Carly Miller, the frontwoman of the two-time Best of Clemson-winning Carly Miller Band, has been performing since she was a child.
“I actually have kind of a weird background,” Miller told The Tiger. “I started when I was really little in musical theater and then took opera training in high school.”
When Miller arrived at Clemson in 2021, she took that experience and used it to start her eponymous band. Since then, she’s performed at countless venues in and around Clemson, ranging from intimate shows at downtown bars to a support slot at the B.o.B.-headlined 2022 Tigerama in Death Valley.
The band performs an eclectic mix of country, pop and rock songs. “We all have totally different taste,” Miller said of her bandmates, but she thinks that diversity contributes to their success. “They all bring their different backgrounds and are able to play all types of music.”
Miller herself is inspired by a mix of contemporary pop and less mainstream material.
“I listen to the super popular mainstream type of stuff and then I also listen to, like, some older — what I would consider cooler — music,” Miler said.
In the five years since the Carly Miller Band’s inception, Clemson’s music scene has significantly grown and diversified, a development that excites Miller. “Clemson was definitely lacking a little bit in music,” she said, “but now they’ve stepped it up and there’s all sorts of cool bands.”
Miller has done her part to help platform some of those bands, inviting groups like House Friday and The 864 Band to open for the Carly Miller Band at recent shows.
“I think that a lot of what we do is built on word of mouth,” she said, noting that her band’s success began with support slots for local musicians Hunter Holland and Conner Sweeny.
“I’m trying to just metaphorically share the wealth,” Miller said. “All the bands that are popping up are genuinely very talented and I want to help in any way I can.”
Above all else, Miller loves the Clemson community. “It’s great that we provide music and whatever but the people that come to our shows really make it,” she said. “I wouldn’t be anything without the community of Clemson, and that’s a feeling that’s hard to put into words. Clemson is, I think, one of the greatest places on Earth.”
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