Lethbridge, Alberta’s Shaela Miller Unveils “Mourning Tonight”
Shaela Miller’s years spent making great country music are safely etched into public consciousness. A turn, at this point, is by no means an undoing but a welcome lead into new waters. Miller’s fast-rising path is set to be amplified by a sonic reintroduction to one of Canada’s best voices and most sincere stage personalities. Following years of top-tier festival circuiting, TV placements like HBO’s True Blood, and many other accomplishments, Shaela sets aside (at least for now) her Loretta Lynn likeness in favour of the synth-laden corridors of a new sonic pathway.
Sharing the second single from her forthcoming full-length album After the Masquerade (Spring 2024), “Mourning Tonight” sees the Lethbridge, Alberta-based artist collide vivid storytelling with country-tinged new wave.
Produced by Graham Lessard (Timbre Timbre, Stars) at Studio Bell in Calgary’s National Music Centre, the track delivers driving bass and sparkling layers of synth under Miller’s signature vocals — diving into a world of sounds Miller has been patiently waiting to explore. The listener should take comfort in feeling a little tense as lyrical themes go deeper into the emotional well that Miller mines as a songwriter.
She shares the story behind her new track:
“I wrote Mourning Tonight while I was deep in the throes of grief after losing a dear friend of mine. It’s about the volatile emotions we can feel as we navigate through complex feelings of grief and sorrow whilst juggling day-to-day tasks. When I first began writing the song, it was very slow in tempo. When I came back to it later that evening I decided it needed to be an upbeat dance song. A great example of the unpredictable moods we experience during suffering a loss.”
“Artist Shanell Papp made the 40ft long crochet skeleton, Mia Van Leeuwen directed the performance at the Opening of the Walking Death Arts and Cultural Festival. The Waking Death Collective (Shanell Papp, Mia Van Leeuwen and Annie Martin) invited artists to collaborate and address themes of death, dying, and grief to evoke feelings of shared mortality, the nature of impermanence, and things that haunt us. I was so moved when I learned about the exhibit and asked if I too could be a part of the collaboration by documenting the parade to use in a music video. The softness of the larger-than-life crocheted skeleton, the colorful ghosts, and the playful and ritualistic march of the bone carriers feel like the perfect juxtaposition of how I want my song to be received and my lyrics to be heard. Dealing with grief is something we all have to do at some point in our lives. It will ebb and flow like a rushing wave ready to wipe out your whole world if you let it. We need to learn how to build our lives around it. I choose to process it through dance, vibration and song.”