It’s been over ten years in the public eye for Miles Kane now, with projects ranging from successful solo albums to his iconic partnership alongside Alex Turner as one half of The Last Shadow Puppets in the last decade the Liverpool native has seemingly been on every stage and across every air wave. But after so long and coming out of (for now) a pandemic it piqued my interest as to his mind set as his upcoming album, Change the Show, approaches its release date; “The build-up feels like it’s been long cos we started in the summer and we’re doing shows after it comes out. I don’t really know how it’s going or what’s going on man I’m just sort of taking it day by day, I don’t know what to expect with the gigs next year, I don’t know what to expect when its released. It’s just nice to be doing it and I can’t wait to be doing some shows really.” Though there have already been four singles released for the upcoming album I wandered if there were any other songs that Miles was looking forward to audiences hearing when the release date comes around; “Change the Show I think is gonna be one of those big ones live for me. It’s sort of got that Arcade Fire-y, sing along chorus kind of thing. That for me is what I’m excited to see, whether it connects with people.” With an upcoming tour also coming at the end of January I thought it worth asking if there were any tracks that he was most looking forward to playing to his audience; “All my tunes, I love them all. I don’t really get bored of my songs because they mean so much to me. The set list is so undeniable for the tour next year now that I’ve got a good back catalogue of songs there isn’t really a lull in the set.”
My focus then shifted onto song writing, after so long in the game I was intrigued as to whether what Miles got out of song writing has changed; “I think I’ve just really enjoyed the process whereas at times in the past I’ve sometimes struggled with it. You know it has been a sort of love hate relationship at times but with these songs on this record it’s something that I’ve really enjoyed. I just like writing for myself. I find it therapeutic and I’m comfortable in that scenario. In terms of the process, I’m still the same, just sat on the sofa with the acoustic is where I find the good ones come. The essence of writing like that is what I’ve always done. I’ve never really been the sort of guy to get loops or beats up on garage band. There’s still just something about just sitting and strumming away for a few hours until something comes up that works for me.” At this point the interview was interrupted by a knock at the door, the window cleaner, “ahaha fucking hell it’s like EastEnders.” He laughed to himself as he sorted out the situation before coming back to the phone.
Jumping back into the questions I wanted to know whether, an audience’s reaction to certain songs has had an effect on how he has viewed his own songs over time; “Yeah if it connects and it grows… that’s the best feeling ever. That’s why you do it. You might have a judgement in your head but you just don’t know what people will connect with and sing along to… if fucking any haha. It’s kind of out of your hands.” The subject quickly turned to touring; “I just want act as if this tour is our last, we’re doing things we’ve never done before in terms of production. When we were deciding on the tour it worked out that we could end it in our home town and then we can have a bit of a party afterwards. After lockdown to come back and play shows it felt fantastic. We only did a couple of shows as a bit of a taster but it was absolutely fantastic. I love it me; I would play in the local pub every night if I could. I just love playing, I’ll play anywhere.” The talk of Liverpool reminded me of the recent Beatles documentary Get Back. After seeing Miles be part of a panel for the 50th anniversary of the White Album a few years ago I was interested to hear his opinion of the successful look behind the scenes of the making of Let it Be; “Oh, I mean I cried twice during it. It resonated so much with me, that’s just the way it should be done. It was honest, it was real. It wasn’t overthought, there was humour in it. That’s how I would have wanted it done.”
After hearing just how passionate he was about the project I thought I would finish the interview trying to find out how much the city of Liverpool means to his music; ”I think growing up, my cousins are in The Coral and I learnt so much from them. All those Liverpool bands are all my favourite bands. I don’t know if it’s because I’m from here but its definitely had a huge impact in my writing, guitar playing, everything.” With an album coming out in mid-January it was a pleasant surprise to hear someone still so passionate about music after being in the industry for so long. What the new year has in store for Miles Kane I don’t know, all I know is he’s got a lot of stuff in store for you.
Photo: Lauren Luxemburg.
