Kyle Wilson Tells Us About His Brooklyn-Bred Band Milagres

Brooklyn - Milagres front man Kyle Wilson is not just a fantastic music writer; he is a talented conversationalist to boot. Wilson spoke with Bestnewbands.com about his Brooklyn-bred band Milagres, and delved into the deeper meaning behind their latest album, Violent Light. The takeaway from this interview is twofold. Firstly, living in the wilderness in the Pacific Coast Range for a month lends to creative output as easily as it sparks enlightened thinking. Secondly, everyone in the NYC area should come see this band in action tonight at Bowery Ballroom, where the group is gearing up to celebrate their latest release.

Give me a bit of background on Milagres and what was it like for the group early on, back to your days at NYU.

Wow, the very beginning. Well, I met Fraser [McCulloch] in college. He invited me to go see a band that he was playing in, and they were playing at Lit Lounge. Do you know Lit Lounge? It’s kind of like a dark hole. I thought Fraser was a great guy so I kept in touch with him. As time went on, both of our bands were getting better. Finally, we were looking for someone to record an album. Fraser had all this gear and all this experience (plus he wasn’t charging that much money). We went up to this place in Massachusetts, and held up in this barn for a while and recorded a record. That’s how Fraser got involved in the project.

That was when you were recording Seven Summits?

Yeah, that was Seven Summits. Frasier was the recorder and producer on that album. There was an opening in the band shortly thereafter, and he got brought into the fold. When he joined, he had a good friend Chris [Brazee] who was excited about joining the band. So, we ended up with another person. That’s the basic genesis! We met our current drummer, Paul [Payabyab], after we put out a really spiffy ad on craigslist and auditioned a bunch of people. Paul was really special, so…

How would you describe your sound, in terms of genre?

I guess we like to keep it simple and say that it’s rock and roll, but realize it’s a lot more complicated then that. I’m really inspired by classical music, although I wouldn’t say that’s a genre that we aspire to by any means. I think we draw from a lot of different things, there’s some stuff on the new record where we’re very intentionally drawing from trap music. Ultimately, I don’t think you can say we’re anything other than a rock and roll band. Yet, there are a lot of electronica elements, funk, psychedelic and folk, too.

Who would you say are your biggest influences, or some of your favorite bands?

What are my favorite bands of all time? Oh, wow. That’s hard, and I go through phases. If I had to pick an all time favorite band I’d be boring and say it’s the Beatles, but that seems a little too obvious. Right now I’m going through a Kate Bush phase. Actually, when we were recording this last album I was listening to a lot of Steely Dan’s first albums, which is weird but for some reason I just really like those albums right now.

Milagres has been pretty successful, for how long you’ve been around. You’ve had a lot of positive press from publications such as NPR, Spin and KEXP. Can you tell me a little bit about the process of getting to this point, and your lifestyle as you worked to pursue music?

I think a lot of music consumers, especially with the way the industry’s changing, they see an artist in one of these media outlets like Rolling Stone or Pitchfork, and they sometimes assume that the lifestyle for that artist looks like what it might have 20 years ago. My lifestyle has just been… well, I just work really hard all the time [laughs]. I have a day job and the band at this point is like a business. It requires 40 hours of attention a week, at least. When you’re on tour you’re working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s a struggle; it’s a lot of work. The industry is a tough one. But it’s a labor of love. Hopefully, there are more parts of the work that you enjoy than parts you don’t.

I think the other thing that’s really a challenge is switching gears from being a creative person to being someone who’s out there in the trenches, trying to spread the word, or getting the music into the hands of the right people. But, a lot of people stepped in to along the way to help, which is great.

That’s what happened after you guys released Glowing Mouth. You got signed to Kill Rock Stars sight-unseen. I think the music does speak for itself, when it’s something that musicians have clearly put a lot of time and attention into.

Yes, of course. I think we were really lucky, there are so many bands right now and labels are really struggling. To have a label pick us up like that, we were just ecstatic.

You basically wrote that album bed-ridden, recovering from a rock climbing injury, correct?

The album was written before and after the injury. People tend to focus on that injury as a pivotal moment. I actually think the expedition that I went on between the albums Seven Summits and Glowing Mouth was the pivotal moment. The fact that I got injured was a bummer, but it wasn’t what inspired me to write the record. I was actually inspired by the sublime, natural experience that I had. I was basically in the wilderness for an entire a month, with nothing. I had a tent and I had a group of people I was sharing resources with, but we didn’t have any contact with the rest of the world.

When you do something like that, you come back to a realization of what’s really important in life, and what’s not important. You don’t stress out as much about the small things. It was definitely a life changing experience. There was plenty of fuel for that record.

Lets talk about your new album, Violent Light.

The new album is definitely a departure from Glowing Mouth. We wanted to do something unique, we wanted to take more risks and I think we succeeded.

What was the writing and recording process like?

For me, the writing process was tough. I think I wrote 30 songs for the album, and there are only ten on there. That says something about how hard we were on ourselves. It was a lot more collaborative than anything we’ve ever done before. We had to get used to working together in a new way. Glowing Mouth was more created out of a partnership between Fraser and I, not completely but more so than this record.

Thematically, would you say that Violent Light is very different?

Yeah, thematically it is totally different. Once we finished Glowing Mouth, we were touring and touring and touring. We toured a bunch in Europe and in the US. By the time we got back it had been like a year and a half since the album had come out. I hadn’t written anything on the road because for me writing is a very solitary experience. It’s tough to write a song in a hotel room when there’s, like, three dudes around you checking their e-mail, do you know what I mean?

So, when we got back I didn’t have too many new life experiences to draw on. I had to delve a bit deeper. The new album is more personal, and draws a lot more from where I come from and from my childhood. There’s a lot of imagery from where I’m from, which is New Mexico. My family moved there so that my grandfather could work for Los Alamos National Laboratory, where they created the hydrogen bomb. There’s a lot of stuff on this album about science, about viewing the world through a scientific lens versus viewing it through any sort of superstitious, religious or spiritual lens.

Who are you listening to now, what groups would you file under best new bands?

I have a buddy who’s in a great band called You Won’t. Interestingly enough, Seven Summers was recorded at the drummer for You Won’t (Rocky)’s farm up in Massachusetts. We’re also huge fans of Glass Ghost, they’re great.

Actually, one of the bands we’re playing with tonight is called Leisure Cruise. They’re brand new, but it’s Dave Hodge from Broken Social Scene and this woman Leah Siegel who was in a band called Fire Horse. They’re amazing.

Go HERE for more on Milagres.

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Liz Rowley

Born in Mexico and raised in Toronto, Jerusalem and Chicago by a pair of journalists, Liz comes to BestNewBands.com with an inherited love of writing. After discovering a niche for herself in music journalism and radio while at Bates College in Maine, she always keeps a running playlist of new music to soundtrack her place in the world. Liz is passionate about helping dedicated, talented musicians gain the exposure they deserve. A recent transplant to Brooklyn from Hawaii, she is plagued by an incurable case of wanderlust and cursed with an affinity for old maps and old things like typewriters and vintage books. She adores photography and running and is very good with plants. Having come of age in Chicago, Wilco speaks to her soul. If she could be anything, she would be a cat in a Murakami novel.