Nicole Millar chats confronting new sound on Favours
At the helm of the trajectory of her career, Nicole Millar constructs a new era with her latest single Favours. A year and a half since her first offering, Excuse Me, the singer song-writer uses her resurgence to open the floodgates to a thicker, more piled sound, rather than revert to the bounce-infused pop on her debut.
Millar uses Favours as a display of her defiance in the midst of encountering loss and heartbreak. Lathered with attitude, and a personal stamp to the track, Nicole Millar finds her identity on the lo-fi spectrum of music. We chat to Nicole about the making of Favours, and working with collaborators Muki and Kilter to bring this next phase to life.
Congratulations on the release of Favours, a track that was unpredictable from you and really refreshing to pop.
Thank you so much! It can be nerve-wracking putting a song out when you haven’t released anything in so long. I think people definitely have an expectation for something huge, but I’m super excited. I’ve been sitting on this song since February and have been itching to put it out.
It’s very fascinating that it feels like a long time since you’ve released anything, considering that Excuse Me only came out a year and a half ago. It shows how quickly music moves.
That’s true! The music industry has changed so much with how everyone releases and it’s quite oversaturated. It’s nice to have that break and sit down and reinvent yourself, because I think I’ve changed so much sonically, and as I’ve grown older. My music needed to do that too. I’m happy I took the time, [especially] because I’m the kind of person that’s always ‘go, go, go’. When you wait that long, it’s a weird feeling, because it isn’t that long in theory, but as an artist you always want to keep going and keep releasing.
What did the bones of the song look like before it was complete in February?
Since my album came out last year in June, I’ve just been writing and writing. I’d been going to LA a lot to write, and I just wasn’t writing anything great. I think it was very exhausting, because you’re there for two weeks, and doing all these writing sessions with people. I needed a break from that, and to try and find people to work with in Sydney, my home. It’s less tiring and more fun.
Favours was written in my mum’s garage with Kilter and Muki. Muki actually featured on my last album, but I’d never properly met her. So weird! I couldn’t believe I hadn’t met her because we’re both from Sydney and in music, and she was on my album as well. They came over to where I was living at the time, and we wrote a song in my mum’s garage because we couldn’t find a studio, so we made a makeshift studio in there. It was really dodgy!
I was really inspired by Doja Cat for this song. I love the song So High, and I think she’s so amazing. Lyrically, I had a really rough year last year and I just really needed to vent. Muki, as well had a rough year, and we just kept talking, and poor Kilter who was producing, we were just bitching and bitching about last year. Then, we were like, ‘we need to write about it’. It happened really easily and in one day. It didn’t even feel like we were writing. We were just hanging out.
I had [Favours] in February and just kept on writing, but this just felt right to put out first. It takes a long time if you want to know for sure that you like your music. It’s so easy, and a lot of artists keep putting songs out and in a few months’ time, they might not like them anymore. I have a lot of songs lined up, but I’m just being careful about what to release next.
How often do you listen to a song once it’s done, or nearly finished?
It’s kind of hard, and there are definitely moments where you’re like, ‘do I even like this anymore?’ because you’ve listened to it so many times. You listen to it when you’re writing it, and when you have it, you’re excited, so you might listen to it in the car, or at the airport…
Then you have a break from it, and then record the proper vocals and get it mixed and mastered so it’s ready to go. There is a little bit of a moment where you [think], ‘is this the one I [should] put out?’ You always have to remember that it’s fresh for the audience that will be hearing it and then you get another excitement for the song when it’s out again because you get all the reactions from people who haven’t heard it. It’s a journey for sure!
I think what attracted me to the song the most was that the lyrics showcased how empowered you were after enduring such defeat.
How did you build to that point on the track?
I think I must have felt really comfortable. I can be quite shy in the studio sometimes when I’m around people I don’t know, and I think that’s why I wasn’t writing anything good when I went to LA. When I was in my space in my mum’s garage, it felt comforting. Kilter and I are really close, and Muki and I instantly got along. It felt like I wasn’t overthinking anything and we were just writing what we wanted to write.
In the past I’ve been in sessions and even though I’m the artist and these are my songs… if you’re writing with someone who’s written a big hit, sometimes they won’t listen to you if they have a sense of ego that their [idea] is better. I’m definitely more comfortable with myself as an artist, and what I’m writing and trusting my work, rather than needing someone looking and [saying], ‘this is good, and this is bad’. That comes with age.
When I started music, I just fell into it and was saying yes to everything. The Peking Duck song High came out and it was crazy. I didn’t know what kind of music I wanted to make… You’re always still figuring it out, because music changes all the time, but I know who I am now. It’s nice that you can have a shit time and make something good out of it. It’s what I love about song writing.
It’s a great silver lining!
It’s pretty funny that you can make something shit into something good, and then you almost don’t care about that thing anymore.
The sonics also seem like they’ve evolved as you’ve gotten older. The sound on Favours is denser than the bounce that features throughout Excuse Me.
Is that something you’re actively striving towards?
I just want to write music I would actually listen to. Even though I love and am proud of all the [music] I’ve put out, they’re a bit bouncier and a bit more pop, and less gritty. If you look at what I put in my Spotify playlists, a lot of what I listen to is a bit darker and there’s a lot of hip-hop. I feel like I’m inspired by the hip-hop world and darker beats they use. I love what Lykke Li did with her latest album and how she threw herself into a new world. I think when they write, they freestyle rather than sitting there being like ‘does this rhyme with this?’ It’s more of a free way of writing, and sonically, I’m very inspired by that world.
I love pop music, so I’m still going to obviously have elements of pop, but if you look at my inspirations and the songs I’m actually listening to, they’re a bit more left. I think that never showed in my music, because I could never quite write like what I actually listened to. It’s just figuring it out, and I’m excited because I really do want to write music that I would pump in my car and be super proud of. Hopefully the next [lot of music] will sonically be like that too. I think it’s finding the right producers and people…
Will you be going for a more stream of consciousness and off-the-cuff style of lyricism in the future?
Yeah! I think I’m definitely experimenting with what first things come into my head when listening to a beat. At the moment I’ve been writing to beats at home by myself again and freestyling what comes out without thinking about it so much. That’s what I love about hip-hop, is that it’s so free and doesn’t seem so written as a pop song. 070 Shake is one of my favourite artists, and Rosalía, and I think they do that really well. Definitely experimenting with that, and obviously it’s a process because I’m so used to being in pop writing sessions. It’s going to be a mixture of the two.
Your subconscious probably gets the words that need to be on the page out either way.
Totally. It’s funny because sometimes I have no idea what I’m writing about, but when you listen back to all the improvisation that you’ve done in the first take, you can almost piece out what the story is about. I’m thinking that I’m not singing about anything, but then if you try draw the words out that you said, you’re like ‘oh, alright this is a diss song’, or ‘that’s the break-up song!’
You’ve also been able to cultivate the distinctiveness not only through the production, but through the visuals with the latex.
Is the visual mirroring the song’s theme something to expect in the future?
I think so! I’ve always really appreciated artists with cool aesthetics and visuals… I wasn’t doing it so much before. I think there were elements of me trying to, but then I would get caught up in Instagram and I was following too many [accounts]. I did a massive cull on who I was following…
You get caught up in that world and forget that you’re an artist. I had to go back to that and think ‘what’s my aesthetic, what do I want to look like, and what are the things I love?’ I pulled a few Pinterest boards and found a great stylist to help me portray what I want to portray. I love the fashion world and am inspired by Oyster Magazine and new trends, and I find it very fun [to have] another element to my music. I will keep going on this latex dark vibe. I never thought I would be wearing latex, but it’s happening.
What’s next after Favours?
I can’t spill too much, but I’m writing heaps and have a bunch of music coming out. We’re calling it a ‘Singles Series’, and that was number one of six songs. The five more that are to come aren’t all going to be singles. Just playing around with new sonics and styles!