You Should Stan: Jake Miller sings about heartbreak but will still make you happy

I interviewed an almost-prince for “You Should Stan” this week. Well, kinda.

During the Los Angeles stop of Hoodie Allen’s tour “Whatever USA Phase One,” I sat down with rapper-turned-pop-hunk Jake Miller to chat about his newest musical transformation and about the royal Disney role he almost got.

I first learned about Miller a few years ago, when Fifth Harmony was still a five-member group (rest in peace) and were heading on tour for their second album “7/27.” The Florida-born singer joined my faves on tour, hitting several stops with the group across the U.S. 

Miller’s music and career were in a completely different place then. You can imagine: He was opening for a girl group (an iconic one, but still). His music was catchy and fit perfectly on a teen girl’s iPod Touch — I loved it then and I still love it now. Back then, he was also in a long-term relationship he now openly sings about and he was signed to a label that didn’t give him a ton of support. 

But as we sat in his tour bus in October — parked adjacent to the El Rey Theatre, where fans have been waiting in line to see him for hours — things were different. 

Miller’s confidence is booming, but he isn’t cocky. He’s finally signed to a new label, Sony Red, that he said is giving him plenty of creative freedom and he’s learned a lot from his brief stint as an independent artist. During that time, he spent hours upon hours watching YouTube learning how to produce his own tracks. 

“If there’s any musicians out there, you can learn anything on YouTube,” he told the crowd at El Rey that night between songs.

We talked about his latest collection “Summer 19,” which features three songs he produced that are some of his favorite. The tracks are catchy, the lyrics are relatable and his music just makes you happy.

For somebody who might just be logging onto your Spotify for the first time and hasn’t really heard your music, how would you describe that sound to them?

It’s definitely pop in terms of the genre. But I think that there’s something when you listen to my music, that’s a really positive vibe. Even the sad songs feel uplifting and inspiring because even the songs where it is about a heartbreak, it’s kind of more about how to get over the heartbreak. 

Especially these new songs. “Last Text” is a very empowering song about, ‘I’m not gonna let something in the past dictate my future. This is gonna be the last text I send you and then I’m gonna move on.’ “Could Have Been You” is the same way. It’s empowering in terms of,’ ‘I’m moving on with somebody else. And you missed out because that could’ve been you.’ I think the music is always just motivating and inspiring and positive. And it can really help people with life lessons, because they helped me. Writing the songs helped me. So I think they’re helping a lot of other people as well.

Your music feels real. When you’re writing, are you writing about your own real experiences?

Definitely. Everything that I write is about my life or someone else’s life, or just experiences that I’ve been through or stories that other people have told me. It’s definitely all coming from a very real place, and every song that I make, whether it’s about my life or not, I can really relate to it. 

Even if I’m not going through that emotion at the exact moment, as long as I can relate to the music and I’m going through something, I know somebody else out there is probably going through it as well.

What’s that first song you want people to listen to to find out who Jake Miller is? And why that song?

That’s a good question. Probably “Last Text.” I think “Last Text” captures Jake Miller, for some reason. I think it might be the acoustic element of it, I really just grew up listening to a lot of slow acoustic, John Mayer-type vibes and artists. 

The fact that I could bring that into that song, that’s the main reason I really love that song. And on top of that, I think the lyrics of “Last Text” are my favorite lyrics I’ve ever written — and I’m a big lyric guy. Definitely listen to that, listen to “Could Have Been You” and listen to “15 Minutes.” Those three, I think, would just give you a really great overall idea of who I am. 

Obviously, your sound has changed over the years. We’ve gotten  a lot of different sounds from Jake. Do you feel like you finally found the kind of music you want to continue making?

For now, I mean. It’s always changing. Next time I put out an EP, it’s going to sound even different than this one. That’s the whole fun of being an artist: You never really know, when you sit down to make an album, what’s going to come out of it. 

My next stuff might be a little bit more urban leaning, it might be more country leaning. I literally have no idea. It’s more just what I’m going through in that period of my life. I do know that this new EP is definitely my strongest work and exactly where I want to be right now as an artist.

That’s awesome. I was listening to an interview where you said you were at the beach and just started making a melody and started making the music. Where do you feel you’re most inspired?

I think you’re talking about “Palm Blvd.” Yeah, I was at the pool. Actually, it was at my apartment, which is right down the street. I wrote that whole song a few years ago, just acapella without a beat or any music in mind. I just came up with the melody, and I came up with the lyrics while sitting at the pool. Then I went back and made the beat. 

Where I actually make the music always changes. I feel like I write really well in the shower for some reason, because there’s nothing distracting me and I’m not looking at my phone or computer, like a rhyme website and getting too caught up in rhymes. 

It’s really when I’m just isolated. That’s when I come up with the best stuff.

You’ve cited  Jon Bellion and Mac Miller as some of your influences in the past. Tell me a little bit about who influences your music and who you are as an artist.

Yeah, as you said, Jon Bellion, Mac, John Mayer, I listened to so much different stuff, whether it’s Bob Marley or Bruce Springsteen. My dad had me growing up on The Eagles and Bruce Springsteen. 

And then I grew up listening to Eminem, that was probably the first introduction to hip-hop. And then I found Mac Miller in high school. If it wasn’t for him, I would have never started making my own music. He was really inspiring me to go after it. But John Mayer has been the constant of my favorite artists. The way that music makes you feel, like that’s the way I want people to feel with my music how I feel listening to his.

You’ve obviously rapped in some of your past albums. Do you think you would do it again? 

I can’t really ever say that I’ll never do anything again. Because who knows, but when I do rap, it’s to make my diehard fans happy. It’s not really because I enjoy doing it. It’s just because I know that there are people out there who really miss my rapping and so I do it for them, including my mom. She loves when I rap. But I personally don’t have as much fun making music and writing music when I’m rapping.

Who’s somebody you see yourself making music with? Who do you think your music connects with?

That’s a good question. Features have always been a really tricky thing for me and collabs, because I want to get to the point in my career where I don’t want to feel like I’m asking for a favor by having someone feature on my song. I want to get a point in my career where artists want to work with me just as badly as I want to work with them. And so, that’ll come. But I haven’t really been in that mindset recently.

I saw a few weeks ago, you retweeted something about people wanting you to audition for Prince Eric in “The Little Mermaid?” 

I did audition for Prince Eric.

Are you serious? 

Yeah, I didn’t get it, unfortunately. I’m definitely getting a lot more opportunities these days in terms of auditions. I have been to a few acting lessons recently. And I feel like I’m definitely becoming a better actor. Definitely a lot more room to grow. But music is always my priority. Hopefully one day I’ll book a great role. But for right now, I’m just kind of concentrated on the music.

That’s crazy, though. I saw all the tweets, like everyone was trying to connect you and I feel like you’d be perfect for the role. 

I actually auditioned before everybody even blew that up on social media. I knew I was about to audition. I was already memorizing lines, while the whole commotion on social media happened. So yeah, it was funny. It was funny timing.

Tomàs Mier is a senior writing about up-and-coming artists for the Daily Trojan. His column “You Should Stan” runs every other Friday.