Off the back of her debut EP, Sydney Miller announces June Melbourne Residency and Regional Shows.
Melbourne based artist, producer, songwriter and musician Sydney Miller has announced a residency at The Gaso for a month of Wednesdays this June with a few regional shows peppered in between in celebration of her latest single ‘Dollhouse’ lifted from her mesmerising debut EP, The Inside, released back in February this year.
Packed with delightful samples and glitchy, layered sonics, ‘Dollhouse’ was fashioned with interweaving sounds of toys, toys and more toys. Overlayed with an elegant vocal melody, that’s fast becoming a signature of Sydney’s. The single is a commentary on the personal pressures to fit into the societal mould of the femme persona and the constant objectification and being treated like a doll.
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Since merging onto the scene in 2020 with her single ‘Out From The Inside’, Miller has been paving the way for a new and vibrant sound in her solo, self-titled act. Whilst comparable to alt- and electro-pop genres, Sydney’s production style has earned early praise for its accommodation to a diverse range of musical tastes – complemented by powerful vocals and contemplative lyrics and melodies to intertwine.”
A talented songwriter that will have you hooked from the first note, fans will be able to immerse themselves in her richly atmospheric electro-pop sound this June, performing at The Gaso alongside Orange Orange on June 1, June 8, June 15 and June 22, with pop-up performances at the Red Hill Hotel in Chewton on Saturday, June 11 and Tanswell’s Hotel in Beechworth on Saturday, June 18.
To celebrate the residency and her vibrant debut, Sydney Miller gave us an exclusive insight into the EP, taking us through all seven tracks and how they came together.
‘The Inside’ EP Overview
‘The Inside’ is a broad accumulation of the predicaments, frustrations, and realisations I had coming into my first few years of adulthood that I had never been able to properly unfold. When I finally learned how to write and produce music in the way that I did, in a way that was true to myself as a person and artist; I finally had an outlet for all these emotions that had been bottled up inside my head for a long time.
‘Waste of Time feat. theo’
Growing up I struggled with severe eating disorders and body dysmorphia, and with it, I experienced very strong feelings of obsession. I wasted so much time on these feelings. I felt like I had to give a different voice (via the featured artist on this track, theo) to these toxic thoughts because those intrusive thoughts were like a different person – even though it’s actually about the internal struggle between you and those terrible urges.
‘Bad News’
Online media was especially crazy in mid-2020 in Melbourne when we were in strict lockdowns. I was so freaked out by the virtualness of everything that I wrote the lyrics and melody for Bad News from start to finish before even considering the production (the only time I’ve done this!). I wanted to juxtapose the darkness of the situation with a light, fast, ‘beep-boop-y’ instrumental. It was easy for me to find sounds to accompany the content of this song; books, newspapers, phones, and every static noise I could find.
‘In the Office’
I wanted to allocate a location typically associated with workplaces and most industries for what I wanted to share in this song. It’s symbolic of the subtle misogyny I was experiencing as a femme music producer entering the industry, and it’s also a reflection on workplaces and institutions I’d previously been part of that shocked me for their ignorance to racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia.
‘I Am Mine’
I feel like every artist has that one song dedicated to a specific past relationship! I didn’t want to focus on the person, but rather me being my own person. I Am Mine is a song of defiance, self-respect, and newfound confidence. There are many sounds of hands in I Am Mine, like a symbol of physically breaking free. It’s also a bit more sensual pop than the rest of the EP, and rightly so for the context of the song I think.
‘Dollhouse’
I wanted to make a piece for my composition degree, challenging myself to use as many toy sounds I possibly could. When it was finished, it was sounding super weird and obscure; but I could hear a melody over it. The lyrics ended up being a commentary on the pressure I’ve always felt to fit a particular model of human in terms of appearance and character. And also, chastise constantly being objectified and being “treated like a doll” when you exist as a femme person in society.
‘Running Out’
I was sitting on a 6 track EP for quite a few months and was feeling pretty frustrated because it didn’t feel complete. There was this song I’d started making in mid 2020 and I’d gotten so angry I couldn’t finish it, I almost binned it! I came back to it at the end of last year and finished it in a day. This was Running Out. I couldn’t believe how complete I felt after I finished this song, like I’d completely externalised all the things that had really bothered me until this point in my life… even though the song itself is about the existential feeling of trying to fulfill your dreams but always feeling a million steps behind, whilst having limited time to do so. Go figure!
‘Out From The Inside’
Out From The Inside was the first song I produced, wrote, and recorded from start to finish. When I finished it, I thought, “this is going to be my sound, this is so me”. It felt so honest to who I am as a person and creative. It’s also super ironic because the whole song was me writing about how I couldn’t make a song, and how I was struggling to get out of my own head, and how I felt so trapped inside my own thoughts that I couldn’t find a way to just do it.
‘Out From The Inside’ is the reason the EP was given its name ‘The Inside’; and also served as an anchor for each song in the EP that followed this one in terms of theme and creation process.
You can purchase tickets to Sydney Miller here. Listen to the EP here.
