Q&A: Bea Miller on Growing Alongside Her Fans With ‘Mr. Peaked in High School’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY ISABELLA APPELL ☆
Photos By Daniela Buvat for The Luna Collective
GROWING UP IS AN EXPERIENCE that comes with self-doubt, teenage angst and the struggle to stand up for yourself.
Your formative years should be filled with crushes and discovering what you love, with the hardest decision being what to wear to school that day. At 13, Bea Miller thought about all of these things—until an appearance on the second season of The X Factor, followed by two albums, pulled her into the music world and forced her to grow up faster than her classmates.
Now, over eight years after her last album, Miller is reclaiming her confidence, showing the world who she is as an artist and proving that growing up in the public eye was no small feat. Released Sept. 18, the new album normalizes talking about mental health, feeling misunderstood and viewing self-reflection through a comedic lens. Most of all, it represents who she is now, and she can't wait to share it with the world.
Read on to learn about the themes running through Mr. Peaked in High School, the conflicted fulfillment of making music for fans her own age and what she's most looking forward to as she releases the album.
LUNA: Let’s talk about Mr. Peaked in High School. What does it mean to you and what made now the right time to release it?
MILLER: This album is important to me because I haven't released a full-length album for nine years. Nine years ago I was still a teenager, so I have grown a lot and found new ways to express myself. I think now is the right time because it's ready to go and my fans have been begging me for “Bea Miller 3” for so many years–they deserve it. Why wait another second? It captures who I am right now and I'm proud of it. It's the best music I've ever made.
LUNA: Did you recently write the album?
MILLER: One of the songs on the record I mention that I'm 25, and now I'm 27, so that was one of the first songs we wrote. We started at the end of 2024 but that was before I realized I was writing an album. I was back in the studio for the first time in a while, I wrote a couple songs I was excited about and inspired by and I decided maybe this could be a full project instead of a one-off. It's been a year and a half long process of writing this record but ultimately, I still relate to the things I wrote at the beginning and it still accurately depicts how I feel now.
LUNA: Looking back, what would you say is the difference in how you view pressure at 16/17 versus now?
MILLER: The pressure on me has shifted based on age alone and age of my fans. I felt like everything I was doing when I was younger was being viewed through a microscope, and I felt very suffocated by that. I felt like I wasn't allowed to relate to my peers, some of them being my fans because I had to set some kind of example for them. It's a strange thing to ask a teenager to set a good example for other teenagers. It made me feel extremely lonely that I couldn't be myself and bond with other people my age because I was supposed to be acting more appropriately than they were.
Now, I'm an adult, most of my fans are adults, and I don't feel like I have to set an example in the same way. I don't feel like I have as much power to influence other people. I don't feel the same pressure to lead in a way I used to when I was younger because I was constantly being told I had to be a role model for other people when I was really seeking one for myself.
LUNA: What have you learned about yourself through writing the album?
MILLER: I feel a lot more freedom now to be myself and speak my mind. I used to be a little more careful because I was constantly told I had to be. I was 100% myself for this album and put exactly who I am into these songs without overthinking the way it came across. I wouldn't have been able to write this way as freely or with as much joy though if I didn't have those more negative experiences I broke free from.
LUNA: What would you say helped you through understanding those experiences?
MILLER: When I was younger, honestly, Tumblr really helped me to work through my feelings. I would reblog stuff about being depressed and angry, and it made me feel a strong sense of community. I felt alienated––I didn't have a lot of friends I was interacting with on a daily basis because I was working all the time and felt like I couldn't completely be myself through my own words.
When you get older, you hopefully become more comfortable with yourself. I'm more chemically balanced now, and I don't feel afraid to be myself anymore. It's a different thing to bond with your fans and write music to relate to them when you're a teenager than it is as an adult. They're both special in different ways but it's different now to write music from my current perspective and talk to my fans about where they are in their lives.
LUNA: It’s an interesting perspective - making music for kids as a kid.
MILLER: It's weird because I was surrounded by adults at my old record label who were like, "This isn't relatable." It's strange when you're making music as a kid when you have adults telling you that you don't know how to relate to yourself.
LUNA: What are the themes discussed in the album, and some of the experiences that went into creating it?
MILLER: There's a lot of me looking back at my own life and grappling with the reality of being successful in a commercial way when I was still a kid, or teenager, and how that affects me now as an adult. I know it’s rare and maybe that specific part of my experience is not relatable, but I do think a lot of the emotions I feel around it are relatable; it's very reflective.
The way I deal with difficult memories is to make jokes about them. Everything f*cking sucks sometimes but at least I can make a joke about it and I can grow, and learn, and there's a lot of looking back at my own life and recognizing that the things that were uncomfortable or difficult for me to process when I was younger made me who I am today.
LUNA: Do you think there’s still a younger demographic that is listening to your music? Or have most of your fans grown with you?
MILLER: I definitely see in the crowds of my shows that a lot of my fans are close in age to me––typically in their 20s. I think it's interesting to be an artist when you're younger because you get to grow with your fans; I think that's special because I've always written about my experiences and because they've grown with me, we can relate in that sense. I think, listening to this album for the fans who have been around for a long time, it's going to be nice for them to have something new and something we can bond [with] together of how much we've grown since the last full-length album. I'm sure listening to those songs can be nostalgic for them, as it is for me now.
I also think if there are younger people listening to the music, I'm hoping it might paint a more realistic picture of what to expect as you enter adulthood. I'm candid and honest, and I'm not trying to gloss over the hardships of growing up and trying to find yourself. It might help them set a more realistic expectation of what it's like to grow older alongside your friends.
LUNA: Is there any part of you fearful about people's reactions to this album, or is most of what you're feeling excitement?
MILLER: I’m really excited. I genuinely think the music is really good. I know every artist believes that but I truly love it. I'm not worried about the way the music will be received. I think for the fans who have been listening to my music for many years, this makes sense as a next step, and it's hopefully better than they could have imagined. I hope it's as meaningful for them as it is for me.
It's the most elevated body of work I've ever released and I didn't hold back in the studio; if it sparked joy, I would leave it in the song. I hope they love it but either way, I don't think anything will change that. I can't be worried about how people are going to perceive the music because it's just me. It's what I bring to the table as an artist and I hope there are people who love that and are excited for it.
LUNA: Which track are you most looking forward to people hearing?
MILLER: This is such a hard question because each song, although they make sense together, are all different. They all work for different moods, different activities. My original favorite was "Born To Lose"––it does hold a special place, but the more I listen to "Pretty and Alone"...I love that song. I think it's funny and fun; it's stupid but real and relatable, and puts me in a good mood when I listen to it. I also love "Party" but of course, I love "Summer of '16" because a lot of my fans throughout the years gravitate towards the more ballad type of songs I release––those are typically my most requested songs to be added to the set list––and that one is special.
LUNA: Is there a certain way fans should listen to your album, in terms of setting, mood, etc?
MILLER: Honestly, I love a hot girl walk. Especially in New York right now. I love the feeling of walking down the street with my headphones in like I'm in a movie. I think it's more fun than hearing it in your car in the background while you're doing something else. Throw your headphones on, go on a 45-minute walk, and listen to it for the first time. That's my preference but whatever way people want to consume music, do what's best for you.
LUNA: If you 10 years ago were able to see you now and hear the new album, what do you think she would think?
MILLER: Yeah, I don't think she would be surprised. I think younger me would look at me now with all my tattoos and my orange hair, and like how candidly I speak about my own life and my own music. She would probably think I'm pretty cool.
I did in a lot of ways become the version of myself I hoped I would be when I was younger. When I was writing music I was a bit more cautious and closed off––I wasn't always being 100% myself because of outside opinions weighing down on me. If 15-year-old me were to see me now, I think I would be relieved that I eventually reached a point where I could create what I love and not feel the pressure to be something different.
