Miller Campbell wants to make it perfectly clear that “All Night” is not about you.
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Breakup songs, especially those written and sung by women, are often scoured for clues about the identity of the man who inspired it, but Miller defiantly stands at the center of her new single, refusing to lose herself to her own desires or, worse, anyone else’s. “I never pictured you for a rock ‘n’ roll song, ‘cause this could be about anybody,” she declares, slyly nodding at the most famous and most brutal breakup song of all, Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” (which you probably still think is about you).
“That’s such a brutal burn,” Miller says. “To write a rock-and-roll song about somebody is such a big deal, because you’re giving them the spotlight in a way. But this song is really about me. I wrote it about being confused about a relationship and doing some soul searching and learning there’s nothing wrong with that confusion. It’s meant to be empowering.”
Having recently moved from the wilds of rural Montana to the even wilder wilds of Los Angeles, Miller doesn’t quite abandon the twang of her previous EPs.
On “All Night” and other songs off her upcoming full-length debut, Miller nods to Shania Twain, especially in the way she sings the word “Hey!” as though that single syllable contains endless implications. But she and co-writer/co-producer Matt Drenik (who records under the name battleme) devised a heavier, nervier sound that channels some of her non-country heroes: the no-bullshit defiance of Chrissie Hynde, the gleeful abandon of the Go-Go’s.
“Matt and I were really driven by our own personal inspirations, from Tom Petty to the Cars. We tried to put everything we loved into a song that would be fun and energizing.”
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