171640_500347878079_5832844_o

BORN and rebelled in the Thames Estuary, essentially where the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea, 4-piece band The Milk fell in love with 1960’s band Dr Feelgood. This love-affair paved the way for album title Tales from the Thames Delta. And with that, tunes that paint an alternative picture of Essex- with all fake tan and arse-skimming dresses removed- is now neatly filed in the modern soul genre.

“Where we come from there’s a band called Dr Feelgood. Back in the 60s they were part of a clique that was a mini kind of rhythm and blues thing. We watched a documentary about them and it just showed their love of the Mississippi and how much they wanted to be part of that. Before we even put anything on tape we just knew that was the name of our album.

“The album’s stories about what it’s like growing up around our way and what the people are like. It just made sense.”

As long as we had a bag of weed we’d sleep alright anyways.

Now edged towards modern soul, although they were previously a punk band, The Milk are English lads up for going against the grain: “We are going against what the indie bands are doing these days.

“We never wanted to be an indie band. We always wanted to align ourselves with The Roots or something like that and focus on that kind of groove. But then inject a bit of fucking Essex into it.

“People find it hard to pigeon hole us at the moment. We look like four white guys from the south of England, but the tunes are like modern soul which totally clashes with that indie stereotype.”

Starting out as a punk band who chose bags of weed over hotel rooms on the road, all the lads needed to make their noise was the Fiesta and some drug money: “We couldn’t play that well so we made up for it by turning everything up and smashing the shit out of the place.

“It wasn’t a serious thing; we weren’t trying to get a record deal out of it or anything. It was just an excuse to load up the car, bang in all the gear, take a tent and camp up the side of the road and just go anywhere we could and play.

“As long as we had a bag of weed we’d sleep alright anyways.”

The Milk are a band who embody the passion, energy and rawness of their punk past and fuse it with the soul band mentality of the 1960’s. Eager to keep the quality levels high, the band adds: “Hopefully we can play with the technique of the old rhythm and soul bands from the 60’s.”

As the New Year creeps in, it’s not only lonely singletons that start reminiscing of the year gone by. The band have squeezed in a hell of a lot of festival dates up and down the country. The band, like any other red blooded male, will always remember Ibiza though. For reasons of beer and hotpants the guys declare: “Ibiza Rocks does stand out, all of our mates were over specifically for The Ibiza gig, so as you can imagine the party afterwards was mental.

The manager came in afterwards and said ‘You’ve smashed that one, you’ve got a record deal

“The Jazz Café in Camden will always hold a special place in our heart as it’s where we won our record deal. It only holds about 400-500 people so it’s not huge, but a lot of credible jazz and soul artists play there and it’s a really special, intimate venue.

“There’s a lot of heritage in that wee café. The night we played was a Friday, loads of industry execs were there and we had sold the gig out.

“The manager came in afterwards and said ‘You’ve smashed that one, you’ve got a record deal’ and that’s literally how it went. That place will always be held dear to us.”

Lead singer Rick Nunn is a true appreciator of Scottish music. But it’s more about the old man character he recognises in Paolo Nutini than his lyrical content. “We’re all big Paolo Nutini fans; we love the guy’s voice. I personally much prefer Sunny Side Up to his first album. It sounds like he’s expressing himself much more.

“I saw him on Jools Holland performing before his second album was released. It was as if he was doing an old man impression. As if he was playing a character. I loved it. He sounded and looked like an old man. It was ace.”

And as their fantastic 2012 comes to a close, The Milk look forward to a 26 date tour in America. Going south by south west, quite literally, the guys are set to make a ripple in the water in the New Year with SXSW festival also in the mix.

Here at Tenement TV, we salute artists that help to wet the appetites of music fans. Music fans who want more out of their bands than tight jeans and tales of pulling birds- and this time we’re full of gratitude for The Milk men.

Edited by Nadine Walker