Miloe – a.k.a. 19-year-old Minneapolis artist Bobby Kabeya.
Miloe - a.k.a. 19-year-old Minneapolis artist Bobby Kabeya - is gearing up to release his new EP entitled Greenhouse next week, but first he shares another single off of the forthcoming record today. Using Kabeya's native Congolese sonic references, "Change Your Mind" follows the EP's lead track "Winona" and features harmonies influenced by 90s R&B. "'Change Your Mind' felt like an exercise in accepting that your love is unrequited," Kabeya explains of the track. "I really wanted to tap into how intense and melodramatic those feelings can be, especially as a young person."
Listen to the song now HERE and check out a stripped down performance of the track below!
Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bobby Kabeya moved to the U.S. with his family at the age of 8 to reunite with his father, a journalist who was granted asylum three years prior. His upcoming EP Greenhouse is an exhilaratingly energetic and youthful homage to Summer and the weather patterns of his childhood, paired with lyrics of teenage melodrama and idealism. "The Minnesotan climate can feel so limiting compared to where I grew up, almost like we're waiting half the year to actually live our lives," he explains. Living in a region that faces harsh winter for much of the year, and in 2020 served as ground zero for uprisings against police violence, Kabeya created Greenhouse as an offering of sunshine to his community as winter returns.
Bobby Kabeya was raised by musical parents who met through the church choir during college and taught him to play the piano at the age of six. His childhood home was filled with the sounds of influential Congolese artists Papa Wemba and Lokua Kanza, South African reggae legend Lucky Dube, and Western luminaries Bob Marley, Mariah Carey, and Lionel Ritchie.
When he was eight years old Kabeya traveled over 7,000 miles with his mother and three younger brothers to reunite with their father. Once in the US, Bobby began to pick-up more instruments through the local art and after-school programs, eventually beginning to jam with friends outside of school in his early teens. Finally, in 2017 Miloe was officially formed, building a local fanbase through high-energy basement shows with a seamless blend of indie pop and rumba folk. His self-titled EP was released in 2017, followed by singles "Motorola" and "Everything (That Should Go)," which appears on Greenhouse.
Photo Credit: Cristal Kabeya
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