About
To read what others have to say about Milli’s live performances and recordings, please click here.
Milli Moonstone’s musical life began properly at 7 years old, when she started studying classical flute, and singing in the Hampshire County Childrens’ Choir. A year later she took up the violin and joined local and county orchestras, and wind and string ensembles.
At 11, she hit headlines and caused a national controversy by applying to be a girl chorister in Winchester Cathedral (under her birth name, Emily Edmondstone). For over 900 years, the choir had consisted only of boys, so she confronted head-on a long-established tradition. She was the centre of another wave of press years later when she eventually won her fight and the first girls’ choir was pioneered in the Cathedral. However, by this time she had already left Winchester and headed to the big bad city where all the record companies were!
In the meantime, Milli had continued to study classical voice, flute and violin, was singing in the National Children’s Choir, and had started writing her own songs on the keyboard since the age of 13. She joined Westminster School at 15, where A Level Music opened her eyes and understanding of various genres further- from classical to jazz to musicals to downright weird (eg Ligetti)!!
After A levels, Milli left her instruments behind and set off alone on a voyage of discovery around the world. Not to be without music for long, she bought a cheap guitar in Indonesia and immediately started writing songs on it. This culturally-enlightening trip inspired a deep-seated interest in musical styles from a plethora of places.
On returning to London, she gave up her medical degree to study Asian and African music at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies). Here she had the incredible opportunity to learn instruments and vocal styles from all around the world, including Bulgarian singing, Chinese diza (flute), Zimbabwean mbira (thumb piano), Congolese guitar, Indonesian gamelan, and Persian kamānche (bowed lute). The instrument that truly stole her heart was India’s sarangi. She focused on this specifically, and now it features in performances with her band.
The four years since SOAS have seen Milli truly develop as an artist, in a wide variety of aspects that constitute an “artist” in these times. From conceiving a growing number of inspired and individual songs (now around 120), to arranging and producing them for her band, to busking them on London Underground, to becoming an expressive, engaging front-person, to discovering the characteristics needed to be a successful band leader, to overseeing the visual and promotional aspects of “getting the act out there”, to organising and smashing concerts around the world! To see press and flyers from these adventures, please click here.
And that is just regarding the live show… Milli has recently finished her self-titled debut album under her own auspices, with a top-class (yet elusive!) producer. As well as bringing in a selection of talented guest musicians, Milli herself plays sarangi, flute, whistle, guitar and violin as well as voice!
The album seamlessly weaves a variety of genres that give credit to countries from across the globe… A celtic folk vibe is inherent, yet rocked-up with her slightly quirky, edgy London style. The sun shines through the songs, uplifting the spirit with sublime Congolese guitar licks, bouncy reggae grooves and latin rhythms. A deep yearning is conveyed through Arabic scales and the heart-wrenching Indian bowed instrument, the sarangi. A good-ol’ knees up has one dancing Jewish wedding stylee in the gypsy-inspired tune “Milky Way”. And yet despite the diversity, the album unifies cultures and styles within a decidedly contemporary Western pop package.
Her own Moonstone project aside, Milli has also had a creative input in all sorts of other musical projects.. She has sung, and played flute in Congolese bands Zongzing All Stars and Kasai Masai, the latter of which took her on tour in Oman and Bahrain and invited her to feature on their latest album, she has been on tour in India with Pakistani pop star Najam Sheraz, with whom she sings and plays flute, sarangi and guitar, and she has also played with gypsy-jazz band Haila Drum, a Zimbabwean fusion band lead by Zuzana Novak, an Indian Classical flautist Ashok Kumar, poetic/electronic band Vibe Machine.. and House DJs! She has also just recently embarked on a new project with producer Chameleon, which fuses traditional acoustic sounds from around the world with driving dance beats.. so watch this space!..
