Discover The Soulful Sounds of Milagres

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I recently had someone send me the album Glowing Mouth (Released – 9/13/2011) from Brooklyn-based band Milagres. This release is a must listen for fans of Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver—actually for anyone who enjoys beautiful music. This album carries a lot of emotion as it tells stories of past loves and more optimistic days. The layered sounds that accompany these soulful stories are angelic at times while dark and eerie in others. Last week I had the pleasure of speaking with Kyle Wilson (Lead singer and Songwriter) before him and the rest of the band hit the road for a solid month of touring in support of Glowing Mouth.

Dan Cordie: Can you point to a single experience or event that has led to you choosing to create music?

Kyle Wilson: When I was in kindergarten, my parents sent me to afterschool care and I really wanted to take taekwondo. My mom made a deal with me, she said I could take taekwondo, but only if I took piano lessons as well. I didn’t want to take the piano lessons, but very shortly after that I had quit taekwondo and was just playing piano. I have my mom to thank for forcing me into something that I ended up really loving.

DC: How did each of the current members of Milagres meet?

KW: We all kind of met in different ways. A couple of people in the band have known each other for a really long time. Our meeting all centered on where a few of us went to school, which is at NYU.

DC: What type of preparation have you been doing for your upcoming tour?

KW: The biggest thing for us right now is figuring out how we’re going to fit all of our stuff in our tiny little van. It’s not easy trying to fit five people and all of our gear into a little van. We’re also trying to make sure that we can play our set really really well. You always get much better at what you are doing throughout the course of the tour, just because you are playing every night. Starting out at a high level is much better than starting out low and going from there.

DC: Are there any dates on the upcoming tour that you’re really looking forward to?

KW: Yeah, absolutely! The last time we were out we played a really fun show in Savannah, GA (10/5). It’s an underserved tour market, that doesn’t have many bands coming through. We had a great time there and love the people and the town. It’s always nice to play on the West Coast; I really like Portland (10/25) and Seattle (10/24). We’re also very excited for our LA show (Which Hasn’t Been Announced).

DC: Who are some past or current artists that inspire you?

KW: Since you use the word inspire, I think I’ll take the opportunity to answer this in a different way than you might expect. There are artists that influence you musically, but to inspire you can be totally different. I’m going to go with Wu Lyf – they are a band out of the UK that I find inspiring. I heard that they charged a major label A&R person $50 for a demo, I thought that this was inspiring just because it’s so ballsy and fiercely independent. Other examples are people who do things for themselves, people who can release their own record and make it really successful and people who get where they want to go by working hard and not giving up. It’s hard for me to think of examples because a lot of times you don’t get the back-story. It’s easy to learn what an artist has been doing for the past year, but it is difficult to hear about what the artist has been doing for the past ten years, which likely is struggling.

DC: What are some places, experiences or people that have influenced the music that you are creating as Milagres?

KW: For me it’s likely different from my band mates. I’m from New Mexico, out west in a pretty rural place. My moving to New York and starting to play music has had a huge impact on the way that I think about music. I really do think that no matter what you are naturally inclined to create, your environment has a huge impact on what is interesting to you at that particular point in time. I tend to think of myself as someone who has a naturally almost bucolic sensibility but I live in the city, so I write music that is more urban. In terms of artists, on Glowing Mouth Prince was definitely an influence, Peter Gabriel and the British band Elbow was a pretty big influence as well.

DC: Was there a particular theme that you tried to stick with while creating Glowing Mouth?

KW: Not really, the album that we had finished before (Seven Summits) had a really really specific theme. After I had done that I wanted to just be free to write about whatever I wanted. At the end of the day, the album ended up having some threads that run through it, but they were more natural.

DC: Continuing with Glowing Mouth, could you give me a little background on the song “Gone”?

KW: “Gone” was written in one night really quickly. There was one night where I wrote half the songs on the album. It just came in this crazy fiery. The songs I wrote that night were “Gone”, “Gentle Beast”, “Fright of Thee” and I think one more that didn’t make it onto the album. They are all related loosely, I intend to leave it a bit open to your interpretation. Something that I have been writing a lot about and wrote a lot about on Glowing Mouth are some ideas around the poet Wallace Stephens. “Gone” definitely has a lot of ideas that come from Wallace Stephens’s work.

DC: Following your upcoming tour, what do you have planned for Milagres?

KW: Our album comes out in Europe early next year. We’re really looking forward to going over there and playing some shows in Europe. Some of us (Laughs) have actually never been and we’ve definitely never been as a band or musicians. Well—Glowing Mouth has been finished for a while, so we’re pretty excited about writing new music. I’m sure there will be a lot of touring in the US before we have another record out.

Stay connected with Milagres on Facebook and Twitter

Catch them live at one of their shows on their upcoming US Tour

TUE 9/27 • The Middle East (Upstairs) • Boston, MA *
WED 9/28 • Kung Fu Necktie • Philadelphia, PA *
THU 9/29 • Red Palace • Washington, DC *
FRI 9/30 • Mercury Lounge • New York, NY *
MON 10/03 • Local 506 • Chapel Hill, NC *
TUE 10/04 • Drunken Unicorn • Atlanta, GA *
WED 10/05 • LiveWire Music Hall • Savannah, GA *
FRI 10/07 • Lamberts • Austin, TX *
SAT 10/08 • Dan’s Silver Leaf • Denton, TX *
MON 10/10 • Opolis • Norman, OK *
TUE 10/11 • Mojo’s • Columbia, MO *
WED 10/12 • The Bishop • Bloomington, IN *
THU 10/13 • Castle Theatre • Bloomington, IL *
FRI 10/14 • The Sett @ University of Wisconsin • Madison, WI *
SAT 10/15 • Club Garibaldi • Milwaukee, WI *
MON 10/17 • 7th Street Entry • Minneapolis, MN
TUE 10/18 • Riot Room • Kansas City, MO
WED 10/19 • Waiting Room • Omaha, NE
THU 10/20 • Larimer Lounge • Denver, CO
FRI 10/21 • The Cavalcade • Fruita, CO
SAT 10/22 • Kilby Court • Salt Lake City, UT
MON 10/24 • High Dive • Seattle, WA
TUE 10/25 • Mississippi Studios • Portland, OR
WED 10/26 • Richshaw Stop • San Francisco, CA
FRI 10/28 • Soda Bar • San Diego, CA
* WITH PETER WOLF CRIER