Milestones, emo-punk band reigning from the United Kingdom, is currently on the international tour A Lesson In Romantics, a ten year reunion tour for headliner Mayday Parade. The pop-punk group Knuckle Puck also joined the tour.
When it comes to rating their performance, I have to say that none of the bands disappointed. Knuckle Puck got the crowd fired up and ready to rock with their edgy emo vibes. As for the headliner, it was almost ethereal to witness the crowd singing their hearts out to Mayday Parade’s heartfelt lyrics. The crowd favorite, “Miserable at Best,” had me wiping tears away with my press pass.
A headliner would be nothing without an exemplar opener and that’s exactly what Milestones brought to the table at their show in Columbus, Ohio. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Drew (guitar), Mark (bass), Matt (vocals), and Eden (guitar) after their set to talk about everything from Paul McCartney to getting wasted.
How did all of you meet each other?
Drew: The band started about two years ago. All of us were in really shitty metal bands, a part of the same scene and one thing we all had in common was that we really wanted to make a career out of music but nobody else in those bands were dedicated enough so we basically just chipped them off and decided to make this one. We all pretty much met through the same scene.
I know you’ve said there’s a certain appreciation for you in the US because you are British (which you would have a pretty good idea of after being signed to Fearless Records, an American record label).
What do you guys think of the music scene in America vs. the UK as far as fan base differences and culture?
Mark: It’s just different for us being over here in general because obviously we could play the same set of songs in the UK but maybe not as many people would care just because we’re a British band. They’d be like, “Okay, yeah. I could probably see these guys in another couple of months” whereas being over here, we catch a lot more wind with people who want to take us on and actually want to speak to us and want to listen because it’s like, there is the novelty behind being British.
Eden: A lot of people actually turn up for the first band as well. Like no one does that in England. A lot of times, the room will be packed in America for the first headliner.
Matt: Another thing that’s weird, and I think this comes a lot from the promoters is that in the UK, for some reason, the first band always starts when the doors open. So like, they’ll be playing to nobody at first and then people will stream in and nobody’s interested because they’re all caring about getting their drink or whatever whereas here, I think they always give at least a half hour for doors before the first band comes in which I think is really important.
I saw that your EP “Equal Measures” was produced by Phil Gornell who has worked with the likes of All Time Low and Bring Me The Horizon. I know Phil tends to be heavily involved in the production; do you have a main takeaway from that experience? Perhaps something he taught you that you can use going forward?
Matt: I think we learned loads from Phil just because he’s like, the bluntest person we’ve ever met in our lives so if he tells us that something is shit, it’s shit. And he’ll just say it’s shit. We can work on it for a few days or a week or so and Phil could come to the studio and just be like, “Nah.” But we’ve learned a lot from him just because he’s been around good music for so long. I think that even though he’s a front of house by trade usually, he still surrounds himself with bands who know how to write good songs. So like, if he was a front of house for a band who aren’t that good writing but are just big because of numerous other factors, I think we wouldn’t have gained as much from him. I think he’s learned quite a lot through being in that scene as well and brought it into his production.
Mark: As obvious as it sounds, just putting the hours in the studio as well because some of the songs definitely for the album just didn’t come together very quickly. Sometimes, we were in the studio for 13-14 hours at one time without taking any break.
Matt: I feel like Phil just as much as us deserves the recognition for this album because of writing and stuff obviously….as a producer, you write as well. He invested just as much time and hours as we did. We’ve got a lot of respect and gratitude for Phil.
Mark: He gave us a lot of wine too, in the studio. That was probably the good part about recording with him as well.
Your hit video “Call Me Disaster,” from that EP, has a pretty interesting music video that features two kids acting out Edward Scissorhands. Is there a deeper meaning behind that?
Eden: The whole basis behind the video is kids growing up and wanting to do videography and filming so there’s just a few different films that we reference in it.
Mat: That story was his first love with a girl which kind of relates back to what the meaning is behind the song. So it’s kind of him reminiscing cause if you notice, at the start, he finds a box full of his things and it’s all his memories like from him growing up and falling in love with his first girlfriend and being happy about it rather than just being sad. The whole song starts from a really dark place and gets to a really happy place by the end of it. In terms of all the movies, there’s not really a particular hidden meaning behind which ones we chose. We just chose the ones that we watched growing up and we could relate to.
What kind of music did you guys listen to growing up? Was there anybody who you saw onstage and thought, “I wanna be like that guy (or girl).”
Matt: I listened to a lot of Squeeze growing up, believe it or not and The Kooks. Those are two big bands we like. The band called The Feeling, they’re a band from the UK…not many people have heard of them. I really like them.
Drew: I grew up on loads of proper 80s, classic rock and stuff…all of the music videos and seeing those bands play stages, that was the moment when I knew I wanted a career in music. I just saw that and thought, you know, that’s what I want to do…as far off as it sounds.
Mark: My dad got me listening to the Stereophonics and stuff like that. I think the first band I ever saw that I was like, “Oh yeah, I want to do this” was when I was like thirteen and my uncle took me to see Green Day and I was like, “Yeah, they’re playing arenas. That sounds good.” That was pretty much it for me.
Matt: Who else inspired you?
Mark: No one else. Not The Beatles. I’m not related to The Beatles.
Drew: His biggest inspiration for music is Paul McCartney cause he’s a bassist. He hates to admit it cause he’s really embarrassed about it. Paul McCartney is his third cousin.
Are you kidding? Wait, why are you so embarrassed about that?
Mark: Cause it’s not true cause they’re all full of sh*t.
Apparently “gullible” was written on the ceiling at the Newport.
Is there a memory that sticks out to you as the “craziest” interaction that you’ve had with fans?
Mark: I’m not gonna say where it was but there was a particular TV show and a fan photoshopped my face onto like, the main character.
What show?
Mark: Dexter. And so she photoshopped my face onto Dexter, her face onto Dexter’s girlfriend and then sent me it with a picture of their child and was like, “Welcome to our family” and I was like “Woaaaah, fuck.”
That’s an interesting choice of show.
Mark: Isn’t it just?
Eden: That’s funny that you asked this today because I was on Instagram and someone liked my photo and I went onto their profile and they had a picture of me as their picture.
Speaking of Instagram, I saw you guys posted today something about how the UK needs emo nights. I’ve never actually been to an emo night but I’ve seen pictures and they look pretty cool.
Matt: Basically what happens there, it’s really weird, is nobody like jumps around and dances. They all just cry.
Sounds like my kind of night.
So what do you guys like to do for fun when you’re not playing or recording?
*In unison*: We like to drink a lot.
Drew: We drink a lot when we tour, we drink a lot when we don’t tour.
Matt: I feel like at first the band started as somewhat of a hobby and so did drinking and now we’re looking to have both of them as our careers.
Does alcohol help with your creativity or does it kind of stunt it?
Drew: It never helps. It’s our way of letting our hair down.
Is there anything else that helps spark the creativity?
Drew: Having a shit time and writing songs about it. That’s what sparks it.
Mark: It’s partly true. You have a shit time and it’s like, you’ll probably get some good content for the song.
What can fans expect from Milestones in the future?
Mark: We’ve got an album coming out hopefully this year which is a hell of a lot better than the EP is all we can really say about it. It’s just a lot more concentrated on one sound as opposed to trying to check every box. Matt and Drew, they do work together an awful lot. They were the guys who spend like 14 hours at a time in a studio and as opposed to trying to get like, “Oh let’s have one of every genre,” it’s like, “Let’s solely try to concentrate on one and let’s try to perfect that.” So, for us coming up, we’ve got the album, the tour, and then hopefully we’ll be in the States again next year.
Matt: We’ll definitely be back in America next year; it’s just when. We’re hoping we can come back early 2018 if not like, late 2017.
The guys also hope to be embarking on the next Warped Tour, and if this last show is any indicator, that is a milestone well within reach.
