MIGHLOE
Liquid Speaks with Canadian singer songwriter, Mighloe as she visits London for the first time touching on her latest EP release, ‘Desperate Times’ Life in Toronto and making opportunities for herself.
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As a dreamy and soulful recording artist, Mighloe’s vocals has the ability to soothe or cut to the bone depending on what the song calls for. A polymath who is actively involved across various forms of creative expression, Mighloe is a special talent that is proving herself one to watch as she begins to emerge on the world stage. A proud black woman and a voice from the Pride community, she continues to make strides proving herself as an artist on the rise.
Listen to 'Desperate Times' below
Hi Mighlo, How are you doing today?
I’m alright thank you
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Your name, is that your artist’s name or is it your actual name?
Yeah, Milo is my artist name, it’s actually a nickname that my dad gave me a while back and it just stuck. It’s really Mariah, I didn’t want to be the next Mariah Carey or something like that, I just wanted to have my own name that was separate and that was recognisable as the only one.
I really like the name.
Thank you.
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How are you finding London at the moment?
I think its super, super fun. I mean, I’ve always wanted to come here, so it’s really cool to actually be here officially and to be here doing music.
How long are you here for and why are you here?
I’m here for 10 days and I’m mostly here to build some connections and just meet some new people in the industry. I’m here to do some shows, I have two shows this weekend.
What are these shows?
I’m just going to be performing a couple of songs and yeah, just want to kind of get myself out there and in a different place.
What part of Toronto are you from?
I’m originally from a smaller town outside of Toronto but I do live in the city now, just a little bit on the outskirts but, yeah.
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And how has the weather been since you’ve been here? Is it cold in Toronto like here?
It's funny because it’s been pretty nice since I got here, today is the first day that it’s like a little bit cold so it’s pretty equivalent right now to what Toronto is, but I do feel like when I go back home it will be warmer there.
Since you’ve been here what have you been doing for fun? and what have you possibly learnt?
I've learnt that night life in Shoreditch is a lot of fun. I went to a couple of live music events. I think its super cool that here they have a lot of free concerts that you can just go to whereas in Toronto we don’t really have that, we don’t offer that in the same way and especially not people who are established in that way, so I thought that was really cool. Then I also went to a Blues bar which was amazing because we also don’t really have that kind of vibe in Toronto, so I feel like just the live music scene here is really, cool and interesting.
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How did you get yourself into music?
I’ve always been signing my whole life, but it started when I was in college for a programme that I wasn’t really interested in. I was just doing it to do it and then I met some people that were in the art industries, a couple of film people and a couple of music people and just seeing that they had the potential to do this as a career really inspired me and then I decided to switch programmes and went into a smaller music development programme called Remix Project out in Toronto and from there it was just kind of meant to be I guess.
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How would you describe your sound and your voice?
I would describe my sound, I guess easily as just an RnB artist, an RnB soul. I think that my voice has a lot of raspy old soul sounds to it, I like to compare it to the Amy Winehouses and those kinds of old sounds, but I try to make it a little more modern with the actual type of music I perform.
If you can remember, what was the first song you recorded?
The first song I recorded was actually one of my friends who was a rapper at the time just asked me to do a chorus on the song and I had never been in a studio before that. So I was like “okay, I’ll try it out”, I was still like really shy and not sure if I actually wanted to do it, be a musician at that point, but being in the studio that day and seeing the reaction of people hearing me sing and being a part of that song really inspired me to continue to do it and kind of do my own thing as well. So, my first single that I wrote officially is actually one that is on the album that I just put out but I did put out a couple of singles that are no longer available just because I’ve grown since then. I mean if you follow me on Soundcloud you might be able to find the old ones but not so much on any other streaming platforms. But yeah, my first project was called ‘Pretty’ and that’s when I became more official in what I was doing.
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How are you finding the journey that you’re on at the moment? I know it’s difficult to make music everywhere in the world because so many people are doing it now and there’s so many different sounds but how is it in Toronto?
Milo: I feel super grateful because I found that my whole journey has been really natural to me and it hasn’t been so much of a struggle in the sense that I really do feel like I’m meant to be doing this and so because of that I’ve put myself in places and made myself known in places so that opportunities can come to me. So it’s been a really awesome journey. There has definitely been hard times when it comes to writing, like writer’s block, everyone has it but I think just pushing through and continuing to get myself into certain spaces, for example, even just coming out here, just really kind of making myself known I think has been the key to where I’m at right now.
If you had to collaborate with another artist in this world, whether they are known or not who would that be?
I feel like I want to collaborate with different artists for different reasons. For me, music is not just about the writing and the performance part but it’s about the art that comes with it and so I would love to do a visual experience with ASAP Rocky because I think that would be just amazing and then I would love to write music with people like SZA and Doja Cat because they’re so different from what I’m doing, they’re more upbeat and stuff I want to be able to get into that. And then also, of course Adele and actually Joy Crookes who is from here, I actually met her this weekend, which was really cool, I’d love to work with her as well.
What would be the one place you would love to go to record your music? You know like Kanye would just go to the mountains to record, where would your place be?
That’s a great question, it’s hard to say because I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to travel, this is my first time ever travelling overseas so it would have to be a place that is warm, for sure. I love warm weather, especially just for relaxing and writing, I think cities are for doing this and where actually writing is somewhere that is nice and hot, there is a beach nearby and I can just kind of relax into the warmth.
In terms of, going back to your music and stuff, do you have a single coming out soon or when is your next project coming out.
I just have some stuff in the works, I don’t have any plans for specific dates or anything like that. I just released my ‘Desperate Times’ album so just trying to ride that wave a little bit right now and experiencing that, but I do plan for 2022 to do some releases.
Aside from music, what makes you happy?
I think what brings me the most joy and the most sanity too is, putting myself out there and networking in places, for example, doing stuff like this and just finding myself in random cities and exploring. I think that is what brings me pure joy, just finding myself in a place that I don’t know about and allowing myself to explore it and just find myself in ways.
I know you’ve only been here for a few days but how is lifestyle in Toronto different to the UK?
I think here, it’s interesting because it’s almost like every night there is something happening whereas Toronto it’s just weekends – Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Here you can find something to do any night of the week. When it comes to the music aspect, people are a lot more open to discover here, discovering new artists or to just experiencing the live music aspect.
Do you think it’s a lot more mainstream?
Yeah, people don’t like to explore what is coming from our city and instead just follow the mainstream stuff. There are definitely ways to come up in Toronto, I just think personally it’s a little more difficult unless you are a trap artist.
What has been your favourite food to try whilst being here?
Honestly, I haven’t tried too much food whilst being here, my main focus was to get fish and chips and I did get some, but I haven’t got what I want yet so I’m still looking because I always thought “UK fish and chips”. Before I even got here, I was like “I’m going to test out if I want to live here”.
I think you would suit here a lot.
Now that my trip is coming to an end, I’m considering coming back for a longer portion of time.
