Miya Folick. Music, community and pleasure.
This Californian singer-songwriter is one of the glossier emerging acts in alternative pop. We talked about her second album, “Roach” and the philosophy behind her work.
Words David Saavedra Photography JC Verona 
Dress - Wolford
Miya Folick (Santa Ana, California) is not exactly new here. She made her debut in 2015 with an EP called “Strange Darling”, another one, “Give It To Me”, two years later, and, in 2018, she released her first proper album, “Premonitions”. After the unavoidable pandemic hiatus, she comes back now with a new album, “Roach”, which takes her further in her personal craft of alternative pop songs that, at the same time, sound not really uncommercial. “I think my music is always evolving when I get older. It’s like if I would be continuously playing in a different band”, she says shyly.
Miya is not very keen to uncover many secrets about her work. “I think honestly, I’m just making music. There are things I search for in my life but for me music has more to do with a way of expression, community and pleasure and I don’t think necessarily rounds parallel to my personal life. People use to think that way because my music is very autobiographical, but it’s not all of me. There are so many things I pick outside of music and they are just as important and I don’t do all my seeking through music. I think in many ways music is like ten steps behind as a part of my life. I do my seeking in other places first and then I take them to my music, there’s no necessarily the other way around”, she states.
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“Music has more to do with a way of expression, community and pleasure and I don’t think necessarily rounds parallel to my personal life”
The sense of intimacy with which she delivers her songs invites to think about something much more introspective, but the artist suggests that that is a wrong idea “I think that I actually use a lot of metaphors on this record. "Tetherball", for instance, is filled with metaphor. I compare myself to the game of tetherball and an Eightball and describe myself as "curled up like a roach in the dark". In "Get Out of my House" I think the entire idea of the house is a metaphor. I also think that in music, arguably, every line can be a metaphor. There's something about setting lyrics to music that colors the meaning of the words and opens up or expands their possible meanings. I also think that you can build metaphor through the order in which you place lyrics. Putting one image in the listener's mind and then following it with another. I think metaphor is pretty essential to expressing truth because so much of what we feel is impossible to express using a simple adjective. But I do think that I was aiming for a frankness in my lyrics on this record”, she explains.
“Metaphor is pretty essential to expressing truth because so much of what we feel is impossible to express using a simple adjective.”
When she released “Premonitions” she mentioned “Post”, 1995’s Björk masterpiece, as a reference in the way she put together very different kind of songs without losing a cohesive feeling. “During the making of “Roach”, I was listening to a lot of indie rock from the early aughts like Broken Social Scene "You Forgot it in People", Radiohead "Kid A", Wilco "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" but I was also listening to "Saved" by Now, Now a lot. Of course, I don't think it ended up really sounding like any of these records. I don't tend to directly reference other albums in the studio, but I am definitely influenced by the music that I'm listening to”, asserts a musician who also notes that she loves playing with other artists a lot, “but I don’t find myself fantasizing about that very much”. In the new album, for instance, the single “Bad Thing” was co-written by the great singer-songwriter Mitski, but Miya does not make much pump about it. “In the writing sessions there were different ways of interacting, and sometimes I’m just writing with other people”, she says.
“Songwriting itself is vulnerable and expressive, which I think is different from being exhibitionistic.”
Dress - Wolford Necklace - Miya’s own
Miya Folick was raised by Russian and Japanese parents (whose faces appear on the cover of her first album), and she had a Buddhist upbringing. “It can’t not inform my music, because it comes from me and it was created by my childhood and all my experiences”, she points. “I don’t think I could divorce any aspect of my personality from my art, everything I do has been influenced by that”. Pop music, pop industry, has always been something quite exhibitionistic, and Miya, besides, has been very opened about her sexuality, recreational drug use and other issues that could be uncomfortable and confrontational with her origins, but she doesn’t think is complicated to lead with that: “A big part of Buddhism really have to do with self-questioning and humility, and against something inherently selfish and exhibitionist. But I think what really comes down is about being vulnerable in order to create for other people and make them feel understood. Thinking that way can be a generous thing to do. That’s something I didn’t quite think about in terms of ethics and poverty and being a musician. I don’t think that exists a job that is perpetually ethical. I think I wouldn’t do this art if I hadn’t had these conversations with myself”. Elaborating more in this aspect, she adds: “I think music or pop music is exhibitionistic only in that social media and culture in general are exhibitionistic. Because the music industry exists within that culture, it plays by that culture's rules. I think the other quality that defines exhibitionism is the fact that the exhibitionist experiences pleasure, when, in fact, I don't see many of my peers enjoying their experience on social media. I think it's quite painful for a lot of musicians. Songwriting itself is vulnerable and expressive, which I think is different from being exhibitionistic. So, forcing sensitive people who are skilled at being vulnerable to put that on display on the internet usually doesn't mean that the artist is deriving pleasure from that experience. There was a period of time in which I was self-conscious about the public nature of my work, because I did grow up in a family culture where humility was valued. But my family has been so overwhelmingly supportive of my career that those concerns fell away”, she concludes.
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After doing a couple of concerts in Europe, Miya will be playing a complete North-American Tour from August to October. At the same time, she reveals she’s working on new music, “just thinking about what comes next”.
“Roach” is released by Stop Talking
About Miya
To see more of her work, listen to her on Spotify or follow her on Instagram
TEAM CREDITS
Interview David Saavedra
Photographer JC Verona
Styling Charly Suggett
Hair Stylist Paris France
Make Up Elizabeth Hsieh Nails Jada Elize
Thank you to Bandwagon
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