Interview With London Based Band Mile End

How did the 4 of you first meet?

JS: We've all been to a to a music college called Rhythm Studios for their summer courses, and back in 2019 me and Seb signed up for the band sessions which was a weekly thing on the timetable. We were put in a band with two other members, and for maybe about a year we played under the name Yes No Maybe.

SZ: And then Nemesis as well.

JS: And then Nemesis as well. But we switched members, two of our members left, another drummer called Joe and a guitarist called Gabriel, and then Desh and Joe [Young] joined by signing up to the same band sessions.

JY: Me and Seb have been going to music college for 8 or 9 years, doing solo lessons and boot camps, so me and Seb did a lot of band stuff before, messing around and playing with different bands on summer courses, and playing in our bands during the weekends. When did Desh join again?

DS: I joined about two weeks before you did, around January, and I think you joined around February.

JY: Around halfway through covid... well, Josh do you want to explain the break up of Nemesis?

JS: Well, we had another guitarist who left for several reasons, so we continued playing with Desh as our new guitarist with our old drummer, and then the other drummer left and Joe joined.

Which brings me onto my next question: where did the name Mile End come from?

SZ: We were discussing for a bit of time while we were still called Nemeis. We had been writing our own songs, and normally when you think of the name 'Nemesis', it sounds like a heavy metal band, which I don't think we are. We have a lot of variation. We have all sorts of different types of music, and we're not very heavy metal enough to be called Nemesis. One time I was just coming back from one of our practice sessions on the district line and I saw 'Mile End' as a tube stop and I thought, "You know what, that's not even that bad of a name". So when I got home, I went on the whatsapp group and said "What do you guys think of Mile End as a new band name?". We didn't decide straight away, but we eventually warmed up to it.

JY: I don't think any of us actually have a connection to the place Mile End. I guess the only connection we have is that my mum works there.

DS: I guess its on the District line, and where we practice now is also on the District line, but thats a very loose connection.

JS: But also separate from the tube stop, 'Mile End' sounds like some sort of journey being taken. I think we have enough links to justify it.

What are your primary influences when it comes to songwriting?

DS: Tired of Being the Bad Guy [their newest single] I think was influenced by Royal Blood and Rage Against the Machine, that heavy riff is definitely inspired by Royal Blood. Generally we're inspired by modern rock bands, from my perspective it's mainly Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chilli Peppers, that kind of alternative modern rock.

SZ: I definitely agree, but we also have such a variety of different songs. As you said Tired of Being the Bad Guy is influenced by Royal Blood, but then we also have more folk kind of songs, indie kind of songs. I think its difficult to pinpoint a single influence.

JS: For instance, another one I wrote, 'Awe of Her', is very Fratellis inspired. There's a variety, but the three Desh mentioned, that sums up our style.

JY: Noughties rock.

DS: Yeah, noughties modern rock. But not stuff like Imagine Dragons.

What did you think about Taylor Hawkin's recent passing?

DS: We did a tribute to him in our last concert actually.

SZ: That was quite sad.

Do you have a songwriting process?

DS: The way it usually works is one of us comes into a session with a song they've written and they show a demo or an idea, then we build on that and start to form a song. Most songs come to the session fully formed and some songs come with just a riff. We wrote Tired of Being the Bad Guy when Seb came into the studio and said "I think I've got this great riff", and then we sort of built on that and from there wrote our lead single. And that's why its the lead single, it's got a lot of elements that all of us put into it. I don't think there's any song on the album which is 100% one person.

JY: One example of a song that was pretty much written by Josh would be 'Awe of Her'. The only part Josh didn't write was the drum part which I implemented. But a complete opposite of that would be a new song where Josh brought in this quite abstract guitar riff, and during the session, me and Josh began writing a backbeat that would work.

DS: We're still evolving as a band in terms of songwriting. I think eventually we're going to get to a stage where its just us writing songs non stop in sessions, but we're still in that early stage of developing and honing our ability.

If you pardon the pun, what is the next direction for Mile End?

DS: First things first, release the album. I think after that we've got a few different options.

JS: Even before the album?

SZ: We've got a couple of singles coming out. We have 'Dreams' and 'Awe of Her' coming out in the next couple of months. Our first album is going to be called Stormy Sunshine. We're going to try and release it around the turn of the year, no date specified yet. Then we can find our sound and which songs work the best.

DS: We've got a couple more songs we could potentially release as singles in the future. There's our cover of Eleanor Rigby that seems like it could be something we explore in the future, but I think right now its just important we get through the next few months before we look any further. 

You can listen to Mile End here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5jOURuSbcwDra9sQ1eKFsc