A haunting, reverb-soaked ballad striving to process adolescent trauma, ‘Easy Street’ is the new single by Cornwall-raised, Glasgow-based DIY country-folk singer-songwriter Curtis Miles. It’s taken from Curtis’s entirely homemade debut album What Could’ve Become Of, which is set for release on Lost Map Records on limited-edition CD and via digital services on January 17, 2025. Curtis Miles will play an album launch show at the Glad Café in Glasgow on Thursday, February 6 (with support from Snout and Boab).

With a sound that’s both intimate and expansive, blending rock, folk and country with a lo-fi, DIY aesthetic, Curtis Miles’ music is defined by moody melodies and introspective lyrics with unguarded honesty. After moving up to Glasgow from Cornwall seven years ago, he quickly started the punk project Yung KP (titled after his day job as a kitchen porter), and released two EPs via underground label Fuzzkill Records. He went on to join the acclaimed Glasgow post-punk party band Kaputt, of which he remains a member. When it came to making solo music, Curt dabbled around with all sorts of different genres at home, “but I finally found myself constantly writing country style songs,” he says, “which has always felt like a natural go-to.

“I’ve always been a fan of artists like Neil Young, Bob Dylan and bands like The Band and Creedence,” Curt continues, “but in recent years, I’ve just found myself going country crazy as well as discovering old Cornish folk artists, Brenda Wootton being my favourite.
 
“At the start of year, I borrowed my friend’s four-track cassette recorder, which inspired me to record a couple old songs that I had previously worked on in the past year or so. I got fully into the swing of recording and the rest of the songs kinda just came out throughout the process, which then gave me the challenge of doing a full album for a new project. I recorded the whole thing myself in my living room over about two weeks, then spent the next few months mixing and mastering, which is something I’ve never done before.”
 
“Making the album was definitely a form of therapy for me. They’re songs about things I’ve been upset or frustrated about in my life in the past. I think maybe I found the right time to sing about them. I had a better understanding of my reflections, of how I was feeling about those previous experiences. I’m a sucker for a sad song, I can’t lie.”