Miya Folick reckons with the death of her father on new single, "Elton John"

"After my dad died, I spent the following weeks at my parents’ house, getting used to the idea of calling it ‘mom's house’ and helping her plan the funeral. The first time I came back up to LA, I drove aimlessly through the city, listening to music and crying. I felt the presence of my dad as a young man, living in Los Angeles just like me, loving music just like me," Miya Folick explains.

"We were different in many ways, but my dad and I could always connect through music. When I had a show at the Troubadour, my dad was excited because he'd been going there since he was a teenager. He liked talking about how he saw Elton John play there in 1970. What an iconic moment. What a part of music history. That's where the title and the idea of this song comes from. ‘Elton John’ is a song about grief and Los Angeles, and how the people we love are so richly present after we lose them."

The single will be featured on an upcoming Deluxe version of Folick’s self-produced third album, Erotica Veronica. The album seems to wonder: What is the right thing to do when your desires are more complex than the narrow channel our culture allows?

"The album is about being queer within a heteronormative relationship structure and within a heteronormative society, but it’s also just about desire and eroticism in general. I don’t think we give each other enough room to explore freely and figure out our own right paths," she says of the album.