Milky Chance. Recognise the name? If it’s a new one to you, you might also be surprised to know that 50 million people have tuned in to their videos on YouTube. ‘Sadnecessary’, their debut, is by extension a very modern success story.
The German duo, Clemens Rehbein and Philipp Dausch, put the record together in Rehbein’s parents’ house and put it out on their own label last autumn, when the internet took over. They followed the release with a trek across Europe, where it became apparent that the online numbers had begun to translate into a fanbase.
Milky Chance play Latitude Festival this weekend and Reading and Leeds this summer, in addition to a stop at KOKO in Camden, and we recently caught up with Rehbein to talk web stardom, keeping things DIY and taking their music on the road.
‘Sadnecessary’ was produced at home - will that approach always be a part of the band?
Philipp and me recorded all of the songs in my parents’ house, in the room where we used to practice with our band before we had this project. We mixed all the songs in my parents’ room. We really just want to stick to that room, to my parents’ house. We’ve done some new tracks that are not on the album and we just love it there. We love working together - it’s very calm and just two guys cooking the meal. We work well together, we have the same ears.
Stolen Dance and Down By The River now have YouTube views in the millions. What was your reaction when they took off?
It was crazy. We never expected that and it’s very surprising, but I think that it’s very cool to see that self-made things can increase like this, with so many people appreciating the songs. At the beginning it was very exciting and each week we’d get more and more clicks. Sometimes we were thinking: ‘OK, now it will stop’. But it never stopped.
You only see that number on your screen and it’s very hard to imagine what’s happening if it’s just a number of clicks. The point when we realised what was really going on was the first tour we had in Germany. All the concerts that we went through were sold out. I think that was the point when we realised: ‘OK there’s something going on and maybe we can continue that’. It’s easier to imagine when you’ve got people in front of the stage enjoying your music than seeing a number of clicks.
You’re here in the UK for Latitude this weekend and then back later in the summer. How have you found playing here in the past?
We had two gigs in London, small gigs, but they were really nice. We really enjoyed playing over there. We’re very excited about a first festival over there. It’s always an adventure to got to another country, meet other people and try to spread the music. There will be a lot of people at KOKO and it’s a very nice place.
Milky Chance Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Tue August 26 2014 - LONDON KOKO
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