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Singer-songwriter Jacob Miller feels things deeply and the result is deliberate music: haunting, heartfelt, melodic and moving. Taking his inspiration from both personal and societal currents, Miller’s resonant sound and dead-on lyrics pursue an unflinching quest to bare it all - the best and worst in us. The artist’s debut album, entitled Who We Are (Dogleg Music), reflects that quest. Working with longtime producer and friend, Richard Serotta, to produce the album, Miller, 21, tells us that he’s been waiting to put out an album since he was fourteen. Every fan will understand why. Who We Are suggests that Miller is concentrating on universal themes that connect people. All his songs manifest an innate sensibility for the subtleties of each moment—impressions, tones and textures that make up the whole story. Miller comments, “I don’t always zero in on just one thing. I try to take it all in at once. There is certainly an element of ‘every grain of sand’ in my music because that’s just the way I see things.” Hailing from Miami, Florida, music was integrated into Miller’s life from an early age: “There was a piano in my home when I was growing up. Actually, my dad had an entire music room where he also kept a guitar, harmonica, saxophone, clarinet, banjo and tambourine. I don’t really remember when I started to play the piano. From the time I was about 3 or 4, I had a few lessons here and there, but I was always just more of an emotional player than a technical one.” This formative musical grounding propelled him into the teeming diversity of the Miami milieu during his high school years at the New World School of the Arts. Since that time, Jacob has met and made music with a dramatic range of talented musicians. Currently, he has made it to the halfway point at Berklee College of Music in Boston and continues to experience life on the road from South Florida to New York including concert performances in Denmark, Paris and Spain. Miller shares how such influences shine through in a track like “Luck of the Draw”: “Growing up in Miami, there are so many different cultures coexisting and there’s this pervasive Latin and Caribbean vibe flowing through everything and influencing the music. So, when I write, I don’t try to write a song in a certain groove that draws from a particular genre, but it’s something that just happens, something that is just a part of me.” In the end, it’s obvious that the strength of Miller’s music resides in the highly personal nature of it, a baring of his soul to us in the hopes that we reflect on our own lives and journeys: “Personal relationships are a lot more significant to me than how they may reveal themselves on the album. Every lyric holds a personal relationship in there, and cherishes some sort of love for someone in every line.” Jacob Miller's debut release entitled Who We Are (Dogleg Music) is available for purchase online and in select stores now.
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