“Miles has a way of evoking complex emotions through the seemingly simplest of melodies… The spirit of his voice is completely captivating.”
— Skope Magazine

Jarad Miles & the Ancient Waves

Jarad Miles & the Ancient Waves · No One Wants To Be Alone

It took a move across the country and a pandemic to crystallize the Ancient Waves into a bright new force on the Twin Cities music scene. The talented four-piece is led by South Dakota native Jarad Miles and was formed in 2019 with Twin Cities-raised childhood friends, bassist Andy Nail and drummer Ed Draper. Jarad met Ed and Andy while working with them at an environmental non-profit with a mission to combat climate change. They have since added Andrew Berg on lead guitar and Noah Klemp on keys and backing vocals.

They are known for their compelling blend of Indie and psychedelic rock instrumentation (think Modest Mouse on one hand and Roy Orbison on the other) around Miles’s stellar songcraft. Since 2019, Miles has led the eclectic and expansive Ancient Waves through thick and thin, doling out the fervor and mystique of a love-sick sea captain to songs about the wonders and dismays of the universe.

On the heels of Miles’s evocative and introspective 2022 solo album, Standing Upon This Array, the Ancient Waves are set to release a new self-titled full length in 2024. As a live band, the Ancient Waves continue to grow and build momentum--injecting vibe-heavy grooves to buoy Miles’s poignant songs and mesmerize audiences.

ABOUT

Miles performs solo and, depending on the occasion, with his backing band the Ancient Waves consisting of bassist Andy Nail, drummer Ed Draper, lead guitarist Andrew Berg, and keyboardist Noah Klemp. As a singer-songwriter, Miles is best known for his distinctive voice and evocative songwriting.

As a band, Miles formed Jarad Miles & the Ancient Waves (formerly Featherbed) in Minneapolis, MN in the spring of 2019—playing a string of local shows leading up to the pandemic. In their brief stint, the band quickly gained a reputation for a unique blend of eclectic and psychedelic rock instrumentation around Miles’s catchy and deep lyrics. Their music has been inspired by a variety of artists and styles, including the Pixies, Wilco, The Walkmen, and The Flaming Lips among others.

reviews of Jarad’s 2022 album ‘standing upon this array’

“…intensely introspective and evokes spiritual catharsis.”
— Reviler
“Jarad Miles has created a soundscape for his distinctly unique voice that he layers, over and over again.. Instruments mesh together, shimmer, and shine, and the listener can only marvel at the loveliness of it all.”
— The Current
“…a dynamic and diverse collection that always shines.“
— Music Street Journal
"Standing Upon This Array is a journey of healing and celebration with a bright edge.”
— World American Magazine
“It’s a moving album recorded during the pandemic. The imagery of the lyrics is like a guided dream.”
— Mostly Minnesota
“Standing Upon This Array is an album to experience… sets the cruise control and rides comfortably like an RV on the highway. What happens inside the RV is the magic this album conveys.”
— Indie Band Guru
“The album is a musical journey, with so many different vibes and influences spicing things up and providing some amazing color to this wonderful release. The song titles are as witty as Jarad’s ability to color outside the lines, yet still creating an expressive and beautifully dreamlike soundscape with his approach to songwriting and musical craftsmanship.”
— The Bandcamp Diaries
“A starry cross between alt-pop and lingering indie-folk, the album is a warm and wonderfully vibrant creative space, offering a heart-warming blend of ambient, quirky, and always odd pop sounds that will have you enraptured.”
— Broken 8 Records
“From the evocative, opening title track, you know that you are being taken by the hand and led along pop paths less traveled.. it is pop like little you have heard before..”
— Dancing About Architecture
Standing Upon This Array is motif mastery and textural titillation. It is golden joy. It's what I want to listen to as I drive down an empty highway at the dawn of summer—windows down, speakers cranked, sun on my face.
— Kyleen King (violin/backing vocals, Brandi Carlisle)

Personal Bio

From his modest beginnings discovering his mom's old guitar collecting dust in their South Dakota farmhouse basement, Jarad Miles’s musical life has followed nary the predictable path.

Although his mom refused to teach him to play, she bought him a Telecaster look-alike guitar and amp kit from the nearby Walmart for his 16th birthday. Largely self-taught, Jarad first began learning songs he heard on the radio by Beck, Modest Mouse, Radiohead, Weezer, and Elliot Smith. Later, after seeing the 2005 Scorsese documentary, No Direction Home—he fell deeply into the songs of Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie, and Nina Simone among others.

During his early 20s, Jarad would live for short stints in Granby, Colorado, the Twin Cities, and Hyderabad, India before landing in Portland, Oregon in 2008. While in Portland he would record One Million Years EP followed by his first full-length Rocketship with engineer Jake Kelly (Kimya Dawson, St. Even). Rocketship received favorable reviews from local blogs and newspapers including the Portland Mercury's music critic Ned Lannamann, who called Rocketship "A wonderful, weird record..." and describing the track ‘He Once Was a Friend of Mine’ as “a gaspingly good funeral song”. Another song from the record, 'Lazy Old Sun', was featured on the PDX POP NOW! 2011 Compilation and mentioned in a shortlist of "names you might know soon" by OPB's (Oregon Public Broadcasting) Jeremy Petersen.

Jarad’s second full-length album, Ancient Wave, was recorded with producer Dave Jones and engineer Adam Selzer (The Decemberists, M. Ward) at Type Foundry Studios in Portland, OR. The album was released in 2013 alongside a short film about the album called ANCIENT WAVE - A Musical Portrait by Norwegian director Carsten Aniksdal.

After moving to the Twin Cities in 2017 to be nearer to family, he began writing new songs and looking to form a new band. In September of 2018, Jarad self-published a collection of poems, Carried Then This World: Selected Poems, 2005-2014.

In 2019 he formed the band Jarad Miles & the Ancient Waves (formerly Featherbed) with local bassist Andy Nail and drummer Ed Draper, and later joined by guitarist Andrew Berg. They began playing shows in early 2020; sharing bills with local bands Little Fevers, Pleasure Horse, and Battlerat. They had studio dates to begin recording a new full-length record on the weekend of March 14 just as the pandemic hit full force.

As the shutdown and quarantines prevented the band from working in-studio together, Jarad began working on a solo record. That album, Standing Upon This Array, would take shape starting in June of 2020 and reach completion near the end of 2021. It will be his first full-length album in nine years following the 2013 release of Ancient Wave. The new album is a collection of ten songs compiled and developed during the pandemic and reflects a panoramic view of a turbulent 12-year relationship. Through an inward-looking prism and lyrical perspective, Miles invites us on a kind of spiritual retreat — a sonic spa of love, loss, yearning, and inner peace.

Photo: unknown at Mississippi Studios in Portland, OR

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PAST REVIEWS

"... feels much more honest and earthy than far too many of his contemporaries."
— Willamette Week
“Miles has power in his music… he has a voice and lyrics that could gain him quite a following.” – Ryan Rudnansky, Oregon Music News
“PDX POP NOW! unveils tracklist… names you might know soon (Lost Lander, Blouse, Bright Archer, Jarad Miles).” – Jeremy Petersen, OPB Music
“[A] Portland folk artist whose lo-fi songs reverberate with personal grace.” – KZME radio
“A little bit folk, a little bit pop, and a little bit country, Ancient Wave is easy to listen to. Most artists would be loathe to bring together diverse sounds like the steel guitar or a driving synth bass drum, but Miles pulls it off gracefully.” – Will Hutchens, Caffeinated PDX
“Rocketship.. is a wonderful, weird record…” and describing the song ‘He Once Was a Friend of Mine’ as “a gaspingly good funeral song”. – Ned Lannamann, The Portland Mercury
“Miles has developed his own rambling, lo-fi sound… an artist worth watching in years to come.”
– Hans Werksman, Here Comes The Flood
“The songs are touchingly personal… there is some absolutely blinding stuff on this record (Rocketship).”
– Matthew Young, Song by Toad