[EXCLUSIVE] Interview With Milk N’ Cookies

[EXCLUSIVE] Interview With Milk N’ Cookies

[EXCLUSIVE] Interview With Milk N’ Cookies

93
0

James and Paul Makelwain are twin DJ/producers from Chicago, better known as Milk N Cookies, on the rise with their heavy cut house sounds and super fratty bro-tudes. Having played with names such as Porter Robinson and Tyga, and at big time gatherings such as Summercamp and Spring Awakening Music Festivals over the summer, the brothers are beginning to craft a name and style for themselves that is becoming recognizable nationwide. The Sights and Sounds had the chance to sit down with Milk N’ Cookies over some mashed potatoes and chat about post-bro house music, Steely Dan, and puking into ice buckets. Check it out below!
 
Reading music:

 
The Sights and Sounds: You guys are twin duo DJ/producer team from Chicago. How long have you two known each other?

Milk N’ Cookies: (James) I would say the first time I remember is around 7 years old. But I cant remember. (Paul) I don’t remember shit. I remember fighting at grandma’s house when we were 7 years old, crying at mom’s place. That was like 2nd or 3rd grade. (James) Yeah, probably since 2nd or 3rd grade.

The Sights and Sounds: How did you guys decide on using the name Milk N Cookies?

Milk N’ Cookies: James Milk started DJing first. In the midst of a double conversation on Facebook chat I was jokingly deemed ‘MilkShake’ because of a tall black kid I was playing with at this party, who was a joke, for the first few months. My brother joined next summer and we started making our social media pages, we had to pluralize it, MilkShake being one word. So one day we were just like ‘Fuck it, just put Milk N Cookies.’ Technically it was Milkshake and Sugar Cookies, and all the social media sites had Milk N Cookies. And people made fun of us and it was kind of a joke, but then we started getting established and people started respecting it. They were like, “Oh yeah, twins. That’s branding, that’s so awesome. Yay!” So it stuck.

The Sights and Sounds:  Who got into music first?

Milk N’ Cookies: We’ve both been musicians all our lives. Our mom forced us to take piano lessons when we were younger, which we hated. But we took them for something like seven years then quit to play basketball. But during that process we played drums, saxophone, piano.

(Paul) I picked up guitar and singing. He started hackeysacking. I’ve been into music more, I play more instruments, but we started playing at the same time.

(James) I was playing this crazy foot-bag, hacksack stuff and he was learning guitar. We both did it for a talent show.

(Paul) I was melting hearts at the talent show, singing Jason Mraz and shit. (James) He was melting hearts, I was blowing minds.

The Sights and Sounds: What is your favorite key to produce in?

Milk N’ Cookies: That’s a great question. It used to be A minor because that was easy to play in and it sounds epic. But now I like to take the most epic chord progression in A minor and shifting it down steps. Now I like playing in anything that has a lot of black keys. Because black keys are way cooler.

The Sights and Sounds: On your Facebook page it says you are twin stallions leading the post-bro house movement. Define the post-bro house movement.

Milk N’ Cookies:  (Editor’s note: This is the short version of the answer. For the four minute explanation, listen to the SoundCloud clip below.) It’s three meanings in one: It’s the style of music we make, our personalities, and then the joke on post-bro.
 

 
The Sights and Sounds:  Where do you guys draw your inspiration from?

Milk N’ Cookies:  It’s mostly our imagination, and obviously anything can spark something. I hear a lot of stuff in the shower, like the Krewella remix we’re working on, the way it sounds right now I heard that in the shower. I feel like it’s cliche because everyone who interviews gets asked that question and they say they draw inspiration from everywhere. But like right now one of my favorite songs is “Cruise” by Florida Georgia Line, and we also like Natasha Bedingfield, Frank Sinatra. But at the same time there are Slipknot and Mudvayne songs that I like.

And when we were growing up, our parents favorite band was Steely Dan, and they would be bumping that shit in the car: Steely Dan, Carlos Santana, and Frank Sinatra. And we didn’t hate on it, but it was like what is this shit while we’re trying to listen to Kanye, but now we appreciate it and we play Steely Dan in sets where it fits in. And we’ll play that shit like it’s the best music and it’s no wonder our parents were playing that stuff, you know?

The Sights and Sounds:  So talk about your new track, “L.L.A.P” wih Moiez.
 

 
Milk N’ Cookies:  We hear his song “You Only Live Once.” It’s a big-ass Alesso style house banger and he didn’t really have that much buzz going on but he’s really talented. So James hit him up in an email telling him we liked his stuff and we would love to work with him. He dug our shit and was like “Let’s get it going.” We started hanging out via Skype and working on stuff, and he’s a super cool guy, just like us. He’s an Indian-Canadian super bro who makes house music. So I was taking a super epic chord progression from another song and shifting up or down a key or half step, wrote a gnarly ass chord progression, and, in my opinion, wrote a pretty emotional melody that made it into the song. I sent him the track and he was really inspired by the chords and he wrote the drop we have know with the hard bass synths. We worked back and forth some more on the intro and bridge before finishing the track out, but it was definitely a collaboration to the ‘t’. It’s a sick feminine melody song with a masculine drop. I think it’s our best song to date and I think Moiez thinks the same. He definitely said it’s the loudest song he’s made to date.

The Sights and Sounds: You guys were supposed to go on tour with Krewella, Kap Slap, 3LAU, and Pretty Lights on the east coast this month, but it got cancelled. What happened?

Milk N’ Cookies:  There were three issues that came up. The first issue came up with the two shows in Philedelphia, the Kap Slap show and the Pretty Lights after show. The venues said that none of the artists were getting free booze. All booze has to be paid for by the promoters: tables, bottles, tabs, etc… Including all the headlining acts. So that was a huge issue, because everyone’s riders has x amount of bottles. And Pretty Lights rider is pretty has a pretty hefty amount of booze. So that cost a lot of money.

The second thing was that his partner delayed too long booking the hotels from New York for three artists over the course of three days. So those prices went way up. So they told us that if they brought us out there they would lose $5,000 and if we don’t we’ll just honor the contract and pay you the $3,000. And then there was talk about still bringing us out there. But then two days after they cancelled the show, our parents key hitting us up about when we were leaving because there was this huge hurricane about to hit the coast.

So basically it was a destiny, meant-to-be type thing because 4 of the 6 shows got cancelled because of Hurricane Sandy, and we would have just got raped in New York posted up in a hotel with no flight. But it’s getting rescheduled for February with 6-12 stops, 3 artists in total. So basically we’re headlining Madison Square Garden next spring.

The Sights and Sounds: If you could collaborate with anyone, time not being a factor, who would it be?

Milk N’ Cookies: I don’t think we’re sick enough yet to make a super banger with someone like Michael Jackson, but it would get us famous as fuck to make a hit with Justin Bieber! But people that would be fun as hell to work with would be Dada Life, Diplo, and Dillon Francis because people say we have similar personalities. And Riff Raff! Fucken Riff Raff is number one.
 

 
The Sights and Sounds: Would you rather be in a studio making music or a club playing music?

Milk N’ Cookies: It depends if I’m tired and I don’t want to drink then it’s the studio. But if there’s wo doors and one’s to a studio and one’s to 50,000 people in Brazil, I think every single time I’m going to go to Brazil. But once we get a taste of some of the big shows then I’ll be like, “Ok, let’s go make some tracks.”

The Sights and Sounds: Speaking of making tracks, who usually does what on a song?

Milk N’ Cookies: (Paul) I’ll do a lot of the writing and arranging in songs. (James) I’ll sit down and work with samples, too, but a lot of the percussion stuff I’ll work with. Paul is better at doing some of the melodic stuff with chords. I’ll handle more of the management stuff, too.

The Sights and Sounds: How can a fan tell the difference between you two?

Milk N’ Cookies: Basically it’s if we’re wearing something different or if one of us hasn’t gotten our haircut. (James) I have a bigger jaw. (Paul) He rocks a more prominent mohawk. (Minutes of talking about mohawks and hair ensues…)

(James) I definitely have a bigger jaw that’s why in so many picures I look like a goon. And in a lot of picures I’m making a stink face and he [Paul] is just sitting there. I always have a stink face on.

The Sights and Sounds:  What’s the most outrageous thing you’ve seen in a club?

Milk N’ Cookies: We played at Electro Beach last year, opened for Porter Robinson at some nightclub in Puerto Vallerta, we’re with our buddy who was the campus manager for our senior spring break class of 200 people from UNI. And you would think you’re down in Mexico, you know, don’t fuck around with people or you’ll get raped or something. We’re just chilling in the club getting hammered, and our buddy takes one too many shots and we’re standing in the booth and he’s covering his mouth. And two big Mexican bouncers just come up with an ice bucket and sticks it under him as he just unloads vomit for like 30 seconds. They literally just take the ice bucket away, wipe his face down, hand him another shot of tequila and patted him on his back. I’ve never seen anyone just puke in an ice bucket, in a club, held by the staff members, get patted on the back, and get brought another drink with no problems. So that was outrageous, and sick because it was the night we opened for Porter.

Questions from Twitter:

Combined, how many tank tops do you guys own?

Milk N’ Cookies: It’s got to be nearing 30. And they have all bullshit. All frat things so you can rock it under a blazer.

What’s the future of Milk N Cookies look like?

Milk N’ Cookies: It looks fucken sick, haha.

PS3 or XBox favorite game?

Milk N’ Cookies: We don’t play video games. If I had to choose one…. I don’t even know. Black Ops I heard is sweet. (Paul) I don’t give a single fuck.

If you could pick any performer to play with, who would it be and why?

Milk N’ Cookies: NERVO. Because we would have some sick twinning chemistry. And because, Boom! Headshot! We’re playing with them December 29th at The Mid. Shout out. And shout out to The Sights and Sounds!
 
Milk N Cookies Facebook
Milk N Cookies Twitter
Milk N’ Cookies on SoundCloud
 

93

Add to the story...

Kris Hi there! Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Sights and Sounds. Been doing this music writing thing for most my life in one way or another and loving every opportunity it's brought along. Shoot me an email if you have any suggestions for the website, comments, or if you just want to chat. Cheers!