Today we sat down with Miles & The Chain Gang to talk writing music, advice for musicians and of course who they looked up as heroes. Be sure after the interview to check out their latest music video below and their music links as well!
Here is the interview;
What is your inspiration to write your music? Is it your surroundings?
I don’t often write about soft furnishings, if that’s what you mean. It’s much more about evoking a mood and emotion, whether that is happy or sad. The songs are emotion-led, and feeling-led: hope, optimism, desire, anger, regret, despair. Music is an amazing way to transmit emotions. It is very infectious. The new track by Miles and The Chain Gang, All Of Our Lives, will be out on March 10th and it’s a whistful song. It’s a bit more gentle than the first two singles we put out. My PR guy Lee kept saying ‘you have to out this out’ and in the end I said ‘okay’.
What type of music did you listen to growing up?
80s pop and rock: all the early years of the 1980s had great pop music and that has been a big influence. Later on, stadium rock stuff like U2, Dire Straits, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd. I was too young to hear the new wave bands like The Clash and The Pretenders and Elvis Costello, but those bands are a big influence.
Is there someone you looked up as a hero?
Bruce Springsteen was a big hero, and still is. He put EVERYTHING into his music, especially the live gigs. I think he is one of the great artists of modern music. I had ‘Born In The USA’ in 1985 and have all the early albums. The live set from Hammersmith in 1975 is amazing. If you’ve not heard it, seek it out. It’s wonderful. The band’s sound took in soul, jazz, blues, rock…it’s really something. Also he’s a good example in terms of how’s lived. He’s not perfect, but he avoided drugs and kept himself fit and healthy. I don’t think a wasted musician is going to be much use at their job.
If you weren’t a musician, would you be doing today?
Putting on a festival of some sort. Lots of music and comedy and writers. In fact I used to do this as a job, running a Literature Festival, and it was a lot of fun. I may get back to something like that, who knows.
What advice do you have for fans out there that want to create music?
Wash your hands and learn your chord sequences.
The song is a quieter affair than the first two singles, including the uptempo funk pop of previous release ‘Drag Me To The Light’. ‘It’s quieter, and more reflective,’ says Miles. ‘But it’s a great song, and we are all about good songwriting… An EP of our material will appear at some point very soon. The new single is out on March 28th
