Dubbed “one of Britain’s landmark composers” by MOJO, 26-year-old intrepid rock ‘n’ roller Miles Kane has gone from selling out Water Rats to winning over crowds at major UK and international festivals.
Dapper of suit and young Macca of hair, he’s been capturing the nation’s hearts, souls and minds since May 2011, after storming the scene with acclaimed solo debut ‘Colour of the Trap’. One of the biggest selling debut LPs of that year – and one which would curry favour with critics and fans alike – it cemented Miles’ fate as a new British musical institution.
Produced by Dan Carey in South London and Dan the Automator in San Francisco – to give his rhythm tracks a hip hop undertow – the album earned him endless plaudits – including 4* reviews from the NME, The Times, The Independent, the Guardian, Q and MOJO – and peaked at No.11 in the UK Charts.
He became one of 2011’s success stories, nominated for Breakthrough Act at the MOJO Awards that year, and for Best Solo Artist at the NME awards 2012, as well selling out two headline tours and providing special guest support to Beady Eye, Kasabian and the Arctic Monkeys at their momentous hometown Don Valley Bowl shows.
But now let’s dip into the recent past. Aged 18, Kane was a member of The Little Flames. In 2007, from the embers of that band he formed The Rascals. He first met Alex Turner when The Rascals supported the Sheffield four-piece the same year. He spent most of 2008 playing and touring with the Arctic Monkeys frontman as The Last Shadow Puppets, in support of their Mercury-nominated album ‘The Age Of The Understatement’.
Fast forward to 2010 and Miles had some smartly simply ideas about his first solo album. "When you've been in a band with your best mates, like I was, you've had your posse," he says. "Even with the Puppets I'm with Al and he's my partner. But doing this, at first it was a bit daunting - that whole thing of you doing it all, calling the shots, or whatever. You're not bouncing off anyone. That," he admits, "took a while to get used to."
P.T.O
The Liverpool lad - half boy-next-door, half charisma-firework, all instantly loveable star quality, and now a seasoned, captivating frontman - went into The Kinks' famed Konk studios in north London. He was accompanied by Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals. They quickly wrote and recorded four tracks, including the turbulent moody blues of Kingcrawler.
Over the succeeding months Kane would trade musical favours with Noel Gallagher, recruit Joan Of Arc on guest vocals, tip his hat to John Lennon, hymn the praises of Marc Bolan, try to evoke the memory of Serge Gainsbourg, and get by with a little help from his best friend. But, most of all, be his quick-witted, twinkle-eyed, ragingly talented self.
Now nearly a year and a half later and his jitters have settled down – he has grown into a fine figure of a Grade A singer-songwriter.
Working with Rhys, who supplied backing vocals across the album, was the perfect launch point for Kane's solo aspirations. "I can't speak highly enough of that guy. He's just a fucking diamond."
After the exploratory Konk sessions, Kane bunkered down with producer Dan Carey (Franz Ferdinand, Hot Chip) in Streatham, south London, for four weeks. He then headed to San Francisco to the studio of Dan The Automator. The man who'd worked with Gorillaz and Kasabian helped out with additional production on the lithe, lean Sixties R&B/funk of ‘Come Closer’, the zippily infectious ‘Rearrange’, ‘Counting Down The Days'’ psych-groove and the skippy ultra-pop of ‘Quicksand’.
‘Better Left Invisible’, meanwhile, opens with a direct and purposeful reboot of the riff from ‘Cold Turkey’. Miles Kane is too honest to ape every other Beatles-loving upstart and try a sneaky, wan facsimile of Fab Four gold. His enthusiasms are upfront and balls-out. Not least because he has the songwriting skills that can take one of the most famous riffs of all time and craft a wholly new song from those foundations. He's also too honest to claim all the credit for the song: Alex Turner, his best mate, helped out on lyrics, as he did on two or three other songs too; Turner and Kane also collaborated on both music and words on Telepathy.
Noel Gallagher's contribution, to ‘My Fantasy’, a thrillingly modern T-Rex nod, came about after the Manc elder statesman asked Kane to play on his first post-Oasis album.
"And when I was there in the studio I was playing Noel the monitor mixes of my songs. And he said he loved ‘My Fantasy’. And when we were mixing I was gonna do my own harmonies, and I texted Noel: 'would you be up for doing the harmonies on that track you liked? It could be the icing worrit needs.' And he just texted back: 'icing is what I do very well!' So he came in and we just had a ball for an afternoon."
P.T.O ‘Colour of the Trap’, meanwhile, was one of the earliest written for the album. "The melody has a bit of Ben E. King's Spanish Harlem, but I didn't want it to be to cheesy and fast. And 'cause I've been on this Lennon vibe, we did it like Mother, real slow. And the idea of 'colour of the trap' – I can't even remember where that line came from but lyrically you can read whatever you want to read into it."
Then there's ‘Rearrange’, a finger-snapping instant classic complete with guitar effects of which Joe Meek would be proud - a reference Kane happily accepts. "A friend of mine did say it was like the modern day Telstar in a weird way."
Meanwhile, ‘Come Closer’ is “a bit sexy, sleazy, cool guitar, good vocal, sort of 'aving it as well. And it's catchy."
‘Happenstance’ (breathy, psychedelic rom-pop) features another guest: French actress Clémence Poésy, best known for In Bruges and playing a magic Gallic fox in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire. "I wanted to do a duet anyway 'cause I was listening to loads of Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra - oh, I've been murdering that," he says with typical buzzing enthusiasm. "I'd love to do a record like that one day."
Kane also had it in mind to recreate the ambience captured by Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot on their Sixties musical collaborations. Then a French executive at his label happened to meet Poésy at an event in Paris. "They got chatting about me. He came back and said, 'would you do it with this actress?'"
The exec explained that she was currently filming the lead role in a new big screen telling of the doomed life of Joan Of Arc. "And I was like, 'well, can she sing?' She seems sound, she's Joan of Arc - if she can sing, I'm going along and I'm not gonna argue!' And," he says with a gleam, "she can, so we did it, and it was amazing."
‘Inhaler’ is typical Kane, a man who loves Sixties music but is never slavishly in thrall to anything. He's taken the ideas and feel of music he loves, and spun it into something new, fresh, personal and joy-filled.
Miles continues his on the national psyche this year with a highly anticpated new album and new rip-roaring single – ‘First Of My Kind’, out April 21st.
"At the end of the day I've worked hard to get to this point. This is me, my heart and soul. It's been a long journey. As a kid, you know, you dream of the opportunity to do a record on your own. Now I've done that. I am very lucky and do appreciate that.”
Miles Kane headline UK tour starts April 20th and takes in 8 dates, including London’s Forum on the 28th.
www.mileskane.com