May
Words and layout published in the JHS Black and White 2017 May issue in September 2017.
With a cup of coffee in hand, Cameron Miller ‘19 walked into his studio. He set the
coffee on his desk and proceeded to get out his instruments. Recording on his computer, he sat down in front of his drums and played for a bit. He finally moved to sitting at his desk, opened a synthesizer, and began to get to work. Messing around until he heard something that caught his ear, his song continued to build. Some drums here, a little bass there. Deciding whether to leave space for vocals, or make it a fully instrumental track. Before long, Miller was happy with his finished work. He made sure it was all saved, took a swig of his now-cold coffee, and was onto the next song.
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Miller has been writing music since his freshman year, though he didn’t get serious
about it until last year. Although he began just messing around on an audio program, his interests, and talents, quickly grew. “At first I started off on my computer. And I didn’t know how to play the keyboard, I knew how to play guitar, but I was avoiding it cause I wasn’t very good,” Miller said. “Eventually I got into using my computer, and I started to understand music theory, which is the basis of how people make music. And I was like, okay, I can use my knowledge from my guitar, and I knew how to drum a little bit cause I was into it when I was little, and so I put together all these pieces from my life.”
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"I was like (expletive) it,
i’ll be like a little weird
rapper dude. and then I
realized I suck at
rapping."
Cameron Miller ‘19
Despite only starting two years ago, Miller has quickly developed a knack for writing his music. “I’ll fill it up with all the stuff that I want. It just comes to me,”
Miller said. “I’m not trying to sound pretentious about it, it just comes out of my brain. I hear melodies that I want, and I’m like how can I replicate that. And there’s not a lot of people who can take it from their head and put it on a piece of paper, or a computer.”
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While Miller is not always sure what direction his songs are going in, he doesn’t let that set him back. “Everyday I write like five songs,” Miller said. “I just sit
down, and I play a few melodies, and I’m like that sounds good, that sounds good, and I’ll just build off that, and I’ll think, is this working, is this not, and if it’s not working, I’ll go on to the next one. Because I don’t want to block up any ideas, so as soon as it’s fading away and I don’t really know where I’m going with it, I just kinda move on to the next project.”
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Balancing his musical passion and school has not always been easy for Miller. “I’ve lost a lot of homework assignments, a lot of grades to music,” Miller
said. “I just would rather make music. It’s really tempting cause my music presents a future for me, so I’m like why do I need to worry about school when I could maybe be really good at this.”
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Nevertheless, Miller tries to stay on track in school, as his parents insist. “I try to stay good in my mom’s eyes. Cause she’s like, ‘you have to get good
grades, you have to go to college,’ the usual.”
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While Miller doesn’t make music for a profit, he has had several songs bought by other artists. “I’ve probably made less than $500 on my beats,” Miller
said. “I mainly just make them for people. But if it’s someone I don’t know, I’m like, alright give me money.”
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Although Miller began writing on his own, he eventually became a member of Tha Füt, a group created by his dad. “They started that when I was like 14, I
didn’t even know they were doing that,” Miller said. “My dad had just gotten into hip hop, and I didn’t really like hip hop or rap, but then I started listening to old school hip hop, and jazz, and R&B, and it led me into everything else.”
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Miller works pro-bono with the group writing songs. “For the group, I do it for passion, so I don’t get paid,” Miller said.
This summer Miller also has the chance to take his music beyond state lines, as he will be going on tour with the group. “I think we’re going to Omaha,
Chicago, somewhere in California,” Miller said. “I don’t really know all the specifics.”
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Throughout the tour, Miller will be on stage running the turntables for the group. As a writer, Miller looks up to other musicians and their various styles. Miller
listens to Tyler the Creator, Nujabes, and J Dilla, among others, but one of his favorite producers is Meltycanon. “His music’s really unique,” Miller said. “Like the sound of it is bells, and high beautiful chords. It’s really soft, there’s a lot of pads. But he still has like a hip hop sound.”
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Miller does a majority of his writing in his studio, which is in an old paint factory that his dad renovated with two other people. “They turned it into a studio
space, they’re putting up walls and stuff,” Miller said. “It used to just be an open area, and now it’s coming together. I painted like half of that building by hand, we all were in there working our (butts) off, trying to make it look good.”
They plan to rent out studio space in the factory, which they have named the Barnum Factory. “Right now, through the hallways, they’re having people
come in and do graffiti, it’s all over the walls and leads you down the hallway,” Miller said. “It’s supposed to be very artsy. I just think it’s awesome, everybody is pitching in and adding their own thing to it.”
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It isn’t clear what Miller’s future in music will be, but that doesn’t bother him. “If this works out for me, if it doesn’t who cares, I’m still gonna keep doing this,”
Miller said. “Entertaining people, making people feel better, I just want to do that.”