Today marks the release of Rose Water, the debut EP from Melbourne based hip hop duo Milwaukee Banks. Described by our writer as “a group who are are willing to challenge the status quo.”
Comprising of rapper Dylan Thomas (Polo Club) and producer Edo Rafter (aka Flight Tonight) Milwaukee Banks are pretty new on the scene, but have been making waves with their dreamy blend of glitchy electronic beats, smooth heady vocal flow and “unprecedented level of class.”
To celebrate the release of their debut EP, Edo gave us a track by track run down on Rose Water, which is proving to be one of the most exciting local EPs of 2014 (out now via Inertia Access).
Pluto Bounce
“This track was originally a demo beat that Dyl made. He sent it through and I arranged it and added a few little bits to it, changed the drums a little. We were pretty new to writing together at this stage, and this one kind of leapt from a demo beat to full track when Dyl recorded that hook. I never heard anyone pitch down a rap about jelly beaned coloured socks. The verses Dyl wrote are all reflections from his past, his younger days out partying and getting wild.
We shot a video for this with our homie Louis Mitchell. To match the otherworldy lyrics and vibe of this track, Louis had an idea to shoot it on expired Infrared film. Louis is apparently only one of a handful of filmmakers that has successfully shot and got a finished result from expired infrared film too.”
Sweater Made of Gold
“This was the first track that we ever wrote together. I wrote this beat while working on another project, and to be honest it was first sent to a female vocalist to try and get her to sing on it. She never recorded on it, and it sat in a demo beats folder for a while.
When I started working with Dyl, it was one of the first beats I sent him, and we had been talking about doing some kind of rap project, with pitched down hooks and really electronic vibes for the beats. This was the first track he rapped on and sent back to me. I still remember getting it back and listening to it for the first time, nearly fell off my chair.”
Rose Water
“This track was produced by our mates KIRA. To date they had only produced beats for rappers in the US, like Pepperboy and Deniro Farrar. I’m mates with the guys from KIRA and at the time I had been sharing some studio space with one of them, and seeing them work on beats together a lot. They don’t know it but they kind of inspire me to keep writing beats and push myself to write better songs.
I emailed them one day to ask if they’d be interested in a collaboration, because part of this whole Milwaukee Banks project was about collaboration, reaching out to our crew and creating together. They sent through that beat and we were really feeling it.”
Patty Mills
“This beat was written by me and a dude called Alex Moodie, also known as AKMDE. He does a segment on 3RRR show Golden Syrup, talking about hip hop mix tapes. He’s also a talented young producer, and comes over to my studio every couple of months to write beats, experiment on synths and shit.
The song is named after Patty Mills, an Aussie basketballer playing in the NBA. He has mad skills and one time Dyl and I were drinking beers in the city and I told him we should write a song about Patty Mills, how he used to shoot 3 pointers and then do this thing called ‘3 goggles‘ to his team mates. He is legend of Aussie basketball, and he hit a buzzer beating 3 pointer to beat the Russians in the Olympics. That was wild. Anyway there is a breakdown in the song where all the lyrics are about him, none of the other lyrics are but we still named the track after him cause he is a balla’.”
Purple N Green
“This is the only song we wrote in the studio together. It was like a Friday night and we met up in the studio and were just watching youtube videos and shit.
I played Dyl the drum beat and wrote a bassline to it just messing around, but Dyl started rapping to it and writing ideas down. So we just recorded it and made the demo of this track that night. A lot of people think from the title that it is about purple drank and weed, but it is actually about the colors of the Milwaukee Bucks logo, Dyl’s favorite basketball team. We are partially named after them too.”
Hazy
“I produced this one trying to make a bit of a darker vibe than some of the other beats I’d been writing. The hook is actually me singing, and I recorded it originally for a Flight Tonight (side project) song. But it worked really well with the vibe of this beat so I put it in the demo and sent it off to Dyl.
He really vibed it and then he put down the lyrics, which to me sort of match the darker vibe of the beat. This hook ‘what I wanted’ is really about wanting something really badly, and dedicating your focus and energy to that something, only to find it changes you and the people around you for the worse, and slowly working out there is no turning back.”
Rose Water EP Launch
Thursday 19th June | Boney | Melbourne
W/ guests Stax Osset and KIRA
Facebook event.
