Artist You Should Know: Milestones
Interview & Words by Ashley Altus
Five-piece pop-punk/alternative rock band Milestones can’t stop breaking barriers. Signed to their dream label, Fearless Records, the teenagers embark on their longest tour yet across the United Kingdom on the Modern Synthesis Tour with Area 11 and Falls. With heavy influences from fellow pop-punk British scene dominators Neck Deep and You Me At Six, the band just released their debut EP, Equal Measures.
The band hit another accomplishment earlier this month when “Call Me Disaster” played on BBC Radio 1, which vocalist Matthew Clarke describes as a dream come true for him and the band. The success for Milestones keeps building, and Clarke says he wants the band to continue to strive forward. “Our main milestone is always what’s next,” Clarke says. Listeners have five songs from Equal Measures to get a taste of the potential packed in these fresh-faced scene up-and-comers.
So how did Milestones form?
We formed from being serious members in non-serious bands. We all came together with the collective effort to become a band that gives a shit and works damn hard to get where they want to be from the very start. I worked as a promoter in Manchester at the time so the guys knew me from there. Andy and Drew were already friends so we started jamming and it clicked. Mark then joined and later Eden and the lineup was complete.
Because you used to manage and book bands, how do you think your knowledge of the music industry affected the success of your band?
It helped us a lot. We had tours booked and toured before we’d even released an EP, which generated a huge momentum for when it was released. It helped the organization and the bigger picture. Everyone in the band has a great mentality and a clear vision. I think the initial plan I drew up for the band helped steer that. We created a month-by-month plan/budget from our inception, and we stuck to it and reached our goal of being signed in the time we’d planned. It was really cool to see it paying off for a bunch of teenagers.
Milestones just released its first EP! Can you describe the writing process for taking on this endeavor?
It was weird. We wrote the first half (“Nothing Left” and “Equal Measures”), and that was on the EP when it was originally released, recorded when we were all 17. Flash-forward to the most recent songs and we were almost 19—writing style completely changed. It was a bit everywhere, but it shows a clear progression in our abilities as writers in the space of a year.
What were some challenges in creating Equal Measures?
Because Equal Measures was written over the course of a year, whilst also writing for the album, the biggest challenge was actually getting better as musicians and having to choose whether we wanted to move away from our sound previously. I think we stuck with the style that we liked the most, and I think that stuck quite well!
How do you think the music from the EP inspired the album art?
The album artwork is more inspired by the name of the band. Taking a leap of faith and trying to catch the things that might not seem as obvious or safe, hence why the feathers are on the strings all around.
What inspired the lyrics for the song “Nothing Left,” and what do you want fans to take away from the lyrics of your music?
It was during a time when someone left me when I needed them the most. The song is about being let down by someone you never thought would, did. It’s about that process of heartache and trust.
Just know it’s okay not to be okay. Don’t force life, everything comes in equal measures, and you should learn to take what comes. Be whom you want, do what you want, live how you want.
How do you think Milestones has differentiated itself in the over-saturated pop-punk genre?
I’d say our sounds are a modernized version of 2005 to 2008 pop-punk: Yellowcard, Mayday Parade, Cute Is What We Aim For, You Me At Six. We don’t class ourselves as pop punk because I think pop-punk has changed. If you’d of asked us if we were pop punk based on what pop punk was five to ten years ago then we’d of said yes, but nowadays pop punk is much heavier, less melodic and more trashy. We have elements of emo, pop and rock, not much punk at all.
