Artist Spotlight: Milan Ring

Shot by @evoisevo

Milan Ring is an Australian instrumentalist, producer and singer ready to take the UK alternative scene by storm. The blisteringly delicate R&B songstress has unveiled her deft, cascading and colourful debut album ‘I’m Feeling Hopeful’; a body of work that carries profound tendencies in its silky, vibrant canvas’ and charismatic vocal delivery and dazzling cadences. 

The new album oozes hope, honesty and vitality, with Milan weaving tales of love, relationships, desire and addiction through her finely embroidered narratives. Written, recorded and mixed in its entirety by Milan at her West Sydney studio, the album is a manifestation of the current R&B renaissance that is sweeping through Australia. 

I connected with the exciting talent to discuss her genre-bending sound, her striking collaboration choices and her exquisite new album. 

When did you first begin writing music? 

I first began writing my own original music in my late teens - jamming with good friends of mine, performing sometimes at a local pub. I didn’t start to release music under my own project and name till many years later.

How has breaking into the UK music scene been for you?

It has been really beautiful, I have family and friends in the UK and it’s a place I’ve always been drawn to and inspired by the music that has and continues to come out of the UK. So for my music to be making a mark is really exciting!

Who has been influencing you?

At the moment I have been listening to Yebba Smith and Jorja Smith - anyone with the last name Smith it seems haha! Been loving the new Hiatus Kiayote record too.

You are an artist who merges styles together with ease, and who is really difficult to define into a genre. How have you mastered this fluidity in your sound?

The more I have worked at being my authentic self, unapologetically, the more this enmeshment of genres has begun to shape itself into my own sound, I suppose. I love and am influenced by so many different genres so I guess it all goes inside me and comes out in its own way.

How do you feel about genre as a concept? Do you think being boxed into a specific style can be detrimental for upcoming artists?

I think we humans like to compartmentalise things so that we can make sense of it, I believe almost every artist is their own genre, but that would just get confusing for people, so I say lump me into whichever box you please! I’m just going to make the music that feels right to me. And I hope upcoming artists feel the same. 

How was it to collaborate with a fellow Sydney artist is BLESSED? How was the creative process for the song?

BLESSED is such a good friend of mine, we have made so much music together, one of those creative minds and spirits that just work with my own. So the process was super in flow and just easy.

I love your videos, they are always so cinematic and visually striking! How do you come up with the ideas and how do you make the ideas a reality?

Almost every song I write I see a strong visual for, so it has been really exciting to be able to make four film clips this year. Sydney Hue was a song that particularly played out in my head like a movie, and once I approached the director Ben Devlin from Mude Group and showed him my rough treatment he then took it to the next level. I love collaborating with people that are so passionate and talented and understand me and my vision also.

The themes on your debut album are so vast and compelling. I love your expression and emotional maturity throughout. Talk me through the key concepts of the album?

Thank you, the album explores the themes of love (for others and for the self), relationships, control, freedom, the critical mind, depression, desires and addiction from many different perspectives, all born “from my observations of the world around me and the world within.

For me, there is a real variety of emotions throughout the album, as if you as a narrator are fully realising the extent of your own mind and reality. How do you write with such sprawling articulacy?

Well, thank you, I suppose the whole project is like a years journal entry for me. I’m glad you find that articulate, cause in a way it is jumping from the present to memories, to hope for the future and all things in between. I just knew from the outset of creating the album, the themes that I wanted to speak to and how I wanted to approach them so from there it was just about being open and free to allow the words to just flow out.

I love the collaborations on the new project - really stylistically diverse and intriguing choices. Talk me through the decisions?

Once I had the album basically finished I then knew where I wanted to hear other peoples voices and perspectives and feel different energies on the project. With Che Lingo, my management had actually put me onto his music a while back and I instantly felt connected to it and appreciated the craft in his work, so he seemed the perfect person to add the playfulness that I imagined on BS. Jean Deaux I had discovered a few years ago, from listening to a lot of the music coming out of Chicago after working with the Social Experiment crew. I knew I wanted a strong confident female on the Pick Me Up and she instantly popped in my head. BLESSED has co-produced many tracks on the album and as I said earlier is such a good friend of mine. With Sydney Hue I was on a flight interstate and I was listening to the demo and had a vision of BLESSED and I back to back playing our guitars and singing the chorus together. So I reached out and he sent the verse back a day later or something ridiculously fast like that. And BARKAA I just love and admire, she is such an open and inspiring person and I knew she was the perfect person for Let It Glide, it really couldn’t have been anyone else, I’m very proud of that song and collab.

Is collaboration an important part of the creative process for you?

Definitely, even though I have gotten to this point that I can write, produce, mix and even master a whole song, it is so important to have other energies, other ears and other friends involved. We need our communities in life, and in music as well. I am an introvert who spends a lot of time alone, I will always make a lot of music alone, but I recognise the beauty and power that is in coming together with other like-minded people and creating.

Who would you love to collaborate with in the future?

So many people! I’ve got the UK on my mind so Sampha would be beautiful, and James Blake. Loyle Carner too. GOALS.

If you were introducing yourself to a new listener who had never heard your music before, what track would you play them?

I would play them Hide With You. It opens the album, and I think it both sums up the album and myself in a neat little 3:51 minutes!