Millie Turner, who grew up in Clapham, began her musical career at 16 when she appraoched family friend and musician David Turley in the hope of getting some guitar lessons. David qucikly assessed her vocal ability and the pair started writing and recording together in his studio at Clapton’d Round Chapel. She says ‘I thought it was guitar lessons but we ended up just jamming and making ‘Underwater’ which was the first release and it kind of just escalated from there – we just kept doing it and I love it. But I don’t really have any musical background apart from piano, of course.’
Her first track, ‘Underwater’, was written the day after Trump’s victory. She says: ‘I thought we need to write something very positive because it’s all a bit negative right now. In the song she longs for the possibility that we could set up a better world in the sea. ‘We are young, we are afraid, but we are free,’ she sings, with the kind of youthful idealism that turns older cynics green with envy.
Thomas Smith writing in the NME says: ‘Forget the sticky floors and the irritating bar queues in your local club – there’s nothing quite like that blissful moment where a song finds itself commanding a dancefloor without really trying. Millie Turner’s ‘The Shadow’ is that song. It’s a deviously crafted pop song that uses house’s big beats to build into one of the most exciting songs you’ll hear all year.’ Now, it culminates in her new song ‘She Was A Dancer’ and a hypnotising video.
Her next release was ‘Eyes on You’ moves into slightly more sinister territory. With an electronic folk edge reminiscent of Maggie Rogers, she sings of the kind of love that’s all-consuming and a downright bad idea. “For me, it speaks of being able to be with someone in a way that isn’t comfortable or pretty,” Turner wrote in an email, “but human and honest, and in some way more real.” Fittingly, the video puts all eyes on Turner, with one camera and spotlight fixating on her mesmerising performance.
Having started the year with support from NME, BBC Introducing and more, today Millie Turner produced her second single of 2020: ‘Eye of the Storm’. Written after a 24-hour plane ride to the other side of the world, and full of the mix of wide-eyed excitement and slight bewilderment that comes from such a huge trip.She says: “The eye of the storm is a focus point amidst the storm where everything around you feels out of control and chaotic, which is what I wanted to capture in the urgency of the drums and the chorus. There’s something beautiful about chaos when you have that focal point of calm that you can grow from.”
