I Formed A Band
Troika (1999 to 2004 approximately)
Post-punk, post-rock, alt-rock, art-rock- Troika was described by a lot of different labels that we never quite fit into. We were young, energetic, sloppy, and a bit weird, but we were fun and enjoyed the ride. Very little that occurred in my life would have happened if it weren’t for Troika, and to Andy, Iain, and Paul, I’ll always be immensely grateful.
Neil Milton / beneath us, the waves (2009 to 2013)
Icelandic band Sigur rós was a wide, welcoming gateway to a world of ambient and modern classical music that led to my next step. A piano, string samples (and eventually a live quartet), Paul’s Extreme Time Stretch, and a lot of reverb led to a good few years on Manchester’s Valentine Records.
The Frozen North (2014 to 2016)
A broken elbow, a return to guitar, and corporate life that paid for an abundance of guitars and effects pedals led to a boy who needed a band. An introduction to an Irish fella saw me add the noisy cherry to an already delicious cake. The Frozen North was an epic instrumental band that appeared just as the Polish music scene was moving on from the genre. Right band, wrong time – still, radio interviews, media features, and a TV appearance, as well as a lot of fun gigs and house shows, led to a brilliant two years. We almost sent some music to space.
Neil Milton (2016 to 2020)
Me, a guitar, and Jimmy Webb’s Tunesmith book. I’d always believed that I couldn’t, shouldn’t, sing. Still, never let good be the enemy of that’s interesting, and so I travelled from a post-rock noisenik to a harmony-chasing shoegazey indie-popper and found my voice.
Milton and Jones (2018)
An experiment in bedroom production using the Phil Spector / Brian Wilson / Wrecking Crew wall of sound led to a lush, layered recording with more tracks and instruments than I’d care to remember playing. It deserved a great vocal, and my voice wasn’t going to cut it. Enter Jules Jones, some sleigh bells, and the song became our Christmas song.
Pop-up Books (2019)
We enjoyed the duo so much, we formed a band and Pop-up Books was born. A lot of songwriting, rehearsing, three shows, TEDxWarsaw, a single release, excitement, and then the pandemic brought the band, and my music career, to an end.
Too Many Fireworks and Other Stories
Too Many Fireworks (2002 to 2020)
I would never have guessed forming a label to release Troika’s first record would have lit a fire that burned through most of my adult life. Too Many Fireworks was 33 records, a club night, a series of film music events, a gig promoter, and a tattoo. Someone once described the label as better than a dead Morrissey.
Fire: Works / DJing (2004 to Present)
Around 2003, Flying Matchstick Men, Graham Peel and Gav Thomson, taught me to DJ. Not long after that, the 3 of us launched Fire: Works, Too Many Fireworks’ club night at Barfly in Glasgow – self-described as electrodiscowonkpop. From that day to this, every so often, I’ll go out and play music for people to dance to, remix other folk, and sometimes, a while back, there – I even did some radio. Fun.
Scores
We asked 5 bands to choose up to 10 minutes of film, write original music to accompany it, then play behind a curtain while the film is shown to an audience. We added nostalgic film commercials and old trailers. The whole thing was brilliant. Then we did it again, and again.