Manchester has a well-known history of music, however, Milestones give a different perception of the city. As vocalist Matt Clarke sat down with us at Webster Hall in New York, as the band are supporting Mayday Parade on their tour, he talks about the lack of local music scene that drove the group to drive straight into touring elsewhere. Having signed to an American label, the groups blend of alternative and pop-punk is well fitted to an American crowd.

Speaking of their time in America, Clarke explains that this tour has been a big step up. “It’s crazy, just to be in America is surreal in itself. It’s a nice thing as a musician to be recognized in that way. We got an American label, American managers and our music, I think, is more fitting to an American crowd than it is British so I think it was always meant to be that we were going to come over to America..” The label Clarke mentions is Fearless Records, home to an abundance of talent – including Mayday Parade, Pierce The Veil, and Real Friends.

Speaking of the music scene back home, Clarke elaborates on what he meant by fitting into an American genre more. He explains that Milestones’ sound is more reminiscent of older American pop-punk as opposed to the new-wave of Pop-punk that is currently taking over the UK. “The scene [back home] is quite bad in all honesty.” He explains, “It went really good for metal for a bit, generally it’s good for indie music if anything. But even then, there’s not really a scene. There’s not a scene where kids will come to and support a band. That only really exists in the metal scene. Which is upsetting, we started as a band for that reason. Our first show was in Manchester, then our next ten were outside – we went straight for touring. We were just like, ‘There’s not a local scene here for us to grow in’ – most band start growing their fan-base (at home) and then expand outside. But we wanted to go straight to touring.”

With the lack of scene, Clarke explains that bands helping each other out is less common back home than you might expect. “It’s weird because, you look at the Australian scene and everyone is friends because they’re Australian. In America, I feel like it’s so big that there might be friends on the East Coast and West Coast (…) In the UK, what’s crazy is because it’s so small and there’s not really a scene... Nobody goes out of their way to be like ‘I’m gonna throw this band a bone because they’re English’.”

 

When it came to creating a band, then, Milestones met as relative strangers with the intention of making music. “I feel like we’d already tried it in other bands,” Clarke explains, “like being friends and gone down that route and people were either not good enough musicians, not taking it seriously, in the musical or personal sense. In this band, we all came together with the sole purpose of making this a career.”

Although they didn't know each other, Clarke feels that their decisions showed that they would be compatible. “I feel like even though that’s a business mentality, it says a lot about someone’s personality if they’re willing to drop everything and make this their whole lives. Especially nowadays when music doesn’t really make that much money – I feel like we were always meant to be friends. Actually, Mayday started out the same way – they were two separate bands and they forged and made it one band.”

Their inception was about two years ago, Clarke explains how it wasn't necessarily a quick process, but that's not something that necessarily bothers Milestones. “It started slow. I don't feel like we are the hype band. People found out because we work hard, we go on tour a lot. It's been a slow thing but I feel like the bands who end up with the strongest fan-base are the ones who grow with the fan-base.”

Having finished the album, now it's just a matter of choosing the right moment to release it. “We're hoping end of the year, if not early next year – we just need to pick the right time. We spent this much time touring on the EP, we've put the work in to get the songs right, it would be a shame to rush it and if it doesn't go well at least we know we've done everything we could.”

As for recording the album, Clarke explains how much he enjoyed the process. “I actually prefer recording than I do playing! They're both completely different experiences. What I love about touring is that I'm not at home thinking ‘oh, this isn't going anywhere’. It's the kind of pedsonality I am I need to see progress all the time and when you're writing it's hard to see past that. [Whereas] when you're touring you see it every single day. At the same time, writing is the reason we do this, we love writing.”

Until the release of their debut album, you can enjoy listening to their EP 'Equal Measures'. Milestones are heading out on a co-headlining UK tour next month with The Gospel Youth.