Miya Folick is early to our interview at historic Hollywood hang-out the 101 Coffee Shop (made famous by its appearance in Swingers as well as for just being kitschy and awesome). And when I spot her sitting in a corner booth, in an oversized black windbreaker with her head (and its ultra-cropped faded green hair) buried in a large book, I’m momentarily taken over by the idea that I am actually meeting up with a very cool, rather bookish hacker in the year 1996. In reality, the 26-year-old musician, who hails from Santa Ana, California, does not have an illicit computer coding background as far as I know. She did, however, spend time studying acting at NYU before she transferred across the country to USC, which is where the isolation of a new city led her to picking up a guitar for the first time.
Last year, she released her first EP, Strange Darling, and it was clear that all that time locked away alone paid off. The combination of her velvety, plaintive vocals and spare synth and guitar arrangements makes for a stirring listener experience, especially because Folick excels in emotional transparency and ballsy vulnerability — the kind you can’t help but be charmed by, if not brought to tears at.
We spoke to Folick about her Buddhist upbringing, her songwriting process, and her new music.
You’re a self-taught musician who learned to play guitar later in life. What inspired you to start making music?
I had been lugging around this acoustic guitar my mom bought me from Costco for two years from apartment to apartment, not playing it. Then when I moved to LA, I didn’t know anybody and it just became the thing I did in my free time. I also should mention that I did take guitar lessons from a guy I went to high school with for about two weeks. When I moved back to LA I reunited with this friend, and I took about two lessons and then we started dating, so the lessons stopped [laughs]. He did encourage me though. I’m pretty much self-taught, but it was nice to get that encouragement early on.
Why did your mother buy you a guitar in the first place?
My mom may be psychic… She would always buy me random things. She also once bought me a skateboard that I never rode, so I don’t know. I think when I was younger she tried to expand my interests, just to see what would stick. Maybe it was some sort of parenting experiment. But I was also really into Joni Mitchell at the time, and she knew that. I had also been singing my whole life. I sang in several choirs in high school, and in the choir at my Buddhist church.
Has your Buddhist upbringing affected your music in any way?
I don’t know if it’s because of my Buddhist background or it’s just innate, but I am drawn toward chant-y style music and singing. Not even just in songwriting, but in life in general. When people chant Kobe Bryant’s name at a basketball game, I get emotional [laughs]. People saying things in unison makes me emotional. There have been a couple of times where I have intentionally started a song with the melody of a chant that’s from a Buddhist song. There are interesting melodic lines in chants.
So without any formal training, how did you even go about approaching putting together songs?
The first songs I wrote were very formless, just words and sounds. I would move my fingers around on the guitar until something sounded cool and then I would sing over it. And then when that started to not be enough for me, I would Google chords and the circle of fifths, and started teaching myself more about how a song could work. I think a lot of it is just intuitive. It comes naturally to me, but it’s not easy. It’s still a struggle. Every time I write a song I’m convinced it’s the last one I’ll ever write, and then I freak out, and I get really sad.
What was your very first live performance like?
It was at the Bootleg Bar in 2013, and I was opening for Willy Watson. I had met the people who booked the Bootleg at a bar, and they said they had an opening. They said, “It’s in three days, it’s solo acoustic, do you want it?” I’d been secretly writing music for maybe two years but at this point I hadn’t even really told any of my friends about it. For three days I didn’t eat anything. I was a complete mess. I actually wet the bed, the night before the show. Which is really embarrassing! My whole body was nervous. But the show was fine! I’ve been in shows before, and being on stage and singing in front of people doesn’t bother me. It was the sharing personal lyrics and music that felt so risky. But now performing my music in front of people is by far my favorite thing to do, for the exact same reason that I was nervous about it. It’s a space where I’m allowed to just do whatever I want, and really express emotion in a way that normal life doesn’t really allow.
Your new music is very different from Strange Darling. What changed?
I think I like [Strange Darling] more now than when it first came out, because I have more distance. It’s definitely very different from what I want to be making going forward. I think for people who come to the live shows, the new music isn’t that much of a departure from what I’ve been doing. As soon as I started playing the Strange Darling songs with a band, I knew I didn’t want it to be the way it sounded on the recording, because I wanted a live show that was more aggressive, more energetic, and more dynamic. When I was going to record the two new singles, I wanted to try to capture that live energy in the recording while also playing around with the kind of sonic elements that you can make when you’re doing a recording.
The track “Pet Body” in particular has a lot of new wave and punk elements. Is that a direction you want to go in?
When I wrote that song, two of my close friends and I were trying to get a punk band together and it didn’t quite happen. That song came out of that period of writing these punk songs with my friends. That one just felt so personal that I wanted to keep it for myself.
Are you interested in doing other musical projects, like this punk band?
I think my intention is to be able to explore other kinds of music within my own project, without ever really feeling tied to a genre, because that would bore me. But I would also love to have a secret, fun side project where I could have complete freedom without worrying about it making sense to people.
Do you feel you’re at home in the Los Angeles music scene now?
Home is a really distinct feeling for me, so it’s hard to say it’s home. I think making music in LA is uniquely awesome because I can be a part of the indie rock music scene but I can also have a writing session with a dance producer. Or I can also meet hip-hop musicians and try to write a chorus for them. I can meet people who are trying to do top 40 pop. We can all hang out together and learn from each other. I think that’s really cool, especially for somebody like me, who will never quite feel at home in any specific genre. It’s nice to be able to hop around and just get what I want from different places.
Credits
Text Yasi Salek
Photography Ben Colen