So you auditioned then?
Yeah, I called them and auditioned.
What was that like?
They did something really funny. Because at Berklee, I got really used to reading charts, and seeing what I was and wasn’t going to be playing. It’s like a diagram of the song, but instead of having it every line, note for note. it’s just really simplified, and kind of has the melody and chord changes. It’s just a very stripped down, simplified version of the song. They didn’t give me any of that. Later, I found out, they did have that, and chose not to give it to me. Just to see if I could just figure it out.
I’m guessing you could.
Of course I did.
Awwww. I’m so proud of you.
I killed it, it was awesome. I came in, I turned my organ as loud as it could go, and they turned up to match me. It was great.
Are you a permanent member now?
I don’t know. But it’s really fun, but it’s really weird, because they are all so clearly, have you ever seen Quadrophenia? The movie. You know how there are the mods and the rockers? They’re all like obvious rockers, and I’m like this guy with his shirt buttoned up all of the way. It’s really fun.
Do you get along with them well? Like apart from aesthetics, you’re all clearly musicians.
Our aesthetic is really similar. It just differs in really pointed ways. While they have leather jackets and studs on shit, I just have lighting bolts and zebra stripes. That’s all there is to it. We’re going on this tour with the Ataris in November, from like the 21st, to I think, the 25th. It’s pretty short. I think. I think we have something in December, as well.
Speaking of lighting bolts and zebra stripes, have you made any new additions to your jacket collection? Also, we should talk about the “jacket collection.”
I had this beautiful, blue paisley one. Which I think some weird valet in the ’70s probably wore. I still have that one with the animal heads on the shoulders.
When you ripped off animal heads and then sewed them onto the shoulders of a leather jacket, like shoulder pads?
That was my favorite one. It’s gone, I think it got stolen. The one I’m working to replace it is, are you familiar with Hercules? You know how he killed that lion, and then wore it’s head on his head, with its cape, as the body? Well, I’m making that, with a stuffed-animal lion.
To wear for a Key Party show?
Or you know, just to go shopping.
What are you shopping for?
String cheese, avocados and shoelaces. That’s most of what I survive on.
You eat shoelaces?
No, but I use them a lot.
For what?
Don’t worry about it.
That is way too ambiguous for this interview.
One band I forgot to mention, is Roman Williams and The Prey. We just recorded, and he’s releasing this full album as like a Side A and then a Side B. Then he’s going to release the full album. So we just finished Side A.
That’s pretty trendy right now, the whole releasing music slowly, and not as a full album.
It’s pretty cool though, I like it as a system. It allows people to have that immediacy of music, that like singles which are fucking everywhere does; while actually preserving the whole concept of it being a continuous piece of art, instead of it being just one piece of fart.
Where it might not be appreciated?
Yeah, Instead of just candy, he’s trying to make a little meal. So for this band, Roman describes it as “Sayans Rock n’ Roll”, Like a Ouija board. It’s more Bauhaus. It’s very ’80s goth. It’s kind of new wave, but not as much as Milk People. It’s very much like the Cars album, Heartbreak City. I just got that album on cassette, because my car only plays cassette.
So just to clarify, you have Roman Williams and The Prey, and you are the keyboardist, and then the Blacklist Royals, and you are also the keyboardist, and in Milk People the same. Key Party, guitar, accordion and Keyboard, and then you sing in all of these but are back ups, except for Key Party and Milk People. Nigel A. Wilson, everything?
Right, but in Nigel A. Wilson, we do a lot of drums electronically, and then hire someone to come in and flesh it out, and kind of mix the electronic and acoustic drums. We also have this guy Joe Allegretto who is really good, that plays the bass for The Wellspring (Nigel A. Wilson), and Andrew Dreyer.
Where do you see the future for you?
I really think The Wellspring is a great album. I really like it, and I think people will like it to. Transitioning into Key Party is going to be a good call. I think that’s just going to be nice for people who like my music at all, to have my music, but have it be a lot less sad, and danceable. While I’m going to put my music first and foremost, because I am me, I really love playing with these other bands. I think they’re really going to take off. I really think Milk People has been breaking remarkable ground for how shortly we’ve been together. We’ve been together since like March, and we have people just really trying to make or help us succeed. It’s weird first off, because that has never really happened with music for me.
How do you think this is happening?
Everybody in the group is really, really talented. We’ve got that kind of groove and beat that is kind of pervasive throughout everything right now, and people really like it. We’ve got that with just a lot of really cool, weird shit, just layered on top of it. People like that. People, I think, feel like they’re supposed to like that, but aren’t being forced to like it, like they are with so much other music right now.
Do you plan on finding a way to force people to like it?
No we’re never going to force anyone to like it. That is some Taylor Swift bull shit.
Why do you think people are picking up to it then?
Because, it’s accessible, but weird as hell.
How are you making it accessible, then?
Because, it’s got that groove and concept of music that the Black Keys and the White Stripes, and so many bands provide, like in the lyrics and the tambours of the instruments. I get fucked up all the time, because Emma plays her guitars through so many crazy pedals, that her guitar starts sounding like keyboards, and my keyboards start sounding like her guitar. There’s this really weird intersection, where sometimes I’m not sure who did that last riff, but it worked. It’s really cool, and I think that because of stuff like that people are just contacting us, and trying to get shows with us in Nashville, and like offering us steep discounts. Like Mitch offering us a massive discount on recording with them. Because, people want the opportunity to work with something that’s like, thank God it’s not another one of that same project that I’ve done for like the last six different people. That’s what I go for.
So why name the band Milk People?
NW- We were talking about, or trying to figure out a name. We thought it would be really cool to have a phrase that you will hear maybe once in your life, and then we started talking about couples who kind of speak for each other, and basically like what if you just had this couple over one night, at kind of like a little cocktail party or something and you offer them something to drink, and you offer them milk. But, then one of them goes, “Oh, we’re not really milk people”.
Who offers someone milk at a cocktail party?
Well that’s what Bowie orders. Bowie lived off of red peppers and milk for like three years, and cocaine.
When you said Milk People, I just automatically thought Clockwork Orange.
A lot of people think that, and I did not see that. But, now I totally get it, and I didn’t expect it at all. The first couple of people who said that, I was like what? What do you mean? But it makes perfect sense.
So, Clockwork Orange has nothing to do with name?
No, but it’s totally cool. I love Anthony Burgess.
So would you consider you guys to be “milk people”?
We’re not really “milk people.”