A program that is labeled by several media outlets as “Music’s Biggest Night” is scheduled to air on CBS on Sunday, March 14. The 2021 GRAMMYs Award Show will commend quality music that was released between September 2019 and August 2020. 83 awards will be distributed to national and global sensations of diverse genres based on the Recording Academy’s favor. CBS may agree that this evening is a massive deal. “…the GRAMMY is the music industry’s highest honor,” the television broadcasting company claims on Grammys.com.

In light of the forthcoming 63rd GRAMMYs Awards, The Journal wished to spotlight one of Cottage Grove’s very own artists. Meet Millz n Thrillz. They are a pair of musicians that explore various genres such as alternative rock, hip-hop, 80s pop, and synth wave. Each song of theirs is compacted with lyrics that reflect occurrences from their personal lives and surroundings. The SoundCloud-based artists intend to touch listeners through all of their pieces.

Millz n Thrillz was founded by two Cottage Grove teenagers. Miles Miller (Millz) is sixteen years old and attends Park High School. He is passionate about wrestling, is zealous about meeting new people, and adores music. In an interview with The Journal, Miller went as far to say, “I love music, music’s like part of what makes me, me.”

Outside of Millz n Thrillz, Miller operates a solo career as MZM The Random on SoundCloud.

He goes by “Thrillz”, but his birth name is Bronson Stachowiak. Like his counterpart, Stachowiak has been living in Cottage Grove “forever”. He attended Armstrong Elementary School, followed by Oltman Middle School and Cottage Grove Middle School. Now, he receives his education at Park High School. Stachowiak has a taste for fashion, jogs for a local cross country team, but spends much of his time in his artistry. “Listening to music, writing music, anything in music is what I like.”

It is no wonder that two boys, with a passion for music in common, would attract. Even so, their “brotherhood” did not initiate through beats and melodies. Rather, it began with Pokémon cards. As first grade students at Armstrong Elementary, they bonded over the popular trading card game. It was not until their sixth grade year when Stachowiak and Miller realized they both cherished music. “I was asking Miles, ‘Yo, do you know who The Gorillaz are?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, I love The Gorillaz!’ And I’m like, ‘Oh hell yeah, I like The Gorillaz as well,’” Stachowiak narrated.

Upon discovering a shared appreciation for the English animated band, they continued to exchange their favorite artists with one another. This prompted their next steps that were intensely influenced by The Gorillaz.

The idea to establish their own music group sparked in Stachowiak’s living room. Stachowiak and Miller recognized that their individual abilities complimented one another’s. According to Miller, Stachowiak was a talented “engineer”. He could mix, or accomplish the polishing, of their songs. Also, both boys had the skills to write and record music. “…he had half the information and I had half of the information and then when we came together to decide we’d make music together…” Stachowiak described.

From that moment, Millz n Thrillz invested time and money into bettering their craft. They purchased recording equipment. Lyrics were scribed into their phones. Moreover, they were constantly strengthening their knowledge on song production, mixing, mastering, and vocal techniques.

The name of their group was developed with deep thought. For instance, the two Z’s in “Millz n Thrillz” were borrowed from the Z in “Gorillaz”. “Millz” was chosen to represent Miller’s name. Later, “Thrillz” was incorporated to assemble a rhyming title and stand for Stachowiak. “I can’t live a life without any thrills, I’m always pushing things to the limits,” he justified.

In the end, “Millz n Thrillz’’ was a well-suited name for the artists. Their increasing learning curve combined with this decided title, led to a more legitimate music group. “I think, the end of 7th grade is when we-,” Stachowiak started.

“-started taking it seriously,” Miller finished.

In the early years of Millz n Thrillz, the two boys thrived. A couple of their first songs were entitled, “Goodbye” and “5:15am”. “Time to Shine” was the earliest song that they uploaded to the world. It even attracted a core bunch of Millz n Thrillz fans. “Time to Shine” is no longer available on SoundCloud to date, still, their original fans may recall that tune.

Complex music now lingers on the Millz n Thrillz SoundCloud profile. To begin with, the boys produce music of many distinct categories. “We’ve been working with every type of genre that we can think of recently,” Stachowiak told The Journal.

To name a few, Millz n Thrillz utilize the sounds of hip hop, alternative, synth wave, and 80s pop in their songs. If a track by them does not sort into a single genre, it may be due to the fact that the group experiments with genre-blending.

A second aspect of the “Millz n Thrillz experience” are the instrumentals. They collaborate with producers such as topland, Hieloways, and Puhf to place background music in their songs. Stachowiak and Miller aim to form their own instrumentals in the future. “We’re not that big on our own instrumentals at the moment. It’s definitely something that we want to tap into in the future, when we get better at producing,” Miller revealed.

With that, there is one final element of Millz n Thrillz’s music worth highlighting: their message. Most of their songs communicate either past experiences, present situations, or future goals. In addition, their lyrics are packed with genuine emotions. Each phrase is written in a way that may be comprehensible and relatable to listeners. Stachowiak explained one of his song’s meanings to The Journal, “Our latest release is called, ‘Two Worlds’. It’s about being separated and that fits really well with the times that we’re in, you know, COVID, having to be separated from everybody… we’re worlds apart.”

A majority of today’s artists turn to fellow musicians for ideas. Correspondingly, Millz n Thrillz revere an “endless” amount of artists. “It’s really hard for me to not like a song,” Miller remarked.

The Gorillaz serve as a massive influence for Millz n Thrillz. Additionally, Stachowiak and Miller are fans of The Weeknd and Guns N’ Roses. As small musicians, the boys enjoy backing people that are in similar stages as them. Poorstacy, Afourteen, and The Midnight are three “underground” artists that are tremendous inspirations to Millz n Thrillz.

The two teenagers bring their music to the world almost entirely independently. “We do it all by ourselves,” Stachowiak said, “The only thing we don’t do is the instrumentals.” All of the Millz n Thrillz magic ensues in what is technically Stachowiak’s living room. To him, it is a studio. Their space consists of a computer, speakers, one microphone, and other tools for recording. Once a track is taped, Stachowiak carries out a mixing procedure. Then, the song is often finished with a producer’s instrumentals before Millz n Thrillz uploads it to SoundCloud.

Per their platform on SoundCloud, Millz n Thrillz has succeeded. In total, they have 17 tracks currently streaming. “What A Thrill” is their biggest hit, having been streamed 6,000+ times. Even so, these profound numbers are not what the boys take the most pride in. For Stachowiak, he is most satisfied with their labor, “I think it’s just all of the work we’ve put in, all the hours we’ve been doing this, everyday.”

Complementary to his partner, Miller is most proud of how they have grown as a group. So much so that he holds rich expectations for the future. Miller expressed, “I’m very proud of the mixing and the style of our music evolving because our music evolves a lot and really fast…by senior year…it’s over-” “-world domination,” concluded Stachowiak, finishing Miller’s thought.

This discussion of the future transitions the readers into a state of curiosity. What is in store for Millz n Thrillz and the prodigal boys behind it?

Firstly, Millz n Thrillz will continue to practice their craft as a music group. “Honestly, we’ve been doing this for like… two and a half years and we haven’t thought about giving up at all. We’re only going forward,” claimed Stachowiak.

As Millz n Thrillz persists, they hope to offer their music on more applications. It was hinted to The Journal that they will be entering YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music momentarily. The boys are looking into creating a DistroKid account to make this possible. DistroKid is a tool that musicians can utilize to display their tracks on different applications. Artists are able to collect income from DistroKid as their music is streamed. Introducing Millz n Thrillz to a wide span of platforms could result in a multiplying audience for Stachowiak and Miller.

Another bullet point on Millz n Thrillz’s to-do list is to launch a YouTube channel. There, the group would upload music videos. Miller outlined, “There’s going to be a Youtube channel where our music goes on, but then there’s going to be a channel where our videos go on.”

Individually, Stachowiak and Miller envision themselves in the future, involved in careers that surround music. “We’re going down the music field regardless of if it’s Millz n Thrillz…anything for music,” Stachowiak assured.

The Cottage Grove community is blessed to be neighbors of these musical prodigies. If readers feel inclined to support Millz n Thrillz, they can visit soundcloud.com/millz_n_ thrillz . Next, they should consider “spreading the love,” or advertising Millz n Thrillz’s art on social media.

Approaching the end of The Journal’s interview with Millz n Thrillz, Miller had a closing message for Cottage Grove residents, “We just want people to understand that we care and we want to grow and that Millz n Thrillz will stick to its roots…we’re going to keep making music regardless of the haters, regardless of what people say…” “…keep pushing forward,” Stachowiak added.