She’s the 18-year old ‘jazz-inspired hip hop” musician from South East London who might just be our new favourite lady. As she releases her first full-length album This Thing Of Ours we caught up with Rainy Milo to talk about her DJ-ing granddad and what really goes on inside the walls of The Brit School
So, we heard your Granddad’s awesome…
Yeah he’s a reggae DJ. He’s in his 60’s now but he still plays his music really loud in his little room that he has in my Grandma’s house. I remember going looking for vinyl records with him when I was little in Brixton.
Has your Grandma banished him to his little room?
Well yeah he’s had it for years but she still goes nuts when it comes to calling him down for dinner because she has to shout and bang on his door. It’s really quite cute though!
And your dad is your tour bus driver?
Yeah! At first I was dreading it. The night before I first went on tour I was like, ‘Mum this is actually going to go really badly,’ but she was like, ‘Don’t worry about it!’ It was actually a really great thing to happen because he’s the one person that I know for sure is definitely there for me and has my best interests at heart, so I’m really lucky to have him around.
Does he tell you off if you’re partying too much?
No because we don’t actually, we’re all pretty good actually. We just do the show and then get back on the bus again, we’re pretty boring!
It sounds like there’s a bit of Amy Winehouse in your music. Are you a big fan?
Nothing particularly is done conscientiously, it just somehow happens that I naturally gravitate towards things that have that reggae vibe or jazzy and bluesy sounds just because that’s what I was brought up around so I naturally take to it and enjoy it. It keeps finding its way into the songs that we make in the studio. But I'm really happy for that too.
So loads of your music videos are gifs of you – how come?
I come from the Tumblr generation and I always enjoy funny gifs. Gifs from TV shows are my favorite at the moment, I'm like, ‘Yes! Somebody made that into a gif!’ so I thought, ‘Why don’t I do the same?’
You’ve got such a massive following on Tumblr – I guess that means they get shared a lot?
Yeah they do, it’s really cool – the feedback is always really good. I wasn’t expecting people to be as into it as they are.
How good is Tumblr with regards to reaching out to fans?
It’s good – I don’t ever want to be that sort of artists where people go, ‘Oh my goodness she’s so out of reach, how do I even talk to this person?’ so Tumblr is like – anyone can send me a question even anonymously if they wanted to. And also I doubt as many people would of heard about me as they did if it weren’t for Tumblr because I already had a couple thousand followers on my blog before, and I posted my music to it.
Out of all the social media do you prefer Tumblr?
Facebook is probably my least favorite. Tumblr I love because it’s almost my own personal collage you know? Without the mess of glue and sticking pieces of paper. I just love talking and seeing what everyone else has got to say for themselves really -it’s almost people having a conversation with themselves until someone else joins in.
So you were at the Brit school for 2 years – what was it like there?
Well it’s cool because you’re surrounded by people who are into the same things as you. But it can also become a bit tiresome being so surrounded by what you love constantly. You almost like to have it as a fun treat.
Are they helpful as well getting you out there?
Not so much actually – you’re not really allowed to do much work outside of school. They want you to focus on studying, so that’s why I was like, ‘What’s the point in me staying in school learning about stuff that I'm already being given the chance to do for real?’
Have you felt pressure to go down the Miley route at all?
I haven’t felt any pressure on myself but I think that’s also to do with the fact that I came into this saying to people, ‘Listen I’m not getting involved in any record label unless they understand that I will do whatever the hell I want to do’. So I’ve been lucky in the sense that I’ve been free and haven’t had anyone be all like, ‘Hey, maybe you should wear this outfit or have like stylists.’ It’s so easy to fall into that or have people say, ‘Hey you would look even better if you wore this outfit that’s a little bit skimpier.’ I don’t have that around me, I don’t feel pressure at all.
Do you feel a sense of responsibility towards your younger fans?
Not so much – I’m generally a positive person when I’m just talking but in my music that’s my own personal expression. It’s my expressive outlet, those songs are really for me and I'm just sharing them with everyone else.
Rainy Milo's album This Thing Of Ours is out now.
Follow Jess on Twitter @jess_commons
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.