A common tag often given to colorful and engaging bands is “theatric.” While this is generally accurate on a case-by-case basis, few bands properly define the term more than Milo Greene.
The indie poppers from LA have a lengthy list of video work usually made in tandem with musical counterparts that are heavy on catchy melodies. I got to speak to Andrew Heringer and Graham Fink of Milo Greene briefly after their set at Bonnaroo.
Is this your first Bonnaroo?
Andrew Heringer: Yes.
How do you like it so far?
Graham Fink: It’s been great.
AH: We just played, and it was a really great experience.
Anyone you’re excited to see during Bonnaroo?
GF: Wu-Tang Clan and then Paul McCartney. Pretty radical one-two punch.
In the past, you guys have described your music as “cinematic pop.” What does this mean?
AH: I think it just means that we see a visual component to the music. We love movies. We like to think about scoring movies in the future, and when we’re writing we definitely think about a visual counterpoint to the sounds.
What was the main thing that got you interested in this combination of visual-audio artwork?
AH: Our whole lives have been an influence. Our generation grew up with a lot of films and movies.
Was “Moddison” a step in the direction toward making a music video for every song?
AH: Yeah, that’s what it was about. We were watching a whole bunch of directors at that point and really wanted to work on cinematography-type stuff. We had a little downtime after we made our record, and it got to the point where we got done with the record and didn’t know what to do with ourselves, so we said, “Let’s go make a little movie for ourselves and try our hand at it.” So, it was a couple of weeks of us making a movie to see how it goes.
Was it something that you enjoyed as to be integral to your future process?
AH: I think we’ll have some projects like that in the future, but maybe give it to a director and not really be the creative force behind it so we can really focus our energy towards music.
I’ve heard that you actually have a very interesting character in a booking agent with the same name. How did that come about?
GF: Before we started this band, everybody was in a different band and there was the idea that it might be more professional—so this fictitious booking agent was created to reach out to venues on our behalf. This fake person was Milo Greene. So, when we started writing music together we kind of figured we’d pay homage to that character that helped us out in the early days.
Your self-titled album was released on vinyl. Was this important to the band to have it on vinyl? And if so, why?
GF: Vinyl’s the best. I mean I really wanted to make it cassette, but it seemed like there was less of an avenue for that these days. Vinyl seems to be making more of a resurgence. It’s how we like to listen to music so we wanted people to be able to listen to our music that way.
Do you ever go shopping for vinyl out on the road? Any good stores or good finds that you’ve found in the past couple of months?
AH: We were at a festival in Groningen, Netherlands last month, and there was a booth like you see at all the festivals, and a guy had a ton of vinyl, and they were dirt cheap. So they were picking up every greatest album they’ve always wanted, but it’s like $50 if you go try to get it in L.A. somewhere. So they walked away with some good ones.
Any big plans for the rest of 2013?
GF: Writing and recording. Try to make a new album. Try to sleep in our own beds for a little bit. We’ve pretty much been in a van for the past two years, so we’re gonna try to take some much-needed… Uh, I don’t know if it’ll be R&R, but it’ll be recording and writing.
AH: We’re doing Outside Lands at the end of the summer so that’ll be our last festival, and it’ll be a good way to kind of cap off this whole cycle of the record.
GF: We’re also going back to the UK at the end of July to do some music festivals over there.
You can keep up with Milo Greene and their ongoing touring at the band’s Facebook.
