Words by: Amanda Marano

Alternative newcomer, Maggie Miles, has just dropped her debut album, Am I Drowning Or Am I Just Learning How To Swim. The beguiling project features her latest hit singles, “Hilary Duff”, “Deserve This”, “Swim” and “WHATDOISAY”. In honor of the release, Maggie will be celebrating this today, August 28th, while partnering with HelloooTV and Whiskey Jambe to host a virtual full-band album release party + concert. The event will be live-streamed on YouTube and Facebook at 8 PM CT/9 PM ET.

She will be accepting donations from viewers to help support NIVA (#SaveOurStages) and MusiCares. The concert will be followed by an afterparty at 9 pm CST on Whiskey Jam’s Instagram, where Maggie will chat with Apple Music radio show host, Ward Guenther about the record, and maybe even play a few acoustic snippets – guess you’ll have to tune in to see!

After the intro, the album starts off strong with “Move”, a funky track with a kickass beat. The groovy track is the perfect opener, showcasing her cool style and ethereal vocals. Next up, her first single “WHATDOISAY?” brings a pop bop to the mic, with a hopeful sound that’s meant to be in a coming-of-age movie. Variance Magazine said that the track, “showcases a Maggie-Rogers-meets-Clairo level of pop on the new song.” Maggie explains, “’WHATDOISAY?’ analyzes the questions that everyone wonders in certain situations. What do I say when I’m losing my faith, when I don’t know what’s going on, when I’m not sure I believe anymore? Glistening with a poppy chorus, I want the song to cause the listener to have a sense of levity amongst the darker lyrics.”

“Deserve This” takes a slower pace and a more emotional toll, but the tempo somehow makes it even more powerful. Skipping ahead to her June release, “Hilary Duff” brings all the nostalgia for the idol of our childhoods. “I believe that as humans we see the option of distracting ourselves from our current reality as a better route than to truly work on bettering who we are. Why feel and work through what’s wrong when you can be numb instead? With the combination of expectations and eyeballs tracking your every move, that’s what ‘Hilary Duff’ is about,” Maggie shared.

“Swim” comes right after, bringing deep emotions and all-encompassing harmonies.  The track feels highly relatable with so many habits being broken during quarantine, and the overwhelming feeling like you’re drowning in it all as she sings, “Am I drowning or am I just learning how to swim?” Next, “i’m always smiling when i cry about you” is a sweet and heartbreaking love song that emulates the bittersweet beauty of young love. Fast forward to the closing track, “Sanitized Things” is more than just advice to prevent COVID – the slow burn of a track is full of intensity and her stunning vocals, and is the perfect seal to an incredible debut album.

Hailing from northern Virginia, Maggie grew up surrounded by music, influenced by her father, who was in a Celtic rock band. In high school, she was “a theatre kid,” and ran a YouTube channel where she posted covers and original songs. The first time she recorded any original material was a complete coincidence – or maybe it was fate? A couple of years back, she went to the Purcellville Music & Arts Festival, “I was walking around with some friends, and the M80 Recording Studio tent was there. They were having a raffle,” she explains. At the time, she had only written two songs but put her name in any way. By chance, she won, and recorded her first two singles, “Contradiction” and “Pinned”. While her sound back then was much different than her work now, having just begun developing her style, she tells, “I wouldn’t change it, because that’s where I started.”

She finally performed solo for an audience at 18, and then quickly gained traction after being discovered by Bruce Gates at Pearl Street Warehouse in Washington, D.C. Recently, she moved to Nashville to focus on her craft. She now has over 60K monthly listeners on Spotify, and her song “WHATISTODAY?” has been extremely successful, having been featured on New Music Friday, Indie Pop, and Fresh Finds on Spotify and Chill Pop on Apple Music.

After announcing her endorsement deal with Yamaha Music, she dropped her debut EP Swing Your Concerns. Soon after, Maggie joined the WAY Up program, an emerging artists program. Even cooler, Yamaha flew Maggie out to Tokyo with UK artists JNR Williams and Wyldest to speak on a panel at the Yamaha Ginza Hall in Tokyo. They spoke about their experiences as artists and songwriters, as well as how music empowers them and provides an outlet to share their messages.

Maggie’s authenticity shines through in her work, and her sly sense of realism in her songs adds a deeper level to her pop-leaning sound and alternative elements. Her fearlessness in experimenting in styles has created such a unique style of her own, mixing elements of alt-rock, indie R&B, and electro-pop.  Her honesty and genuine expression of her experience, combined with her powerful voice and atmospheric style make her easy to love, and all of this so clearly shines through in Am I Drowning or Am I Just Learning to Swim.  She shares, “I make music for the utter reason alone that I need to create something for myself that makes sense, when nothing else around me does.”

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