Master of her craft, architect of “razorblade pop,” Swedish born and New York based, meet Virgin Miri. Her first single ‘Basic Ordinary Ugly’ from her highly anticipated debut album is out now and promises all the things you can expect from the Swedish electro princess – distorted synthesizers, compelling pop melodies, saccharin angel-like vocals and distinctly relatable tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Everything one can ask for really.
“I grew up listening to what my parents would listen to. My dad traveled a lot and he came home with Dr. Dre CDs, which I realize now is a huge inspiration to me, especially his productions. I was very influenced by hip hop and that type of minimalistic beats. But then we also listened to Italian opera.” Coming from a small town in Sweden, Miri now finds herself amongst one of the most renowned producers, T-Minus, who’s produced the likes of King Kenny, J. Cole and much more.
“Candy crush, sugar high, you’re so hot, I could die.” She describes the arrangement of her new single as “pretty crazy.” When asked if she had a vision for this song, she said, “Not really. I was just allowing myself to have so much fun. And wasn’t thinking about any like end product which I think is the best way to create always. This song just kind of came to me and I let myself be free in the production. People said the arrangement was too crazy but we ended up keeping it.”
Her lyrics are not only catchy but also speak to the audience. It’s empowering to hear an artist be as shy and awkward as one in real life, it makes them accessible and easy to equate themselves with. “I feel like most people will have felt like that at some point in their life. Like, for me, there was this guy who I had a crush on and I just thought he was so hot. And every time he spoke to me, I was just really intimidated. And I couldn’t be myself, but I was really shy, you know? And I just felt really basic and ordinary.”
Wanting to collaborate with artists such as Shygirl, Charli XCX and Kim Petras, she says, “I only have women on my list.” And rightfully so. Miri hasn’t been too far away from the industry all these years. With labels having notorious reps and women often being exploited, Miri described her experience as being the far opposite. “My experience this time around has been pretty amazing. I think it’s pretty unique in the way that people have been very passionate. It’s been about the music, and it hasn’t been about, you know, numbers of followers and stuff like that. I just feel that also because I’ve worked as a graphic designer for so long, my vision of what I want to do has just been so clear, and I have the tools to make it come to life. I can actually do this without relying on too many other people. Obviously, I have an amazing team. And I work with T-Minus who is a legend. And makes everything sound like something I couldn’t even have imagined. But yeah, it’s been really good.”
Without revealing too much, Virgin Miri promised more music this year with some poppier numbers but also some RnB tunes. Miri says there will be a feature, no hints but promised that I would “die” in awe of them so I’m sure so will you. Which is fair enough, I believe it. It’s only a matter of time till we hear the album, until then, ‘Basic Ordinary Ugly’ is out now with some brilliant cinematic visuals by the renaissance woman herself, Virgin Miri.
Virgin Miri’s new single ‘Sad B!tch’ will be put on February 17th. Keep your eyes peeled!
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Words: Vee Pandey