More about: Weird Milk

Weird Milk have recently had a shake-up. Long-time co-frontman Zach Campbell parted ways with the band in the summer, leaving original members Alex Griffiths (guitar + vocals), Charlie Glover-Wright (drums + vocals) and Alex Guess (bass) plus Blue Moyle (keys + vocals) and the newly-onboarded Emmett Cruddas (guitar).

It is Emmett and Charlie who join me one weekday morning after their We Were Strangers tour, their first since the line-up reshuffle. Both are still reeling in the adrenaline left over from the release of their excellent new EP, a cogent sixteen-minute trip through the kind of Americana influences that get them comparisons to The Beach Boys and AM-era Arctic Monkeys on a regular basis.

As the year rounds up, we asked the boys some questions about their new set-up, the influences that went into their EP and when the album may be on the way...

Gigwise: Hey guys! So first off, what was the vibe with the discrepancy in listening time between Charlie and Alex (via Spotify Wrapped)?

Charlie Glover-Wright: It just shows my level of commitment to music is four times that of Griffo.

GW: Who were your top artists?

CGW: Mine was quite embarrassing: Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Beach Boys, The Band.

GW: Since when has that been embarrassing! Which artists went into your We Were Strangers  EP?

CGW: I was listening to a lot of Bob Dylan. Me and Emmett were rediscovering Dylan and I went really in on The Band, so a lot of Americana and folk music. 

GW: How was the experience of making the EP? It feels almost like an album dry-run.

CGW: It was our first opportunity to make our first coherent song-after-song project. We could explore sounds in each song—and lyrically—but make it a whole story which was the best thing ever. I wanna do that all the time. 

GW: When did you start writing it?

CGW: Back in the first lockdown we were like: 'what are we going to do?' What are we going to work on?' Because [Charlie + Alex] were stuck together so we had to be productive. I said: 'right let’s sit down and finish ['Vienna'] once and for all'. It turned out to be really easy. We sat there and played C and F and were like—there we go.

We demoed the whole EP in our flat. It was just me and Alex because it was lockdown. We were creating rearrangements and recordings in our bedrooms.

GW: Talk to me about playing it live?

CGW: It’s very enjoyable work and that’s what you want it to be.

Emmett Cruddas: When I was on tour I was like 'this is the sickest holiday ever'.

CGW: When we started playing it live we end with 'Vienna (Reprise)', I do a fill and we go into it really hard. It’s like rounding everything up. That bit is the celebration of the show.

GW: Zach recently left the band. What was that like? 

CGW: At first it was weird, of course, because [before] you had the set-up of two singing at the front and the whole thing revolved around harmonies.

The first thing we did was get Emmett on board because we knew he was going to be the motivator and give us loads of enthusiasm. And he did. And he kind of said 'nah you’re fine, let’s just play'—and we did.

We did the new set-up live for the first time ever at Latitude Festival and then at Wilderness. The feedback was good. It was lovely. It was daunting at first, as any major change in anyone’s life is. Now it’s okay. We’re all on good terms as well.

GW: So Emmett, you're the ray of fucking sunshine!

EC: No one’s ever said that before.

CGW: I say it all the time!

GW: Do you guys still have day jobs?

EC: I used to work at a radio station and now I’m a projectionist.

CGW: I work at Alexandra Palace, in the events side. We all do day jobs but also music: that is the job. Or the dream.

GW: What was the best album of the year?

EC: I’ve done my 100 favourite albums every year since I was like 18 because I’m a fucking nerd. My top ones [this year] would be Kiran Leonard. He done two really sick albums this year, part one and part two.

GW: And speaking of albums, when is yours going to be coming?

EC: We've basically started it.

CGW: We're writing all the time. Where we're at right now is we're getting all the material and cutting, editing, sticking. Stuff like that. Testing stuff with the band.

EC: We played like three [of the potential album songs] on tour.

We Were Strangers EP is out now. 

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More about: Weird Milk