Using Music to Heal, Conquer and Connect
By Rachel Levy
In a world inundated with seemingly limitless music options, every now and then there comes a voice with the power to stick out of the crowd. Undoubtedly, Allegra Miles is one such talent, and has been ever since she began gigging in West Palm at 14 years old. With a combination of soul, spirit, and lyricism that is hard to come by, Allegra has come to captivate global audiences on hit shows like “The Voice” and “American Idol.”
For Allegra, singing is about much more than delivering a melody; at the core of her work is a desire to communicate and bond over the collective human experience. “My hope is to make music that people can connect with and maybe find some solace within,” she said. “Whether it’s lyrically or musically, I hope people can resonate in some way and feel less alone because that’s what music has always done for me.”
The sense of community and connectedness Allegra conveys in her art was always front and center during the years she spent living in West Palm. Currently living out on the West Coast after a recent move to Los Angeles, Allegra still holds her South Florida community close to her heart, saying “I would 100% not be at all who I am musically, or as a person, without the City of West Palm.”
Early on in her life, Allegra was introduced to the healing of music by her mother who would recount stories to her of her work as a music therapist. “Music is a very potent, powerful, essential thing for people, you know?” she said. “It’s almost like it’s a safe haven — or even a universal language that you can feel [come over you] like a wave.”
Universal is perhaps a good word to stick to when it comes to describing the music Allegra is putting out. Influenced greatly by the time she spent living with her family in the Virgin Islands where her father grew up, she struggles to neatly pack her music into a clear-cut genre.
“I struggled for a while, even up until maybe a year ago,” she said. “I used to make lots of different songs in different styles, musically even in different genres, and people always told me to pick a genre or a line.” Recently, however, Allegra came to take pride in her unique style of music that she sees as “a combination of everything, versus separate ideas — it’s all just a collective of free, creative music,” she said.
This approach certainly comes through in the six songs she released in August in her first EP titled “Heal My Soul.” “I’m super excited about it,” she said of the EP, “because I feel like it shows the range of everything I do and have been doing up to this point.” Any listener will quickly tell you that saying Allegra has “range” is an understatement of her fluidity as an artist. From the fully acoustic “Stay” and the piano ballad undercutting “Tainted” to the more indie-pop “Heal My Soul” and R&B “Interstate,” “Heal My Soul” is like a six-course meal that serves up an emotional listening experience I would quickly recommend to a fan of any genre.
“A lot of these songs came from some really intense painful experiences,” she said of the EP. “I say it all the time but it’s really not an exaggeration: music has saved my life. Truly, I don’t know if I would be here today if I didn’t have music growing up.”
Though she just released the EP, Allegra isn’t slowing down anytime soon and has new music she’s hoping to release as soon as possible. As for the future, she’s sticking to what she does best by refusing to be stuck in a genre and looks forward to continuing to make music that defies boundaries and reaches out a helping hand to listeners looking for a place to connect and heal.
