The Satellite

We sat down for a bit of a chat Monday with Andrew Heringer and Graham Fink of indie-pop band Milo Greene, our February residency at the Satellite. We talked about their recent tour with Grammy winners The Civil Wars, their favorite places to eat and drink in LA, and their upcoming album. Also, the dangers of tequila and the magic of social networking.
 

Introduce yourselves! What do you play in the band?

 
AH: I’m Andrew, and I play a little of everything except for drums in Milo Greene.
GF: And I’m Graham and I also play a little bit of everything except for drums in Milo Greene. And we both sing. And we both talk about our feelings on stage.

Can you tell us about Bear Creek?

AH: It’s a recording studio we were at in Woodinville, Washington, which is about 30 minutes from Seattle, and it has this retreat vibe to it. I was posting some pictures online, and my Dad called me and said “This looks nothing like a recording studio,” and that’s kind of the cool part about it. It’s this big cabin-y home.
GF: And there’s a hot tub.

Do you think place affects your music at all? Your writing, or even the recording?

AH: Yeah, a good amount of our recording sessions have been going up to family members’ cabins and just getting away and really focusing.

So kind of the isolation of it?

AH: Yeah, and the nature aspect too.

When you’re not doing your own music, what are you guys listening to lately?

AH: Banana Splits…
GF: Well that’s technically my music.
AH: That’s his music.
GF: I made a children’s record several years ago, as did Marlana [Sheetz], we both have a former children’s music presence. Uh, we ran into the Good Old War and Anthony Green yesterday, so I spent the drive home listening to their records.
AH: I’m listening to M83, Youth Lagoon, Band of Horses,
GF: Mostly Banana Splits, which you should look up at bananasplits.com

You’re based in LA, favorite local watering hole?

GF: So many. Every Wednesday night I have a man-date with some of my best friends, where just a group of guys go and drink cheap margaritas at Barragan’s. It’s a tradition for a lot of people, but it’s more an excuse to just hang out with the boys and chat. So that’s for Wednesdays. Weekends we don’t want to go anywhere too busy, somewhere a little more low key, there’s so many good spots in the area. Edendale is a good one, the Satellite, of course…

Favorite food truck?

GF: It’s boring to say Kogi, but…it’s just so good.

If you weren’t in a band, what would you want to be doing?

GF: Professional Soccer. Next question.
AH: Really?
GF: When I was little, that was my dream growing up. I love soccer.
AH: He schooled me a lot on soccer, so I think he could make it.
GF: I don’t have the stamina for it anymore.
AH: We could work you up. I would probably be his coach.
GF: You can get me in form.

You recently went on tour with the Civil Wars, what was your favorite stop on tour?

GF: For me it was the Wiltern. I grew up in Los Angeles and I’ve wanted to play there since I was twelve, thirteen, and it was sold out and the energy was amazing, and just getting to play that venue was really something else.
AH: We had a really fun day in Montreal, because we were up in Canada and none of us had our phones on, and we found these bikes and you could ride around the city, and dock them and go explore and it is a really beautiful city.
GF: I really want them to start that in Los Angeles. A bike share.

What about worst hangover?

AH: I don’t drink so…
GF: My worst, of which there were many…I don’t know…it might have been yesterday. Most days on tour you have a whole day to recuperate for the show, but on Saturday we played in San Francisco, and we had an unbelievable show and we had to wake up at 8 or 9 to go do Daytrotter, so getting up and trying to make your voice work at 9 am with heavy equipment after…I think we drank tequila in San Francisco. I’m gonna go with that, only because it’s in recent memory.

How about weirdest or best moment on tour?

AH: We had a situation where we got a show canceled - we played a show in Birmingham, Alabama, and then the Civil Wars canceled a couple shows because they weren’t feeling well, and so we were in Birmingham going, well what do we do? And we looked at our twitter account, and someone had said, hey, come have lunch with us. And so, we’re in Birmingham, we have nothing to do, let’s go have lunch. So we showed up, and there was a group of people who were kind of surprised that we were there, they’d been at the show the night before. And we ended up hanging out with them for two or three days, and they’ve come to shows in other cities now, and kind of become friends of ours.
GF: It’s becoming kind of a routine for us, we did it in Seattle too. This girl asked us over for dinner, I don’t think thinking that we would show up at all, and we got over to the venue and said, ok we’re coming, what’s your address. And she lived like a block away.
AH: We ended up having a bonfire at her house afterwards. Twitter - connecting people.
GF: We should be in one of their commercials.

So I’m guessing you did not watch the Grammy’s, since you were driving?

GF: When I got home they were about half way done, so I got to see the Civil Wars play, did you see that Andrew?
AH: No.
GF: It was awesome. I was funny to watch them because they got to do a little bit of banter, and we saw them banter every night for the better part of two months, and they made some joke about wanting to thank everyone else for being their opening acts - you know like, Paul McCartney - and it was funny because it was the same way they would kind of mess with us every night on stage, so it was really cool to see that.
AH: He would always do this thing on stage, saying this was our last night on tour because we were playing too well and we didn’t suck enough to be the opening band.

So you have an album due out in April.

AH: Sometime in 2012…

Can you tell us anything about it?

AH: I think it’s a really, really solid set of songs. We’ve worked a really long time crafting it, but now we’re just in the mixing phase and just really making sure it’s right.

And finally, if you could play with any other act, living or dead, who would you want to do a show with?

GF: David Bowie. Living, by the way.
AH: I’d probably say Ryan Adams.
GF: Bryan Adams.

Check out Milo Greene at milogreene.com and come see them play every Monday in February at The Satellite.