bit of R&B. It’s just a mixture of all the different types of music that I listen

to myself. My music spectrum is all across the board from John Mayer to Drake to The Beatles. I just appreciate good music, so I think that my music is kind of just like a blend of everything that I listen to and so it’s kind of hard to categorize [my own]. I would say pop, R&B with a little bit of funk, positive uplifting with a lot of great messages, the whole point of music is to make people happy and take people out of the dark places so that is what I try to do with my music,” Miller said to Beyond The Stage.

“My musical inspirations are across the whole board. It’s not just like it was one specific artist that inspired me on this album. In terms of my lyricism, John Mayer has always inspired me. In terms of dreaming airy guitars in the background, The 1975 kind of inspired that. I use some saxophones on a few of my songs and The 1975 definitely inspired that. Then, I have some songs like ‘Mulholland Drive’ and ‘The Girl that’s Underneath’ that just like have big pop drops that are inspired by Zedd and Bruno Mars. My musical influences all just across the board,”

Flashback just five years ago, when Miller was in a completely different boat, working with a major label, producing music in studio spaces and rather than singing and playing guitar, rapping. The decision to leave that behind resulted in what Miller calls the best decision of his life.

“As an artist, the most important thing is having your creative freedom and being able to do whatever you want. When I was with the label there were a lot of ups and downs. I think that the biggest down was that I felt creatively suppressed [...]. They basically said, ‘These are the songs we want you to record and we think these will fit you and we think these are radio friendly songs. Go to the studio and make these songs,’ even though I didn’t write or have any attachment to any of them.”

“I felt like I was selling out for a little bit and losing myself, in my head and in terms of my musicianship. Now, I’m independent and writing about whatever I want, I can rap, I can sing, I can do whatever I want, nobody is telling me what to do. The greatest part is that when I became independent, I learned how to make my own beats and I had never made a beat before at all until like last year. I dedicated all of 2017 to learning how to make my own beats so I went to guitar center, bought all this equipment I didn’t know how to use and spent a million hours on YouTube. Now, I can make just as good of a beat as any A list producer out there and that’s a skill I’ll be able to take with me for the rest of my life. This album I just released, I produced the entire thing in my bedroom, by myself. I recorded the vocals in my bedroom, I mixed it, mastered it, all in my apartment,” Miller said.

As he reflects on creating Silver Linings, his most recent release, Miller noted that writing his music doesn’t necessarily happen only in the studio, on airplane napkins or in the shower.

they would just be straight 3 minutes of me rapping telling stories about suicide awareness, anti bullying, really strong, deep messages and the fans fell in love with that. As time went on, I was learning how to do more things and being in more sessions with other people, I wanted to learn how to sing as well. I still rap a little bit but I really wanted to kind of push myself and see what I can learn. It’s kind of like how I learned how to make my own beats, I’m always just trying to learn new things so who knows where the next direction will go,” he said.

That next direction has inspired thousands of fans, who continue to drive hours, wait in line for days and seek out Miller’s music. Those inspirational messages grace hundreds of fans that have lyrics tattooed, whether it’s something uplifting, encouraging. Signed with a heart and his initials, Miller’s lyrics have meaning, soul and are as genuine as the artist himself.

“You can’t just sit down and write a beautiful song at any moment of the day. You have to wait until inspiration hits you and that’s the best part of being in my bedroom. If I’m sitting on my bed watching TV and I don’t feel like writing then cool, I don’t. But if I do, then I roll out of bed over to my studio and start writing,” he said.

As he’s grown as an artist, Miller continued to explain how creating music in his own time has helped him grow as an artist.

“As an artist, I’m always growing and pushing myself to learn new things. Rapping was kind of something I fell into, I thought of it as a hobby when I started with my friends and it was all really fun. I was really just doing it as a hobby but people kind of started telling me that I was really good at rapping and I should take it more seriously. That’s when I did take it more seriously and I started gaining a fan base,” he reflected. “That fan base fell in love with my inspirational rap songs. Some songs wouldn’t even have choruses,

“If you have never heard any of my music, then I think it is very important to hear my newest album. As an artist, I’m always getting better and I’m always growing. Right now, I think I’m the best I have ever been and I think the message on this album is really cool,” he said.

“If you look on the album cover it’s me, standing on top of a mountain with a bunch of people floating away holding balloons. All these people drifting away into the sunset represent past relationships, bad energy, ex managers, ex girlfriends, ex record labels and just letting bad energy go. Focusing on what is right in front of you and focusing on the future. If you look at the cover, I’m standing on top of the mountain by myself, which symbolizes me being independent. I’m just watching all this bad energy and past experiences drift away, looking at the sunset and the silver lining and realizing that with every bad situation comes a silver lining and a positive outcome. I just hope that people listen to the album and realize that you don’t need to have everything figured out right now, everything will be alright if you just focus on what is right in front of you and not look at the past and get caught up in the past.”

As Miller continues to look forward, he reflects on the past, present and future. As his nationwide, sold out tour comes to the final few stops, Miller plans on getting back into the studio, spending time with his loved ones and connecting more with his fans.

“I’m going to go home after this tour and write a lot of music. Since I have put out two albums in the last year, I’m going to plan on really getting into the studio and dial in and find a great single. I’m going to try and put out one song every month or every two months, kind of take it easy as in terms of quantity. This is the year that I try to find that song that changes my life.”

Whether you’re a long time fan of Miller or just getting to know the singer, he’s definitely grown over time, from the cover of Beyond The Stage in 2015, to so much more. Between producing music, touring the world and inspiring his thousands of fans, we can’t wait to see what’s next for him.

Beyond The Stage is a digital music magazine based in the United States. You can read Beyond The Stage online for free or visit our website to buy a hard copy. Previous issues are always available to read online or order in print.

Revisit our previous issues at: http://bit.ly/BTSissues

Want to be featured in BTS? Contact: awhelan@beyondthestagemagazine.com

For advertising inquiries contact: ads@beyondthestagemagazine.com

Read the latest news at: WWW.BEYONDTHESTAGEMAGAZINE.COM

Words by Addie Whelan | Photos by Stone Fenk