Speaking With The Boys: Milburn

For anyone not in the know, Milburn are a loud, confident and funky foursome from Sheffield consisting of  Joe Carnall (lead singer, bass), Louis Carnall (rhythm guitar), Tom Rowley (lead guitar) and Joe ‘Greeny’ Green (drums). They have a truly passionate following of fans who appreciate not only Milburn’s music, but their close and easy relationship with their followers. Obviously, they’ve been burdened with Arctic Monkeys comparisons since their arrival due to the raw musical energy and socially observant lyrics penned by the very clever Joe Carnall (a man who turned down a place at Cambridge to be a rock n’roll star), but they’re much more than that…

Gigwise duly caught up with the quartet for a quick chat before their gig at the ULU in London. The lads seemed pretty tired, but then who could blame them, “we’ve only been home for a couple of days in the past three months.” Lead singer Joe Carnall and his brother Louis met guitarist Tom Rowley and drummer ‘Greeny,’ who were both at the same school, while playing football for a Sheffield Sunday League team.

“We met up when we were about 14…Greeny wanted a band coz he’d started playing the drums” Louis laughed, “he likes hitting stuff” added Tom. “Aye, me mum wanted me to concentrate on something coz I were doing her head in…it were boxing or drumming...an I dint want to take up boxing” explains Greeny, a real-life ‘Animal’ from the muppets; or as Louis described him, “our own version of Digsy,” referring to Oasis’ eccentric friend-of-the-band.

Milburn have got a lot to look forward to, they were “well chuffed” by their recent chart success with ‘Send In The Boys’, which reached Number 22 in the charts, and have a second single out on July 10, called ‘Cheshire Cat Smile’. It has already had some airplay on Radio One and the video is on MTV2 and the general buzz is growing around the lads.

So they have done two singles, and previously released two EPs; surely there is an album in the pipeline. “We’ve finished” smiled the band, “All that’s got to be done is the sound levels and stuff like that...it has to be mastered” Greeny explains. They plan to release one more single after 'Cheshire Cat Smile', then look to release their debut album in late September. The album will contain a lot of new material. Apparently only “40% of the album is old stuff…the rest is new…we want to give the fans something more than they’ve heard already…but it’s frustrating because we want to play the new stuff at gigs but we can’t coz it’d ruin it,” said Joe.

Louis attributes their success to the “strong fan base” that has “been there since day one;” “Its boomed in the last year though” adds Joe. Being a young indie band from Sheffield, we duly ask them about some website called myspace; “we only just signed up…we didn’t really know about it before,” not what you’d expect from what the press have been saying about circuit contemporaries the Arctic Monkeys and other new music like Gnarls Barclay. The chart success of their debut single precipitates an even more exciting year to come, as Milburn are set to play the famous Japanese Fuji Rock Festival, Leeds and Reading Festivals, T in the Park, and smaller festivals in Jersey and Cambridge.

More important for Milburn however is the pending three weeks break from touring “to watch the world cup…and have a bit of studio time.” “We want to get a few more songs done…we’ve got the album sorted so we don’t have to worry about that now, so I can be more relaxed about writing new stuff” explains Joe. We’re looking forward to it already lads.