Last November, terrorists lay siege to Paris in one of the more horrifying events of the 21st century.
Last November, terrorists lay siege to Paris in one of the more horrifying events of the 21st century. People worldwide were glued to their televisions and smart phones, covering their mouths in horror as details continued to emerge, but not Taryn Miller, the Kansas musician known by the stage name Your Friend. She was in air. In route to Paris.
“I flew in around 5:00 AM I think and the attacks had started around 9:00 or 9:30 PM,” Miller remembered. “I don’t think anyone except maybe the pilots had any idea what was going on until we landed.”
Miller was on her way to Paris at the time to take part in the massive Red Bull Music Academy festival and workshops, an event that ultimately got rescheduled due to the tragic events. It was a big deal for Miller to attend, although she also revealed she was even more excited to be able to visit Paris and take in all of its sights.
That all changed as soon as her plane landed in early morning following that devastating day.
“There was a subtle kind of panic to it,” Miller detailed. “By that point, I think some people were aware about what happened, but not me. It took hours to get through customs and I wasn’t sure if that was just the way it was. I’d never been to Europe. Hadn’t even been out of the States except for one show in Vancouver so I had no idea what to expect. It was all very daunting to be all alone in this scenario. I remember turning my phone on right before the border and I had about sixty text messages asking if I was okay. That was all they said though so I was just extremely confused as to what was going on. It’s so hard to describe that feeling.”
No one could have expected this type of event to happen, but Miller did admit that she had a gut feeling something wasn’t right before she left. “The day before, I was almost freaking out,” Miller stated. “Something just felt wrong. I was scared to go and I just thought it was because I’d be by myself and I’d never been before. The text messages from my mom when I landed were actually apologies for not letting me follow my inner voice. It was all so crazy. Flying to a new country for this first time and having that be the first thing that happens? That was all so surreal.”
Despite the tragic events, Miller made the most of her time there, even reaching out to acclaimed director Christophe Acker to work with her on the music video for “Come Back From It,” a song that barely survived the cutting floor and was poised to become the debut single from her new record Gumption. “We talked about the possibility of working together before I went over there,” she explained, “but everything was so up in the air. He had actually left Paris for a while so I didn’t think it was going to be possible. It all came together on my final day in Europe though. We shot the video and then I flew out the next day.”
Because of increased security and attention in and around the city though, shooting a video at the last moment wasn’t an easy process. “We had to change the location because we couldn’t be in the city as much as I wanted to,” Miller recollected. “We ended up driving in to the city which are those highway shots. [Christophe] was so worried about the camera though. I was just dying being on the back of that motorcycle though. It was brutally cold and I wasn’t wearing much. I could barely feel anything when we got back, but we got it done. Right under the wire.”
It’s apropos that the music video for “Come Back From It” would come about at the last minute seeing as how that’s basically how the song wound up on Gumption at all. Miller had scrapped the earlier version of the song telling producer Nicholas Vernhes that it “didn’t go where I wanted it to go,” but Vernhes something more in there. “He loved that drum loop to it,” she laughed. “I told him to just throw it out, but he was very adamant that something was there. He encouraged me to go after it all because of that dark churning sound it had.”
From there, Miller and Vernhes set about making something worthwhile to go along with that endearing drum loop, a process Miller recalled as being “overly long, but also fun to be able to exercise all these different methods.” Still, the chorus seemed elusive for the song, a thought Miller struggled with until a song selection from Vernhes pointed her in the right direction. “He actually sat me down at the control room and played Lou Reed’s “Pale Blue Eyes,” she said. “After it was done, he just told me to go write a chorus and give the song somewhere to go and open up.”
The two continued to tinker on it until they were left with a song nearly cinematic, slightly disorienting, and worlds away from the song Miller had first imagined. “When I hear it, it doesn’t sound like anything I would have made before,” Miller explained. “It was one that changed the most by far and ended up being the single. It’s crazy to me how that can happen. When you’re put in a position where you’re just following your instincts with adrenaline guiding you — that’s where I went and now I have almost this pop song. My first proper pop song. It’s this dark song masked in this shimmering pop envelope and I love it.”
Miller’s hard work on the song paid off as it was quickly earmarked as the stand-out track from Gumption soon after it was released and began winning over the musical world. Of all its strengths, the ambiguity throughout the lyrics and music seem to paint a broader picture than any one phrase, something Miller clarified when explaining how its genesis was “from so many different places in my life.” This ambiguity allows each listener to establish their own deep connection within the soundscapes, each unique in their own right and each far detached from the humble ideas Miller created them with.
Some artists gawk at misinterpreted meanings or misconstrued experiences, but Miller’s much more open minded. “There’s that famous question: ‘once your art is out there, does it still belong to you?’ I don’t know if all the thematic and brooding elements I had when I was working on it shined through to everybody, but they all get something for themselves when listening. That’s the highest honor you can have really. If someone is moved by it in a way that’s applicable to them and relevant to their place in life, that’s the real reward and that’s why I want to make music.”
Your Friend play Strange Matter tonight along with Alex G and Porches for an early show with doors at 7 PM. Tickets are $14 and for more information on the show, click here.
