Y'alright our kid?
If 2010 was the year of art rock, then for British music at least, 2011 has been the pop counter-revolution. Like most bands that have come out of Manchester in recent months, Milk Maid is the antithesis to the conceptual indie that the US has been peddling for a little while now. Originally the solo project of former Nine Black Alps bassist Martin Cohen, Milk Maid showcases his refreshingly laissez faire approach to writing song through little nuggets of pop sunshine which rely more on simple melodies and rich reverb than having to think up complex time structures or having to figure out how to put a food processor through a vocoder.
Snapped up by Fat Cat earlier in the year, Milk Maid’s swirling melodies and fiercely DIY ethics have made them one of the bands that everyone seems to be talking about at the moment. Building a head of stream through shows with the likes of Titus Andronicus, Crocodiles and Male Bonding, they released an album of Cohen’s bedroom recordings called ‘Yucca’ back in July. Consisting of 30-odd minutes of pure indie pop joy, it’s scary to think that the record is little more than a bunch of collected demos, but still sounds better than 90% of records released this year. The force is strong with this one.
Milk Maid - Not Me by AlmostGold
While I was researching this I saw that the Manchester Evening News once did a double page spread on you. What an honour!
Martin: Yeah! That was pretty early on in as well. It was funny as I thought no one really buys newspapers nowadays, but everyone was showing me that for weeks.
It might be just me, but with bands like Brown Brogues and Mazes, has Manchester suddenly become an amazing place to make music or something?
I don’t know about suddenly, I think Manchester has always been a good place for music. When I was in Nine Black Alps I was out of the city quite a bit, so I sort of lost a proper grasp on who was out there, so one of the best things about starting Milk Maid is that I can reconnect with a lot of new music. It’s been pretty exciting.
How did Milk Maid come about after Nine Black Alps?
It came from the last tour we did about two and half years ago. We finished with no firm plans to do anything and we were all at a bit of a loose end. I knew I wanted to carry on making music, but I’m no songwriter. I didn’t know anyone who needed a bass player, so I decided to try and write some songs and see what happened.
Eventually, I got a couple of songs together and managed to get two of my friends in the band so that I could play live. Since then we’ve had various line-up changes, meaning that it’s constantly changing and constantly frustrating. It’s always a bit of a ball-ache; you want to be writing songs but you find yourself phoning around looking for a guitarist or a drummer.
There are never enough drummers...
Yeah, we’ve just auditioned a new drummer and we had four people try out which was quite surprising. I mean at first when people left I took it quite hard, but now it doesn’t really bother me. It seems like every time we replace somebody it works out for the best.
So does Milk Maid feel like a band now or do you still consider it a solo project?
It definitely feels like a band now, yeah. The people we’ve got now seem as committed as I am. A lot of the new stuff I’ve brought in as a basic song and we’ve beaten it into shape as a band, which is really exciting. It changed my expectations of what’s possible with this band.
How would you describe your sound now then?
I have no idea. I try not to write the same song twice, and that’s all I want to do. I don’t think you can aim at a certain genre or style, you can just write pop songs.
OK, but you have to admit that you do sound like you’re influenced by bands like Pavement or Galaxy 500...
Yeah, in places. They’re all bands I listen to, but I don’t know how much we actually sound like them. I guess we sound more American than English, but that’s only because I don’t listen to much English music, and neither does anyone else I know. Look at Brown Brogues or Mazes: it’s basically American indie, but with a bit of a British twist maybe.
Alright, last question; if you had to recommend something to drink whilst listening to ‘Yucca’ what would it be?
A drink? I don’t know. I’m drinking a Berocca at the moment and that’s pretty tasty. It’s got lots of vitamins in it and makes your wee a bit yellow – what’s not to like really? It’s either that or a nice glass of orange juice...
This all sounds pretty healthy...
Yeah, it’s good clean fun ain’t it. What would you drink?
Piña colada.
Ha ha ha, OK, you win.
Milk Maid will be playing a free show at the Old Blue Last next Thursday and will be supporting Mazes on tour during October.
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