This week, WLUW had the chance to sit down with Dublin-based band milk. before their show at Subterranean to talk about everything from the songwriting process, DIY producing, to hot takes on ska. Enjoy.
Interview conducted by Itzel Rosas and Josie Stahler
Josie: Hey, this is Josie.
Itzel: And Itzel.
Josie: From WLUW, and we’re here hanging out with milk. at SubT. Do you guys want to introduce yourselves?
Conor: Hi, I’m Conor.
Mark: I’m Mark.
Morgan: And I’m Morgan. And we’re milk.
Gormie walks in later. We promise he’s here!
Josie: Very nice.
Itzel: Welcome to Chicago. Is this anyone’s first time here?
Morgan: Thank you. It is my first time here. That’s a good question.
Conor: Yeah it’s my first time as well.
Mark: I was here few years – it was probably like five years ago, but it was for like a day or two. So I dunno if that counts.
Itzel: Okay, gotcha gotcha. Do you guys think you’ll do any exploring? Like at all?
Mark: We leave tonight, so no.
Itzel: Oh, okay.
Mark: Yeah, we went to Chicago Music Exchange today.
Josie: Oh my god, that is a staple of Chicago! Yeah.
Mark: Yeah.
Morgan: We had a great time.
Conor: And we got the best Thai food beside it. Very good.
Morgan: It was delicious. We had a great time in that restaurant. They were lovely.
Mark: We didn’t get ehm, actually we should’ve said earlier, We should have got…I think it’s called Garrett’s Popcorn. Is that it?
Josie: Oh, yeah! Okay, doing all the touristy things. I like it. I like it.
Itzel: The Bean is closed, unfortunately.
Mark: Why?
Itzel: I dunno.
Conor: What’s there to close?
Itzel: They’re renovating it? I’m not sure.
Conor: How?!
Itzel: (jokingly) It melted guys, the Bean melted.
[everyone laughs]
Itzel: Anyways, this is an exciting time for you guys. You guys are doing your first headline tour in the US. Are there any particular cities you’re excited to see and like, perform at?
Mark: Eh, all the ones I haven’t been to before really. I kind of – I like seeing newer parts of America because it’s very big, and everywhere’s very different. I dunno, I feel like of all the ones that we have yet to do, maybe Denver? I feel like Denver would be a kind of nice area. I have no reason for believing that. It’s just like in my heart.
[laughter ensues]
Itzel: For sure, for sure. Your first show was like not super long ago. Have you guys felt a difference in the energy between crowds back home and then here in the US?
Morgan: I would think – I would say so, yeah. I think we probably have. I think that, over here there’s sort of less raucousness. I would say in general, that they’re more kind of polite and respectful as an audience. They’re really appreciative kind of when it’s their turn to cheer. And when you know, they’re sure that the song is over. Whereas at home, cheering and shouting things and whatever, it can take place at any moment in any song. It’s definitely a bit more rowdy at home. Generally what makes it different for me is just as the catalog gets bigger, and people become more familiar with the music, I think they just respond more intensely to it when they’ve had a bit of time to kind of attach personal meaning, but I don’t think that’s necessarily to do with where they are. I think it’s just a time thing. You know?
Josie: Yeah, that makes total sense. Speaking of, can you tell us a little bit about the Dublin music scene? What’s it like? What’s the energy there?
Conor: It’s really great. I think it’s a really good scene. We’ve got loads of different kinds of artists of different genres doing their thing. And like there’s been a resurgence of like, neo-soul jazzy stuff; there’s also been the post punk thing happening. There’s been a few like, fantastic singer-songwriters. It seems really active and diverse, and people get out and support everyone, which I think is brilliant. I think it’s like, you know, it’s not like sports. It’s not like there’s 11 players on a team, and that’s it. I think, there’s room for everyone, and people want people to do well. Because you know, it’s not easy. So you want people to do well. I think it’s a really really good scene.
Josie: That’s beautiful. Are there any specific bands or artists you’d like to shout out?
Conor: Shout out Just Wondering. Always.
Mark: Just Wondering.
Morgan: Yeah. Shout out to Just Wondering. Shout out Bricknasty are really cool. Love their music.
Conor: CMAT is great as well. She’s –
Mark: Yeah, CMAT’s a big one at the moment. She’s good.
Conor: Yeah, and there’s a bunch there’s loads of great ones.
Morgan: Search Results is really cool. They’re a really cool bond. KhakiKid has really good chance as well. Yeah, there’s no shortage of great music. And as Conor was saying, a bunch of nice people and a kind of a cohesive, supportive group of people. Also, like I wouldn’t say that there’s any sort of internal problems or anything there. I think everyone is kind of communitively trying to help to lift each other up. And I think everyone is happy to see one another kind of expanding, which is cool.
Josie: Oh my god, that’s beautiful. I would love to see more of that in the Chicago music scene for sure.
Itzel: I want to ask you guys, if you have any routines that you like to do before shows to like get rid of nerves or anything?
Mark: Not really, we just kind of hang out. Um, scour the green room, hang out. Gormie, will like borderline fall asleep, maybe 15 minutes before we go on stage. At every show.
[laughter]
Gormie: It’s my nerve reaction.
Mark: But like there’s no one thing that we do every time. We just try to be as relaxed as we can be before we go on, I suppose.
Conor: I generally like to ehm – obviously like it’s unfamiliar surroundings. I generally like to have a little walk if I can into the venue and check out the supports. I wanna do that anyway. But just – I feel like that, for some reason settles me a bit more when I’m when I see it from the other side, versus walking out into something I don’t know how it looks, or you know, what it’s like. So I generally like to have a little walk around if I can beforehand, but that’s kind of it for me.
Itzel: Okay, cool, cool. Also, congratulations on your EP number three. Or 3, the EP.
Morgan: Thank you.
Itzel: I like the consistency and names between all the EPs; is there a reason why this is?
Mark: It was easy.
[everyone laughs]
Mark: Eh, we had 1, and then we had 2. And then we kind of messed around with giving the new one a new name, but it it didn’t really seem like there was a point to just like, change it now. I think – I mean, when the album comes, we’re not just like gonna call it like, “1, the Album.”
[everyone laughs]
Mark: We’re actually gonna have a name for that. Yeah, it just felt – I mean, and it’s also like you were saying, the consistency of like, these are different bodies of work all piecing together, instead of making them all feel so separate. Kind of felt a bit more of a journey to tie them all in.
Itzel: Gotcha, gotcha. Was there a difference in the creative process for this one between the first two that you guys did?
Mark: Yeah, there was. The first two were kind of stuff that we had brought to a friend of ours called Adam Redmond, who produced them. This one started kind of like peak COVID, so we couldn’t really get into Adam. And I was learning how to produce at the time. So I just kind of started writing songs and then eventually got to a point where I felt comfortable enough to finish, just producing the EP myself. So we kind of wrote together and kept it all, within the band. We didn’t really have anyone. Like we had different play – like we had a friend Allie play strings on a song. We had our friend Kiva play banjo on a song. Like we had different players come in, but the production on the writing was all within the band which makes it feel a lot stronger and true to us – to me, anyway. I don’t know if that’s how it was that people received it. But it definitely felt that way making it.
Josie: Kind of gives it like a DIY vibe. Almost.
Mark: Yeah, that was kind of – I feel like it was nice to have the intention of this idea of having at least one project that completely comes from us, without any outside source. So we could stand behind something and be like that identifier for, for now anyway.
Itzel: Your song “London.” I love that song; It’s like my favorite one. Is there like a particular, like memory or instance that this song came from? Because, I feel like I can relate to it a lot right now. Right? I don’t know if you guys want to talk about that.
Mark: I think, I always heard of people getting this feeling in New York, specifically, of being very overwhelmed by how, like busy and fast New York is, which I’ve never gotten in New York. But um, it was a lot of I mean, yeah, we had a lot of time to think during COVID, and it was very, like everyone went through the same thing. And it was very eye opening to how big the world is. It’s not a like, poor me thing, it’s a poor everyone thing. It was a feeling that I only ever recognized when I was in London a few years ago. And it was that thing that people talk about in New York, but I had only ever only gotten that in London. And the song is not like specifically about London. But it just kind of encapsulates that feeling for me to be somewhere, and feel completely out of place for no real reason at all, other than like, you just decided to.
Josie: Cool. So you guys have spoken about how milk.’s name comes from Clockwork Orange. What were some alternative band names that you guys had?
Mark: I can’t even remember at this point.
Morgan: You know, I can remember some, like artwork drafts that we had. I can certainly remember. I think Crying By Boys.
Mark: That’s a very edgy name.
[everyone laughs]
Mark: Probably something – it’s probably better. Better than milk.
Morgan: Crying By Boys was on the table at one sesh. It’s a pretty cool band name. We might have to revisit that.
Mark: That’ll be the album name.
[laughter]
Josie: Oh! There you go, there you go.
Morgan: Other than that, I don’t think there was, no.
Josie: It was pretty much set in stone? You were like this is the name?
Mark: Yeah, I think I had suggested it to Gormie when we were trying to come up with a name. And for like a week or two, we were like nah it’s just f—ing sh–t. Could we swear on this? I was like, it’s stupid.
Josie: Yeah, no you can swear. I’ll bleep it out.
Mark: We were like, we were like it’s so f—ing bad. We were just like it’s a bad name. And then, after like a week or two, we hadn’t come up with anything better, we were like let’s just go with milk. [laughter]
Josie: There you go. Yeah, I like it. It’s fitting.
Morgan: And the cool and professional answer is that it was short enough and kind of succinct enough written out that when it was put into that first typeface that we were using, it was really easily kind of overlaid onto other images. And it was easy to make the band name into its own logo, rather than having to have multiple things cross over. So it was easy to kind of, I guess, cross all the artwork over and make everything cohesive. Once we had decided that we weren’t going to try to come up with a greater name. It works pretty well for the artwork and things too. So I think it helped us with that launch aspect also.
Josie: Awesome, very thoughtful.
Itzel: Going back to those beginning stages of creating the band, if you guys could give any advice to your younger self, what would you say?
Mark: Jesus. Uhm, probably to listen to more music. I think when I was younger, I was probably like very of a certain genre, and I was just looking for bands in that genre. And I wish I was a bit more open to other styles. Except ska.
[everyone laughs]
Josie: What’s wrong with ska?
Conor: Exactly!
Mark: What’s…not wrong with ska? I will derail this interview. I have no fear of doing it.
[More laughter ensues]
Josie: Cool. Well, I just want to finish off with a couple of rapid fire questions for you guys. Dream venue to play?
Conor: Red Rocks.
Josie: Good answer.
Mark: I’m gonna say because of some new, whatever it’s called the Sphere. I was gonna say the Globe.
Josie: Okay, okay, we got U2 over there right now. Okay.
Morgan: I’m gonna go with the 3Olympia in Dublin. I’m yet to do it, and I still really really want to it’s one of the few in Ireland that’s still very much on my like childhood bucket list that I’d love to get to. So the 3Olympia definitely for me.
Gormie: Probably 3Arena, dunno.
Morgan: 3Arena, yeah.
Gormie: Just ’cause that’s where we go all the time.
Josie: Yeah, I’ve walked by the 3Olympia it’s so pretty.
Morgan: It’s gorgeous. Yeah, it’s amazing.
Josie: Okay, next, favorite track off 3, the EP?
Mark: For me anyways, it’s a tie between “[I Think I] Lost My Number [Can I Have Yours?]” and “Emotionally Abusive.”
Josie: Totally.
Mark: I think it’s “London.” for me. Yeah. I like it.
Josie: It’s a good one.
Gormie: Probably “Lost My Number”, But over the last few shows I’ve been loving playing “I Might Bore You.” A lot.
Morgan: Yeah, I really, I enjoy “I Might Bore You.” I always find that when I come back to it to learn – or songs to work on them again to play them live, I have kind of a rekindling of how much I really liked that song. And I think that it comes into its own when we play it for audiences. I really enjoy how it develops and how people kind of get to lean into it a bit more with us towards the end. So I think yeah, “I Might Bore You.” for me, for sure.
Josie: That’s awesome. You stole my next question, which was favorite song to perform live?
Morgan: There may be a different answer.
Mark: Mine is, we have a song called “Don’t Miss It” That’s not out yet, but it is my favorite one to perform live.
Conor: Yeah, same we actually – that one or, we didn’t play the song “Temperature” for ages. We just didn’t really like how it sounded live. And we start playing it again on these shows, and it’s been good craic. I’ve enjoyed it. Yeah.
Gormie: I enjoy playing “Treat Me” live as well.
Morgan: Yeah, I think I’ve always really liked playing, “I Don’t Mind Falling in Love With You.” I think again, that one has a real kind of dynamic rise and fall to it that gives us a lot of opportunity to be expressive in that song. Yeah, it’s probably the heaviest moment of the set really, towards the end of that song. It’s a cool kind of theatrical moment. I feel like that one has the edge for me.
Josie: Nice. And then last question, dream collaboration?
Morgan: Ooh, dream collab? It’s a good question. What are we thinking?
Mark: I’m gonna say, actually, I want to say Levi Turner because I want to make a country song so bad. And he is an unbelievable – I would say arguably one of the best songwriters around right now. And his voice is just unbelievable as well. He has such a nice, like twang.
Josie: Cool. Cool. milk. goes country.
Gormie: I think my Spotify Wrapped, my top was The Strokes, so I’m gonna say something like Julian Casablancas.
Morgan: Yeah, yeah, that’s a fair one. Ehm, who would I go with? I feel like if we were ever to do anything with, somebody I dunno, like Sylvan Esso?
Josie: Oh, yes!
Morgan: I felt like there’s basically no way that wouldn’t end up being a really fun piece of music. And they’ve always had a type of an energy and kind of a joy in their music that I find really inspiring and really enviable. So yeah, I reckon Sylvan Esso for me personally. I’ve said that in an interview a bunch of times.
Conor: Gonna go a bit rogue here.
Josie: Okay.
Conor: I think with some of the tunes, a Charli XCX verse would go hard.
Josie: I love her!
Morgan: That’s a good one.
Conor: I’d love a Charli collab.
Josie: All right, someone call Charli XCX.
Morgan: Someone ring her up.
Josie: We’ll make it happen. Cool. Well, thank you so much, guys.
All: Ah, thanks so much.
You can find tickets to tour here!
Follow milk. on Instagram and check out their Spotify below!