FayMilton'sGoddessInterview#separator_saBeyondSavages,ANewSound

Last Updated on 2025-05-29 by a-indie

Musical Influences and Inspiration

-Yuuki Takita: If you had to name three albums that have significantly influenced your music, what would they be? Could you also tell us about how each one influenced you, perhaps sharing specific aspects or anecdotes?
Fay Milton:
Portishead – Third
This album is everything I love in music. The balance between the delicate and the hard is something I try to aspire to in my music.

SOPHIE – OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES
One of the things I particularly love about SOPHIE’s music is how she was able to join the feminine strength, chaos, fun and vulnerability in a way that I don’t think anybody had done before.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Push the Sky Away
I was obsessed with this album when I first started to make the Goddess record. I love it sonically and lyrically and the sentiment and energy it holds are so potent.

Artists You Resonate With Now

-Yuuki Takita: Are there any contemporary artists you feel a particular connection or affinity with right now? Personally, I felt there were resonances with artists like Shygirl and Arca.
Fay Milton: I love Shygirl’s music so much, she was definitely an influence on the record and we have done some writing together. In terms of influences, I tend to find a cloud of music that I love and live somewhere within it.
For a start, I’m very influenced by all the artists I’ve collaborated with on the record. Also in my music cloud at the moment are The Comet is Coming, PVA, Kelsey Lu, Underworld, Brian Eno.

About the Album ‘Goddess’

-Yuuki Takita: Now, let’s discuss the album ‘Goddess’. As your self-titled debut album, what kind of emotions or feelings does it reflect for you? Alternatively, could you describe in your own words what kind of work this album is?
Fay Milton: The album was created with many leaps of faith and vulnerabilities, it’s finding it’s way and openly sharing ideas and musical thoughts. It’s a bit like a playlist, with different sounds but a thread running through. It’s been with me over the last few years, slowly working away on it though Savages, becoming a full time activist, through the pandemic, so these songs have seen a lot before they have come out into the world. The emotions it raises for me are vulnerability, determination, patience, innocence, sparkles, thunder and lighting.

Collaboration with Female and Non-Binary Artists

-Yuuki Takita: This album incorporates diverse musical elements like post-punk, electronica, dream-pop, and indie rock, and features a different vocalist on each of the 10 tracks. A significant feature is that all 10 singers are women or non-binary. Is there a specific reason for this? Even if the album’s theme isn’t directly about gender, could you share any conscious thoughts or perspectives on gender related to this choice?
Fay Milton: For some reason it seemed really obvious to me that I should make a record with all female and non-binary collaborators. The idea for the album came to me fully formed and then I just had to make it. I am deeply inspired by female and non-binary artists and to work with this as a creative parameter seemed like a no-brainer to me!

Creative Process

-Yuuki Takita: The album ‘Goddess’ is filled with incredibly diverse musicality and multifaceted expressions. We imagine it might not have been easy to shape it into a cohesive whole. What was the central idea or direction behind the creation of this album?
Fay Milton: There were quite a lot of songs that didn’t end up on the record. For example, I wrote ‘Big Ben Beat’ with Kim Deal for the Goddess record, but somehow it ended up on her recent solo album. The songs that didn’t make it on the final record ended up being the tracks whose sound didn’t ‘fit’ in some way. Like a natural honing process as some songs dropped off. It was probably about half way through making the record that I worked out the sound I was trying to create. But there is an innocence to the record, it’s someone new at producing music just trying stuff out and seeing what works. I think there is a thread, but it’s also really fun that it’s a bit wild too, it’s the ‘beginner’s mind’ energy.