Source: Promo/ Tom Falcone
In the past few months, we’ve been hearing more and more whispers about one of Fearless Records’ signees Milestones. Recently, while the band was out supporting Hawthorne Heights and the tour made its stop in London, we had a chat with vocalist Matt Clarke and guitarist Andrew Procter. Matt & Andrew shared with us a little history of the band, their forthcoming album as well as Matt’s undying love for You Me At Six.
MOSH: How did Milestones come into existence?
MC: We had been in bands beforehand; but bands that weren’t really taking it seriously. We were all looking for people who were more serious about music; and I had put an ad out. We were looking for people at the end, and we sort of had the same criteria.
MOSH: So you didn’t actually know each other beforehand?
MC: We did it very weirdly, it was more based on we thought we had similar personalities and similar goals.
MOSH: You guys recently released your debut EP Equal Measures – how do you prepare for, sorry for my lack of better wording here, a milestone like that?
MC: I don’t know, because we did it over the course of a year and a half. We recorded it as one version, then Phil [Gornell] really liked it and picked us up. We were like “We can do better than what we sent you. We’re going to go to the studio and re-do it.” So then we sent it to them and they thought it was sick.
MOSH: Was it exactly the same EP then?
MC: It was weird, because the five songs that are on it now, only two of the songs were the same. It was released under the same title Equal Measures. The reason it’s still called Equal Measures is because the song itself is still on there. We never really discussed it, no one ever picked us up and said “Oh, we should change the name.” We wanted it to be our debut because we feel like the debut before was more like demos, really.
MOSH: So you still felt that Equal Measures still represented the EP, or why did you decide to stick with the same title?
MC: I think it was more that the other songs weren’t that good. I mean the other songs were good…no sorry, the other songs sucked. That song was good. ‘Nothing Left’, the single was a no brainer because we really like that song and it got really good response. The other three songs that we really liked were a lot better too, but ‘Equal Measures’ is a song that fitted with the same sound.
MOSH: Is that also how you caught the attention of Fearless? Their roster is predominantly filled with American bands and you guys are one of the few British acts on there.
MC: We sat down as a band like “We’re doing this for a reason”. By reason, I don’t mean some divine reason but we’re all there for the same reason. So we noted down “This is what we’re going to do, this is what we’re going to achieve, this is what we need, by this month we want to be signed.” I think it was actually a month early that we got signed. We’d booked the tours before we even released the songs; we’ve always been very self-motivated and proactive. So, when Fearless picked us up, it was what we kind of planned really. We had wanted that from the start and we were set on something like that happening. I think the only thing is we didn’t expect it to happen as quickly as it did.
MOSH: What are some album you’ve been stoked about/ listening to this year?
AP: I know one that me and Matt listen to on a daily basis is A Lesson In Romantics by Mayday Parade. It’s not a recent album, but we definitely listen to that a lot.
MC: I think their music in general is such an inspiration. In terms of new stuff, the new With Confidence is amazing. I think Moose Blood’s new record is also amazing. I think there are so many great bands at the moment who are just doing their own thing. The whole pop-punk thing is over-saturated at the moment, but at the same time there are so many different people doing different things.
MOSH: What records are you excited for this year?
MC: I’m really excited for the new You Me At Six record. I’m the biggest You Me At Six fanboy you will ever meet, it’s really bad. They were the band that made me want to do this. There is no other band for me. Drew has My Chemical Romance as his little fangirl moment, You Me At Six is that for me. I will be excited to hear the music, genuinely. I won’t just be like “I’m looking forward to that,” but like “GUYS, GUYS, GUYS! You Me At Six are so cool.”
AP: I’m not sure if it’s coming out this year but I heard that PVRIS just finished their second album, so I’m really stoked for that because I absolutely loved White Noise.
MOSH: This is day four of your tour with Hawthorne Heights, how has it been so far?
MC: It was really good. We actually haven’t been home because we were on the Area 11 tour and me & Drew went to the studio straight afterwards to do some demos for the LP. We’ve not been home, so we’re all more tired than we should be. So for example, yesterday someone said to me like “How you feeling?” and I was like “I’m really tired” so they asked “What day is it?” When I said it was day three, they told me “You fuckin’ amateur.” It’s because we’ve not been home in 20-something days so we’re just tired. The response has been great though. I think the Area 11 tour was definitely more suited for fans and stuff like that. I mean, with this being an anniversary show, we expected obviously people to be older.
AP: The response has still been really good though. I was talking to a few people last night and obviously our music is very different to Hawthorne Heights so it’s nice to see people still digging it.
MOSH: Have you picked up any tour rituals of your own with the relentless touring you’ve been doing?
MC: We just have stupid inside jokes. Like if anyone ever spends a day with Milestones, they’ll just think we’re weirdos. Honestly, we’re just the weirdest people. Not weird as in we’re doing weird stuff but you won’t understand what we’re saying. I mean, we don’t have huddles or anything like that. I wish we did.
MOSH: You mentioned something about a new album earlier. How are things going – have you written a lot of tracks?
MC: So much. Like, a ridiculous amount of writing. Because we spent so long from the band working on the EP, well we weren’t actually working on the EP but we were already working on the album. So when people think that’s what we’ve been doing, working on the EP; we haven’t been. I think we’ve written like 40-50 songs. Not all finished, they’ve all been ideas. I mean, we’ve narrowed it down bit my bit. For example, in the first month when we first started writing, we’re not using any of those songs. So bit by bit, we’re getting there. We’re getting better and fine-tuning.
AP: Based on the kind of stuff we’re listening to as well, we decide “This is the kind of stuff we want to sound like.”
MC: It’s hard to find what we like from the EP and what people want from the EP and make it mature and better. I don’t know, an album’s a very daunting thing to do, especially for bands like us who have just gone through a label and it’s like “Oh, shit this is happening.” It’s the statement you’ve got to make.
MOSH: Why did you decided to go with an album instead of another EP?
MC: I’ve always been against doing another EP again. I think we should just get it done, so long as it’s right. I think an EP after an EP, for me anyway, kind of says you’re not ready for an album. A lot of press, a lot of tours, a lot of marketing won’t go into an EP – you have to have an album to do stuff. I think that’s also why we’ve spent so long, we want it to be perfect. We don’t want to have an EP plus a load of rubbish songs; we want to have an album that’s full of great songs.
AP: I say, a big part of Milestones as people and as a band, is we always try to get to that next level. So once Fearless got in touch, we realised that we could actually just get on to that next level and we’ll be able to book bigger tours and stuff.
MC: An EP has never been in the question for us, we’ve always wanted to go with an album.
MOSH: Other than working hard on the new album, will the rest of 2016 consist of lots of touring?
MC: We toured throughout summer. We tried to get the EP going, and stuff like that and it’s doing really well. We should have a few shows but I’m not sure about touring the rest of this year. It depends mainly on the studio times because we want to make the album as good as it can be. The aim of the EP is to get eyes and ears on us, it’s not to convert people to fans. We want people to know our names and what Milestones is. We don’t expect people to like us yet. For the album we want all that momentum and eyeballs need to be on the album. The album is the most important thing for us. People kind of know who we are now, so touring will come if it comes. If we get offered a tour we really want to go on, and it fits the studio times. Studio is going to be mainly the rest of this year. Next year though, we will be touring the entire year, and I never want to think about writing a song ever again [laughs].
