Los Angeles-based indie folk artist Hayley Johnson used to go on shopping sprees to numb her insecurities, always chasing the next item that might help her feel good about herself. It took a lot of therapy — and a lot of time spent poring through feminist Instagrams — to break this cycle of self-loathing and consumption. Ultimately, she arrived at the conclusion that she already had everything she needed to enjoy self-confidence and happiness; she didn’t need to purchase anything.
Under the stage name The Little Miss, Johnson articulates this revelation in her latest single, “Spring Cleaning.” A very folky, almost country song condemning patriarchal consumer culture with incisive lyrics against dynamic guitar, steady tambourine, old-fashioned piano, and choir-like backup harmonies, the bridge builds to a climax where “all of that self-loathing is channeled into anger that is no longer directed inwards but rather outwards,” she explains.
The verses provide a cutting critique not only of consumerism but also of conventional definitions of success, her Americana style contrasting with her denunciation of stereotypically American values. “Oh, maybe we’ve all just got it tough/but we’ve all been told the same dumb stuff/like if we just get one more success/we’ll stop feeling less and less/and maybe if we all just do our best/we’ll finally get that week of rest,” she sings. “Maybe we’re all just falling down/on our way up to some made up crown/oh, I don’t know nothin’, no I don’t know much/but if there’s one thing I do, it’s that you are enough.”
This is what Johnson hopes listeners take away from the song: that they are enough, intrinsically, just by existing. “We’re all deserving of good lives,” she says. “We’re all deserving of love. We’re all deserving of basic rights, protection, shelter, etcetera, without needing to be perfect first, without needing to be at a particular place on some ladder first. We don’t need to improve ourselves to be deserving of love or any fundamental sort of rights or necessities. We deserve those things, now, as we are.”
In keeping with the song’s theme of self-worth, Johnson affirmed that her own voice deserved to be heard by singing for a full seven minutes. “I’ve listened to dudes doing really long guitar solos my whole life,” she says. “It makes me a little happy that I made such a long song. I’m like, hell yeah, if you can listen to a guy wail on the guitar for twelve minutes, you can listen to a woman talk about her feelings about society for seven.”
The song will appear on the upcoming debut album from The Little Miss, Best Self, which uses this phrase ironically to critique capitalist definitions of self-improvement and self-worth. The album was recorded in her bassist and producer Daniel Grimsland’s living room with her band, the Cactus Kissers. “It all felt really just like play and experimentation, so that was a lot of the recording process, us tinkering with stuff,” she says. “You think recording would be really serious, and everyone has to get their take perfect, but it was more loose than that.”
In the first single off the album, “A Week Into New Year’s Resolutions,” for example, they largely winged the backup vocals. The song, which recounts buying running shoes, books, and other items then never using them, was intended to sound silly, and backup vocals with redundant phrases like “she buys books, so many books” contributed to this tone, as did the bottles clanking in the background, conjuring up a New Year’s party.
Growing up in San Diego, Johnson started her first band back in high school with her dad, then got burnt out on music until she picked up a guitar in college and became excited by the prospect of learning to play her favorite folk songs. After graduation, she moved to LA to give her music career a shot, dubbing herself The Little Miss based on a nickname her dad gave her for being “really prim and proper from a really early age.” She released her first EP American Dream in 2018, followed by Jam in the Van — The Little Miss and the Cactus Kissers, a collection of live recordings released earlier this year.
Outside of her music career, she does administrative work and is studying to become a high school history teacher, which has given her music more universal themes. “I have been up my own butt for a long time, looking at my own life, and I’m really happy to be studying history and working toward teaching history because I want that perspective and long view on my role in the universe and in human history,” she says. “I feel like it’s easy to feel really self-important, especially in today’s age where we all have a platform, and it makes me unhappy to put so much focus on myself. I’m really excited to learn about how insignificant I am.”
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