Tor Miller / Neia Jane

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Event Dates
Red Room at Cafe 939
939 Boylston Street
Boston
Massachusetts
02115
United States

After dropping out of college two years in to chase his musical dreams, Tor Miller found himself living them in real time. In early 2014, the Brooklyn native signed to independent label Glassnote Records, putting his professional career on track at age 20. Miller’s debut EP, Headlights, was soon followed by his first full-length record, American English, in September 2016, putting him on an international tour that included stops at SXSW, Lollapalooza, and multiple visits to Europe.

When Miller returned from his first international tour, it all came crashing down. “I didn't have an apartment and hardly had any money after touring so much, and you realize that everything comes out of your pocket in the end,” recalls Miller, now 24. Despondent, he moved back in with his parents in New Jersey, disillusioned by where he had ended up. “I was stuck back in my hometown with no prospects of what to do next—no idea.”

Depressed and uninspired, he reconnected with his old childhood mentor, a local producer, who listened to sketches of new material, inspired by the bleak suburban life he thought he’d fled for good. The sessions, recorded in one take with five instruments in a room, yielded his sophomore album Surviving the Suburbs, a stark portrait of an artist whose life didn’t materialize as planned and how he coped. Leaner and simpler than the lush, full-bodied arrangements of American English, Surviving the Suburbs is an honest self-reflection framed as a musical coming of age. It’s a step forward into vibrant territory where the vitality of a live backing band gives Miller more Americana flavor, as if, he explains, “Elton John made a Bruce Springsteen record.”

Neia Jane is an alternative rock songwriter and performing artist from Olympia, Washington. Her colorful melodies written atop distorted guitars and synthesizers work in parallel with her unique lyrical style to tell her stories. Her upcoming album, Magic & Honey, is a rowdy and emotional letter to all the sad girls and sad boys of the universe, screaming, “It’s OK; I am a sad girl, too.”