Carrying on a Father's Dream
In 2002, at the age of 13, Jerry Miles (born Jernej Šorn) picked up his father's guitar that had been collecting dust in the corner. His father, who had played in a band during his own youth, passed on his dream of playing in a rock band to Jerry. Jerry didn't hesitate and formed a band called Get The Fact with his two best friends from school. They played punk rock originals and a few covers, with Jerry on lead guitar and back vocals (left on the picture). The singer was the band's main songwriter and frontman. Jerry was at the time heavily influenced by bands such as Blink 182, Rancid, NOFX, Pennywise, Green Day, and Ignite, as well as a few metal bands like Metallica and Disturbed. After achieving their goal of playing at the popular alternative club Gromka in Metelkova Mesto, the band broke up in 2006, 4 years after forming
From Punk Rock to Soft Rock: Jerry's Inspiration from Vlado Kreslin
After breaking up with the band, it took Jerry a year or two to start playing the guitar again, but this time it was an acoustic guitar. Vlado Kreslin, who is also known as the Bob Dylan of the Balkans, inspired him with his music so much that Jerry changed his music interests from punk rock to more soft rock, folk, pop, and acoustic music. He learned how to play most of Vlado’s hits and often dreamed of singing with him on stage one day. That dream came true on October 7th, 2022, when Vlado invited Jerry and his wife to join him on stage to perform a song at the Cobblestone in Dublin.
Jerry's first audition and songwriting beginnings
Going back to Jerry’s beginnings, soon after buying his first acoustic guitar, Jerry tried writing songs but didn’t feel like any of them were worthy of studio recording yet. He took his guitar to home and beach parties to sing along with his friends but was more focused on studies and poker at the time. In 2010, at the age of 21, one of his fellow students played "The Scientist" by Coldplay to him. Jerry was so excited about it that they decided to apply for the first season of Slovenia's Got Talent to perform this song together. His friend got cold feet, so Jerry auditioned by himself but did not qualify. That discouraged him from playing music for a while again.
Story behind the artistic name
Having played poker professionally online for about 4 years, Jerry started losing his passion for it and dedicated himself to music. In 2012, he started taking his first vocal lessons with an iconic Slovenian opera singer. In 2013, he recorded his first song in a studio called “Jesensko Listje”. Soon after recording the song, he travelled to Australia for 3 months to improve his English. While in Australia, he came up with an artistic name Jerry Miles, as pronouncing Jernej Šorn proved impossible to non-Slovenian speakers. Since some of his friends already called him Jerry, all he needed was to come up with a last name. He felt like he was on a personal journey, and perhaps the fact that he was thousands of miles away from home inspired him to choose the last name Miles. After coming back home, he was confident that his improved vocals would help him qualify for the 2013 Slovenia's Got Talent show. He played Chris Isaak's 'Wicked Game and his original song “Bond”, but again did not qualify. He felt defeated but decided to persevere in his music endeavor after a short break, and took a 3-month songwriting online course with Berklee College of Music in 2014. He felt like this was the best piece of education he ever learned to this day. He wrote several songs and started a duet with a guitarist.
Meeting Elza and moving to Ireland
In 2015, Urška Rupnik (artistic name Elza) joined the duet, and they recorded the band's first and last song, "Tujec." While preparing for the recording, they fell in love. A friend who was also a choir leader told them to look each other in the eyes while they sang, and that's when they both felt butterflies in their stomachs. At the time, Jerry was working in the ventilation sales business, but he felt that the pay was too low to support the family he wanted to start. Therefore, he decided to move to Ireland that same year. He moved to Ireland on November 17, 2015. Urška joined him in Ireland in 2016, and they got married.
