Miah Kate: Trust in the Process

I find songwriting (and singing) to be an overlooked talent in the music industry. It seems if you are competent enough on your instrument, you should just be able to write, and if you can write, you should be able to sing those songs. Certainly in the guitar world where I come from, this mindset has churned out a mirriad of average male vocalists. Miah Kate, on the other hand, is a singer-songwriter of the purebreed. Showing a passion for singing from an early age, she reminisced, “I'd make up melodies and songs while doing normal 3-year-old things. Everything I did seemed to have an original soundtrack that came with it”. Miah has practiced and rehearsed this art in the same way a virtuosic muso would their instrument and it shows in her songs.

All the time, pop music morphs to fit the medium, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. While Sweet Oleander is an effective sub-3 minute song, it is not rushed, nor crammed. Miah sits on her ideas with confidence in their modesty. There are no special trinkets packed in every corner of the song to keep the modern consumer engaged, which enhances the legitimacy of each repetition. The structure of Sweet Oleander also displays Miahs maturity in songwriting and thought development. The dynamics are perfectly executed with seamless flow, thanks in large part to a great pre-chorus. A personal pet-peeve of mine is when a pop song is only written for one thought. A couple examples of this are Watermelon Sugar - Harry Styles, or Bubbly - Colbie Caillat. These songs are written for a single section that is memorable or defining. One thought song. Sweet Oleander is quite the opposite. Lyrical metaphors aside (which I’ll get into), the song develops each idea with correlation to the last and trusts the listener to be there for all of it. This kind of musical development oozes confidence and is executed powerfully for a 3 minute song. Sweet Oleander to me is like the perfect compact car. It has all the features you need, plenty of space inside, yet a nice small exterior for accessibility. 

When it comes to writing lyrics, Miah told me she’s very much an observer. “I definitely have those moments when I draw off my own experiences, but writing from other people's perspectives is something I’ve always enjoyed doing.” Miah brings life to her stories with a broad imagination which leads to creative metaphors. Oleander, as in the flower, is a very poisonous plant to the taste, touch and smell with an alluring, vibrant and colorful exterior. A historical motif for caution of all things beautiful, she uses it to describe the callous and toxic overtones to love and desire. “Sweet Oleander is about toxic relationships and how they can twist over time. She draws men in with her outer beauty, causing them to fall in love before they realize she is an Oleander!”  

The metaphors and lyricism lay shallow beneath catchy and punchy lines leaving each listener painting their own pictures. My fondness for art is that it's up to the interpreter to draw their own conclusions. To me, Sweet Oleander is a song about growth. Love and desire are romantic in our formative years yet hurt more as we grow older, learning all the other feelings that come with it. Sweet Oleander is growing onto a person who is self aware of their darker sides. They yearn for compassion and someone to be close yet they know the consequences of opening and blooming all too well. 

Recording a first single is an exciting and challenging process. Writing the song can be spontaneous yet the decisions that are made in the studio are permanent. “There were so many different options on where it could've gone style-wise. We had to choose one direction to go down for my debut single.” Although the production stage had its challenges, “I learnt quickly to trust my producer (Toby Lloyd) with my vision, which became an easy thing to do. That's why I was over the moon with the end product of Sweet Oleander and the recording process to get there!” 

This trust was absolutely well placed. Toby Lloyd’s production epitomizes the mantra of Serve the Song. He once told me “...as music is entirely emotional, when I listen to any ideas that go into a song, it’s always ‘what does this do to help promote the emotion of the song?’” There were hundreds of ideas that could have technically worked in this song, but it’s Toby’s ability to empathize and identify with the artist's intent that guides him to make the right choice for the piece. 

I’m stoked for what Miah has been able to bring into the music world. Her creative mind is front and center of a fresh sounding, radio ready song, ripe for any listener to relate to. Sweet Oleander is a highly considered and layered piece which excites the music nerd inside me, yet evokes a very primal surface level emotion when I scream the chorus in the shower. I like the journey she is able to take me on through her thoughtful structures, lifting me up and bringing me down. This song is a humble flex to privy writers out there and a reminder that it’s not simple to be cool but it’s cool to be simple. Miah is content in her ideas and only plays the cards she needs to which gives each section impact and purpose. 

Sweet Oleander “is my starting point for a fun, loud creative journey.” Being the first of many songs in Miah’s vault, we can definitely expect her to explore other directions in future. (Although she can’t say when!) Between you and me, I hope that she makes it further than most…

Follow along at @miah_kate_ on Instagram to make sure you don't miss her next single release!

Written By Jasper West