Skinny Chilli - Lullaboy

Skinny Chilli

Lullaby
self-released; 2016

3.4 out of 5

By Jamie Funk

Miles Anderson aka Skinny Chili is a nineteen-year-old dude who just recently started making music. His recent release is entitled Lullaboy. He mentions, “During the recording process I have been listening to a lot of Mac Demarco, Twin Peaks and Kurt Vile and it's safe to say that these influences have bled through into my work.” To be blunt his music sounds very much like Mac Demarco at times with a tinge of Kurt Vile. Not only is his delivery the same but so are his riffs. Aside from The Strokes Mac Demarco is the most influential artist on other artists. For whatever reason other artists want to emulate his sounds.

​He opens with a song called “Welcome” which is some ocean waves and light organ. There isn't much to it and it serves as an intro or segue into “Slow Down Boogie” which sounds most derivative of Mac Demarco. It comes close to sounding like a number of songs on Salad Days. The next song “Lil Man Lost His Blanky” is barely any deviation from “Slow Down Boogie.” He sings, “i woke up this morning, you weren't by my side / i didn't know you were leaving, i guess i should've said goodbye.” The last song on the album “Goodbye Sunflower Kiddo” is the most original sounding of the three but still has a dreamy, atmospheric feel. A few more tweaks on “Goodbye Sunflower Kiddo” and he would be set.

I have no idea what kind of musical aspiration Mr. Anderson has. He is a young man and even says on his Bandcamp page “got bored so i started to write and record some songs. hope you enjoy.” Suffice it to say he does have some talent but I say with love that he will have to get away from sounding so similar to Mac Demarco if he hopes to gain a large fan base.

I’m almost twice the age of Mr. Anderson and can tell you when I was around his age the bands that everyone sounded like were The Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana. I wrote all these songs but the influence of the band was so strong I ended up sounding just like them. It would take another ten or so years to continue writing music until some originality started to unveil itself. 

There is some talent here so my suggestion is to push aside your influences when writing. Focus on the emotion that ignited the song and hope that burst of creativity will lead to something that comes closer to sounding like you rather than another artist.

This is a struggle that every artist deals with in some way. One thing you can be sure of is almost 100% of the time is that any artist that gets embedded into the collective conscious of a society has a sound that you wouldn’t confuse with anyone else.

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