Congrats on the release of ‘sweet to be alone’! Could you delve into the meaning behind the song for us listeners?
Genevieve: “Thank you so much! I wrote the song in a time where I was really romantisicing spending a lot of time on my own, and really embracing my own desires – having time to just follow my nose, go where I wanted to go, take my time, stop and smell the flowers. But its also an angry song, looking back at the people who took that autonomy away from me before – celebrating my freedom but also processing and grieving the time lost to being controlled by other people.”
You’ve described your music as ‘indie fusion’ and I find that this sound compliments your vocals beautifully. When was it that you found your genre?
Genevieve: “Ah that’s cool thank you! I think genre is genuinely an ever evolving, transient thing, and you don’t necessarily decide what you make you know? It’s hard to talk about genres without sounding pretentious haha. But yeah, I think it’s not something I like to hold onto too tightly.”
The intro of ‘sweet to be alone’ reminds me of the soft-rock of Harry Styles’ Fine Line era, whereas the end of the song is redolent of Miley Cyrus’ Plastic Hearts era. The song altogether becomes an authentic melody that stands out amongst music I’ve reviewed before. I’m guessing you have a varying range of musical influences?
Genevieve: “Wow that is really kind, honestly thank you so much! Yessss very varied, it’s so amazing to embrace all these different parts of yourself through music, really nourish all the different little facets of your soul. I think a lot of 70s stuff was a big influence for this track, Led Zeppelin especially.”
What is it that you come up with first – the melody or the lyrics?
Genevieve: “I really vividly remember writing this song, I think it was like 7 in the morning, I just woke up and it needed to come out and then I think I went back to sleep haha. I’d definitely already had some of the lyrics going round it my head already, the night before I was walking home and followed the smell of freshly cut grass all the way to the park and lay in it, that set up the chorus for me.”
I see that you’ve been performing your music live much this summer, what has that experience been like and what is your favourite thing about performing live?
Genevieve: “Playing gigs is my favourite thing about doing music! It’s been so amazing to get to do so much of it this summer, it’s so good for the soul. My favourite thing is when we’re playing this song and also the previous single ‘howl’ and there’s just this wall of sound, so much emotion, I get a lot out when we play those songs, it really is like therapy. I also just love getting to spend time with my band, they’re some of my best friends, so it’s just getting to hang out with your mates in all these really beautiful places.”
Speaking of, which other musician do you think you could put on a fabulous show with?
Genevieve: “I think supporting Amyl and the Sniffers would be the sickest thing.”
What have you got in store for the rest of 2025? Anything that fans should keep an eye out for?
Genevieve: “Oooh yes! I have an EP coming out at the start of October which I am so excited about!!”
You can listen to Genevieve Miles‘ new single sweet to be alone (released today!) here: