Premiere: Robbie Miller teases his new album with new single, Bitterness

For a musician yet to explode into full commercialism like many of his peers, Robbie Miller has a lot of excitement around him. Over the last four years, the Brisbane-based musician has emerged as a fresh-faced new energy in gentle indie-folk; his first two EPs - 2015's The Faster The Blood Slows and 2016's Closer To Home - becoming cult-favourites and earning Miller accolades including National Indigenous Music Awards and APRA Music Awards, while setting the musician up to tour alongside now-heavyweights of indie, folk and blues, such as Josh Pyke and The Rubens.

In the time since, however, Robbie Miller has only blossomed into something bigger. For much of the last year, he's been working with musicians such as Matt Corby, Alex Henrikkson (Tia Gostelow) and Matt Neighbour (The Temper Trap) on his debut album - scheduled for release later this year, and from what we've heard thus far, it's an album that'll dive into the rich potency of folk and indie at their peak; a maturity and sense of evolution and growth way beyond Miller's years on feature display through singles like the Greta Stanley-assisted The Come Down, which itself ushered Robbie Miller into a entirely new level of excitement that's paving the way for his long-awaited record.

Today, we're premiering the album's third tease through Bitterness, a single that twists Robbie Miller's sound into its most reflective and personal; the intimacy of a song like Bitterness exploring the musician's many emotions and as he details the complexities of relationships and the break-ups that come with them. "Bitterness is one of the oldest songs on my upcoming album," he says on the single. "The bones of the song were written about a break up I was going through in 2017. It's about the self-realisation that I had an unhealthy state of mind, one that I had been stuck in for years. At the end of it all. I found new friends and new love."

It's clear that Bitterness is a single that navigates a darker side of Robbie Miller's songwriting, however you might not be able to guess that from its sound. The beauty of a track like Bitterness comes from the sense of contrast that underpins it, with Robbie's storytelling contrasting against an instrumental which is rich with a sense of uplifting hope, moving at a upbeat pace that makes you feel like the song is happier than what it actually is. It's a difficult thing to pull off, for the most part, but one that Miller is really able to do with ease.

Dive into the track below ahead of its greater release tomorrow, Friday April 16th, and while you're there, familiarise yourself to the rising name before his debut album sees him enter the Australian indie canon later this year - it's going to be really great, if these singles are anything to go by.

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