Premiere: Through Somber Introspection, Mielo & Mariya Stoeva Learn “A Lesson in Waking Up”

Chicago artists Mielo and Mariya Stoeva capture the striking immediacy and transience of obstacles in their new song “A Lesson in Waking Up,” a heavy, muted electrofolk reflection

“A Lesson in Waking Up” – Mielo ft. Mariya Stoeva

Never thought I’d be the type to give it all up. I guess I’ll take it as a lesson in waking up.

Sometimes all it takes is time and some active reflection to see our mountains for molehills: To recognize that the challenges we are facing today will be long in the past by tomorrow, a distant and fleeting memory by lunchtime. Chicago artists Mielo and Mariya Stoeva capture the striking immediacy and transience of obstacles in their new song “A Lesson in Waking Up,” a heavy, muted electrofolk reflection.

I tried,
I tried to clean the mess.
The mess inside my head.
But I was sleeping.
Oh, so heavy.
I wish it was a dream

Sitting on my bed, spacing out,
My eyes were wide.
I was stuck in my own head,
Looking in, but I’m on the outside.

The snow was falling,
I missed your calling.
The silence filled the room.
All senses freezing,
Illogical thinking.
I had to see it through.

Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “A Lesson In Waking Up” (featuring Mariya Stoeva), Mielo’s first single of 2020. The alternative electronic project for Chicago’s Brett Stogsdill, Mielo introduced himself 4 1/2 years ago with the dramatically distinctive singles “Surreal” and “Pretty When U Cry.” He has since set about finding his niche in the ambient, folk-influenced electronic space, achieving four Hype Machine #1s and over 20 million streams across platforms. Songs like 2017’s “All We’ve Lost” featuring Danel and 2018’s “The Wayfarer” featuring Pauline Herr found Stogsdill collaborating with talented female vocalists whose timbres bring a refreshing warmth and energy to his often cooler production – a quality that continues to this day with Mariya Stoeva’s indelible presence on “A Lesson in Waking Up.”

With tender guitars in the foreground and darker, encompassing synth pads in the background, “A Lesson in Waking Up” is a delicate breath of life through a chilling wintry.

Mielo crafts a texture reminiscent to Of Monsters and Men’s debut, albeit with more electronics; nevertheless, his sound is impressively if not surprisingly organic and intimate — two qualities that can, to this day, be hard to find in the electronic world. He approaches his song with emotional sensitivity, giving Stoeva the space she needs to weave a stirring story of youth, stress, and strain.

“A Lesson In Waking Up is a song about being young and thinking every minor situation that happens will hold a heavy weight on your future,” Mielo tells Atwood Magazine. “Mariya and I meet almost weekly to work on music together and after I created the basic idea for the instrumental she instantly clicked with it. We both reflected on our youth and began to co-write the lyrics. Very quickly the song came to life and really shaped itself into one of my favorites to date. I look forward to incorporating more guitar and four on the floor drums into future songs!”

We feel the weight of Mielo’s sentiment in the chorus, where Stoeva’s word ring out in to a cool and welcoming empty space:

Never thought I’d be the type to give it all up.
I guess I’ll take it as a lesson in waking up.
I told myself it’s in my head, I’m making it up.
I guess I’ll take it as a lesson in waking up.

Filling our ears and minds with arresting emotion, Mielo and Stoeva encourage us to consider the impasses in our own lives; how we handled them once-upon-a-time, how we handle them now, and how far we’ve come. It’s true: Everything feels seismic in our younger years, a life-changing decision that needs to be answered with unending urgency. Time grants us the gift of perspective and experience: We learn to temper our expectations, to look beyond the present moment to how things might play out in the future, and to better understand our place in the grand scheme of things.

Nevertheless, there’s a certain beauty to youth’s innocence and to that need to figure things out now. The second verse’s lyrics are a poetic reminder of how tremendous and paralyzing our stressors and barriers felt (and may still feel, depending on the situation):

I never thought I’d feel this way.
Never thought I’d be okay but,
Waking up feels good today.
I’m sorry how you felt that day.

The snow was falling,
I missed your calling.
The silence filled the room.
Nothing made sense then,
Was stuck in my head, yeah.
I had to see it through.

All told, Mielo and Mariya Stoeva have created a thought-provoking piece of winter wonder. “A Lesson in Waking Up” is perfect for cold, late-February introspective dives into ourselves; for walking through snow alone, or wandering through the leafless trees in the nearby park, considering who we once were and who we’ve become. Stream “A Lesson in Waking Up” exclusively on Atwood Magazine, and take some time for yourself today with the help of Mielo and Mariya Stoeva.

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Stream: “A Lesson in Waking Up” – Mielo ft. Mariya Stoeva

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