Nathalie Miller delivers a friendship breakup song via the celestial ‘kansas’
Brooklyn indie alt-pop artist unveils a sparkling daydream of a single about emotional labor in platonic relationships.
OUT NOW: Listen to ‘kansas’ on Spotify // Multi-Link
New EP ‘like you used to’ produced by Brian Charles and out October 24
Listen to Nathalie Miller on Spotify
BROOKLYN, N.Y. [September 19, 2025] – Much has been made, and rightfully so, about the emotional labor women are required to invest in their relationships with men, which often comes without much reciprocation. But the same inequity can also be found by women in their platonic friendships with male counterparts, where a reliance on the maternal figure – fielding complaints about their partners, showing up when no one else will, and just being the person everyone depends on – ends up being a mental drain. And not to mention, a total bummer.
Understanding that dynamic and withdrawing oneself from a potentially toxic friendship is at the delicate core of Nathalie Miller’s new single, a sparkling daydream of glittery indie alt-pop called “kansas,” set for release on Friday, September 26. The glistening track, described as a “platonic friendship breakup song” by Miller, hits the streams alongside a colorful and melancholic music video directed by Palmer Wells and Christopher Consoli.
The Brooklyn resident and Massachusetts native penned the emotive, star-gazing “kansas,” the first taste of October’s new EP like you used to, as a composite sketch reflecting many of the friendships she’s had with the opposite sex. As it turns out, there was a discrepancy developing in these friendships with men that was not simply present with other women.
“I noticed that in most of my friendships with women, I just felt like a person,” Miller says. “But in a lot of my past friendships with men, I was really hyper aware of being a girl and playing the role of emotional support mother or girlfriend without receiving that support back. I remember thinking to myself, ‘I know the first and last name of every person who’s ever been mean to these guys, and they don’t even know what book I am currently reading, or the names of my brothers’.”
She pauses, then adds: “To me, it’s a platonic friendship breakup song that I wrote after taking a step back from a lot of those friendships and looking at the patterns that threaded them all together.”
Miller has been threading together bits and pieces of her personal life and filtering them into songs since her debut single “felt like” arrived a little more than two years ago. Coming from a musical family based just outside Boston, Miller relocated to New York City just before the pandemic to attend art school for photography and work as a model, and there she developed her own style and sound, reflecting on the past and looking back at her childhood from a distance.
Carving out her life in a new city and finding inspiration – musically, socially, and culturally -- all around her, she began penning lyrics and writing raw musical demos on her iPhone before taking them back up to Massachusetts to record with Brian Charles at Rare Signals in Cambridge.
Earlier this year she released her debut EP, made especially for you, led by the Fall 2024 single “mark like cain,” slowly cultivating and crafting a sound that blends indie-pop and alt-rock with poignant, confessional-style lyrics reminiscent of both classic singer-songwriters and modern pop vocalists.
“I like big songs,” Miller admits. “I like songs that feel like they’re going somewhere or building up to something, so I always try to go for a little of that. I also like making it sound like there are a lot of people on the record when it’s just Brian and me. It’s like a fun little secret. I always lean towards sounds that feel bittersweet and slightly nostalgic, but I wasn’t forcing any of the songs to sound like my previous stuff or like each other.”
Charles, in addition to producing, engineering, mixing and mastering “kansas,” with additional engineering by Annie Hoffman, also provided instrumentation, guitar, keyboards, drums, drum programming, and banjo on the song. The sonic elements take a lullaby of an alt-pop track and give it a celestial quality, its comforting and absorbing nature providing, perhaps ironically, the emotional relief Miller laments not having across its unfurling lyrical narrative.
“I honestly tend to black out when I write lyrics,” Miller says with a laugh. “I know it was probably tricky, in the moment, to get the words to fit together, but my brain smooths it over and rewrites history a little so I remember it as just flowing together. I do remember putting together what I call my ‘iPhone demo’ version that I always make for Brian. I’m a bit elementary in my instrument-playing capabilities, so I could hear this arpeggiating piano noise that would go under the chorus, but I couldn’t play it. I had my brother, Larson, who has been playing the piano for forever, play the melody I was humming and then I chopped it up in my video editing software because it’s what I know how to use from photography school. That turned into the synth backing in the chorus later.”
Miller continues: “I also always knew I wanted a marching band-ish sound under the bridge and the last chorus, but marching bands don’t usually play as slow as I had the demo, so I had to slow a random drum sound down 50 percent. I always make these demos that only Brian ever hears because I’m working with a very small instrument skillset, but I like writing that way because I feel like it makes the music accessible to the average listener because most people can’t play an instrument either.”
But most people can relate to the themes Miller addresses in her songs, opening up a creative portal to a young singer-songwriter who is absorbing the world around her, all the highs and lows and mundane things in between, and channeling it into emotive, engaging storytelling. “kansas” isn’t so much a new era for the upstart artist; it’s the continuation of a longer, unfolding narrative.
“I think that Brian and I both knew it was the single for the EP before we even worked on any of the other songs,” she admits. “It was the first song we worked on and we were using all these sounds that are kind of a bizarre combination, but they worked together in a way that made you not question it. Like why is there a synthetic drum kit playing under a banjo and wind noises?”
“kansas” also boasts a collection of what Miller describes as her “favorite sounds” that continue to bubble up in her music, like banjos, spacey guitars, and string-adjacent synths. Using Rare Signals as a playground to experiment with instrumentation and song construction has allowed tracks like “kansas” to blossom around Miller’s lyrical resonance.
What it can't do, however, is totally predict what Miller has in store for the entirety of the new EP. “kansas” probably falls somewhere in the middle of like you used to’s spectrum of styles and sounds, blurring genre lines and establishing a core identity around Nathalie Miller, the artist.
“It’s not the saddest, it’s not the most upbeat, it’s not the weirdest, or the most commercial,” Miller notes. “I think it tells you the kind of songwriting I lean towards and hints at a sound, but it doesn’t give away anything about the other songs. It’s a good bridge into the rest of the EP.”
And it should give those feeling the way Miller does about certain male friendships, and the emotional imbalance that can arise, a new sense of camaraderie.
“I think ‘kansas’ can be a super relatable and flexible song,” she concludes. “All my friends have a different interpretation of what the song is about, which is fun for a single. I like hearing how people put themselves into lyrics I write, because it’s usually so far from the experience that inspired the song – but it still works.”
‘kansas’ single artwork:
‘kansas’ production credits:
Music and lyrics by Nathalie Miller
Produced, engineered, mixed, and mastered by Brian Charles at Rare Signals in Cambridge, MA
Additional engineering by Annie Hoffman
Instrumentation, guitar, keyboards, drums, drum programming, and banjo by Brian Charles
Music video directed by Palmer Wells and Christopher Consoli
Single artwork by Nathalie Miller
EP artwork by Max Miller
Nathalie Miller short bio:
On new year's eve of 2020, independent artist Nathalie Miller called and booked her first ever studio session before hopping out of the car and running to her friends house to catch a midnight showing of Cats. This was her first step in inching towards releasing her music after working as a model and attending art school for photography in New York City. Three years later, she released her first single called “felt like”, a glittery indie-pop song, which she later followed with her debut EP made especially for you. Her sound blends indie-pop and alt-rock sounds with lyrics reminiscent of classic singer songwriters, all with a girlish sparkle. Stand out track and single “mark like cain” reached 10,000 streams and 23,000 views on the accompanying music video just a few hours shy of the release of the entire EP. She records her songs in her home state of Massachusetts at Rare Signals with frequent collaborator Brian Charles. A new EP, like you used to, is set for October 2025 release.
Recent media praise for Nathalie Miller:
“The voice of indie-pop that invites us to feel.” _Oleada Indie
“Discovering Nathalie Miller is akin to stepping into a room laced with soft walls: the aural experience is soothing, playful and comforting. Yet, even among such angelic and blissful tones, one can catch a glimpse of melancholia, a sign that the human experience is ever complex and ambiguous. ‘bailey’ is the track that comes to our attention. Included in Miller’s latest EP ‘made especially for you’, the single is the most potent and substantial offering in an otherwise ethereal record.” _Mesmerized
“Nathalie Miller's music stands out for its authenticity and honesty. Her lyrics, full of emotion and vulnerability, connect us with her personal experiences and invite us to reflect on our own lives. Made Especially for You is an album that invites us to immerse ourselves in a world of emotions and sensations. With songs like ‘Bailey’ and ‘So Am I’, Nathalie Miller demonstrates her talent as a songwriter.” _Global Pop
"Nathalie Miller's ‘Bailey’ is one of those songs that grabs you not only for its melody, but for the raw honesty that breathes in every note. With a sound that navigates between lo-fi and indie pop, Miller immerses us in a reflection on envy and the loss of identity. Bailey is the mirror in which the protagonist of the song looks at herself, that image of someone who seems to have the perfect life, and in that reflection, she loses herself.” _Zona Emergente
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