Emily Millard Talks Upcoming Album ‘Hazy Blue’, Her Work As A Composer, Plans For 2025, & More

Reaching across genres with ambient pop, jazz, folk, and orchestral influences, British Columbian singer-songwriter Emily Millard taps into a sound not often heard in modern music.

Along with four solo albums, Millard has put out three albums and two EPs under the stage name Miss Emily Brown. She’s also worked with Juno-nominated progressive folk group Aerialists, Juno award-winning string quartet The Fretless, and has worked as a composer and producer on various projects. Her commissioned work has been featured in films, festivals, and showcases in Canada. Basically, she’s just been pumping out music.

And this Friday, October 4th, 2024, she will be putting out her fourth studio album, Hazy Blue, after a seven-year hiatus from releasing music.

Millard’s training in classical and jazz has brought her from Vancouver Community College’s Music Academy to Vocal Improvisation study at the Norwegian Academy of Music. She is currently on the faculty at the Contemporary Music and Technology Program at Selkirk College. 

We had the chance to chat with Millard to learn more about her as a songwriter, composer, her upcoming album, and much more.

What are three things people should know about Emily Millard?

Anything at all? Let’s start with how to pronounce my name (mil-LARD) – a lot of people say it the other way around. Second, I frequently make accidental puns (but I can rarely make a pun on purpose). Third, I might be the fastest cookie maker of all time.

I see Hazy Blue is your first album in seven years. What made now the right time to pursue and release it? 

Great question. It’s not as if I had the record ready and was sitting on it – it actually just took that much time to make it. A lot happened in the last seven years.

I had to take a break from touring to rehabilitate from back issues, so I decided to finish my degree during that time. That allowed me space to explore lots of creative ideas I’d had on the backburner that weren’t straight-ahead songwriting. A lot of opportunities popped up for me after that. Things I wanted to try, like arranging for and conducting a community pop choir, working on a film score, composing for soloists and chamber choirs, and producing for other artists.

I started writing this record in 2020 or so. The songwriting process was slower than other records, but I learned way more from the process and the writing is more deliberate and direct. Now here we are, the soonest I could possibly release it, and it feels great to have new music coming out.

What kinds of feelings do you deal with in the lead up to an album release like this? 

I definitely feel excited to share the work. I’m really proud of this record. I’ve also released enough records to know that you can’t expect instant fireworks when you release music (unless you’re Beyonce), especially in a time when everyone is overwhelmed by content coming at them from every direction. I think of a release like sending many tiny boats out to sea. You never know the songs will end up, or where they will take you. 

Your music draws from a variety of genres. Did you have specific sonic and lyrical inspirations for this album?

I knew I wanted some of the songs to have a strong groove, so I created drum machine loops to write over. I was also really getting into synthesizers, so I knew I was going to be creating a hybrid sound of electronic and acoustic instruments. The lyrics were a surprise. When I started writing, I had taken such a long break that I was willing to let anything at all come through. That permission opened the gates for a collection of love songs. Once I saw it was going in that direction, I became intentional about showing different angles of romantic love at different points of life and love cycles.

Along with songwriting, I see you’ve worked as a conductor and producer. How does that experience affect and influence your work as a solo artist?

That’s really interesting to reflect on. I can definitely say that I was better prepared than ever for the studio players with really great demos, charts and scores. I had learned a lot about arrangement and orchestration and it was really fun to apply that to my own songs. It felt really freeing to be able to write down my orchestration ideas and have them realized with no loss in the process. My work as a producer and a conductor probably helped me to clear up my songwriting and make it more direct, never waste a line, and provide more repetition.

What was the most challenging part of making this album?

I think the songwriting was the most challenging part. I really wrestled with some of these songs, creating many, many drafts in an effort to clarify the intent and the story. I had to axe certain lines or sections that I really loved in order to create the best experience for the listener. In that sense, it’s sort of the least selfish (self-absorbed? navel-gazing?) album I’ve made, in that I’ve really tried to let the listener in.

Is there a track or two that means the most to you on a personal level?

Probably “The Mouth of Mount Joan.” That was actually the working title for the album. It’s written about my great aunt and great uncle at the end of their love story, in old age. My uncle suffered from dementia and the song sort of imagines my aunt’s grief process. It’s entirely my own projection on their story but when I sing it, I definitely feel close to them. They were very much in love from their teens to their late eighties. 

From where or what does the album derive its name Hazy Blue?

Hazy Blue is the title of another track on the album. In that song, hazy blue recurs in the lyrics, referring to the colour of a car, the sky, and a character’s eyes. I started to see ‘hazy blue’ as a metaphor for our memories, the haziness or subjectivity of memories, like looking off into the far distant horizon.

What does success mean to you as a songwriter and musician?

That is a really great question, and I think a really important one. I was just reading Jimmy Webb’s book Tunesmith this morning, and in Chapter 2 he talks about songwriting being better than birdwatching. Being an active songwriter is always being tuned into what is going on around you, doing regular reflection and journaling and listening to the people around us (and then writing down the amazing things they say that could be the next song title). It’s a way of being. It gathers people around us who are thoughtful and creative, and we get to be a part of a musical community which is a huge privilege. What I’m pointing to is, I think that success is doing it and being a part of the rich community and rich life experience that songwriting brings.

What do you have planned post-release and for the rest of the year musically or otherwise?

I’m planning to do some album release shows in spring 2025 and some summer festivals to follow. I’d also like to make some live performance videos this winter. For now, I’m focused on the online release campaign. I have to say, it’s a really different reality releasing a record than it was eight years ago. It’s a whole new game and I can’t say I love it! I am an in-person person and I really wonder about the meaningfulness of online engagement. But I’m open-minded. I’ve sent those little boats out to sea, and let’s see where they end up, and where they take me.

Photo by: Brendan Meadows