INTERVIEW: Milky Chance — HEART EYES MAGAZINE

By Erin Christie

Milky Chance sky-rocketed into public consciousness with the radio popularity of their single, “Stolen Dance,” in 2013. Joining folky calling cards with instrumentation catchy enough to make anyone’s hips sway, they tapped into a niche sub-genre and made it their own.

Aside from their success, the German electro-pop duo of Clemens Rehbein and Philipp Dausch haven't released a full-length record since 2017’s Blossom, and fans have eagerly sat in waiting.

Thankfully, November 15th marked an end to that hiatus with the release of their third LP, Mind the Moon, featuring inclusions such as “Daydreaming,” “Fado,” and more. With this album in mind, we had the chance to chat with the pair over email about what making this comeback record was like, how Milky Chance has evolved over the years, and how they’re taking steps toward being more environmentally conscious.

To begin, for anyone who hasn’t heard of Milky Chance (or don’t know you outside of “Stolen Dance”), how would you describe yourselves, your sound, and your general motivations as musicians?

We’re two friends who got to know each other in high school. Music has always been the main thing in our friendship, yet our interests were always very diverse and open-minded. We probably don’t even think in terms of genres anymore. Music has been our first love, and it will always be our passion. It’s our way to connect with ourselves and to the world out there. It’s our way of expressing ourselves.

It’s been a little bit since you guys have released a full-length record, so this is exciting! If you could describe Mind the Moon in a few words, how would you? What should fans expect?

Very colorful, very diverse. Lots of rhythms, lots of thoughts. Minimalist but complex.

When writing and recording this record, did you have any set goals in terms of what you wanted to say, what kind of sound you wanted to achieve?

When we do music — whether it's writing, recording or producing — we always work with our intuition. There's never been a strong concept or topic that we want to have for our records. They're just about the things that are affecting and moving us the most while we make them. I think this whole album is a self-reflecting, trying-to-embrace-your-own journal. Music gives us access to our inner life, so we kind of use it as musical therapy.

In its entirety, this record feels like a step forward for you two—a kind of departure from the more folky, “indie-pop”-leaning sound you may have been associated with in the past. Did this sort of change happen organically based on what you two are personally into? Did anything / anyone influence how this record came to be?

It happened very organically, but we‘re also influenced by the people we‘re working with: band members, our producer, and other artists we work with or we just listen to. Basically, the idea for this album was to go back to a more minimalistic and electronic sound that we had with the first album but then try out new instruments that we hadn't played before. It still has the same Milky Chance DNA and we just got better in using and showing our musical melting pot personalities.

Your most recent EP, Rush, was released in late October and it includes some great introductory album inclusions. How did you choose which songs you wanted to release as a sort of “teaser” to the full LP?

It’s always hard to pick but basically, we’re trying to show the diversity of the album while picking the ones that seem very strong and catchy to us. But it’s really hard to figure that out sometimes because when you’re deep into the recording process, you kinda have all your songs on your mind all the time. We picked “Daydreaming” to be the first release because we’re so proud of it, and then we felt that it’s the perfect opener to show the album's diversity like: Hey guys! We’re back! With a new boundless global sound! And we brought some friends!

Speaking of “Daydreaming,” it’s accompanying music video sort of reminds me of Wes Anderson’s ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ mixed with something out of maybe ‘Lord of the Rings?’ Regardless, it’s a definite trip. In terms of creative vision, what inspired the direction the video went down? What kind of story did you hope to communicate?

With the videos, we wanted to dive a little into the world of surrealism. In “Daydreaming,” it’s all about the freedom of thought and where you can go within your mind, so it was clear that there had to be things happening that are clearly unreal. The flying scene felt really powerful and funny to us and was very much inspired by the movie ‘The Big Lebowski.’

In terms of collaborations, you guys worked with Tash Sultana on “Daydreaming” and Ladysmith’s Black Mambazo on “Eden’s House,” to name a few. How did these connections come to be and did the tracks turn out how you envisioned?

The first time we met Tash was in Australia and then again in South America. Each time, we were touring, and luckily, we had the chance to spend some time together. We started talking about working together in the future, and one year later, it was all done. Tash is a very free spirit, a very serious musician and multi-instrumentalist, but also totally DIY. Her career took off after uploading some self-filmed living room sessions on her YouTube channel, which reminds us of our beginnings. Besides that, Tash is a phenomenal guitarist, and her vocal skills are just as good. You don’t think in terms of genres when you listen to her or our music, so it felt like a perfect fit. And when we started making music together, we were just on the same page.

We never met Ladysmith in person but they‘ve always been our favorite choir out there. We got to know their music and fell in love with it when we both sang in the high school choir. For this feature, we just sent a request with a demo of the song via email to their management and thank god, they said yes! We think Ladysmith have a very special rootsy tone that always brings a certain vibe to it. Each voice stands out on its own but then they fit perfectly together. There’s no other choir sounding like them, and we wanted to have that.

Songs such as “Scarlett Paintings” and “Fallen” touch on the more vulnerable aspects of life and relationships (and in some cases, the painful aftermath). When writing, does your material come from your personal experience? And is it difficult to be so open emotionally?

It all comes from experiences we’ve had, and frankly, it’s that easy sometimes. It’s the process of opening up and standing by yourself while making yourself vulnerable — it can be a fine line.

“Scarlett Paintings” is about the inner conflict you can have when you care about a person so much and you’re afraid that they might get hurt but you can’t help it because sometimes, up to a certain point, everyone has to make their own experiences. Nevertheless, you want to give your best to help them get through it; it’s a process of letting go.

With this new release considered holistically, what would you say is a track that you’re most proud of / is most significant to you?

It’s definitely our favorite album we made so far, so we‘re very proud of that. It’s really hard to pick a favorite song because we kinda fell in love with each of them. I guess when we started recording, we had that feeling of going into a new, but right direction. We just love the sounds we created with this album.

Aside from the record, you’ve cited Greta Thunberg as being a major influence in terms of your efforts to be more “green,” and that’s been reflected in plans for your upcoming Mind the Moon tour. With the current political turmoil, how important would you say it is to be vocal about efforts such as Greta’s, especially considering your own platform?

We think it's super important! The climate crises are real. It’s made by us humans, and we have to take responsibility for it. There are things we can do so we need to act now, and we have a certain reach, so we feel responsible to share it with people. It’s about informing, embracing and inspiring each other — we have to think differently and get creative to find solutions for this huge, unprecedented problem, and we have to do it all together because we‘re all in this together.

So, a few weeks ago, we hired a new member of our team whose mission is to help us become a greener band and company in every sense.—a sustainability manager, you can say. We’re a worldwide touring band and we know that this isn’t sustainable at all, and when we think of the entertainment business, in general, it’s not really getting any better. So, we decided to take action and start the journey to become more sustainable.

We just launched a blog called milkychange.com where people can follow us and participate in the process. We want to have full transparency to show people our achievements but also our failures. We hope to create a creative cooperation with our fans, other artists, or other partners in the music industry.

What’s next for you two, aside from touring and living your lives?

Releasing an album, touring with it, constantly working on new music, starting the big process of becoming a more sustainable band, being fathers, trying to live our lives — to us, this sounds like more than enough for the next decade.

Finally, do you believe the moon landing was faked? What’s your stance on it?

Frankly speaking, we don’t care if it was faked or not. We should start caring about the planet we’re living on before we start conquering the space around it.

Mind the Moon is available for your listening pleasure on all of your favorite streaming platforms—take a listen! Keep up to date with Milky Chance (and their environmental efforts) via the links below!