NXTSTYLE’s 2020 New Music Guide: Jen Miller

“Hot Balloon” was an interesting song to make. I started in my bedroom with an electric and I just really liked the feeling of it and didn’t really have words for it yet and then I took a trip to DC and ended up out with some friends that I had met abroad that now live in DC. We got a little tequila drunk and as I was leaving the bar my ex from high school was entering with his girlfriend and I actually kind of just put my head down and held the door for them because sometimes you just wish people well and you don’t want to engage with it. So that’s what that song was really about. It’s about the fact that sometimes good people grow apart and you have good people in your life who might not be in the right mindset to continue being part of your journey. You’re not really complementing each other well anymore and that’s what it was about. You got to let go of things that are heavy and people that might hold you down and back so that you can take off.

What I really hope fans will take from this project is first of all that you don’t need to be in the nicest studio of all time to make music that you’re proud of. I know there’s like a whole trend about people being with like “bedroom producing is a thing” and it really is. I mean I just think it’s one of those things that people always say oh I wish I could do that but you can and in terms of message on the project.

I think “Green Juice” nails really what the whole feeling of blue earth is about blue earth dives into forgiving yourself for breaking someone else’s heart and your heart and hoping that you know you can wish someone well when you don’t
end up together and green juice is about the process of recognizing that when you’re not with somebody when you go through heartbreak a lot of times the solution is not to start dating someone else. It’s to do things that feed your soul. It’s to spend time with people you love. It’s to recognize that it wasn’t serving you. People always ask what’s ‘green juice’ and I’m not gonna ruin it because I want people to think ‘green juice’ is what it is to them and that’s religion. It’s a metaphor for feeding yourself good things whatever that is to you that’s what it is. ‘Green juice’ will do you better than a dick does. Now that’s what I want people to get from this project.

In 2020 I’ll be doing a ton of collaboration with other artists both on production and songwriting as well as putting out my own songs and feature tracks with people. I got some things in the hopper so people look out for that.

I’m not planning on doing a full project in 2020 but I am planning on touring for ‘Blue Earth’ as well as putting out singles with some very talented people so be on the lookout.

I am the founder and editor of Girl Gang Music which is an online community focused on women and non-binary people both on the creative and the professional side of the music industry. We have tons of playlists and I am bumping them all the time. It’s crazy how much good music we have being made by women so I would say definitely check out those.

In terms of projects I’m playing non-stop, I’m gonna say I love Nina Nesbit’s recent album. I think it’s amazing songwriting a great production as well so I’ll just plug that which is a good human.

I have a lot of collaborations already in the hopper so I’m really stoked for those but I’m not gonna ruin it yet but if it was a dream world I would say for a producer Dr. Dre. I would love to be on his team. I would love to work with him. I would love to sit in on sessions. Same thing with Timbaland. These are two of my favorite producers from the jump before I could even produce myself. It would be an absolute honor as an artist. An artist and producer I’d love to work with is Atmosphere. I think Slug and Ant, they’ve always been some of my favorite music from when I was serving tables at Skyline Chili in Ohio to now. I just think the production that Anthony does is insane and Sean’s work as a rapper is not only meaningful but I can’t stop playing it and it would be really legendary to get to work with them.