Pip Millett for Notion 92

‘So you think you know me?’
Inviting us on an intimate journey of personal growth, Pip Millett finds the light and silver linings in her debut album, When Everything Is Better, I’ll Let You Know.

Pip Millett had barely hit double figures when she learned the power of music to unite, soothe and charm those around her. Growing up in Marple, a suburb of Manchester, a young Pip’s first foray into music arrived in the form of an iPod Nano set up by her older brother. Rather than choosing a playground soundtrack of noughties hits however, it was records like Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness” and Candi Staton’s “Young Hearts Run Free” that sparked a musical obsession. As the obsession continued, Pip lined up the musings of old schoolers like Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder and Bobby Womack in YouTube selections whilst playing DJ at family gatherings. She was an 11-year-old absorbing the songwriting greats, poised for her own musical take.

‘So you think you know me?’ Opens this year’s debut album, ‘When Everything Is Better, I’ll Let You Know’. The line floats gently through the soulful vocals for which Pip has become known, setting the 24-year-old’s intentions for the project. With an underlying quiet confidence across 17 vulnerable tracks, it signals a period of growth. If you thought you knew Pip Millett, this album dares you to better understand the emotional journey she’s been on.

Pip’s songwriting began following the passing of her father: “It was the best way for me to look at things and figure them out, and then to turn them into lyrics.” 2018 breakout single “Make Me Cry” tackled Pip’s experience of depression following her father’s death. Many will have been introduced to the Mancunian artist during her performance of the track on the COLORS YouTube channel in 2019, a video with over 5 million views.

Maintaining a steady composure despite the emotional weight in her delivery, it blew up, and Pip’s debut single release accumulated over 24 million streams and counting. Honing an ethereal take on soulful sounds, as demonstrated by a cover of her beloved “Try a Little Tenderness” later that year, Pip remained ever connected to her musical roots.

A commitment to relatable transparency continued into 2020’s EP ‘Lost in June’, an eight-track project punctuated by personal spoken interludes from Pip’s mum sharing insights into her daughter’s personality. Her third EP ‘Motion Sick’ came the following year, featuring Gaidaa on “Sad Girls” and Ghetts on powerful track “Running”, on which Pip tackles “the tiresome reality of being Black / a POC in an unequal white western world.”

‘When Everything Is Better, I’ll Let You Know’ marks a new chapter for the artist. Shaped both by her journey so far, as well as accepting there’s learning still to come, tracks like “Heal” acknowledge a period of her life that’s been “pretty rough”. But years on from her first breakup, and first therapy session, in Pip’s words: “I’ve just come so far.” She’s not claiming to be perfect, but her strides in overcoming trauma and coping healthily with anxiety speak for themselves; the album is a celebration of optimistic possibility. She might not be playing YouTube DJ in her Marple home, but Pip’s still using her razor-sharp songwriting ability to unite, charm and soothe, this time with self-assured maturity.

In the week following her album release, Pip discusses her upbringing, her COLORS blow-up, and how music has captured periods in her life.

Copies of Notion 92 covered by Pip Millett are available here.