Milk Teeth: "We’ve set the bar really fucking high"

January saw Milk Teeth lose a member and release their debut album. “It was like starting over,” as Billy Hutton joined Becky Blomfield, Chris Webb and Oli Holbrook for a tour that lasted ninety days and took them around Europe, North America and the UK. They’ve been home less than a week, Billy is now an official member (“you can have the exclusive”) and they’re already itching to show off what’s next.

“Everything felt right when Billy joined,” continues Becky. ”It felt like how it always should have done but maybe didn’t.” With Milk Teeth all back on the same page, “We’re a fun band. We have our serious side, we have our serious songs but at the end of the day, we like having fun and Bill, he gets that,” they’re a fiercely united force.

“We’re not about being trendy or cool. We’re about having fun,” explains Chris. “You don’t sit down to write music in a format. If we write a song and we like it, we’ll play it. It doesn’t matter what people categorises it as, and Bill really understands that. I feel like this is how it was meant to sound,” he adds before pausing. “I just wish he was on the album.”

“Album two is going to be so great,” interjects Oli with a grin.

Not that the band are done with ‘Vile Child’ just yet. After all, they’ve only just got their head around the fact people like the record thanks to a UK headline tour that was “chaos every night.”

[sc name="pull" text="We're a fun band. We like to have fun." ]

“When we get reviews, it doesn’t sink in. I’m like, ‘Who are they paying to say that?’ The headline tour for me confirmed we did something good because seeing that reaction, people give a shit. People have gone and listened to this album. People are interested and that really hit it home for me,” offers Becky.

“We’ve progressed so much,” reflects Chris as the band reel off a seemingly never-ending stream of highlights from the past three months. “We’ve set the bar really fucking high for ourselves.”

The band already have too many songs, a bunch of riffs and some more ideas for album two and they “can’t wait to show people a better album. We’re excited to show what we can do now. We all love ‘Vile Child’ but for us, we can do better than that,” promises Chris. “What else have we got? What else can we bring?” smiles Becky, looking forward to new challenges.

It’s a view she’s grown accustomed to this year. Now the band’s de facto frontperson (a role she used to share), she’s quickly stepped up to the plate as a leader and a role model, with the rest of the band firmly behind her. “I feel like I have more of a voice since I’ve been thrust into the middle.” Talking openly and candidly about issues of mental health and self-acceptance, she “just wants to look after everybody and I never want anybody to feel as alone as I have before.”

Milk Teeth don’t want the world, they just want to help make it a better place. There’s a simple rule they now live by: “Be fun, but have a conscience.” Sign us up. [sc name="stopper" ]

Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett