INTERVIEW: Nicole Millar on latest single 'Favours': 'I’m loving the darker vibes now'
Interview: Jett Tattersall
Image: Sly Morikawa
Nicole Millar first drew attention in 2014 when she was the featured vocalist on Peking Duk’s top 5 hit single ‘High’. A debut EP Tremble followed in 2016, and last year Millar released her debut album Excuse Me, a near perfect collection of electro-synth, cutting edge pop music. She has now returned with the release of new single ‘Favours’ on December 5 which has seen a sonic switch to a smooth yet jagged pop-R&B crossover sound. We recently caught up with Nicole to chat more about her latest musical direction.
Hi Nicole, I just want to congratulate you on behalf of Women In Pop for such a killer track with ‘Favours’ – beautiful! How are things with you these days?
Thank you so much. Yeah, good, it's been a while since I saw you last the year’s just flown by. Just writing, writing lots of songs and planning for next year now.
We last spoke to you on our podcast back in 2018 upon the release of Excuse Me which was like a thought bomb of late-night electro pop synth. What an album, we at Women in Pop would like to thank you for filling our workplace with your delicious sounds. What have you been up to since?
That was so long ago, it's gone so fast. I had a really up and down year last year. Which gave me a lot of stories to write songs about I guess. Since I saw you last I went to America, to LA, to write some songs but I found I wasn't writing my best work over there. I would be working with all these amazing people and I’d come back and I just wouldn't have any songs that I was proud of. So took a break from going there to write songs and I've gone back to how I used to write. And it's really refreshing. I write at home, I write at the beach and I've been drawing inspiration from the hip hop scene. How the beat is playing and you turn on the microphone and you just sing whatever comes out, rather than overthinking it. It’s really, really, exciting for me to finally write songs that I want to write because I’m not sitting on a couch thinking ‘oh, what's a clever concept’. It gets very sterile and very boring, very fast for me. And I'm a very go go go person. So I think this style of writing is really working for me and it's really exciting.
That sounds great. You mentioned you weren't happy with anything that came out of LA. Do you think part of that, being an Australian artist is to do with the fact that there's just so much pressure? You hear artists go ‘I’m going to LA to record’ and as exciting as that it you get almost a pressure block of expectancy.
Yeah, I think so. And most of the time artists, we put the most pressure on ourselves. I still feel the pressure, you know. There's always that pressure like ‘I need a pop cross over song, I need my song to be added to Triple J' and get added to all the playlists’. There's such a pressure to have that, but then you have to just sit back and be like ‘well, what is a pop cross over song anyway?’ No one really knows until it's out there in the world and it's doing its thing. I was talking to a producer about it the other day and there must be so many songs on people's SoundCloud and computers that are waiting to be this amazing thing. But everyone’s too scared to put them out. We put so much pressure on ourselves.
Can you talk me through the creation of this late night rubber dipped track ‘Favours’?
I was actually living at home with my mum and I was working Kilter, who obviously I’m very close with, and we were planning to do a session with Muki, another singer/songwriter who I love. She was actually on my last album, but I had never met her before in real life, which was so weird. We were playing a session and we couldn't find a studio and we were like ‘well, why don't we just have a makeshift studio in my mum's garage?’ And that's like exactly what we did. It was very DIY, back to before the big fancy studios. That’s how you write music, it’s fun and it’s less intimidating. Kilter and I were in the garage serving it up and Muki came over and we just really hit it off and were bitching about 2018. We had both had some crazy years and we were bitching and bitching about it. The lyrics just came from 2018 for us, I guess. That's probably why it's got that bit of an edge because I was talking about someone that was bringing me down, and then also played in the person who was bringing her down. We wrote the song literally in one day and that was in February. Then it just sat there and everyone was like ‘yeah we love it but keep writing keep writing, just to make sure you've got your best work’. Then I played it at my shows, everyone really liked it. It's so crazy how music takes so long to actually put out. But I still really love the song, so that's good.
You’ve mentioned the feelings of 2018. Let's talk about the lyrics. My favourite is ‘I heard you're the leech in the room, I'm throwing the salt in your wound.’ Can you give a little clue as to who is this song gift-wrapped for?
I've obviously exaggerated it a little bit, because he means well and probably doesn't realise the damage he's done. It was someone that was working for me in 2018 and really kind of sucked the confidence out of me so I didn't really know who I was. I kind of lost myself in 2018 and I was basically just saying ‘yes yes yes’ to everything that he wanted and not really sticking up for myself and standing my ground. I’m grateful for it because now I've written a great song about the situation and I found a light in the dark. But also I think I needed to just be confident in what I want and how to speak up for myself. Growing up I didn't want to step on anyone's toes, I hated confrontations. And there's still pieces of that in me. But I feel now with my music I’m going to be able to express myself more. Especially in the studio, I can tell people what I want and if I don't like something I am not afraid to tell them, which is really important to getting what you want out of your career.
In the ‘Favours’ artwork and video you are rubbered up like a dom, what are your thoughts on objectification versus female empowerment in the pop music industry?
It can go both ways. It's such a tough question because for years I was always ‘oh I better not post that [on social media] or you'll just get creepy men commenting’. And if I post a sexy photo or a photo where I’m feeling very confident, people think I’m not an artist, that I don’t write my songs. But I think as the years have gone on, I’ve realised I'm an artist and I feel confident, this is how I visualise what I want my project to be. I’m loving the darker vibes now. I've always loved fashion and I think if you look at the fashion industry it's at a really great place. But you're always going to have people objectifying you and looking at your photos and thinking ‘oh she's just a hot girl, she's not a real artist’. Us girls are copping it way more than the men in the industry. But I don't know when that's going to change.
You have got your fingers in so many pies with the creation of your music, you even co-wrote Peking Duk's massive hit ‘High’. You’ve won multiple awards and attention, but can I ask you which part of this process do you most enjoy? Is it the writing? The producing? The performing?
It is an interesting question because I get a little bit bored if I'm doing the same thing every day. I always need to switch it up. If I was just to write songs every day for the rest of my life, I'd love it but I’d also miss the feeling of being onstage. I'd miss all the other elements. And I love doing all the art, photoshoots and the whole package. So it's a really hard question to answer. If it's one of my tours and everyone's there and they know the music and the lyrics, that's really quite beautiful seeing people sing along to the songs you've written. At the moment I'm definitely enjoying writing over performing because at the moment when I perform, I'm still performing a few of my old songs because obviously you can't put just all new songs in the set because people don't know them.
They can't sing at you
Yeah, exactly. They can't sing at you. They don’t know them. I would hate that if I went to go and see one of my favourite artists and they only played their new songs.
I'm glad you say that because sometimes we do go to gigs and we’re just like ‘can you just seriously give me greatest hits?’
It's true. It's true. As much as you evolve as an artist, you have to play the songs that people love. If you went to a Britney Spears concert and she didn't play ‘Oops…I Did It Again’ you'd just be so upset.
There'd be an outrage of walking out
Exactly!
Speaking of new songs, in ‘Favours’ you sing ‘Gwen Stefani your ass no doubt’. Can I ask you, and I’m going to use it myself if you can illuminate me, how do we use Gwen Stefani as a verb?
Well when you put Muki and I into a room together we’re just filled with laughter, we're so sassy. We were like ‘okay second verse’ and Muki said ‘Gwen Stefani’ and then both at the same time, we were like ‘oh my god, No Doubt’. I don't even know how that came about but I love it. To be honest, we were at first just putting it in as a placeholder and as time went on we were like ‘how can we change this lyric? We have to leave it there.’
Before I leave you, you are an absolute sonic chameleon queen. So I'm intrigued what do you listen to both when it's time to party and then when you're night driving on your own?
Music definitely creates a mood, music definitely makes you feel more confident. When I am by myself I feel I'm a bit more vulnerable. If I'm driving in a car, I just feel way more confident. So, I'm playing hip hop really loud with the windows down and people are looking at me and like ‘who is that like small white girl playing hip hop with the windows down?!’ It's kind of embarrassing when you reach the red light. I'm obviously a massive pop fan as well. So even though I do listen to hip hop and the more underground stuff I am a sucker to literally just bust out some Shania Twain or Dido, all the stuff that I listened to when I was growing up. James Morrison, Evanescence, it's a very weird mix.
That's drama in the car. That is drama in the car.
Yeah.
There's nothing better than driving through the city and you have all your windows up and you have the acoustics going and you spot someone else doing it as well. A Smooth FM track and you're like ‘yeah... you and me buddy.’
Yeah, especially if you're listening to the radio and someone else is listening to the same radio station. It's a nice beautiful moment that you have together.
It is slow dancing in cars. It's beautiful.
I know, it's one of my favourite things to do, just drive around and listen to music. Everyone complains about the traffic, but because I love music so much it's such a nice place to turn on an album and listen to the whole thing. I love it.
Have you ever purposely driven around the block a couple of times so you can finish a song?
Oh, 100%. 100%. Especially when I was living at home. I was like ‘yes, I’m just going to live in this car now’. Listen to everything.
Amazing. Can I just ask very quickly - what's up next for Nicole Millar?
I'm just writing. ‘Favours’ is part of a six single series. So I've got five more little songs to pop out. Some of them are singles. Some of them are going to be whatever they are. I don't know yet. But that's happening all next year. So I'm very excited.
‘Favours’ is out now via EMI Music. You can download and stream here
To keep up with all things Nicole Millar you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
