The Miley Show

Once a wild child, always a wild child? If it means giving girls and women a voice, then Miley Cyrus has no plans to tone things down. From social activism to championing being gender fluid, America’s most controversial pop star is fast becoming the country’s most unconventional role model…

- Allison Glock

A HANDMADE ‘GOOD VIBES ONLY’ BANNER PROVIDES a cheery welcome when entering Miley Cyrus’s recording studio, a cosy space adjacent to her home in LA’s San Fernando Valley, furnished with an inviting couch, cluttered work desk and hanging light fixtures that resemble clouds. The coffee table boasts photo books, an ashtray, doodle pads, a bottle of Cîroc, stickers, Polaroids and a sculpture of a brain. Her microphone is wrapped in rainbow tape, and a blow-up plastic alien doll leans in the corner.

Cyrus, 23, is proud of her unpretentious, low-tech studio. A country girl at heart, she is not a big believer in conspicuous consumption or unnecessary excess - at least not outside the emotional or theatrical realm. ‘These big fucking studios other people put in?’ she says of some of her colleagues. ‘You don’t need that stuff. All you need is a microphone and a computer.’

She feels the same pull towards simplicity in the house she is remodelling a short drive away, where she’ll have acreage for the rescue horses she plans to add to her menagerie, which includes four dogs, a pair of cats and her pig, Pig. ‘My contractors keep trying to sell me all this shit and I’m like, “I’m not going to build a fucking house that’s got an outdoor shower,”’ Cyrus says, as she walks from her studio to her main house. ‘I don’t need fancy floors my dogs will ruin.’