MILES KANE INTERVIEW
CAMBRIDGE JUNCTION 23/10/11
By Alfi Shipp

Miles Kane is a man with a lot of experience in the music industry, his musical record shows previous for indie anthems, high profile collaborations, ridiculously catchy choruses and guitar riffs and being criminally stylish. As a guitarist for The Little Flames early on in his career, frontman of The Rascals, one half of The Last Shadow Puppets and now launching his solo career, Miles has consistently been producing top quality music of the highest order. In early May Miles released his debut solo album‘Colour Of The Trap' to vast critical acclaim and success. The album displays brilliant lyricism and ear catching 60’s Rock ‘N’ Roll vibes coupled with a handful of perfect sing-along opportunities to get the crowds excited. Since the release, he has played numerous festivals, including Glastonbury and Reading and Leeds, as well as touring with those Arctic Monkeys before launching his own headline tour earlier this month.

And now as Miles comes marching with his band towards Cambridge, I snapped up the opportunity to interview the man that everybody wants to know to discuss what he’ll be doing at the end of this tour, The Last Shadow Puppets, the dubstep revolution and this fascinatingly brilliant polka dot genre of his.

After this tour, what’s next for Miles Kane?

Well this tour ends on Wednesday, in London, and then we’re off round Europe for a bit, going to places like Belgium, Holland and France, then we’ve got something like a week off before we start touring with Kasabian so I think we’re gonna try and hit the studio.

How do you feel before going on stage, do you still get excited and nervous?

Erm, well you know, it’s the best feeling in the world, I do still get a bit nervous, but I just get really excited as well knowing that I’m gonna be playing to all these people.

Dead or alive, who would be your ultimate drinking partner?

I dunno, I’d like to go out on the razz with Al Pacino, reckon I’d get a right good buzz offa’ that!

I recently saw you at Reading Festival, and you were absolutely fantastic, easily one of my highlights of the weekend and I can’t wait to see you again tonight, but how do you take a brilliant record, and emulate that brilliance into a fantastic live performance?

Yeah it was a great show weren’t it! It was bouncin’ even though it was so early on! Yeah well it was weird, because when we first started playing it live with the band we started out with just a 3 piece and they were some mates of mine that I’d known from a while back, and we hadn’t practiced it at all, like, not even in a rehearsal studio or anything, but eventually it all just came together y’know, and we’ve properly got it together!

If you had to, what genre what you class yourself as?

Erm, modern, rock, pop, mod, polka dot. Polka dot haha. I’m not too sure really.

If you got a call from Simon Cowell or whoever, asking if an X-factor contestant could cover, record and release one of your tunes, how would you respond?

What like, to say release Rearrange as a single? Fuck it why not?! I’d buy a fuck off massive house! Use two of the tracks!

Chips or cream buns?

Chips. I’m not really too fond of cream. No, I don’t like cream.

You’ve recently been tagged as “the most stylish man in Britain” and “the sexiest man in Britain” and even Arctic Monkey’s “best dressed friend”. Do you have a style icon? And any tips for our readers?

Fucking ‘ell who’s tagged me as that?! Well, I’ve always loved clothes since I was younger, I think it’s about like being yourself, but still looking sharp y’know, like combining the two. Like obviously you’re not gonna go round wearing a suit all the time are ya? That’d be silly. I suppose there’s French artists like Jacques Dutronc who have an influence, but I just like to do my own thing, y’know.

You’ve worked with some great names, Clémence Poésy (Fleur Delacour of Harry Potter) and Noel Gallagher provided vocals on the album, Gruff Rhys, Sean Bonniwell and Alex Turner all have writing credits on the album; you’ve collaborated with Turner in The Last Shadow Puppets, toured and performed with Arctic Monkeys and are set to tour with Kasabian as well, how do these things come about?

I dunno really, I’ve worked hard throughout my career, and these things have just happened really. I’m enjoying it a lot!

Have we seen the last of the shadow puppets?

No, we’ll be back. He’s my brother, y’know. But they’ve got their own thing going on at the moment and so have I. So it won’t be for a little while, but it will happen, when the time is right. When we both have the time.

I recently discovered a dubstep remix of Rearrange, by Skream, how did that come about? What do you think of the remix, and that type of music?

Well I’d met him before and he was a really nice fella, and he surprised me because he said like, I’m a big fan, he knew a lot about rock ‘n’ roll music. And then the next time I met him he asked if he could do a remix, and I just said yeah do it! I can’t say I’m really a fan of the whole dubstep thing, I don’t really understand it, it’s not my thing really.

https://www.mileskane.com/

Thanks to Miles for his time and Alex Fordham at Authority Communications for fixing things up

Read Alfi's review of the gig here