Miles East in Interview: renowned NYC session drummer turns songwriter

Miles East has spent over a decade as a top-of-the-league and in-demand session drummer in New York City. But he’s much more than that: as his recent singles and brand new album show us, he’s also a craftsman of a songwriter with a delicate touch and a voice to match. We talked to him about his music and his background.

indieBerlin: Tell us a little bit about your musical background

Miles East: I grew up in a musical family with several older brothers who were guitar-based troubadours. One, my late brother Chip, who was my first and most formidable mentor, pursued it professionally while the other two kept it as hobbies. The first musical bug to bite me, however, was drumming which I took up in elementary school. Drums quickly became the main focus in my life.

A degree in Theatre, several years of acting classes, and pounding the pavement in NYC split my focus until I finally came back fully to music in my late 20s. Up until my early 20s I harbored a secret fantasy of writing and performing my own songs but the opportunity didn’t arise until my first year out of college. I was in Milwaukee doing and acting internship with the Milwaukee Repertory Theater—I thinks it’s called The Milwaukee Rep now—where the interns’ main responsibility was to understudy the company actors for all the productions.

Days were spent observing the main company rehearsals and nights were spent in understudy rehearsals. Once the shows opened we needed to remain on call in case any actors got sick so we couldn’t really have any kind of scheduled life outside of that. Living in a new city in a tiny studio apartment and no money to rent rehearsal space meant that my drums would have to remain stowed away for the duration of my time there. With those spells of extra time on my hands I thought “now’s as good a time as any to scratch that songwriting itch” so i scraped enough money together to buy a used acoustic, bought a couple of Beatles and Eagles song books, and taught myself to play.

After I had a half dozen chords under my belt I wrote my first song. There was no turning back after that. Once I got back to New York, drumming opportunities started to come pretty fast and didn’t let up but I kept up the songwriting as well during that time. About half of my session drum work came from my label ECR Music Group, though I wasn’t signed at the time. That would come in 2015 after my producer Blake Morgan heard some of my songs. My first record Ghosts of Hope came out on ECR in 2016.

indieBerlin: How does the songwriting process work for you?

Miles East: I feel like my training as an actor helped a lot in that respect. As an actor you’re sort of trained to live in a general state of accessible melancholy, kind of living right at the edge of feeling the full weight of everything so that it’s all as available as possible when you need it.

I’m constantly fiddling around on guitar and often times I’ll stumble on a chord progression that stirs up a feeling in me so I’ll keep scratching that itch until it spawns a lyrical phrase of some kind and I start getting a sense of what the song is about. Sometimes the phrase comes first and then the music. It’s almost always about me or something I’ve gone or am going through. The artists always paints themself, right? Even if it’s a song about something or someone outside of you, it’s inevitably about your relationship to it, or them, and how you’re directly or indirectly affected by it. No matter what you’re writing about it has to be true to how you experience it and not simply your point of view.

That’s where the craft comes in. You have to sculpt it into what my favorite acting teacher called the “soulful gesture” so that as many people as possible can viscerally experience it and identify with it. I think that’s what any good song should do. It should put you right there in the song and you should be able to say “I know how that feels.” You may never have had the same experience the song paints but, like a good piece of theater or cinema, it appeals to your humanity on a visceral level.

indieBerlin: If you had to describe your music to a deaf person, what would you say?

Miles East: Hands on the shoulders of a weary soul.

indieBerlin: Tell us a secret about yourself.

Miles East: I gave it away already. I’m a trained actor.

indieBerlin: Where do you get your inspiration from?

Miles East: From dark places. So much of life is navigating, battling, negotiating, resisting darkness to try to keep it from devolving into bitterness or worse, despair. I visit my own dark places regularly so that I can try to write songs that help others navigate theirs.

indieBerlin: What was the nicest compliment you’ve ever been given?

Miles East: It was from a recent review: “If you are a singer-songwriter, measure yourself by this album. If you are not this good, you know there is work to do. If you are this good, then you are probably lying.”

indieBerlin: How do you feel about covering a song?

Miles East: Fine! My first record Ghosts of Hope has a cover song on it. I did a version of “That’s The Way” by Led Zeppelin. If your whole thing is about being an original artist, however, it’s important to come at covers the right way. Simply liking the song and thinking it would be fun to do is not a strong enough reason to record it or add it to your set. It should have strong personal meaning for you as an artist and a human being. That way, whether you decide to be true to the original or give it your own spin, you will have made it your own through your emotional connection to it.

indieBerlin: a. What is your preference and b. Where do you think the music industry is headed: NFTs, mp3s, more streaming, less streaming, CDs, vinyl, cassettes, something else entirely?

Miles East: I see no future where music moves away from streaming. The convenience and accessibility is too strong of a pull. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is still being hammered out. There’s nothing inherently bad about streaming as a technology but the major streaming services have played this in a way that has devalued music overall. Yearly or monthly subscription fees are an out-of-sight-out-of-mind experience for subscribers so music feels free even though it’s technically not and this plays on the psyche of listeners.

And, as many now know, artists being paid per stream is hugely problematic. Before streaming, listeners basically paid for access to specific music. When you bought a record (LP or 45) or cassette or CD you were paying for life-long access to that specific song or album. It was yours to listen to any time you wanted and the business model offered a much better opportunity for the listener to feel like they were getting something of value and for the artist to get paid fairly for their work. For me personally I have a deep nostalgic affection for vinyl—the way it sounds, the artwork of the packaging, the ritual of putting a record on, dropping the needle, flipping it to side two. But at the same time I’m aware that it’s a little like being into old fashioned refrigerators.

indieBerlin: How would you define indie? What do you personally think it means?

Miles East: Unfortunately “Indie” has been commodified into a fashion so what it’s come to mean to most consumers is nothing more than “cool”. What it really means is exactly what it’s short for: independent. It’s a movement response to the disillusionment with the cookie-cutter mass-appeal establishment model for what is most profitable, and instead describes a singular or small-group vision which rejects that and embraces the inherent value of what is first and foremost unique, pure, fresh, and most importantly good. The fact that the establishment has tried to commodifiy it is proof of it’s power to render value way beyond a simple profit margin.

indieBerlin: What do you like most about indieBerlin?

Miles East: It’s your commitment to what I just described. And thank you so much for that, by the way!

Find Miles East Linktree here

MILES EAST RELEASES NEW ALBUM ‘BETWEEN LIGHTNING AND THUNDER’
PRAISED BY ROLLING STONE AS “RELENTLESS WRITING AND PRODUCTION
WITH THE FORCEFULNESS AND CLARITY OF A SUPERGROUP”

East’s three lead-up singles have garnered over 300,000 streams as well as Apple
Music’s “New In Rock” editorial playlist ahead of full album release June 7th

“Miles East is a notable singer-songwriter…relentless writing and production with the
forcefulness and clarity of a supergroup.”
—Rolling Stone
“If you thought that the golden age of the singer-songwriter was a time long past, the
marvelous music of Miles East suggests that, in the circular nature of musical timelines,
another is perhaps just around the corner.”
—Big Takeover
“A musical masterpiece that transcends genres. [Miles East] walks that fine line
between joy and uncertainty with the talent and finesse you’d expect from an expert.”
—Earmilk
“Echoing the deeply nostalgic vibes of retro guitar rock and stylish pop bangers, East’s
music is a unique expression…hinting at the classic sound of pioneers like Paul
McCartney and Beck within East’s brand of indie melodic pop-rock.”
–Indie Rock (UK)
“Stunning…utterly timeless. New York City-based singer-songwriter Miles East is a truly
formidable talent.”
–Plastic Magazine
Miles East has won himself a newfound global audience ahead of the release of his new
record—Rolling Stone coverage, more than 300,000 streams for the album’s advance
singles, and a fervent fanbase on five continents have fueled the eagerly-anticipated
release of ‘Between Lightning and Thunder,’ out June 7th on ECR Music Group.