I happened on Milly Beau, the residents at Pete’s Candy Store every Monday this month, by an accident of Lasagnetta. Marybeth Doran, the group’s lead singer was waiting tables at Inoteca while my friend Sarah and I gorged on that restaurant’s veggie lasagna specialty. A few months later I finally made it to Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg where, in the romantic dining car that is their back room, Milly Beau’s acoustic set entranced a dozen lucky listeners, and made converts of us all.

Milly Beau feels very much like a startup group, a collection of talented young musicians, looking to find their feet. But their journey is to the viewers benefit, as we have the chance to experience something tremendous while still trivial. The main attraction is Doran, 24, and her buttery, mysterious voice. From note one, you ask yourself, Where did this kid come from?

“I moved around a bunch growing up,” she says. “Chi town, Iowa, Madison, Boulder, Twin Cities. I’ve always have done creative stuff in some shape or form. I did my fair share of musical theater, choirs. I didn't really get my band on until college. At George Washington U I did a capella, and sang on friend's hip hop tracks in dorm rooms. My senior year I started gigging and writing songs with Aaron Leeder (co-writer/guitar player in Milly Beau). We called our project Don't Be Glib, after that Matt Lauer/Tom Cruise interview.” Ouch.

Once they made it to NYC, Doran and Leeder recorded an album, “Party Glitter”, with Greenhouse Records. They hooked up with bassist Ben Zwerin and keys man Dave Cohen started looking for gigs, working Joe jobs to pay the rent, doing the poor NYC artist thing, which naturally leads the 24 year old to question the point of it all.

“Music is a way to communicate, I guess. In a vast way. I am writing the words, sure, but they take on a certain energy when they are embedded in tones and notes. The environment for the melodies creates the vibe. And then the words as notes themselves say something... they can be jarring, soothing, bitchy, saucy. I find the regular practice of writing music a form of reflection,” she says. If there’s some loftiness in Doran’s purpose, it’s not without the self-awareness that the work, and the group, have much to learn, and much to grow on. “The current stage of performance in its toddler yrs,” she admits, adding, “Personally I plan on performing my whole life. Which I hope is long. And the people we have together at the moment all love performing together. As long as that stays the same we will probably keep playing together. At our most recent show it was clear that we've reached a point where people are listening. Maybe even captivated.”

And if the crowds start coming, and then the labels, and the managers and Honda commercial people, does the direction change? “The point is to create attention, in myself and others hopefully,” Doran decides. “Being a purposeful human takes observation and then action. The more people make portraits, the more we are all aware of what the hell we are. And what the hell we are all doing here.”

“And, of course to eventually get an interview with Matt Lauer, So I can tell him not to be glib.”

Milly Beau is Marybeth Doran, Ben Zwerin, Dave Cohen and Aaron Leeder. You can see them tonight, and the remaining Mondays in May at Pete’s Candy Store, 10:30pm.