Griffin Pett
Mike Pellino (guitar), Erik Fredine (drums), Maggie Denman (bass), Alejandra Perez (guitar, vocals).
Miyha brings their powerful and ragged brand of indie rock to the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center on May 13. The benefit for Half-Stack Sessions and Domestic Abuse Intervention Services is the most recent stop for the fast-moving band.
Miyha (pronounced mee-ha) coalesced in July 2016, when drummer Erik Fredine and guitarist Mike Pellino, who play together in We Should Have Been DJ’s and Tippy, approached guitarist and songwriter Alejandra Perez, formerly of Automatically Yours and Tarpaulin.
“I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do music anymore,” Perez says, “but Erik just made us — and it turns out it’s pretty fun.”
“I texted her like 300 times,” Fredine laughs. “I bothered her enough to get it going.”
Despite their other projects, the members of Miyha have worked quickly to develop their songs. They’ve performed several times at Williamson Magnetic Recording Studios and Mickey’s Tavern, and released their debut EP, Happy Birthday, Nick, in January.
Perez is a prolific songwriter, which has helped establish a brisk pace for recording and playing shows.
“For the EP, Alejandra brought in a lot of material into the space,” Fredine says. “I think that’s how most bands start: Somebody brings an idea in at first, and after you get a few songs in, you know each other dynamically and start writing together.”
“They listen and turn it into something totally different; it’s great,” Perez adds. “I’ll bring the skeleton and they’ll dress it up.”
In Miyha’s music and in person, Perez speaks frankly. Her lyrics reminisce about the past, facing joys and regrets alike. “It’s like a movie in here, and I kind of like it,” Perez sings on “Raspberry Kombucha”: “I’m alive and I’m safe and I’m sorry.”
Perez says she wears her heart on her sleeve: “I write about real stuff. It’s weird, but it seems like the safest way to speak your mind without pointing a finger at anyone.”
“I was once told I was like the Taylor Swift of Madison and I said, ‘Oh no, that girl is always airing her dirty laundry!’ That’s not for me.”
As if to illustrate the band’s driving pace, Miyha home-recorded Happy Birthday, Nick in a single day — on then-bassist Nick Hoffman’s birthday — and mixed and released the EP within a week.
Bassist Hoffman had to leave the band due to other commitments, but Miyha quickly recruited Maggie Denman (also of Madison punk group Once A Month), and hasn’t lost steam.
Miyha shares the May 13 bill with Jonesies (Madison), 4th Curtis (St. Paul), and Fox Face (Milwaukee). The benefit for Madison Domestic Abuse Intervention Services is organized by Half-Stack Sessions, a Madison-area group of and promoting women and non-binary musicians
“Miyha is excited to play the Half-Stack Sessions benefit. It brings awareness to issues that affect all of us,” Perez says. “It's only a bonus we get to share the evening with so many of our friends in the music scene.”
