Bea Miller Wants You To 'Feel Something Different' With Her New EP

The visual spell cast by Euphoria still has a hold over fans even per year immediately after its HBO debut, inspiring a trend that took TikTok by storm just last summer. Fans shared makeup transformations that showcased their unique spins on the wild, couture-level glam concocted by makeup artist Donni Davy — Rue’s glittering teardrops; Jules’s dramatic eyelash spikes — in short clips set to a mashup of Labrinth’s “Still Don’t Know My Name” and Bea Miller’s lyrically numb breakout “Feel Something.”


“Clearly, I can’t do my makeup at all,” Miller tells MTV News over Zoom, her hair pulled into a ponytail. “I was like, fuck, I'd like to create one of those, however I don’t know how.” It’s a surprising, even bashful, statement coming from the rising 21-year-old pop singer: Miller made her first major efficiency in 2012 whenever she performed on The X Factor at the age of 13. Since then, her silky voice has been filtered through two full-length albums, including collaborations with the rapper 6lack and the British electronic twosome Snakehips. For her latest project, Elated!, she plans to release a music video for every track on the EP, each shot from her living room. Her close creative partner, Gina Gizella Manning, set up the shots, while Miller handled all of the hair and makeup herself.


“We attempted to find light in darkness as much as we could,” she says. “And we’re like, well, this pandemic is sort of ruining our lives, although at least we can sort of use this as a way to get more creative.” In spite of its sugary sound, Elated! strikes a serious tone, plunging into politics both personalized and national. On “Hallelujah,” she points out the disconnect of the rhetoric of self-care while taking aim directly at the president, singing: “How am I supposed to work on myself / Any time there really are Nazis in a big White Home? Uh / It seems foolish to reside in Hell.” Joined by the Oregon-born rapper Aminé, the collection also carries a groovy update to her breakout hit, “Feel Something Different.”


Miller admits that staying positive throughout quarantine has been a constant challenge, however the impact of her music on its listeners isn't lost on her. “I'm glad I created something to prepare people feel a little better, at least a little more understood,“ she says. With Elated! out today (October 23), Miller talked to MTV News about watching Lizzo take on the Euphoria challenge, creating music videos from residence, and what costume her dog, Ollie, will be wearing this Halloween.


MTV News: "Feel Something," naturally, blew up on TikTok. What’s it like getting to actually visualize each person listening to and having fun to your song?


Miller: Watching everybody make TikToks with the "Feel Something" mashup with the Euphoria song has been really wild. For a while, I was sort of jealous in a way... I felt like I was watching from the sidelines.


Lizzo made one with the song, which I thought was pretty cool. It's weird whenever, as an artist, you're also a fan — whenever you recognize and notice that certain artists you love may have actually heard some of your music before. It's a very weird, startling feeling. I just remember thinking, like, Lizzo probably doesn't know who I am. Nevertheless she is aware my song, she's heard me sing before, and that really blew my mind.


MTV News: Are you a fan of Euphoria?


Miller: Oh yeah, I'm a large fan. The opening starting day of my first tour last year, we had a Airbnb in Texas where we all piled onto the couch and watched the entirety of Season 1. Me and three or four people in my crew and musical group sat on the couch for the whole day.


MTV News: You wrote and released that song in 2019, so how come do you know it’s resonating with people now?


Miller: I had assumed that it had already plateaued. That's just generally what occurs with a song: You release it, inside of the initial couple months it climbs, and eventually it reaches a point where people have noticed something new, and then it falls back down. Then earlier this year, it began spiking again.


I remember finding out about the TikTok challenges, and seeing how that was translating into streams, and feeling sort of guilty at first. Certainly, I'm grateful, [but] at the same time, I felt discouraged by the fact that the only reason that the song was suddenly doing so well again, was because people relate to it right now more than they did As soon as I released it. We're all alone indoors of our houses, we can't really go anywhere, we can't even go out to restaurants, go visualize our companions or our families, or take a walk in a park without wearing a mask. It's really awful and really alienating. It creates this lack of connection and lack of emotion because you're not experiencing anything to have emotions about.


I think that's probably why the song suddenly began doing so well and how it moved from just being on TikTok to resonating with people on streaming platforms. I don't know; I have mixed feelings about that. I'm glad I created something to create people feel a little better, at least a little more understood, throughout this horrible time. I also hate thinking that I'm, in some way, benefiting from something so awful. I'm torn.


MTV News: Speaking of TikTok, I was looking at yours and saw these very sweet videos where you were just hanging out with your fans. In one, it was like you were just having a staring contest. What have been the perfect interactions you've had with fans?


Miller: It’s hard for me to pick! A lot of my fans have been following since I was 14 and so they were also 13 or 14. The ones that have stayed since then, we've grown up with each other. It almost feels like we're companions, some days. They literally came up with me and I would not be where I am without them having stayed here for this long. I think that they recognize the huge part that they have played in getting me to the point that I'm at right now. Every time I accomplish even the smallest of things, they get really excited. That makes me feel more excited.


Even as soon as my song was on TikTok, they were the ones who were, day-to-day, tweeting me like, "Bea, get a TikTok." "Bea, look what's happening." They're like my PR team. They're habitually cheering me on and some days they yell at me. You must do something, because they're looking out for me. I really appreciate that. I don't know if every other fan base is like that. I think they probably are? Nevertheless I think I do have a pretty cool categorize of fans.


MTV News: You recently released the video for "Wisdom Teeth," which is on the EP. What was the inspiration for the song and the video?


Miller: I wrote "Wisdom Teeth" two weeks right after I got my actual wisdom teeth pulled. I got all four at once. Only two of those were willing to go, nevertheless they mentioned the next two could be ready in like per year. I was like, nah, all of these gotta go now. I wasn't able to write or sing for a number of weeks immediately after I got my teeth pulled ‘cause, needless to say, I had these gaping holes in my mouth, and yes it was the opening song wrote As soon as I was able to come back. It sounds ridiculous because I know that I'm young, although getting my wisdom teeth pulled was just one of these small things while doing so that made me feel like I was getting older. I was expressing this in the studio before we wrote the song; Whenever I was younger, I would hear about people getting their teeth pulled out. I habitually thought, that's for now away. Like, ha ha, poor adults.


It made me feel nostalgic towards my childhood. In some ways, as soon as we're younger, we are smarter, in my advice. We're far less affected by the advice of society and what is expected of you. In the event you are an adult functioning in society, we mold ourselves to fit within our surroundings and be accepted by other adults, which is really weird and unfortunate. Any time we're younger, we just bop around and, as long as we’re not hurting anybody, we like our lives. We just smile and feel good. We don't have any insecurities, at least not up until we reach a certain age. I think there's accidental wisdom in that.


We hadn't really offered the music video in advance because, certainly, building a music video throughout a pandemic isn't really the best priority for anybody. I noticed a wonderful creative director, photographer, videographer; she's everything in one. Her name's Gina [Gizella Manning]. She's my absolute everything, love of my life. Her and I would just routinely get COVID tested, then not visualize anybody, then wait up until we got our results, and then we'd just visualize each other. We set up a black screen in my living room, like right there. She came over and she shot me with a bunch of lights and just did the most. Then she got these goldfish and shots in the tank; it was a whole thing.


MTV News: Any time Once I was watching it, I was thinking about how people have a lot of dreams about losing their teeth, which sort of signifies stress or having low self-esteem about something.


Miller: Visualize, I didn't necessarily intend to have that message While I was writing the song, nevertheless my fans were saying this, also. I was like, that actually works because I'm routinely stressed and anxious.


MTV News: You said you were working on the music video while in quarantine. What other ways have you been staying creative while being isolated?


Miller: Honestly, wish I may mention that I was doing something routinely to reside in touch with my creativity, yet I really haven't. I feel that this has been the least inspiring year that I've ever been alive. I needless to say could sit here with my keyboards and I may write something, which I have done a couple of times. I'm attempting to learn Ableton, which is a production program I've Been attempting to get better with that so maybe one day I can produce my songs. Ultimately, the only thing that I'm able to really write about lately is just my sadness about the pandemic, about missing my companions, about everything being shitty, and the environment falling apart, and our political situation being so awful. It's not anything that everybody isn't already stressed about.


As artists it's our responsibility to point out uncomfortable things and situations that are not ideal. Yet at the same time, it's also our responsibility to help people get through that. I have been writing a little by myself. I've more been journaling lately than anything else. It freaks me out to be a creative person my whole life and suddenly not having anything to prepare. I've Been able to create videos and things while doing so while in this, and other little photo shoots and things like that. Yet music has been hard for me to write lately.


MTV News: I appreciate that honesty and can certainly relate. Knowing your EP is going to come out right before Halloween, I wondered in the event you had any preference Halloween costumes you've worn in the past.


Miller: Halloween is my main go to day of the year. I have a lot of decorations in my apartment. If I can't go to a haunted residence this year, I'm going to prepare my apartment a haunted home. Whenever I was younger, I wanted to be something from Alice in Wonderland, although I didn't know which character I wanted to be, so I was all the main characters. I had the Angry Hatter's hat, Alice's dress, Tweedledee and Tweedledum socks. I had Queen-of-Hearts-like shoes with little red hearts all over them. I had a giant clock on my neck for the rabbit. Oh, and I had a Cheshire cat smile that my mom painted on me. It was a lot.


Last year, I did not really kill the Halloween game because I was on tour and I did not have time to put with each other congregated a whole costume. I went to the store and paid for an inflatable poop emoji; I was literally a giant, inflatable poop. However that actually was a big hit. I went to a Halloween parade with my mom in New York City; that was where our tour stopped. We were walking the parade and literally each person we passed by was like, "Look, it’s poop."


MTV News: You're from the New York area originally. Have you ever been to the Halloween Dog Parade?


Miller: This year, Ollie and I are going to be an alien and also a spaceship. I got him a spaceship costume and I'm going to be an alien. We'll be really pretty. Nevertheless I didn't know there was a dog parade. Shit. That sounds so fun. That's two of my main go to things coming with each other, dogs and Halloween.


MTV News: Is there anything else about releasing this EP that’s exhilarating for you?


Miller: I haven't mentioned this anywhere yet; however I am planning on releasing a little bit music video for each one of the songs on my EP. We attempted to find light in darkness as much as we may. And we’re like, well, this pandemic is sort of ruining our lives, nevertheless at least we can sort of use this as a way to get more creative. So we sort of put our heads with each other and we made small videos for every one of the songs on the EP. So, I'm very excited about that ‘cause I was very hands-on with these videos and really involved in the process. And I did all of my makeup and hair and wardrobe for everything. I am excited for each person to be able to see them. Those videos will all be coming out on different days in the second month or two. Although I think they're really cool. I think that we made the perfect out of a shitty situation and I'm excited ‘cause I've never given my fans as much content for one release. Not even any time Whenever I released an entire album. I feel like they're getting more content with the six or seven songs than they could be with, like, 12.