Myles Smith: 'I Started Off Making Music In My Bedroom In Luton. I’m Already Winning!'

The Stargazing singer is reflecting on the journey that took him from tiny venues in his hometown to Wembley Stadium, as he unveils his long-awaited debut album.

Over the last two years, British singer-songwriter Myles Smith has had the kind of ascent that any performer who’s just starting out would dream of.

After cultivating a loyal following on TikTok, Myles was made an offer to sign a recording contract with the major label RCA, joining a roster that already included hit-makers like Doja Cat, SZA and Mark Ronson.

Then came his breakthrough single Stargazing, which charted on both sides of the Atlantic, went three-times platinum and earned him a Best British Single nomination at the Brit Awards, the same year he picked up the prestigious Rising Star title, previously awarded to the likes of Sam Smith, Florence The Machine, Sam Fender and Adele.

Now a four-time Brit Award nominee (in addition to his Rising Star win), Myles has racked up a string of UK top 40s, headlined shows all over the world (not to mention serving as the opening act on the stadium tour of his musical hero, Ed Sheeran) and even been praised by former US leader Barack Obama – all before he’d even released his debut album.

So, one of the main things you might be wondering after such a whirlwind rise is if he’s been able to take a moment to appreciate it all?

“Fuck no!” he tells HuffPost UK with a laugh. “I’ve been on tour for, like, 90% of my career. Genuinely, I don’t know what day or time or city I’m in half the time.

“For the last three tours, I’ve said, ‘hopefully, after this tour, I can relax’. And then I book another one. One day it’ll come…”

We’re speaking weeks before the long-awaited release of Myles’ debut album, My Mess, My Heart, My Life., a project he’s poured his heart into, and previously claimed represents “what I wanted it to say, rather than what everyone else wanted me to do”.

“I feel like a world exists where I made 10 Stargazings and put it onto an album,” he explains. “The way that the world is built, that probably would have done amazingly well commercially. But would it build a career? No. It would have just been a really cool, flash-in-the-pan moment.”

For Myles, it was important that his first album showcase “a full 360 on the person that I am”.

“A lot of the songs that I have out at the moment are songs that I love – that I really, really love – I think they show a part of me, but not all of me,” he claims, quipping that “just sticking with four-on-the-floor down your throat for, like, another album” would be “doing myself an injustice”.

Indeed, anyone who knows Myles for radio-friendly hits like Stargazing, Nice To Meet You or the Niall Horan collab Drive Safe might be surprised at some of the dark places that his full-length debut takes the listener to.

The album begins with the aptly-titled My Mess, which opens with the line “sisters crying, slamming doors, plates are flying”, as Myles reflects on his childhood, growing up in a “fractured family, where a word could start a war”.

“I hate the way that I’m still like this,” he laments on the chorus. “I’m still learning to walk on my own.”

From there, we continue on to deeply-personal cuts like Hold Me In The Dark and Grandma’s Place, before Mary’s Song, in which he reflects on the domestic and sexual abuse faced by two women in his life, and the self-explanatory Sertraline (named after the antidepressant medication of the same name), where he laments: “No matter how hard I fight, I’m still not alright.”

Myles has described his album as a “journey of self-discovery”, born out of reflecting on his own therapy notes from years gone by, and says it was important for him that his listeners hear that he is still a work in progress.

“It’s so movie-like to be like, ‘OK, it was shit, and it got better’,” he says. “The reality is that life is like, ‘it was shit, it got better, but then it also got shit again’.”

He claims: “I’m now in the middle of both. And I feel like that’s how I exist right now. I still have really bad days and I still have absolutely amazing days. I wanted it to mirror real life more than just being a ‘happily ever after’ narrative.”

This kind of candour is a refreshing contrast to the gloss and supposed perfection so often showcased in pop music, with Myles taking inspiration from “so many people, past and present, who have been fantastic at being storytellers of their own lives”.

“When you write authentically you can’t help but connect with it, because it’s true and it’s life experience,” he enthuses. “I don’t feel like I’m a finished product or a finished article........

© HuffPost