Photo Credit: Alexandra Gavillet

Nicholas Miller, also known as the electronic musician Illenium is on an upward arc to stardom. He was born on December 26, 1990 in Chicago, Illinois. His family moved and he grew up in San Francisco, California. Illenium started making music in 2008. After an influential concert, Illenium placed greater emphasis on the music he created. His personal struggle with drugs made him overdose on heroin later that same year. Together these experiences became the basis for Illenium’s electronic music.

In May 2013, Illenium released his first EP, Illenium through Prep School Recordings. Illenium also mixed and released a remix of “Over the Love” by Florence and the Machine. In January of the following year, Illenium released follow up EP, Risen. This included the lead single, “Drop Our Hearts.” Throughout the year the musician released several more remixes that became popular like “Always this Late” by Odeza and “Flipside” by Lana Del Rey. In 2015 we saw more activity from Illenium with several singles released. These included “Chosen You,” “Painted White,” and “I’ll Be Your Reason”. The electronic artist also featured remixes for “Disarm You” by Kaskade and “Gold Dust” by Galantis. In July, the artist released his third EP Painted White.

Illenium released his debut studio album, Ashes on February 15, 2016. Listeners could download the album for free through the label, Seeking Blue Records. The 12-track album had six singles that were successful and gained fans. Some of the major lead singles included “Spirals,” “I’ll Be Your Reason,” and “Jester.” Several artists were featured on the album as well such as Kind Deco, Chilled Velvet, Joni Fotora, and Dirt Monkey. Ashes made it to the Billboard and Heatseekers Albums Charts.

In March 2016, Illenium released the remix of “Don’t Let Me Down” by the Chainsmokers. The remix gained so much traction on Soundcloud that it had 60 million streams by the end of the year. It also became one of the platform’s most played remixes two years later. Another successful remix Flume “Say It” featuring Tove Lo was released in September 2016 and later won an award for ‘Remix of The Year’. During October, Illenium collaborated with Said the Sky and Seven Lions for “Rush Over Me.” The song made it to the Billboard Charts at number 50.

Illenium lead 2017 to a strong start with two singles “Fractures” featuring Nevve and “Feel Good” featuring Daya. These songs became extremely popular and also charted. In the summer, Illenium joined with Zeds Dead to create “Where the Wild Things Are”. The following month he released “Crawl Outta Here” featuring Annika Wells. This song also charted the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs Chart. Illenium created a buzz just in time for his second studio album titled Awake in September. Awake has 13-songs on it, all of which were singles released earlier in the year. The sophomore album peaked at 106 on the Billboard 200 Charts.

With plenty of successful tracks under his belt, Illenium kept going. He released “Don’t Give Up On Me” featuring Kill the Noise and Mako early in February 2018. “Gold” features artists Excision and Shallows was released later in July. Both of these songs made it to the Hot Dance/ Electronic Songs Chart at 35 and 19, respectively. In November Illenium released his remix of “Without Me” by Halsey. This track won an award for ‘Best Remix’.

Illenium started 2019 off with a collaboration with Bahari for the track “Crashing”. Later in March, he released “Pray” featuring Kameron Alexander. The Chainsmokers also released their collab with Illenium, “Takeaway”. In May, Illenium released a track in collaboration with Jon Bellion called “Good Things Fall Apart”. Out of Illenium’s previous releases, the song has gained the highest peak on the Hot Dance / Electronic Songs Chart at number 8. The following month Illenium announced the release of his third studio album. His third studio album, Ascend, was released on August 16^th and contains seventeen new tracks for eager EDM fans.

Illenium’s touring from Ashes forward to his upcoming tour for Ascend have generated a lot of interest in the electronic artist. Many of his live performances utilize visuals along with the sound to make his music come together. These concerts create an immersive musical experience for people to fall in love with. Illenium’s style of combining rhythms and beats is something that fans across the world thoroughly enjoy. As this electronic artist creates memorable performances and top-notch releases, Illenium is on his way to greater levels of stardom.

Written By: Carlton Rolle