Digital Cover: Myles Smith on his Journey from Luton to LA

Calling in from Toronto in the days after our Cali-cool shoot in Los Angeles, Myles Smith greets me with a warm hello and ear-to-ear smile which quickly dissolves the digital barrier. The musician, still fairly new to interviews, is due on stage in few hours’ time and yet appears very much at ease, happy to talk at length about his journey with an awe-inspired stranger (myself). Myles has much to be excited about, it’s March 12th, the penultimate date of his first headline tour which sold out every show from London (where he’s now based) to Stockholm and America. “It’s the biggest privilege… people have left the house, sometimes in terrible weather, and travelled to see me,” Myles tells me, still starstruck by the lightning speed at which his career has taken off.

Three years ago, the musician-cum-sociology graduate was in Luton, writing folky-pop songs on his mum’s sofa and playing guitar in local pubs. When we meet during his Not So Lonely tour in North America, Myles Smith could already be classified as an international sensation, racking up 6.3 million Spotify listeners with three original singles, and a record deal with Sony’s RCA records.

By the time this is published, his eagerly-awaited debut EP You Promised a Lifetime will be out and he’ll be gearing up to hit the road again for the Slightly Less Lonely Tour, which kicks off in Glasgow in May and travels Europe. A humble realist with an infectious positivity, Myles assures me that he won’t run out of steam, “Yes you live off sausage rolls and lose sleep but it’s all worth it, because you see in real-time the impact of the music you’re making…in a room with people going through their emotions, coming together and enjoying themselves.”

The 25-year-old’s fast track to fame wasn’t part of any plan. For years, he’d been contently plodding along the traditional route, but in today’s reality, “even if musicians are regularly playing live, if you’re anywhere like I was, that’s normally to an empty pub with two blokes at the back saying shut up…so your music doesn’t have the opportunity to breathe or have a life.” In 2022, encouraged by friends, he gave his creativity a new platform, posting acoustic covers to Instagram and TikTok. They quickly gained traction, the first time he went “viral-ish,” aka amassing 30K views: “I was like woah, what’s going on? I remember being around a few mates and losing my head, I was like man, am I, Drake?”

The nostalgic music lovers among us can be quick to zone out at the mention of TikTok, but consider the case of Myles Smith and there’s no denying its power for budding, non-conformist talents. With music being his life-long antidote to emotional suffocation and loneliness, finding a like-minded audience online meant more to the young artist than just the beginnings of a fruitful career, he tells me, “being able to reach people on the complete other side of the world to me, who are experiencing things that I’ve experienced, I think has made me feel more connected me more than anything could”.

It was the covers of Amber Run’s ‘I Found’ and The Neighbourhood’s ‘Sweater Weather’ which, in 2022, truly skyrocketed the singer’s profile. Myles was in Budapest, “on my way to a hot bath, deep into my student overdraft” when Jared Leto, of all people, reposted his cover, “…I woke up to like 500 DMs, I was like, this is the best decision I’ve ever made. I was in Budapest, in this bath, happier than life.”

None of the above does the Luton-native take for granted. From day one, he’s been doing it all himself; as a pre-adolescent, he taught himself guitar, then piano and from the age of 12 began on the local open mic circuit, “I played absolutely every opportunity I could… the Luton music scene has a lot of great family pubs and Irish music coming out of them, it’s how I got into jamming.” Aside from rich global music immersion, growing up in one of the UK’s most culturally diverse towns crucially offered Myles the attitude behind his art, “when you grow up around so much difference, it pushes you to break boundaries and blur difference, because that’s how you’ve always known things to naturally be”.

At the time of speaking, he’s anticipating the release of You Promised a Lifetime and feeling a mixture of nerves and excitement. He explains, “Creating music isn’t something I’m new to, but having an audience who want music from you is different… I guess I was in a unique position in that I had an audience, but no music out, whereas most people generate an audience through having music out”.

The musician’s first original release ‘My Home’ emerged from six months spent in the sole company of guitar and piano, writing lyrics, figuring out his musical identity and repeatedly asking himself “who am I and what do I want to say.” Arriving first on the EP, it’s dedicated to the artist’s mum: “anyone who knows me knows that my mum’s my superhero, so it felt natural to lead with.” And it was an instant hit, resonating deeply with fans who, on his latest tour, sung the lyrics passionately, leaving Myles ready to accept “okay, I’m in the right place, people like who I am”.

Out now, the entire 6-track project was written and produced with producer-songwriter Peter Fenn in Los Angeles, in just one week. How did the duo pull it off? “We just sat and stared at each other with two guitars, both un-showered for days, just whacking out songs.” Of course, the emotionally intelligent singer went into the project bursting with ideas, “I knew that I wanted to talk about my journey, everything from 10 years old to now…it was just about bringing them into a room and delving into those emotions, then creating music to reflect them”.

Being open and authentic is inherent to the artist’s work; “as a working-class lad from the middle of Luton, being open and expressive of your emotions isn’t something that comes to you naturally”. Discovering the evocative sounds and stories of Labyrinth’s Electronic Earth, Coldplay’s Parachutes, Ed Sheeran’s Plus and anything by Green Day, at a young age, enabled him to confront his feelings. “Their impact, even when I was too young to understand some of the topics they talk about, was huge and I knew I wanted to be a part of it”.

What began as a childhood dream to be Billie Joe Armstrong became the foremost important exploit of Myles’ life, he openly discloses, “I really struggled with anxiety, like real bad. For a lot of my life I felt very alone and isolated within those feelings.” One of the EP’s most vulnerable pieces, ‘River’ delves deep into the experience, Myles shares “River is about overcoming certain struggles, my mental health journey.” Writing the ballad – which contains powerful messages like ‘Don’t keep it a secret when deep down you‘re hurtin’ or the ‘let it go it’s okay to cry’  – was in its very essence cathartic, “there was a really surreal moment where I felt like I’d overcome that part of my own life, it was like I could finally put some of these things to rest and be proud of myself for making it to where I have”.

His artistic mission today is rooted in the belief that music, “helps us take those steps to learn about ourselves and unwrap all the things that are knotting inside.” Introducing You Promised a Lifetime, Myles is offering his every-growing fanbase this opportunity. The most moving aspect of live concerts he shares, was meeting fans who said his music “was a tipping point, for them to start on their mental health journey, go to therapy or talk to somebody”.

Myles Smith’s goals as an artist are all noble. When I ask what, his current, biggest ambition is, he honestly confesses, with the preface that it “sounds cheesy” but is the truth, “is to make my mum proud”. His mother was the one who bought him the guitar and gave him the saying which inspired his debut project’s title: “’A minute a moment or a lifetime’…meaning some people could enter your life but the lessons or impression they met could stick with you for a lifetime”. Myles Smith is continuing to prove himself to be that person.