Based in Portland, Oregon Rascal Miles is a trans/non-binary songwriter, or perhaps more a one man band. Following up last year’s Halloween-themed record, Songs For The Graveyard, Miles is back with a brand new song, ‘Tailor-Made’, which lives up to this label. Mixed by Adam Selzer (M. Ward, She & Him, Laura Gibson, Esme Patterson) and mastered by Sarah Register (Big Thief, The Shins), the new single was self-recorded at home during the pandemic, with Miles in control of everything on the track. From guitars, bass and drums to keys, cello, trombone and even a sewing machine, not to mention singing 4-part harmonies.
Centred on gender-affirming top surgery, the song charts both the violence and banal practicalities of becoming the person you are meant to be. “I sign on the dotted line / Yes, I’m still sure,” Miles sings, “Dysphoria diagnosis letter / Proof of ID / Paperwork.” Rascal Miles leads us through the situation with a voice both poetic and open. The terror of it, the silly hoops to jump, the outside doubt pressing in until the final countdown and anaesthetic pull toward a “space between sleep and death.” The sense that a certain level of destruction, or deconstruction, might be required in order to make things right.
The sculptor picks up
The scalpel the butcher
Peels back my skin
Leveling mountains
With dynamite sticks
Till I’m a blank slate of marbleThey’ll line me up
Like pieces of fabric
Held together with pins
Every single stitch
Like dolphins swimming
In and out of my body
With thread and a needleNow I am tailor-made
Now I am tailor-made
And yes
I have
Always been sure
Photo by Sam Gehrke, album art design by Koki Mendis, font by Rascal’s nephew