MILLY have shared the final preview of their new album Your Own Becoming(out this Friday via Dangerbird Records). A dark and knotted song with a towering chorus, “Running The Madness” delivers on everything MILLY does best. “This song should feel like a little bit of a nightmare,” explains principle songwriter Brendan Dyer, “I think that the chorus works well in it’s release, kinda balancing out the psychosis on the verses.. it’s mostly about existing in some sort of mad house in a dreamlike state and needing to get the fuck out. We’ve all been there — cornered by our own thoughts.. right? It’s like the cusp of something imploding, but like all good stories (and songs) it works out okay. It’s a happy ending by the end of it, kinda glorious.”
On the delirious video that accompanies the track, director Nate Kahn says “Discover the transformative power of rock music in the latest music video, where a man lost in the depths of Los Angeles depression finds unexpected salvation. Opening a random door and putting on headphones, he’s transported into a vibrant, musical journey that reignites his spirit.”
Armed with towering, surging guitar riffs, crystalline and inviting hooks, and a newfound collaborative approach, MILLY’s sophomore LP feels like a total reinvention. Across 10 pummeling and undeniable songs, Your Own Becoming finds its power in channeling your darkest thoughts into something galvanizing and productive, a document of how doubling down on your art in the face of serious fear and doubt can be grounding.
Work on this release started thanks to a revelation that can only come from a period of personal crisis. Brendan Dyer, who’s dealt with anxiety for most of his life, decided to go on long walks every morning where he’d process his emotions, clear his mind, and do something that got him out of the house. “I think about death all the time,” says Dyer. “At this point in my life, I’m extremely aware of how time moves quickly.” While these thoughts could have devolved into potentially overwhelming him, this daily ritual allowed him some space. He jotted down notes from his dreams and he used his dread to grab onto the sustaining force in his life: his band. While the band’s debut LP 2022’s Eternal Ring and past tours with Swervedriver were successes, he wanted to be laser-focused on both his songwriting and his bandmates in the following year as he’d never done before.
On New Year’s Day, 2023, he corralled his bandmates to write and demo out Your Own Becoming, their most confident and organic effort to date. Dyer would take ideas he wrote down on his daily walks and each week, the band would meet up without fail. “There was newfound discipline and a renewed excitement about our music,” says Dyer. “I had always wanted to have a band that would just get together every week. Even if we’re not writing, we’re hanging out all the time, we’re listening to music together, and we’re jamming.” Dyer partly credits the collective laser focus on this album with how the band’s live lineup gelled from touring with bands like Teethe and waveform* as well as a burgeoning friendship with engineer and producer Sonny DiPerri (NIN, Narrow Head, My Bloody Valentine). “We were really inspired by him,” says Dyer. “Thanks to him we realized we could step things up a notch.”
While originally conceived as a solo project, MILLY embraced a newfound collaborative approach for Your Own Becoming, something that was only hinted at on 2022’s Eternal Ring. After a few months of painstakingly demoing songs, Dyer, along with bassist Yarden Erez and drummer Connor Frankel, decamped with DiPerri to East West Studios and Dangerbird’s Recording Studio in Los Angeles. (New guitarist Nico Moreta joined the band after recording).
Preceding the new track is last month’s dynamic and haunting “Bittersweet Mary,” which landed on Pitchfork’s Selects Playlist, “Spilling Ink,” which Alt Press praised, writing that it takes “their towering, ultra-fuzzy alt-rock into a new level of calibration.” MILLY announced the record in April with lead single “Drip From The Fountain,” by far the most infectious song of their entire catalog with an explosive chorus and airtight melodic hooks that recall early Death Cab For Cutie. The track was praised by Stereogum, Paste Magazine, Brooklyn Vegan, Rolling Stone (Song You Need To Know), andConsequence, who called it an “an anthemic slice of indie rock that melts into fuzzy, comforting shoegaze.”
