The dying days of summer give light to "Everything Changed," the final installment in a trilogy of EPs by Minneapolis-based songwriter Peter Miller and his outfit We Are The Willows. Blending crystalline pop and orchestral sensibilities, Miller’s ability to articulate anxieties, hopes, and daydreams through sound results in an abbreviated collection of works as sonically singular as they are personally sincere.
"Everything Changed" finds an equatorial through-line in We Are The Willows' recent experiments, establishing an anchor both in theme and sound for which Miller derives confidence and comfort. The EP was recorded with producer Mike Noyce (Bon Iver, Poliça) during the March of 2021 in his Milwaukee studio, who encouraged Miller to step outside the comfort zone of his usual creative process. Previously, Miller’s studio work was highly focused, planned and prescribed, but with Noyce, an emphasis on time, patience, and grace guided their music to finality. Over the course of a year and half, Everything Changed was pushed, prodded, and molded into form during a period of definitive change for Miller, Noyce, and the world. Miller had a child; Noyce moved to Minneapolis; public health policies shifted; a climate crisis loomed. Reality required more of Miller’s attention and his creative endeavors sought an identity among uncertainty. Fine tuning their productions became an escape, and through that practice morphed into an opportunity to seek parallels between Miller as an artist, father, husband, and man. In his words:
“I felt free making these ep’s. There were no external parameters. All fences and enclosures were internal. Divined from self and by self. What a gift they’ve been to me. It’s fitting that "Everything Changed" the last in these three EPs. “
“Now That I’m Older is consciously recognizing pain and hurt and living it. It’s the recognition of a need for change. Knowing there’s something I need. Deep Breaths is a step into the unconscious. Or subconscious. unspoken. Felt not heard. Felt not said. brought to a place. Everything Changed sees me arrive at a place. By the end of making it, I learned where I was coming from. Even if that was in itself a place of deep change. I knew that things were going to change drastically. They continue to do so. I think I’m seeing where my art practice has changed me and made me a better, kinder, humbler person. Also more confident.And better at art. I think this trio of EPs was a pivotal part of that journey.”
