FEATURE: Spotlight: Revisited: Mica Millar

FEATURE:

Spotlight: Revisited

Mica Millar

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THIS is a tremendous artist…

who I spotlighted back in 2022. The supreme Mica Millar. I have also interviewed her. She has this voice that is so captivating and knee-buckling. I wanted to come back to her now, as Millar releases her new album, A Little Bit of Me, on 5th June. I know there will be some interviews nearer the time. However, there are some interviews I can bring in to give you some background to Mica Millar. The Manchester artist released her extraordinary debut, Heaven Knows, in 2022. That is when she was on my radar. Putting out some incredible music since then, I am really excited to see what A Little Bit of Me offers. She has some European dates coming soon, so if you can go and catch her live then do so. Someone I am keen to see live very soon. I am going to get to something new in a minute. However, I am heading back to some older interviews with Mica Millar. I will start out with 15 Questions and their interview. Published around the release of Heaven Knows, we get an insight into Millar’s creative process:

“Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

For me it’s about a need to express myself and process my emotions in a way that can’t be done through other channels - language doesn’t always have the capacity to communicate all that can be communicated when you combine it poetically with music.

For this album (Heaven Knows), I used a ‘stream of consciousness’ approach to writing quite a lot, either over an instrumental I've created or starting with finding chords on the piano that resonate with me in the moment, and feeling out what kind of emotions and words they evoke. This approach involves basically singing whatever comes out and then you interpret it later.

A lot of what you express from a process like that I think comes from the subconscious mind so it’s difficult when people ask what inspires me or what songs are about. I always go into writing without an intention and use the process to identify things I probably need to process. But of course, the subconscious mind is made up of all of the memories from our day to day lives so relationships and human experience are the things that often surface and express themselves through the lens of my political spiritual and political beliefs.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

I don’t really have any rituals for writing apart from that I always write at night, generally in low light and always alone.

I know a lot of other songwriters love to collaborate with other writers but that has never been something that has appealed to me. I think to get into that flow-state that I love so much and where I find my best work comes from, I need to be isolated. I don’t really like it if someone else is in the house when I’m writing, I think I have an awareness that someones listening to my process and it’s incredibly personal and not something I’ve ever really been able to or comfortable sharing with anyone else.

The writing process, for me, is something that is a means to process my own emotions I suppose and what comes out at the end of that process is the ‘creation’ which is what I feel comfortable sharing. Going through the process of writing an album, I think I realise that by the time I’ve taken a song to its conclusion, the emotion that was attached to it initially has also been fully processed and I think ‘releasing it’ is a bit like letting go of the emotion.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

It depends on the day and how I’m feeling. Sometimes things just flow out with ease and other times I could be sitting for hours not really finding anything that resonates. I think it depends a lot on mood and mindset”.

I am dropping in some tracks from Heaven Knows, though this is very much about A Little Bit of Me. Its title track has been released, and that was the first taste of an album shaping up to be one of this year’s best. Mica Millar is a truly immense talent that everyone should know. I want to come to Noctis, as their interview is particularly interesting:

“Heaven Knows’ was mastered at the iconic Abbey Road Studios, how was that experience for you? How did all come about, as well as working with Geoff Pesche?

Working at Abbey Road on mastering the album with Geoff was a real career moment for me and knowing that all the work that had gone into it would culminate in a finished album at the end of the day was quite a magical feeling!

When I first arrived, Goeff said to me something along the lines of ‘you won’t get anything out of me about the content, all I’m doing here is assessing the sonics’. The first song he fell in love with and by the end of the day he was struggling to choose his favourite track and making suggestions for the running order. It was really quite special to be in a gold standard mastering studio and have someone really fall in love with the album in the way he did. It was after that that he chose my album as his favourite mastering project of 2021 in Abbey Road’s annual round up and he’s since used a couple of tracks from the record as ‘mastering room references’ for other artists’ sessions which is a huge honour.

Besides Covid, you also struggled with a traumatic back injury, what kept you going? What was going through your head when you had no idea what the future holds?

Yes,I had an accident in a trampolining class in 2020 which resulted in me crushing one of my vertebrae and severely damaging my spinal cord. I was very nearly paralysed so I’m incredibly lucky. It’s a long-term injury so it’s a lot to come to terms with but I’m definitely getting there.

Going through something so traumatic in the midst of recording the album was a real challenge but honestly, I just really didn’t want my injury to define me or impact what I had been working towards creatively. When Covid hit, it felt like one thing after another for me, I just thought, the universe is telling me to take some time out now. There were nine months where I was learning to walk so it wasn’t really feasible to work on the album, but I think that period of time did give me some perspective and when I was able to get back into my studio, I had a much clearer vision for how I was going to approach finishing the record and I’d redefined what the end result would be.

Covid, in many ways, opened up a lot of opportunities for me to work with people I’d always wanted to work with in the US. Given everything was online at that time as we were in lockdown, recording some of the album remotely meant sessions could happen anywhere in the world. I’m glad I was able to take such a difficult situation and to make something really positive out of it.

What would you advise other people going through a similar thing?

I think everyone’s experiences are very different so it’s really challenging to answer this. Particularly with spinal cord injuries, I have learnt that every single person’s injury and their symptoms are very unique to them – this makes the whole thing quite isolating as it’s challenging to connect with anything relatable. Many people who have had the same injury as me are paralysed. On the one hand, I feel incredibly lucky and on the other hand I’ve had to learn not to devalue or invalidate my own experience and my own injury which has and continues to have a huge impact on my life.

Aside from the physical symptoms, with a trauma like this, it’s quite a natural response to have PTSD and I had a particularly difficult time with flashbacks and feeling like I was falling for example. I’ve had an amazing therapist over the last year who has guided me through re-processing what happened and coming to terms with the limitations I have physically and it’s been so beneficial. So I think my advice is to seek help, even if you feel like other’s might be worse off than you. Up to now, I haven’t really talked much about my experience but I’m also finding that it’s very good for me.

How do you think experience changed you?

Definitely. I’m a very different person now than I was before my accident. I think I connected with myself both mentally and physically in a way you don’t until you have to. I also learnt a lot about my resilience – those are positives. I’m also much less of a risk taker these days – I’d have loved to have done a skydive for example, I never have but it’s been on my bucket list for many years. Sadly, I don’t think I’d risk doing something like that now but maybe that will change in the future – you never know!

As an artist only at the beginning, what are you manifesting for yourself?

My vision for the future is in continual development but I really do believe you have to live what you want rather than just wish or hope for it. For me, manifesting is all about having a vision and then making that a reality through tangible and dedicated action every single day.

I have a vision board in my studio at home and Albert Hall and The Jazz Cafe are both pinned there from before I booked these shows, as are Abbey Road Studios, Radio 2 and Jazz FM. There are lots of other photos too… as for the rest, we’ll see!”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jasmine Allcock-Fox

Mica Millar has had a busy start of the year already. See attended the recent GRAMMYs and she is preparing to release her second album. Last July, Millar played American Express Presents BST Hyde Park. Just Listen to This spoke with her ahead of the performance.

“You will be performing at American Express Presents BST Hyde Park in London on Saturday 12th July 2025 which is the day that Stevie Wonder is headlining. How did that opportunity arise and how are you feeling about the event?

I was put forward as a potential support artist for the show a few months ago and have been waiting with baited breath since then. I honestly didn’t want to get too excited about it in case it didn’t come off. It really is a bucket list moment for me and I can’t wait.

Do you have any new music releases planned for 2025/2026?

Yes! I’ve been working on my new record for the last year and I’m looking forward to releasing new songs later this year!

What two things do you hope to have achieved once you have left the stage?

For this type of show, with such a huge audience across multiple stages, I guess you hope to see some of your existing audience there to support and also to captivate people who haven’t heard you before. I’m playing the Birdcage stage so I’m not too far away from the backstage area… hopefully Stevie will get to hear me sing! What a dream.

Do you have any favoured stage instruments, effects, pedals, microphones etc?

I use a Sennheiser MD435 microphone and it’s my favourite. I never go on stage without it. You get used to using a particular type of microphone I guess and it becomes a sort of comfort to you.

How do you look after your voice?

Lots of yoga for building core strength, vocal warm ups before every show, stream and I do love vocal zone as well as throat coat tea!

You are given the opportunity to write the score for a film adaptation of a novel that you enjoy. Which novel is it and why?

To be honest I’m a non-fiction kind of gal but, I’d absolutely love to write or have my song featured in some sort of Christmas rom-com like Bridget Jones Diary or Love Actually. I’d also love to write a James Bond theme and I’m a big fan of sci-fi movies so maybe something futuristic about AI?

Where is your hometown and could you please describe it in five words?

Manchester – gritty, grounded, community, industrial, hearty

Do you have any further live dates in the UK/Europe planned for 2025/2026?

Yes – I’m playing at Blue Festival in Poznan and Lazy Days Festival in Southend. I’ll also be in Copenhagen, France, Germany and Turkey for festivals this year.

Who are some of your musical influences? Do you have any recommendations?

Stevie Wonder of course. Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Donny Hathaway, Lauryn Hill, D’Angelo, Jill Scott.

What makes Mica Millar happy and what makes you unhappy?

I try to be pretty positive most of the time, I guess challenging situations that feel difficult to resolve or feeling misunderstood are the things that generally tend to effect me most.

I’d say I’m at my happiest when I’m with friends and family and when I’m writing. There’s a sense of elation that I get from writing which is definitely incomparable to any other feeling”.

I am going to leave it there. You can pre-order A Little Bit of Me here. For anyone who has not discovered her music yet, go and follow Mica Millar. She is one of our very best artists. I will see if I can interview her this year, as I would love to know more about her new album:

“A Little Bit of Me is the second studio album from British singer, songwriter and producer Mica Millar.

Self-written and self-produced, the record brings a contemporary, female perspective to the timeless genres of soul, R&B and blues. Recorded at the iconic Miraval Studios in the south of France, surrounded by stillness and light, the album was shaped by reflection and intention. Across the record, Millar explores desire, femininity, freedom, emotional duality and the realities of a creative life lived on her own terms.

Warm, spacious, intimate and richly vocalled, A' Little Bit of Me' captures an artist creating with honesty and depth. 'A Little Bit of Me' follows Mica Millar's critically acclaimed debut album Heaven Knows (2022), yet another timeless work that affirms her as one of the most exciting voices of British Soul”.

It has been great reproaching Mica Millar. Although I have included interviews around her 2022 debut, Heaven Knows, we get an insight into her music and background. This is someone that you cannot afford to overlook. A stunning songwriter, producer and singer, there are few artists…