MILLY: “We’re really trying to perfect our live set.” (7/27 at UT w/ Fiddlehead and 10/5 at The Fillmore w/ Balance and Composure)

“We’ve never gotten to play venues this big…  We’re the first band on these bills, so we feel like we’ve really got to bring our A-game,” says Brendan Dyer,...

“We’ve never gotten to play venues this big…  We’re the first band on these bills, so we feel like we’ve really got to bring our A-game,” says Brendan Dyer, founder and mainman of LA alt-rockers MILLY, who are about to embark on two pretty massive tours.  Just after a headlining show in Brooklyn on July 24th, they’ll kick off nine dates supporting post-hardcore supergroup Fiddlehead and prodigious New Jersey hardcore newcomers GEL (including a July 27th stop at Union Transfer), before embarking on another nine dates throughout early October opening for local(ish) alternative legends Balance and Composure and indie singer/songwriter Kevin Devine.

“I’ve definitely been a fan of Fiddlehead for a minute, and the same thing goes for Balance and Composure.  I’ve been listening to them for at least a decade,” Brendan tells me of his upcoming headliners during a 4th of July Google Meet.  He also says these bands have been giving him some extra motivation to take MILLY’s live show to the next level: “We’re really trying to perfect our live set…  We try to do a good balance of playing the songs super tight and concise, and giving the audience the feeling of, ‘What’s gonna happen next?’”

MILLY will be touring in support of Your Own Becoming, the band’s sophomore full-length, which dropped last month courtesy of Dangerbird Records and has been earning praise from the likes of Rolling Stone, NPR, and Stereogum, who have been drawing a plethora of comparisons to a plethora of subgenres and stars of ‘90s alternative rock, with AV Club alone citing Hum, Catherine, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Belly.

“The only one that we get that I don’t really like is ‘shoegaze,’” Brendan tells me of recent commentary on the band, although he says that he feels as though these days that seems to be used as an umbrella term for almost all of the “indie” and “alternative” sounds of the period.  He does admit, however, that that is, indeed, his favorite era of music, naming Jimmy Eat World, Failure, and Nirvana as some of his biggest influences.  He also tells me that he’s a big fan of, “’90s emo, as niche as it gets and as top-of-the-list as it gets,” listing Boilermaker and Vitreous Humor as some less-than-household-names that have inspired him.  But he does confess that while working on his latest music, he embraced inspiration from far more popular sources: “I made a playlist of like ‘Top Hits of the ‘90s,’ with ‘Closing Time’ by Semisonic, and that song ‘Flagpole Sitta,’ and a few songs from Goo Goo Dolls.”

The songs of Your Own Becoming were born at a time of personal crisis for Dyer, who’s suffered from anxiety for the majority of his life.  In an effort to process his emotions and care for his mental health, the songwriter decided to embark on long walks every morning, which allowed him to better focus on what he wanted to do with his music.  “I think there was more thought put into everything, across the board…  I was way more in touch with myself and what I was trying to say, and I was way more intentional with what I wanted to do musically.”

Your Own Becoming also represents a sort of reinvention of MILLY, which was first conceived as a solo project in 2018, four years before the release of their full-length debut, 2022’s Eternal Ring.  However, for the follow-up, bassist Yarden Erez and drummer Connor Frankel became a more integral part of the recording process (Current guitarist Nico Moreta joined MILLY after the album was recorded.)  “Now, everyone cares more…  Everyone was held accountable for building things up together,” Dyer tells me, even going on to admit, “For the first record, we didn’t really rehearse that much before recording.”

Although MILLY are about to embark on their biggest dates yet, they have already had some notable career highlights.  “We’ve had some fun milestones, like our tour with Swervedriver a few years ago and our first real headlining shows in LA and New York, and also putting this album out and the way that we made it, in EastWest Studios, where Rick Rubin recorded with bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Audioslave,” Dyer tells me.  And when I ask what the future holds for MILLY, after their current dates wrap in mid-October, he says he’d love to continue doing more of the same: “Hopefully, more touring.  We’re hoping to go overseas next  year, but nothing’s planned…  And we’ve already started work on the next album.”

*Get your tickets for 7/27 at Union Transfer here.

**Get your tickets for 10/5 at The Fillmore here.

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During the day Izzy Cihak teaches transgression, subversion, and revolution at Temple University. At night he haunts Philthy's best venues to cover worthwhile acts for Philthy Mag. Morrissey is everything to him and, in their own heads, all of his friends see themselves as Zooey Deschanel.

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