More about: Miles Kane

It’s no secret that Miles Kane has always been a fan of and influenced by scenes from the '60s and '70s. From his full-on mod days around the time he released his first two records, up until recently with his work in supergroup The Jaded Hearts Club, he's always been a part of the subculture. Now, think Motown/Northern Soul entwined with indie/rock and you’ll have Kane’s new album Change The Show: modern day soul that we didn’t know we needed until now. 

“I flirted with the idea a few times”, Miles said when we sat to speak with him about the new album. “The idea of making a modern day Northern Soul record seemed appealing. I wanted to just get the suit back out and put the make-up and jumpsuits down for a minute”. But when Change The Show was initially ready for release in January of 2021, it was nothing of the sort. The album didn't take its current shape until he met with duo Sunglasses For Jaws, who changed the way he wanted to album to come across.

“We’ve got a mutual friend, you know that band The Strypes? The guitarist Josh has joined my band and they’re mates with him. I’d met them a couple times. You know, I’d be in the pub and they’d be knocking about and they’d say to me ‘you’ve got to come down to our studio!'. It’s just like a warehouse shithole but it’s got a great vibe. For a while I just batted it off and one day I was just like: 'you know what? I’ve got a feeling about them lads. I’m gonna go see what they’re all about'. And it just worked out like that.”

Miles was obviously impressed with what he saw and felt through these guys—David Bardon and Oscar Robertson—so much so that they re-recorded Kane’s whole album in the studio together. “I’d recorded a couple of tracks in the January before and I made these demos with my mate which were really polished and I guess you’d say modern-sounding, maybe a bit ‘sounds like everything else’ or something. It was cool but there was something missing.”

Kane explains that on the morning of the last day in the ‘plush’ studio he’d recorded the album in, he wrote title track ‘Change The Show’. “We demo’d it really rough but it was the one that stood out, it was done a bit more live sounding with a bit more attitude and soul to it. Out of them all, it was probably the least ‘big’ but it sounded cool and it was the one everyone picked up on [when they listened to the record].”

When he met up with Dave and Oscar, he says they recorded demo’s in the same way and it just really worked. “We were keeping it as raw as you can and by the time this had come around, I’d lived with the songs a bit so I could tweak them and it was such a pleasurable recording experience; vocals were done in a couple of takes, we recorded a track a day. It was the first time I’d been the ‘older’ guy in the studio as well, they’re all 24/25 and I could see myself in them ten years ago, do you know what I mean? I think they’ve got a real bright future ahead of them. They’re an incredible bass player and drummer and can do all the production work as well, so they’re talented little fuckers.” 

Something that stands out from Change The Show is a cameo from the one and only Lily Savage, Paul O’Grady’s drag queen persona, at the start of the second track ‘Don’t Let It Get You Down’. Miles explains that growing up with his mum and nan in Liverpool, he'd watch her skits, “We’d fucking piss ourselves at her, she’s so funny.” He goes on to explain how she came to feature one on one of his tunes: “I was in the studio one day and I was showing the lads Lily Savage outtakes and they’re all looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. [But] there was this monologue that she says before one of the outtakes and she goes It’s topical, you know: it’s of today’ and in my mind I was like: this should describe my new album.”

He goes on to admit the irony: “you know what it’s like. It’s partly a joke but partly also made so much sense for me to put it at the start of that song. When it came to mastering the record and signing off on it, my management were like ‘erm, we’re getting rid of that, that’s just a joke we’re going to chop that off’ and I was like 'no way! That means more than the song now!'”

He laughs about it as if cutting the quote is the most ludicrous thing that has ever been suggested to him. And so it stayed in. His team asked to get the rights to the clip, but Kane explains that the BBC wanted ridiculous money to do so. “It was crazy! So we contacted [O’Grady] and it turns out he’s into me and has got my last couple of records! So he called me up and we had this amazing chat on the phone and he goes, ‘I’ll re-record it for you when I do my radio show’. So I definitely owe him one for sure.”

On the topic of collaborating with others, we discuss the most recent single release from the new record, ‘Nothing’s Ever Gonna Be Good Enough’ featuring Corinne Bailey Rae. “I’ve known her for a really long time: she did some singing on my first record and we were mates back then. We didn’t speak for years and then a couple of years ago I’d had a few drinks in the house and was swanning about like Judy Garland and one of her tunes came on so I text her saying ‘buzzing off that Paris Nights tune, hope you’re well’ and it rekindled our friendship.” The pair started sending their own demos and new tunes to each other—Corinne was really into this one so they made it into a duet.

“If I do a duet I want to do it proper, not just have a famous singer on the chorus, you know? I’ve always had the idea that I’d love to do a duet record like a Lee and Nancy thing, I love when it’s like ‘you do a line, I do a line’ and it’s back and forth like that. It worked out really well and I think for the style of this record it was the icing on the cake and gave it that extra bonus.” 

Miles has not long moved back to the UK from L.A., where he lived for a while. He said previously that coming home was the best thing he could’ve done for himself and his career. Now, he explains why. “I just had to be honest with myself. My bread and butter’s here. My fans are here in Europe; I don’t really have a following in America. It made sense to do it with the [Last Shadow] Puppets thing as we could tour there but I think it just took me a minute to get out of that bubble. By that time I was ready; ready to get back and get stuck in.”

Clearly, getting this drive back that he didn’t necessarily realise he’d even lost in the first place was the best thing for Kane. Lyrics on this album reflect on personal topics— something he tells us that wasn't intentional. We talk about getting older and what comes with that in general as well as in this industry: “You hit your 30s and you realise you’re not the young, hip kid in the studio anymore but you’ve just got to embrace it. To be honest, it’s quite a nice adventure to go on and it’s exciting to explore it, you get way more comfortable in yourself and that’s what I want to embrace. As long as I can keep putting effort into writing decent songs, I’ll be happy.” 

To round off, we discussed the possibility of any new music from The Last Shadow Puppets, the collaborative band between Kane and his long-term friend Alex Turner. “There’s nothing coming yet, but we always talk about it and we’ve got to do a trilogy to complete the box set, you know? It’ll end up being like the Godfather 3—it’ll be shit” he laughed.

"Nah, it’d be rude not to so when the time’s right, we will.” Despite being slightly in his feelings about hitting his mid 30s, Kane’s showing no signs of slowing down let alone stopping. If anything, time is giving him an even bigger push to carry on creating and exploring what he’s capable of putting out there—and what a treat that is.

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More about: Miles Kane