Alain De Botton’s sister Miel talks about music and fame
Suzanne Baum chats to singer Miel de Botton, who has a new album out next year
Stepping out from the shadow of her famous brother, the philosopher and writer Alain de Botton, was never going to be easy for the singer known as Miel. As the only sibling of the novelist, who has been hailed as one of the most recognized philosophers in Europe, de Botton admits she has at times felt insecure in her own right.
However, that all looks set to change following a new career path she has taken as a singer, a path that has not only seen a newly released single under her belt but an album due out next month too.
“Being a singer is a dream I always had but it was one I had to keep a secret for a very long time,” explained Miel, who lives in Hampshire. “Now was the right time to find my voice and give my passion to be a performer a chance before it was too late.”
Although she does not criticise her strict upbringing, it seems likely the real reason she didn’t follow her love of music until now was because of her Egyptian-born father Gilbert. A Jewish banker who moved to Switzerland as head of Rothschild Bank and left a family trust fund of more than £200 million when he died aged 65, he encouraged his daughter to exceed in other ways by following an academic path.
“My father put strong pressure on Alain and I to work hard, he was a perfectionist,” recalled Miel, who was born in Zurich. “However, this meant I wasn’t encouraged to follow my passion for music.”
Instead, at her father’s persuasion, she studied law at university, sticking it out despite wanting to give it up.
“I didn’t enjoy the course and even after university when I went on to Paris to study clinical psychology I didn’t feel totally fulfilled.
“The whole time I was struggling to find something to fuel my love for music. As my brother succeeded and became extremely successful in his work I would sometimes find it difficult.”
Now Alain, she points out, is her biggest fan and is someone she runs her songs by first before anyone else. “He has encouraged me the whole way to follow my heart with singing and is hugely supportive of everything I do.”
It wasn’t until a few years after her father’s death that de Botton, a divorced mother of two, decided to try and find her feet in the music industry. After doing a couple of low-profile gigs with friends, a chance meeting set up by a friend of her yoga teacher with music producer Andy Wright (whose credits include collaborations with Mick Hucknall, Jeff Beck and Eurythmics) was the breakthrough she needed.
“We clicked instantly,” de Botton says. “He understood me, my music and my creativity and it felt wonderful to unleash this desire for music that I had kept inside of me for so long.”
A lot of her work on her new album Magnetic is inspired by the artists she loves; anything from chart music to artists such as Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison and Bob Dylan. Her interest in classical love songs in French, Spanish, Italian and English is also incorporated in her work.
“Music has always given me a sense of joy and freedom. Even when I trained and took up work as a psychologist in Paris I would encourage my patients and friends to listen to music to help them. Music is a wonderful release.”
It was through her father that de Botton first fell in love with the chansons. He would sing them to her from an early age. “I was in wonder at the beauty and emotion in these songs. As a child I sang in choirs as a hobby and it was so uplifting.”
A member of Westminster Synagogue, de Bototn encourages her children to get involved in the religion, having had fond memories of loving Jewish rituals growing up, in particular singing the Manishtana at the family Seders.
Work on her debut single Bad Men, which was released in September, has been a strong learning curve but the feedback has been very positive, she says.
She adds: “It’s unusual to make it as a singer later in life but I don’t regret the other jobs I did before. My legal career has become very useful when I have to look at the legal music contracts and my work as a psychologist helped me find myself and give me the confidence to get to where I am today.
Magnetic is released on 2 February
For more details, visit www.mielmusic.co.uk
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
