Milo Greene
Milo Greene is Los Angeles based quintet with Robbie Arnett, Graham Fink, Andrew Heringer, and Marlana Sheetz sharing lead and backing vocal duties (often switching between instruments) and Curtis Marrero on percussion. Their band name comes from a fictitious booking agent they concocted to help them get gigs in the early days of playing shows.
Developing over a span of four years, the band started out when Marlana Sheetz, Andrew Heringer and Robbie Arnett met when going to college at the University of California, Irvine in 2007. Graham Fink crossed their paths in 2009, with Curtis Marrero rounding out the group in 2011.
When Andrew Heringer, Robbie Arnett and Marlana Sheetz wrote their first official song ‘Autumn Tree’ in 2010 they had a notion that this band was something special. Milo Greene truly became official in early 2011 when they drew the attention of the Chop Shop/Atlantic Records’ A&R division after performing gigs all around LA area, which then led to their first national tour in support of The Civil Wars that fall.
Their self-titled debut album was release via Chop Shop/ Atlantic Records on July 16, 2012. They have since had performances on The Late Show with David Letterman (July 25, 2012), at Lollapalooza in August, and on Conan O’Brien (Sept. 9, 2012) along with many other festivals.
Currently they are out on a headline tour (March 1-30) with select dates in support of Stars (March 22-26). They will head to perform at the Wakarusa Music Festival May 30 and 31, and then at Bonnaroo June 13-15.
Early on, the band acknowledged their love for film scoring and started creating music they could potentially see being placed in movies and TV which generated their distinctive Cinematic-Pop sound. Then on May 3, 2012 one of their songs officially appeared on Grey’s Anatomy.
Keeping in their cinematic ways, on October 6th, 2012 Milo Greene released their short film entitled MODDISON that was filmed across a span of five days at a cabin on Shaver Lake in California. The movie, was written entirely by the band and directed by Chad Huff, consists of a series of individual music videos for every song on their debut self-titled album that, when played in album order, make up the film.
SONGS TO LISTEN TO: 1957, Cutty Love, Don’t You Give Up On Me, Take A Step
Interview with Andrew Heringer. Photography by L Gray (Liza Boone)
Can you describe your path to becoming a musician? How did you know you wanted to be a musician?
I feel really lucky in that I knew from an early age that I wanted to be a musician so the path was pretty straightforward. I had a lot of time in my teen years to practice and explore different genres and avenues. I have played in rock bands since I was in 12 years old as well I’ve been in musicals, orchestras, jazz bands, choirs, etc.
Before Milo Greene came together, you had recorded two solo albums; the live “Paradise Sessions” and “Under California Skies.” However you, and also Robbie, actually went to school for film, what made you two choose to go the musician route?
Robbie and I met in 2003 when we were both studying theater. Going into college, I made the decision to focus on theater instead of music because for me playing music professionally comes back to storytelling and keeping an audience’s attention. It’s one thing to play really technically difficult music but it’s another to make somebody feel an emotion thru your music. Personally, I feel some of the theater directing classes that I took in college prepared me better for a career in songwriting and recording/mixing then studying music would have.
Do you think you’ll eventually work in the film industry?
I’d love to write music for film. I did a lot of sound tracking work for theater over the years – I would play live by the side of the stage and interact with the actor/soundtrack the play. I feel like film work would be a great combination of that and the recording we have done with Milo.
How did Milo Greene come together? Would you say it was an organic union, or were you all looking to start a band?
It was very organic. We were all in other bands at the time. Marlana and I were in a band at the time and Robbie and I had started trading songs, lyrics and demos together online. We decided to meet for a week and record some music together. Out of that session came the version of Autumn Tree that is on the album. 5 months later we did another session – and by the end of that we knew that the music we were creating together spoke to us in a way that the music we were creating with our current bands hadn’t. A few months later we all left our other bands to do Milo full time. We weren’t looking to start another band but the most kind of forced us into it.
At what point did music transition from being a hobby to a career?
I was touring and putting out albums in college starting in 2004. Right out of college, I moved to Northern California and jumped right into making a career of music. It was very DIY – I was doing everything from booking shows to coding HTML on the website – but I learned a lot in that period of time about the business aspect of music.
The debut album was written, and recorded in a very collective way. What’s the writing process like? Is it an individual thing that comes together over time, or is it a group effort?
The writing comes in every way you can think of and I think that’s what’s great about having so many songwriters together. A song can come from any combination of us. Two people, Three people, One person – or one person writes lyrics and another writes melodies. Really any combination you can think of – it’s happened. As a solo songwriter – there were times where I’d get stuck and not know how to finish a song – but in Milo I have a group of people who I really respect and trust who can help flush out a song.
All of the songs off of the debut album have a very imaginative/dreamy vibe, are there any interesting backstory’s in how the songs came to be?
I think that is what grabbed us about the music. The dreaminess. The haunting qualities. None of the music we had made previously had that emotional tone – but when we all came together to make music – all of our individual influences pulled at each other and we ended up with Milo.
You all wrote the record having never played as a band live. Now when playing live you all take turns with every instrument, since you also have four key singers do you think this is what makes you all stand apart from any others bands nowadays?
It definitely provides our own twist to the live show. The switching of instruments was something that just happened – we didn’t set out to do that every song. Sometimes a song would just feel best with certain people playing certain instruments even though we were all playing the same parts.
To celebrate the UK release of the album, you all embarked on your first-ever UK tour in January. How did that tour go? What was your most memorable night?
The tour was great. I had never been across the Atlantic before so to be 1/3 of the way around the world and play for full rooms of people every night who knew the words of our music was totally surreal. We did two sold out nights in a beautiful old church in London, the foundation of which was built in the third century. Those shows were really special for us. It really hit home how far our music had gotten out into the world.
If you could go anywhere in the world, where’s one place you would like to either play a show at again, or play it for the first time?
I grew up in Northern California going to shows at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. I would love to play there.
Originally when you all started this band you wanted to create music that you could potentially see being placed in movies and TV, describing your music as ‘cinematic pop’. What prompted this?
The description came after we had started to record the music. We felt all these different landscapes from song to song and the cinematic qualities.
Soundtracks are what make ok movies great movies! What are some of your favorite soundtracks?
The Soundtrack for “Mermaids” starring Cher. My mom used to play that all the time when I was growing up.
You did your first national tour in support of The Civil Wars, you have been a guest on David Letterman, and you’ve played Lollapalooza. Have you had a “we’ve made it” moment yet?
It’s really easy to get swept up in the daily grind of being a musician and forget how far we’ve come. For me it’s the feeling of showing up in a town that I’ve never been to before and having a room full of people there. Like in Reno a few weeks ago. Or in Pittsburg last night and Cleveland tonight – both of which are sold out. I spent years driving around and playing for a handful of people each night so it really means a lot to have the music received like it has been.
What was it like to perform on Letterman last year? Have you watched that performance yourself?
We had driven from Washington, DC after a show the night before and to load in at 4am at Letterman. All of us were on 2 hours of sleep for our national TV debut. The mixture of lack of sleep, the freezing cold studio and TV debut made for a surreal experience. The show is taped in the afternoon and airs in the evening. My dad flew out from California to see the show and we watched it together that night back in the hotel room. Was special to share that moment with him that evening.
Do you have like a pre-performance pump up ritual?
We have a group song with extremely inappropriate lyrics.
Milo Greene is a very D.I.Y. band which in turn creates a very close knit project; the guy who starred in Moddison is actually your roommate, the cabin in the movie actually belongs to your family, and the cover of your album is an artwork that’s in his house. Why do you think it’s important for all artists (musical or not) to have a D.I.Y. attitude?
All those aspects just make it more fun and personal for us. We recorded a lot of the music up at the cabin so it seemed natural to film up there too – and it was a free location which didn’t hurt either. The album art hangs in the house where we wrote a number of these songs – so again it’s more of a personal connection for us to enjoy.
You’re all about to play a mixture of headline dates and shows with Stars, including two nights at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, NY (March 8 & 9). What are you most looking forward to?
The last few nights we’ve been playing shows in towns we’ve never been to before – Hoboken, NJ; Pittsburgh, PA; Cleveland, OH. Coming to these towns for the first time and playing for a room full of people is one of my favorite feelings. I always say to myself – “We’ve never been here!! What are all these people doing here?!?”
It has been announced that Milo Greene is playing Bonnaroo, what are you most excited about this festival? What bands are you most looking forward to see play?
PAUL MCCARTNEY! TOM PETTY! WILCO!
What’s a song that you wish you’d written?
White Daisy Passing by Rocky Votolato.
Last question, now that it’s 2013 has everyone started thinking about what’s coming next, or are you just focused on getting through this touring cycle?
We are eager to start recording and writing again – which will start happening in April. I really like touring and traveling and getting the music to new people but I love making records.
