Bea Miller Releases New EP, chapter 3: yellow, Today
For immediate release:
Bea Miller Releases New EP, chapter 3: yellow, Today
yellow is Latest EP in Yearlong EP Release Series
06 October 2017 (Toronto, ON) - When Bea Miller conceived the colour-coded concept of original albums she began releasing last February, she envisioned yellow as the third chapter — but by no means the end of the road. Having shared her journey from the wistful reflection that informed blue to the righteous anger and growing confidence that fueled red, Miller found herself uplifted but still grounded and eager to move forward, maintaining the truthfulness and candor her fans have come to rely on.
“I was determined not to make chapter 3: yellow, corny,” Miller says. “I didn’t want to say, ‘Once you face a problem and deal with it, everything will be amazing.’ That’s not how life works. The cycle keeps repeating itself. But hopefully you’re better prepared to go through life with a more positive outlook.”
The first track on yellow, the pulsing, infectious “repercussions” is “actually more orange,” Miller quips — a transition piece, still tinged with the hotter emotions evident on red. “I’d been frustrated for a long time. I had all these feelings piling up that made me feel scared to be myself because I felt nobody would like who I really was. I think we all go through that at some point.”
One of yellow’s co-writers is Julia Michaels, with whom Miller “would find a lot of similarities, in what was happening in our lives. On the day we wrote this song, I was bitching to her, telling her I was so tired of trying to stay inside the lines people draw for me. I was saying, ‘I’m going to let go of this fear and do what makes me happy.’ So I felt like I finally got that piece of myself out into the world.”
From there, it was a natural segue to the funk-tinged “S.L.U.T.”, a cool glass of pungent lemonade inspired by an Instagram hater. Towards the end of a productive week writing with close pal Steph Jones (“my everything” Miller calls her) and Ido Zmishlany in Zmishlany’s Brooklyn studio, Miller arrived “wearing a bodysuit and a white skirt. It was hot and I wasn’t wearing a bra, which I thought was perfectly acceptable,” she says, noting, “I have little baby boobs.” But when Miller posted a photo, a young woman who saw it begged to differ, rudely.
“The girl called me a slut and I lost it,” Miller remembers. “I was ranting and ranting. How could a girl tell another girl not to wear a bra? Women should support each other….and I don’t understand what the problem is with nipples.” Miller had a thought to look the nasty term up on Urban Dictionary and found a post defining it as an acronym for “Sweet Little Unforgettable Thing” — and a lyric was born. “I thought, that’s amazing, and we wound up writing a fantastic song that was also a cool and funny response to this girl.”
The starkly atmospheric closing track, “to the grave” featuring rapper Mike Stud, is at once chilling and affirming. “The song is saying that sometimes you have to strip yourself down and make yourself really vulnerable to be happy eventually,” Miller says. When producer and co-writer Oak Felder played the groove for her, Miller came up with the opening lines in a flash: ‘I got my bed sheets/Pulled right out from under me.’ I thought, sheets make your bed look presentable but what’s comfortable is the mattress underneath. We all dress ourselves up for other people, to show them what we want them to see, not who we are.”
Miller is excited about continuing the visual journey that has accompanied her recent albums; Stud is featured in the video for “to the grave”. “The concept we have for these videos is even more exciting,” Miller says. “I’m looking forward to making those come to life and moving the story forward.”
A fourth installment will wrap the series and culminate into Miller’s as-yet-titled sophomore album, due early 2018 via Hollywood Records/Universal Music Canada, the country’s leading music company. It will include all nine songs on blue, red, and yellow plus three new tracks. “I feel like just in the past few weeks, I’ve stumbled upon new sounds that I really feel passionate about,” Miller says. “This has been such a creative project; I can’t wait to find out what comes next.”
chapter 2: red Videos: “buy me diamonds” HERE ; “warmer” HERE ; “like that” HERE
chapter 1: blue Videos: “i can’t breathe” HERE ; “song like you” HERE ; “burning bridges” HERE
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