While it’s often said that a lot of today’s pop music sounds the same, Miley Cyrus’s voice is undeniably distinctive. There’s a richness and raspiness to her tone that we’re guessing is the envy of many of her peers but, as she tells Zane Lowe in a new interview with Apple Music, it’s come at a price.
“Something I wanted to mention to you, so I had the Reinke's Edema, which is something that is called, it's abuse of the vocal cords,” she tells Lowe. “And being 21 and staying up and drinking and smoking and partying after every show does not help. But also in my case, it does not cause it.”
In fact, says Cyrus, the tone of her voice was shaped not by behaviour but by her biological makeup.
“So my voice always sounded like this,” says Cyrus. “It's a part of my unique anatomy, this is what I look like. So I have this very large polyp on my vocal cord, which has given me a lot of the tone and the texture that has made me who I am, but it's extremely difficult to perform with because it's like running a marathon with ankle weights on.”
As a consequence, Cyrus says that she doesn’t feel up to touring anymore, noting how taxing and stressful it can be for her both physically and emotionally. Despite this, she says that she’s not going to risk going under the knife and in a bid to make her life easier.
“I'm not willing to sever it because the chance of waking up from a surgery and not sounding like myself is a probability,” she confirms.
Elsewhere in the interview - given in advance of the release of Something Beautiful, her upcoming studio album - Cyrus reveals why she thinks music industry legends such as Stevie Nicks and Dolly Parton (her godmother) have remained at the top of their game for so long.
“I remember that when I got close with Stevie maybe 10 years ago, I was asking her, ‘Oh, what are you doing today?’” recalls Cyrus. “And she goes, ‘Just listening to new music, just catching up. Have you heard of this, that and the other thing.’’”
She goes on to use the example of Dolly Parton guesting on Sabrina Carpenter’s Please Please Please: “Dolly sees Sabrina Carpenter and goes, ‘She's blonde and wearing high heels. Get her over here. I want to be on the song.’ They want to be celebrated, they want to be incorporated. And that's what legends do, they keep up. And so for anyone that is not paying attention to pop music, tune your ear.”
Of the concept for Something Beautiful, meanwhile, Cyrus says: “I wanted sound healing to be seamlessly sewn together in this world of pop music, whether that's an ancient gong or an electronic dance, psychedelic, a bassy bliss, majestic melodies, original piano pieces. I want them to all coexist in the same space. And that was pretty much my idea.”
Cyrus appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, where she performed More to Lose, a track from Something Beautiful. The album will be released on 30 May.
