JUNO Award-Winning July Talk Drummer and Producer Danny Miles Takes the Mic on “Not Gonna Fit In” – A Genre-Blurring Shout of Rebellion, Originality, and Raw Energy
Following his evolution as a creative force as drummer of JUNO Award-winning band July Talk, through to the release of his debut solo album, Beautiful Music, and its reinvention as The Ruined Version, featuring collaborations with artists like Shad, Saukrates, Kevin Drew (Broken Social Scene), Moka Only and Aquakultre, Danny Miles has established himself as an eclectic and collaboration focused musician who exists beyond traditional genres.
“Not Gonna Fit In” finds Miles crashing back on the scene with a wild, inventive, and unapologetically honest track that fuses alternative and experimental rap with fuzzed-out, live-band energy and fearless songwriting.
Riding a rumbling beat built from vinyl chops, distorted live drums, and even the sampled sound of a power drill, the track is a chaotic-yet-focused anthem that thumbs its nose at conformity and revels in it. It’s loud. It’s unfiltered. It’s got cat meows buried in the mix. And somehow, it all works.
“I was feeling that people were following a lot of trends,” says Miles. “It’s always been the case, but I feel like we’ve lost some of our uniqueness. Everything is just kind of being gobbled up like fast food and then forgotten. I wanted to push against that, while still being real about people – their good and bad sides.”
The song marks a milestone for Miles – not just musically but personally.
“This was the first song I made for this new direction. It’s also the first song I ever sang lead vocals on,” he shares. “I showed it to my friends Ben Rispin and Lee Reed – two people I really trust. They came over, I played it, and they immediately loved it. That was the start of something.”
The track, like the rest of Miles’ recent work, was built in a hip-hop tradition: constructed like sample-based beats, but mostly using live instruments that he performed and twisted to sound sampled. It’s a smart, hybridized sound – grimy and rowdy but intentional and musical.
“I didn’t overthink it,” says Miles. “This whole collection of songs came out naturally. It’s honest, raw, and different – and that’s what I’m most proud of.”