Sitdown with Millionyoung

Photo by Natalie Bojorquez/FIUSM 

Junette Reyes/Entertainment Director

Diego Saldaña-Rojas/Staff Writer 

In collaboration with WRGP Radiate FM’s program titled Local Radiation, FIUSM has had the chance to interview several up-and-coming as well as established acts in the Miami scene. Some of these artists include Panic Bomber, Smurphio from the local electronic funk band known as Afrobeta, Jean Jacket, The Cornerstoners, Flight Williams from the collective rap group known as Outta This World, Juan Turros and Michelle Forman of ¡Suénalo!, DJ and producer Jesse Perez and The Halfways.

This time around, FIUSM got to sit down and interview members Kristof Ryan and Mike Diaz of the indie/electronic duo music act known as Millionyoung.

What is the story behind the name?

Mike: It’s been around for a while. It’s the name of a song from American Analog Set, a band that I used to like in high school. I mean I still like them.

Kristof: We love them.

Mike: The name kind of stuck. Just the way the word sounds. It’s not too deep of a meaning. It rolls off the tongue well.

 

What sounds or genres tend to seep into your music?

Mike: We’re definitely influenced by a lot of funk, house and soul music.

Kristof: What tends to be where we go to when we try to find inspiration is the older soul music.

Mike: That vibe, but I guess we also try to do it with our own palette of sounds that we’ve been tweaking over the years.

 

What artists do you keep going back to as an influence?

Kristof: Stevie Wonder with “Innervisions” constantly. That’s one of the greatest albums ever written. For me, whenever I need to go back and find something, I can definitely find something within that album.

Mike: For something more contemporary, we sound a lot like ___. That’s a big one. Especially with the way they do their vocals, it’s very atmospheric. Almost more like an instrument than actual singing, I guess.

 

How is your live setup?

Mike: It’s mostly magic. But really, it’s electronic. We don’t really loop so much. There are some samples but we play as much of it as we can with four hands.

 

Is there any new material you guys are currently working on or are ready to release?

Mike: Yeah, a lot. We put out the last album, which was “Variable,” last February I think, so it’s almost a year now. Since that, we’ve just been working on new material. We have a new Millionyoung EP that we just finished doing all the recording and mixing and all that like last week. So that’s definitely coming up soon. That’ll be in the summer when it comes out. We also have a new project coming out that we’ve been working on together. It’s called “Chévere.” We’ve got like a full length for that.

Kristof: It just kind of happened actually, in the process of working on the EP.

Mike: We would work on the EP and then when we needed to take a break, we would end up still working on another project. It’s like taking a break from making music to make more music.

Kristof: It’s hard to stop.

 

Tell us more about the side project “Chévere.”

Mike: Chévere is kind of a state of mind.

Kristof: Yeah, it’s definitely a state of mind. It’s kind of almost like if J Dilla made disco music, I guess. That’s the way I think about it. That’s our main inspiration for what we do when sample stuff but kind of chopped with a groove. Lot of MPC drums but that mixed with disco and a funk vibe.

 

When did you guys start being involved in music?

Kristof: I think I was about 11 or 12 when I initially started working on music.

Mike: I was probably around 11 or 12 as well but that was around middle school, playing the clarinet and stuff like that. That’s so important and I liked it.

How did you meet to form the band?

Mike: I’ve been friends with his brother Evan who is actually in that band Wake Up. They’re on the road right now.

Kristof: They’re on the road right now with Surfer Blood and they’re on their way back.

Mike: I was friends with him. I used to skate with him all the time. So we met through his brother. I’ve played in his bands and then we started doing this together about two years ago now.

 

You worked on a track called “Capn Hook” with another band recently. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Kristof: That’s actually a remix for our friends from Krisp, another local band. They asked us for a remix and this is something we did that we’re actually very pleased with.

Mike: It happened fast. We heard the song and we knew we wanted to deal with it.

 

Can you give us a bit of background on other tracks, like “Hammock”?

Mike: “Hammock” is kind of weird hearing it now since I wrote it back when I was in high school. It was around 2005 or 2006 since at least. It didn’t get released until I started doing Millionyoung. It wasn’t a Millionyoung song when it was written. That’s got some time on it.

Kristof: It’s vintage.

 

How do you come together to create your music?

Kristof: We’re actually on a pretty strict schedule to tell you the truth. We’re really serious about what we do. It’s a tight regimen. Throughout the week, we have a time that we start and it’s usually earlier in the day and we’ll go on until 12 or one in the morning.

Mike: We start around 2, three o’clock or noonish.

Kristof: We just work on a daily basis. If we didn’t, we probably wouldn’t come up with anything fresh or new or interesting because it’s the process that we’re in love with. It isn’t a labor. It’s a labor of love all the time.

Mike: And even if we get tired of working on one thing or we just get exhausted, we end up working on something else and then come back to it about a week later.

Kristof: We have a way of keeping it fresh and continuing to work. We get excited every day for some reason.

 

Are there any recurring themes in your music such as the city?

Kristof: In a way, yeah.

Mike: It finds its way in there.

Kristof: It’s definitely…it’s always some kind of groove, I guess. Feeling some kind of vibe into what we’re doing.

Mike: Time travel, that’s a theme.

Kristof:  A big theme in space. We like space.

Mike: Space is cool.

Kristof: Space is rad.

What do you think of the local music scene?

Mike: It’s great. We’re of the mindset with what we do, we always want to keep doing better regardless of whether we were satisfied with the last thing we did.

Kristof: Even if it means pulling out old projects and editing them to make them better or make them sound cleaner, going through each instrument to make sure it’s clear.

Mike: There’re definitely a lot of new things. Like 3 Points, like we were talking about before. That’s happening again this year and we’re excited about that. Especially the Wynwood area and downtown, like all f that, that’s usually where us and all of our friends play too. Krisp has been doing really great; they’ve been doing a lot of stuff. That’s who we just did the remix for. And Jean Jacket, our friend Harlowe has brilliant music he’s working on. It’s great having more bands pop up that we can talk to and bounce ideas off of each other.

Kristof: Especially Afrobeta, Afrobeta is amazing. They do a great job. We love working with them. We try to keep it like a little family down here.

Mike: Everybody is doing their own thing to some extent. It’s coming together, though. Everyone’s sound is different. There’s not like a specific sound, I would say, but our music does get along well.

Kristof: We work together for shows and everything. Everyone has fun. It’s always a party when we play with Jean Jacket, Krisp and all of them.

junette.reyes@fiusm.com 

diego.saldana@fiusm.com 

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