Triple j’s Hottest 100 of 2014 forged an unbreakable friendship between Australian and German folk duo, Milky Chance, with their smash hit ‘Stolen Dance’ stealing the fourth spot in the countdown. Since then singles ‘Cocoon’, ‘Doing Good’ and ‘Flash Junk Mind’ have kept the boys at the forefront of our minds and it appears that Milky Chance have been thinking about us too.
While the outfit took a 12-month break from the touring circuit, they did spend some time in Australia working on their third studio album, Mind The Moon, collaborating with none other than our own guitar guru, Tash Sultana, for spiritually soaring single, ‘Daydreaming’.
“The first time [Tash and I] met was at Groovin’ The Moo in Australia and then we got the chance to spend some time together last year in South America which was nice because they were playing Lollapalooza Festival, as we did. There were good vibes and what is also interesting about them is that they are also totally DIY and their career took off on YouTube with all of these homemade sessions and it was kind of the same for us, so we kind of have the same history which is also very nice,” explains one half of the outfit, Clemens Rehbein.
“We flew over to Melbourne and spent three and a half days in their studio and it was super nice to visit them and to see where they make the magic. But it was also tough for us because, as you can imagine, flying from Germany to Melbourne is a long distance. For four days, we were totally jetlagged. Musically though it was a nice match. They were very open-minded and they go between different genres with instrumentation like our music does, so it was very easy to work together.”
Though only here for four short days, the duo not only managed to pull together a dreamy, soul-bending piece, they even put down the grounds for their second single, ‘The Game’ in their Air BnB. The rest of Mind The Moon, however, was recorded between Germany and Norway.
“The last twelve days of recording for the album we were in Norway very high up the coast within metres to the sea. It was a stunning place, just beautiful. Everywhere that you would look out you saw the ocean and the horizon and we were just sitting there in our off time writing and while writing we realised there were a lot of metaphors that would pop up like ‘thoughts just keep on drowning in my blue mind’ [The Rush ft Témé Tan],” Rehbein explains.
“We had a great time recording the album and in the end of the process when we actually listened to all of the songs and that was the first moment where we could connect every picture of the album in one package and we were like ‘man, that’s probably the best album that we’ve done so far’. We were so happy with how it turned out.”
Australian audiences will be able to hear some of the tracks from ‘Mind The Moon’ live when Milky Chance return down under for Falls Festival, hopefully bringing their Australian festival experience full circle with a special guest appearance.
“I don’t want to tell too much but if Tash is around she will definitely jump on stage, hopefully. That’s the plan for now, never know what happens. But there is a slight chance. Australia is the first stop for us touring this album so we’re very excited! I’m already nervous!”
Falls Festival tickets are still available for the Lorne leg so grab your New Years passes at fallsfestival.com
Written by Tammy Walters