Miloux from Fly My Pretties
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By Stella Gardiner
New Zealand’s super group Fly My Pretties are soon to embark on a summer to of the country on the back of the recent release of their latest album, String Theory. I had a chat to one of the newest FMP members Rebecca (aka Miloux)
Hi Rebecca, it’s Stella calling from Libel Music.
Hi how are you?
I’m good thanks. Hey thanks so much for talking to me today because I know you are busy, but I think you’re probably in interview mode already aren’t you?
Yeah I just had one so I’m all ready to go.
Cool cool. So I thought we’d start off by talking a little bit about you and Fly My Pretties. Now one of the reasons I asked to interview you is because I really like your musical style and had trouble finding out a lot about how Miloux came to be. So who is Miloux and where did she come from?
Well first of all I come from quite a diverse musical background. I studied classical music as a kid; I was in a cathedral choir for years, and then did my Bachelor of Jazz at Auckland University. I was going to do a BA but got convinced to audition at the last minute, which turned out to be a really good decision. So yeah I kind of dabbled in, I was in a few rock bands at high school, that kind of thing. So my influences are really quite broad ranging I guess. But Miloux came from, when I finished university I realised I missed out on this whole new wave of really great kind of dark electronic pop music, like James Blake and Grimes, and I thought that’s what I want to do. I love this, I love the drum programming, I love the kind of produced feel of it. So yeah I decided to come up with a kind of alter ego because I’m also a very shy performer. I’ve never been and ‘in the spotlight’ kind of performer, it was always kind of a secondary thing to me so I came up with a stage name that would kind of be a more exaggerated version of myself that I could inhabit on stage, and yeah. That’s pretty much everything.
Wow, that’s a really interesting and varied background you come from
Yeah well I was definitely in a Jazz bubble for a few years
So you’re one of the newer members of Fly My Pretties. Tell me how that came about
I’m not actually sure how they scoped me out. Obviously I’m signed to Loop which is also Mikee Tucker who is one half of Fly My Pretties, so yeah I was quite surprised when I got a phone call asking if I was keen and I said yes without even thinking. I was a little surprised because my solo stuff is quite, it’s definitely pop-y but it’s quite electronic and it’s quite heavy. And you know obviously my family has all listened to Fly My Pretties for years, so I thought how’s this going to work kind of you know? But yeah no they brought on me, they got Bailey Wiley back again, A Girl Named Mo and Ills Winter and we’re all quite different artists. But it all came together in the end. I’m glad I said yes!
What was it like recording String Theory live?
It was very intense. Most of us met in Wellington for a kind of practise session a couple of months before the show and that was the first time that I’d met most of the cast. And then what we did is a week before the shows in Auckland we just had one full week of rehearsals every day until late at night, so it was very very intense. And so by the time we played live I wasn’t really thinking about it as an album recording, I was just more in the live show kind of mode; I actually forgot for most of the middle that we were recording everything. Yeah it was quite good. It wasn’t stressful in the way that you’re worrying about how the album is going to turn out because everything was very organic and it was a lot of fun.
You are touring with Fly My Pretties this summer aren’t you?
That’s right all of January I think and that’s going to be a lot of fun.
And are you starting off in the Wellington Botanic Gardens or are there shows before that?
There are a couple before that I think. We’re kind of going up and down islands and we finish in Waiheke, which is great because that’s where I am anyway so that’s going to be amazing.
You released an EP earlier this year that’s already been remixed...
That was amazing. So I released one in April this year, and we started getting a whole bunch of incredible remixes in, and so we already did the Stack & Piece one from the actual EP, which is brilliant (of Beaches) and we thought why not release the best ones in a new EP cause they’re just incredible. Yeah I’m very spoilt, they’re all incredible.
There is a lot of incredible musical talent in New Zealand right now
Oh absolutely, especially the electronic scene in New Zealand right now, there are some incredible producers. Yeah it’s a good time for me.
Speaking of incredible talent, supporting Anna Coddington on her Luck/Time tour must have been exciting. Was it just the one show?
Yeah I just did the Auckland show. And then she had Mo in Wellington and yeah different in each city. But that was great. Anna’s lovely; she’s Fly My Pretties family as well.
Did Anna take you under her wing when you joined?
Definitely! Anna wasn’t on the String Theory album tour but just recently we did a show in Dunedin at the beer festival, which was 6000 people in the stadium, which was great, and she came for that. Everyone in the Fly My Pretties cast, they really take you under their wing. They’re very nurturing. I feel like I’ve grown a lot, especially in terms of live performance. They’re all so nice!
I see you were one of the lucky recipients of recent funding from New Zealand on Air. That’s pretty huge. Do you have any plans for this?
Well I’ve almost finished my second EP, which I’ll be releasing at the beginning of next year, so the funding I’m going to use for my next music video, for my single Paris so yeah I’m doing all that at the moment which is so very fun. It is so amazing to get funding because it gives you the freedom to really let you do what you want to do in terms of videos.
I love the music video for Pocket, that was a great idea; simple yet so effective
That was a mission though, we filmed in the middle of the night had to carry all the lights and the generator, I didn’t have to carry anything but this huge crew had to carry all this equipment down this really narrow path full of gorse at about 11 pm at night in pitch black. But it turned out beautiful.
Your song Beaches was recently featured in the soundtrack for the OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) drama Queen Sugar
Yes, that was very exciting; Queen Sugar is a great show actually. Yeah that was amazing. The woman who does all the coordination found my single on Bandacmp and I got an email from her saying you know ‘I work for the Oprah network and we want to use your song’ and I thought whaaat?? This is insane, but yeah so the Internet is very, very useful!
Your Loop bio says you teach Pre-teens to find their voice. I wonder if you could elaborate for us?
Well after I finished my degree, I’m a singing teacher, that’s my day job. So I’ve finished now which is good for the year cause everyone’s focused on their exams and stuff, but yeah I teach between 8 and 18 year-olds mainly. I teach out of home so I don’t have to go in and work at a coffee shop or anything, I can kind of laze around in my leggings. Yeah it’s really fun, it’s a great job.
What was your first album?
Actually… it was the Strokes 'Is This It?' That was my first full-length album. That was a gamer-changer for me. It’s absolutely brilliant.
The Fly My Pretties – String Theory Cast is:
Barnaby Weir
Jarney Murphy (The Black Seeds)
Nigel Patterson (The Black Seeds)
Mike Fabulous (Lord Echo)
Iraia Whakamoe (The Nudge)
James Coyle (The Nudge)
Ryan Prebble (The Nudge)
Bailey Wiley
Laughton Kora
Ria Hall
Tiki Taane
A Girl Named Mo
Ills Winter
Miloux
Fly My Pretties – String Theory Tour
JANUARY
Saturday 7 Coromandel Tavern (R18)
Thursday 12 Christchurch Isaac Theatre Royal JUST ANNOUNCED
Friday 13 Upper Moutere Neudorf Vineyards
Saturday 21 Havelock North Blackbarn Vineyards
Sunday 22 Wellington Botanical Gardens
Sunday 29 Waiheke Island Cable Bay Vineyards
Tickets via CivicEvents
Tickets via CivicEvents