A genre-defying musician is set to throw down Beneath the Arch this weekend.
Lethbridge’s Shaela Miller is bringing her five-piece band to the Flare n’ Derrick at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 25.
Refusing to be pinned down to a single genre, Miller said fans of her existing repertoire will be pleased to hear her last single, Big Hair Small City, but can expect to be surprised as she throws down with her new material.
“This next record I’m putting out, it’s more along the lines of new wave, I have a synth player now,” Miller said in a phone interview. “Now it’s turning into this country-ish new wave thing, but still playing just country songs.”
In March 2022, Miller won the WILD 953 contest Project WILD, claiming $100,953 to fuel her career.
As with many Albertans, country music was more a fact of life at the start.
“I grew up listening to classic country in my young years, even though I hated it at the time, and the music I wanted to listen to was more grunge, post punk and new wave – lots of Depeche Mode, industrial and Nine Inch Nails and anything you can think of other than country,” Miller said.
“Then when I was about 16, I bought a Patsy Cline CD at HMV, I got obsessed and my writing just changed. I started to write more of a country kind of flavour when I was 18 or 19."
Going through a folk era, Miller came out somewhere on the other side in what she described as “country noire or hardcore honky-tonk," with a sound distinctly her own.
“When I think of honky-tonk, I think of Merle Haggard and classic country type stuff, but lyrically, my stuff is kind of a bit darker,” Miller said.
That stuff can sometimes be, as she put it, "too country for country," but she simply found her authentic sound.
“Definitely writing from my heart every single time," Miller said.
For tickets and information, visit beneaththearch.ca/concerts.
