Miki Ratsula: “Sugarcane” ft. Dana Williams

Miki Ratsula has built a sizable audience by openly and honestly welcoming people into their world and is set to release their debut album i owe it to myself on March 25 via Nettwerk Records – a deeply intimate record that touches on mental health, loss, love, and everything in between. The album from the Southern California-based nonbinary singer, songwriter and producer is an acoustic pop dream guided by Miki’s lush, lofi-inspired production that captures the full emotional seesaw that rocks between youth and adulthood.

They recently shared “sugarcane,” their latest single celebrating the effortless joy of love, and features their friend and occasional songwriting partner, Los Angeles-based musician Dana Williams. “sugarcane” follows the release of several early album singles, including the raw, personal single “second” which deals with their fears and anxiety around getting top surgery; “reeboks” which is about feeling so anxious about the future that they end up running themselves into the ground; “i walked a mile in my room” which discusses their mental health struggles and its impact on the people close to them; and “suffocate,” their powerful track that they recorded with Sanderson and released in the fall of 2021.

i owe it to myself is a testament to self-love and a gift to anyone seeking the same, and sees Miki at their most vulnerable and fully realized. They use their platform to candidly document their life: from coming out to getting top surgery to their mental health journey. It’s the kind of storytelling that listeners, especially young queer kids, crave and deserve. “I just want to be the artist I needed growing up,” says Miki, and that’s exactly who they’ve become on this heartfelt and impressive debut record. Throughout the record, Miki effortlessly floats between R&B slow jams and acoustic numbers laced with sensual groove, and some of the album’s more powerful moments exist in the soft, nostalgic spaces in between, which often deal with the pain that lives behind closed doors.