Millicent

Colorado Springs-based Emily Knurr, the singer/songwriter who creates under the moniker Millicent, makes music to move your body to. Whether it’s an up-tempo bounce or a mellow electro groove, Millicent’s catchy, milky vocals shine through to make you feel something in your bones. Her sounds could be described as living on the same planet as Banks and Jessie Ware – each of the 4 tracks in the Deux EP is a star that keeps you wanting more. - VSCO

Millicent, the Colorado Springs based band, just released the lyric video for their single “Haze.” The single is impressively self-produced, and has a dreamy vibe-pop sound. Video production is credited to Caleb Newbury.

Millicent's refreshingly innovative and evolving sound provides for a promising future and makes them an artist to watch on the Colorado music scene. The band's recent shows with Zella Day and Broods signify their up-and-coming sound which is quickly gaining recognition in the SoundCloud world and beyond. Check out their most recent release below to see for yourself. - Crave the Sound

Review starts at 17:00

"Her music stands up to international talent; it's sophisticated and above and beyond." - NPR

Millicent, otherwise known as the self-described 'Vibe Pop' project founded by Colorado Springs-based musician Emily Knur who first came to our attention earlier this year with her previous single, "Real", returns today with her new single called "Say You Want Me", which also serves as the first track to be lifted from her upcoming EP titled Deux, due for release on New Years Eve. Listen to "Say You Want Me" below. - Wonky Sensitive

DENVER, CO - JULY 25: Millicent perform at Historians during day three of the Underground Music Showcase in Denver, Colorado on July 25, 2015. (Photo by Seth McConnell/The Denver Post) - Denver Post

I have a friend crush on Emily Knurr. To hell with playing it cool, the word is out.

When we show up to meet her at Café Europa, she’s reading a book and impeccably dressed in a pair of leather high-waisted shorts. But her most crush-worthy trait is her kindly and sincere exuberance that makes her oh-so-cool yet simultaneously approachable.

Emily, known also by her stage name Millicent, is a Colorado Springs-based vocalist whose self-produced vibe pop has gained her recognition in Denver. Aside from her sultry vocal prowess and self-taught beat savvy, Emily is also a model with Wilhelmina Denver and an aspiring stylist.

She grew up singing in church with her mom and embraced a singer/songwriter vibe before starting her solo project as Millicent. She discovered her knack for singing by way of a modeling competition that required that she showcase a skill. Though she still models, she realized there were a number of reasons she didn’t want to pursue a modeling career as her main gig.

“Modeling was just really taxing,” she says. “So many workouts and just eating vegetables. I don’t think this sounds like a fun way to maintain my life. So when I got noticed for my music, I was like this is so fun; this is really lighthearted and fun.”

She began writing her own songs on guitar at the age of 16 and sang in coffee shops and at open mic nights around Colorado Springs. She also collaborated with a former boyfriend to make more up-tempo electronic music.

“What we were making was so fun, I really loved it,” she says. “When we broke up, I was kind of feeling really defeated, like man, now I can’t do what I want to do. But then I was like, wait, he figured out how to make electronic music. I can do that.”

She realized that she wanted to write songs with the lyrical depth of the singer/songwriter genre but also made people want to dance.

“I don’t want to just make lyrically shallow music that isn’t effective but I want people to feel the need to move and engage with it,” she says.

She enjoys songwriting for the emotional outlet it provides and the platform music presents for meeting people and connecting with people who she might not come across otherwise. She is, however, critical of her tendency to write music about the ebb and flow of her relationships and hopes to push herself toward a wider range of topics.

“It’s such an easy way to process terrible emotional situations,” she says. “There’s just so much of my music that is just about silly guys and really mean a lot in the moment. I want to grow out of that and that’s why I really have been stretching myself to do more conceptual writing.”

Emily is frustrated by the tendency for venues to typecast her when booking and put her on bills with down-tempo singer-songwriters.

“That’s been annoying to me because I can make aggressive high energy music and be a female,” she says. “There’s this expectation to be really chill and passive and so I kind of like to keep people guessing by being a lot more aggressive.”

She has had opportunities to open for bands like Broods and Oh Land because of her willingness to go out on a limb. She feels like she’s grown a lot through the process of promoting herself as a musician but also come to the realization that success does not always equal contentment.

“I feel like the more seriously you take things, it gets harder,” she says. “It’s hard to find that balance of telling people about yourself and what you’re doing and feeling intrusive or arrogant. But you have to tell people or they won’t know.”

Through working on Millicent, Emily has felt humbled and emboldened by the realization that just asking for what you want and need can get you a long way.

“It’s so vulnerable to expect that people want to help you,” she says. “But 9 times out of 10 anyone wants to help you and can.”

Emily’s confidence is apparent and she doesn’t seem like a woman who scares easily. She does, however, hesitate to identify as a feminist because of its occasional association with female promiscuity that she doesn’t see as part of her own set of beliefs and identity. But in other ways, she seems on board with the feminist mindset and has huge admiration for certain outspoken feminists like Tavi Gevinson.

“I think sometimes the suppression of women, like a musical scene just for men, is totally not okay,” she says. “There’s just as much power behind what a female has to say as there is what a man has to say. Embracing that equality would, I guess, classify me as a feminist.”

She tells us that she is shooting and styling her very first music video the next day and seems excited and apprehensive. She seems entirely prepared and in charge and simultaneously girlish and nervous.

It strikes me that she, like many women our age, grapples with the interplay between traditional ideals and an urge to uproot the status quo. Good thing, like Emily, we're finding ways to embrace many identities in simultaneity. - Triad Journal

Millicent is a vibe pop project created by Colorado Springs musician, Emily Knurr.

Emily has played music in several different bands over the past few years, but Millicent sets itself apart by being the first project she’s self-produced and created from the ground up. Since the release of her first EP in September of 2013, Millicent has been consistently performing and has shared the stage with acts such as Oh Land and Broods.

‘Real’ is a mollifying track that offers comfort for her listeners.

She is currently working on a new EP with Denver producer, Charlie Fitz, which is expected to be released in August 2015. - Indietronica