Accolades, accolades, accolades. MILK KAN have them churning out of their ears. Frequent big-ups by Steve Lamacq, airplay on Chris Moyles’ Breakfast Show, and support slots with the Violent Femmes and Jim Bob from Carter USM. And the list gets ever larger.
Milk Kan. Champions of the eccentric London Anti-Folk scene, practitioners of the musical DIY ethic - in the true sense - and totally unpretentious, down to Earth geezers.
W&H caught up with Simon and Jim, the founding members, in a quiet London pub, on a typically freezing winter evening. I’d turned up early, and was amused to see Jim walk straight past the pub, only to be dragged back through the front door by Simon. A couple of pints of lager into the conversation, and we officially start talking about music, the meaning behind the term ‘Anti-folk’, and Milk Kan’s general distain and fascination with the more poncy side of the music industry.
I first caught this band about two years ago, slamming the sound system for all it was worth at the Spice of Life, in Soho. Back then, they were a three-piece (since their recent deal with Pias Records, they’ve taken on a bassist to complete the quartet), but their raw energy and spiky humour is still all too potent. Fast-forward to Feb 2006 and they’ve come a long way.
They describe their sound as “Mongrel music”, a cheery mulch of
“Dungaree-wearing-jukebox-crack-spitting-blank-billboard-swinging-cheque-cashing-country-road-sweeping blues,” and funnily enough, that description hits the nail on the head.
Listening to Simon and Jim is like hearing to two cheeky schoolboys, or two brothers, finishing each others sentences, bouncing off each other and going off on mad tangents. So how did it all begin? As Simon explained in his South London affect, “About three years ago, we’d got back from travelling round Europe, and we were a bit lost really. Travelling was the best time, but the hardest, cause I can’t remember much of it.”
Jim continued, “We recorded an EP by accident really, and set it round…” “We pissed off to New York,” Simon interjected, “and stumbled across the Side Walk Café.” “Hence Anti-folk,” Jim concluded.“I didn’t know that much about music at the time,” says Simon, “But we went down really well, we kept on partying.”
Their songs contain a healthy mix of vitriol (exemplified in “Kill All A&R Men”), and sentimentality (“Without U”). “It’s just stories, innit,” says Jim.“Yeah, stories, views, opinions. I’m a massive fan of good lyricists and poetry,” Simon explained. “It’s not a ‘London’ thing at all either,” Jim went on, “It could be anywhere, you either get it or you don’t.”
Commenting on the current pretensions surrounding the music scene, which unsurprisingly, they seem at odds with, Simon explained, “In a way, we don’t really fit in here at all. We’re totally ‘Un-London’. It’s like all the right places are being poisoned by the wrong people.” “There are a million bands out there, but you always get linked with about four of the same bands,” said Jim, whilst rolling a cigarette for an old man with no teeth who was hankering after a smoke (the pub was full of them).
A perfect example of this sentiment is on their track “Kill All A&R Men”, an octane-fuelled punch between the eyes to all those over-privileged A&R tossers who litter the music scene. It’s hilarious, it’s nasty, and it’s completely accurate. “I’m sick of your nice shoes/and your trendy hairdo wax/I’m not going to change nothing/and I want my CD’s back!”
“I can’t believe they want us to record it!” says Simon, shaking his head. “Yeah, but it probably bigs up the A&R people, so rather than them getting offended by it, they just soak it up,” Jim argued.
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“I don’t care what they do with it,” Simon said. “You’ve got these geezers born with silver spoons in their mouths, you know, Daddy owns a factory. Who says they should get to say who is good or not? If you listen to every word you’re told, you wouldn’t bother doing anything.”
So true to form, Milk Kan continue to perform frequently at the various Anti-folk nights dotted around London, doing low-key gigs in venues such as the legendary 12Bar, Denmark Street, London. Recently, there has been quite a bit of confusion in the press about what ‘Anti-folk’ actually is. Especially with the apparent resurgence of Folk music (or ‘Folktronica’, ‘Nu-Folk’, or whatever awful tag name it has been allocated), the term Anti-folk has been batted about without any real understanding as to what it actually means.
On asking what they thought it represented, Simon took it upon himself to make some phone calls: “Filthy Pedro is the ringleader of the Anti-folk movement, I’ll just give him a ring and find out.” He then gave Filthy Pedro a ring, whilst Jim prepared another rolled cigarette for the toothless old man. We could hear snipits of Simon’s conversation wafting over, “No mate, we don’t want the USA version… how’s the kids? Oh yeah? Nice! Yeah, we’re in an interview right now so… ok, see ya…”
He then came back with the official definition of Anti-folk, straight from the horse's mouth:
“Anti-folk is a re-discovery of folk ethics and a reaction against the rigid genre that folk became in the 60’s. It’s about using whatever you want to tell everyday stories, valuing humour over sorrow, storytelling over technique, and personality over polish.”
That’s quite a mission statement. “Yeah, we don’t agree with that though,” laughed Simon, “We don’t’ know what he’s talking about!”
With impending success, it was inevitable that Milk Kan had to move forward from their rough-cut phase. The main change was the addition of a bassist, and a move towards a more electric sound.As Jim explained, “Of course things needed to change. All that acoustic stuff though, God I was too drunk to remember.”
“Will [the bassist] was the missing sandwich from the picnic.” Simon added, “It’s like adding flavour, like a good meal.”
“Like adding the saffron,” Jim agreed. “But Loz [drummer], he’s the backbone of Milk Kan, technically he holds everything together,” Simon pointed out.
So things are going swimmingly, they’ve recently supported the Violent Femmes, and they’re getting a lot of support from Steve Lamacq. “I met him once and chewed his ear off,”says Jim, “Obviously he gets about 1000 demos a day, so he must listen to ‘em all.”“He’s supported us loads, so there’s ‘nuff love for Steve Lamaqc,” says Simon, “Frankly I don’t really care who likes it or not, but it’s nice to know people we respect like us.”
Anytime lads, anytime.
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