Jamie Miller and the song that made a dream come true
Jamie Miller chats to TOPNOTE on the success of ‘Babydoll’. Image credit: Bethany Cordery
‘It’s not me trying to go viral, it's just genuine joy.’
Every now and then, life brings you a genuinely happy story.
Jamie Miller is in the eye of a perfect storm.
His August single ‘Babydoll’ has worked its way to Number 2 in the UK and is nudging its way higher, currently sitting atop the mid-week Official Singles Chart. It has already crowned the UK Singles Downloads, Spotify and Apple Music, as well as the US pop iTunes charts, where the Brit has lived for close to a decade, bumped by the addition of friend and Off Campus star, Antonio Cipriano, last month.
The beyond-viral track comes with a self-choreographed dance that’s captivated the internet for its joyfulness, featuring celebrity ‘Babydoll’ cameos from Perrie Edwards to Alison Hammond. Miller has recently returned from supporting the Jonas Brothers across the US, with stadium & primetime TV debuts leapfrogging his popularity, along with the song that was supposed to be a ‘last hurrah’.
At the heart of it all, is a 29 year-old from Cardiff in utter disbelief.
Jamie Miller is not an overnight success. Quite the opposite. After nine years of trying to forge a financially viable music career, Miller was just about ready to quit. A tranche of personal investment and constant failures to break through left him feeling despondent, despite his original songs racking up multi-millions of streams. Determined to give it one last go on his own terms, he released pop groove, ‘Babydoll’.
Fast forward to mid-October, and the LA-based musician finds himself on a pinball press tour of Europe and the UK, bouncing between cities and journalists. This week, he makes his UK TV debut, on Strictly Come Dancing. Jamie’s is a fairytale of perseverance and self-belief, and TOPNOTE were lucky enough to catch him in London.
We set up in the interview room, and wait for him to arrive (...he’s dancing on the roof with a national treasure). There’s a black and white print framed on the wall, quoting the Undertones’ song: ‘A TEENAGE DREAM’S SO HARD TO BEAT’.
We sit on the sofa and have a chat about them coming true.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
TOPNOTE: Welcome back to the UK! Is there anything you miss living in the States?
Jamie: Honestly, I keep saying it. Nando's… and Greggs.
TOPNOTE: What are your Nando’s and Greggs orders?
Jamie: I get a medium chicken wrap, halloumi cheese sticks, rice, perri perri chips, Greggs…. steak bakes, sausage roll. Honestly I miss that a lot, in America. The food is the biggest thing I would say. Crisps in America are terrible. In the UK… Monster Munch, Squares.
TOPNOTE: Now we’ve got the serious questions out the way… ‘Babydoll’ is currently number two in the UK, how does it feel to be in direct competition with Taylor Swift for a UK number one?
Jamie: Honestly, I never expected for it to chart at all. So to be able to be in the charts, Top 10, is a big enough achievement for me. Obviously it would be incredible to have a number one, but I think just where everything is at right now, I'm so grateful.
TOPNOTE: Has it sunk in, because you've only been in the UK for a day and a half, right?
Jamie: Yeah, nothing has. I don't think I’ve processed anything. My life is changing every single day. I feel like I've worked for this moment my entire life. I feel a bit numb because it doesn't feel real, but I want it to feel real. I never thought this would be on the cards for me.
TOPNOTE: I think people are really backing you as a person, as well as your song.
Jamie: I’ve noticed that, and it's mental. For the first time in my life, I feel like I've been myself, and showing all sides of me, my emotions. For the past nine years, I've tried to be really cool and it's kind of done me a disservice in a way, of not seeming authentic. I said to my team, I just want to be Jamie for this, because I was planning on this being my last hurrah in music. I just wasn't able to keep up with the constant ‘nothing's working’. So for it to be working and for people to be backing me as a person as well as a singer, it's just mental.
TOPNOTE: It’s really nice to see an unapologetically joyous song coming from someone unapologetically themselves. That must be the most incredible feeling in the world.
Jamie: Honestly, it really is. I'm from Cardiff, so for this to be happening to me, especially in the UK… I live in America and it's been a rough couple of years, in terms of personal life, music's been really difficult as well. Making music for other people, I just felt like I lost myself completely.
“I’m just really happy in life and I think it’s showing in my music. That’s a really cool thing to be able to, one, write about, but, two, experience in real life.”
Full transparency, it's really expensive to keep trying to do music and I was on my last bit of money to try and make this work. Even though I would have wanted to do this forever, I had the harsh reality check of like, this is very expensive and I'm not able to keep up. People think that you have a song with 500 million streams, that means you are rich, it definitely wasn't the case for me. It was my last chance and I said to my mum and dad, I'm gonna give it my best shot doing it my way, which I've never done. So it just feels really, really special.
TOPNOTE: For those that have just come to you through ‘Babydoll’, what's a song in your catalogue you would say listen to next?
Jamie: I would say, polar opposite, a song called ‘Maybe Next Time’. I wrote it about going through a breakup. I built my career off sad music and I feel like it’s nice to come back after two years with a song like ‘Babydoll’ and it be the total opposite of everything I've ever done.
It’s a really good next chapter of where I'm heading. To be honest, I'm just really happy in life and I think it's showing in my music. That's a really cool thing to be able to, one, write about, but, two, experience in real life. It’s not me trying to go viral, it's just genuine joy.
TOPNOTE: You’re doing this crazy press tour at the moment, and you’ve just been supporting the Jonas Brothers, playing in stadiums. When you get to your hotel room and it's just you, what are you thinking? What are you doing?
Jamie: So right now. I get to my hotel around midnight. And I’m just trying to process everything that's going on. Every day my team will give me an update of what’s happened. I’m watching a nice little TV show and literally looking at the screen and being like, what the hell is going on…
TOPNOTE: What are you watching?
Jamie: My comfort show is Law & Order: The Special Victims Unit, with Olivia Benson. By the way, she's my dream ‘babydoll’. Just trying to make everything seem as normal as possible. Going out now, people are starting to recognise me and I feel like I'm adjusting to a lot of life changes very quickly. Ringing my mum, my mum's my best friend, so everytime I get a chance to speak to her.
TOPNOTE: For someone suddenly thrown headfirst into fame, what's your take on it? How does it feel?
Jamie: I don't know. I wish I could... Everything feels the same, the days are just changing in terms of what I normally do. Every day in LA, I'll go on my morning walks, and now instead of morning walks, I'm in interviews. It’s just adapting to different things. I said to my team yesterday, I feel like I'm living Hannah Montana's life right now.
TOPNOTE: You have another song on the way. Are you able to tell us anything about that?
Jamie: It's called ‘One Look’ and it is probably one of my favourite songs I've ever made. It feels like a wedding song, a timeless, soulful wedding song. And even posting that, I never expected the reaction. People are like, are you worried that your next one's not gonna be as big as ‘Babydoll’. I genuinely didn't expect any success for ‘Babydoll’, I just was trying to make music that made me happy.
“I feel like ‘One Look’ is the song I’ve waited my whole career to write, so I’m very excited for people to hear that one.”
I feel like if nothing comes out as big then that's fine. I'm making music that I'm genuinely proud of and feels authentic. Something’s clicked. I feel like ‘One Look’ is the song I've waited my whole career to write, so I'm very excited for people to hear that one.
TOPNOTE: And finally, what’s been the most mind-blowing experience you've had since this whole thing got underway?
Jamie: Obviously getting a Top 10 in the UK, that's a dream come true for me. Opening for the Jonas Brothers. And just people who I've looked up to DM’ing me on Instagram. I was speaking to Niall Horan the other day, he was congratulating me on everything and telling me to take it all in and enjoy it. I'm really trying. I'm definitely enjoying it. I'm trying to make it make sense that this is actually happening to someone like me in real time.
Jamie Miller debriefing on the sofa with TOPNOTE. Image credit: Bethany Cordery