An Interview With The UK Songwriter and Producer, MYLK On Her Latest Music and Her J-Pop Influences!

The UK songwriter & producer MYLK recently released her new single “Haiku” via Monstercat: https://soundcloud.com/monstercat/mylk-haiku

MYLK is a producer/songwriter/vocalist known for her J-pop or “Kawaii” inspired music productions fused with diverse EDM genres. She has also collaborated with various electronic producers – one collaboration in particular was released via Monstercat on Rocket League, the popular video game.

With her music career only kicking off in early 2015, MYLK has come a long way, composing and sound designing for “A Pixel Story” – a video game published by Channel 4, producing a vocal sample pack with Splice, and releasing an array of singles and official remixes.

She is already making her mark with her cute, punchy, bubbly tracks, accumulating over 500,000 plays solely on Soundcloud and over 3 Million plays overall on YouTube.

Connect with MYLK in the following All Access interview: 

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Learn more about MYLK in the following All Access interview:

Where does this interview find you now? What’s on tap for the rest of your day?

Just about to release a new track with Michael White on NCS. And I’m planning to finish up my EP hopefully this week 🙂

Overall, how do you think 2018 has been treating you and your music career? What has been one goal that you have had this year and how close are you to reaching it?

2018 has treated me very well this year! I have reached more than one goal already but if I had to choose, it’ll be the fact that I had a solo debut on Monstercat!

Growing up, was music always a big part of your life? Can you recall your first ever musical experience?

I grew up with music – I started playing the violin when I was 4 years old (I started on a 1/16th sized violin it was so tiny!…I was so tiny! haha) and I played it till I was 16 – I also participated in a lot of orchestral experiences/music camps and choirs as a child.

What has been the biggest surprise so far about making music your career? Has there been an unexpected or welcome challenge to it all?

I guess working for Avex Entertainment (Jpop company) was probably the biggest and most unexpected challenge I have had the opportunity to experience. I feel like I learned a lot from working with them too! I am currently still working with them and its amazing how the music industry is just full of surprises!

How do you think you and your music have been influenced by your hometown and where you live today? If you don’t think that it has affected you at all, why is that?

I moved around a lot as a child/teenager so I can’t seem to recall being influenced musically from my “hometown”, but I could be totally wrong and oblivious. I may have picked up on things in the back of my mind whilst living in different countries, without even knowing – and I’d say that’s a possibility. I discover new music more so over the internet so I don’t feel like it matters too much about where I live as of now.

I find it interesting that sometimes musicians choose to go by something other than their own name so how did you come up with your name?

I used to go by a different alias, but ran into trademark issues. So, to make things easier, I decided to change my name and start fresh – it gave me an opportunity to build a stronger brand, so I don’t regret my decision at all. At the time I started to discover the sounds of my own style and I decided to come up with a name that is pretty easy to remember, fun, and cute sounding – resulting to MYLK. Unfortunately, there’s no fancy meaning behind my name.

What was the inspiration for your newest track “Haiku”? When do you hope to release more new music?

I tend to write a lot off songs that I could relate to or experienced in the past. In this case, the song has had a personal meaning but I wanted to give a short but strong message to other listeners.

Can you talk about designing and composing the music for “A Pixel Story”? How did that opportunity come to you? How did this compare to anything else that you have worked on?

I had a friend at University who was studying game development and their team won a competition – that prize being an opportunity to release their game under Channel 4 Publishing. Around this time, I wasn’t sure about a career as a producer. That said, I continued to sound designs/produce or compose. I wanted get more experience, so I sent a track to them, hoping for a credit. Turned out they wanted me to do the whole sound for their game. It was quite an adventure and a challenge. Specifically, this game was challenging because its concept was a platform game that went through different gaming eras – this game had 4 generations. I had to create 4 jump sounds so you can see where I’m going with this.. I had to make 4x of everything and on top of that I created 28 soundtracks. There was a lot of referencing/re-doing/re-building/reviewing that took over 2 years or so. It was totally worth the experience – I learned so much from it, and to be honest, I can’t compare this with anything else as I haven’t produced or designed anything for games since then.

If you had all the time and money in the world, which one of your songs would you make a music video for and what would your dream music video look like?

If I had to choose a current song, I think I would love to make a music video of Dream Catcher. I could do so many artistic things, CG or animated. It could look really crazy, fun, colourful and cute!

What do you think makes for an ideal show for you? What has been a favorite performance of yours so far? Do you have any upcoming shows this summer?

Well… I have only done one show in Japan, so there isn’t any others I can compare it with. That said, I hope the nerves will disappear the more I do experience shows because I’ve had bad stage fright since I was young.

As of now I don’t, but I really hope that’ll change sometime in the near future!

We are currently living through a very trying and politically charged time right now so I am curious to know how your own music is reflecting this time period? If you don’t think it is, why is that? Would you say that other musicians are making music that has been influenced by this climate?

I don’t usually write music based on today’s society/politics – I usually enjoy producing “feel good” imaginative music. However, I did write “Unite” which was an exceptional song written to tribute lives lost in Manchester and London terrorist attacks. I think music is always influenced by today’s climate, state and time. There are a lot of artists out there who write deep and meaningful songs related to today.

What has it been like keeping up with your social media accounts and all the different platforms? Is it hard to stay up to date on it all?

Sometimes, but not really. As of now, I’m finding it quite easy to handle and use all platforms, and responding to fans.

Who are some of your favorite artists or rather, what musicians have continued to inspire you and your music? Who would you absolutely still love to work with in the future?

I love SOPHIE, I love YUC’e, I love Kiraku, I love Moe Shop, I love Slow Magic’s work too. There are too many to name as I’m not someone that likes specific music all the time.  I’m quite open minded, so I appreciate and respect anyone who creates a form of art with sound 🙂
I’d love to work with YUC’e one day.

If you were going to be stranded on a deserted island forever, what musical item would you take with you?

Does a laptop, laptop charger, electrical plug unit, electricity supply and a pair of headphones count as one? If not then i’ll have a xylophone please.

If your music was going to be featured on any TV show that is currently on right now, which would you love it to be on? Or if you prefer, what is a movie that you love that you wish your music was featured in?

I could actually see my music being used or featured partially in an animated film or Disney Pixar – type film. I’d actually love that as I know how happy-go-lucky some of my songs can be and knowing Perfume’s song was used in CARS (the Disney Pixar film)  I’d like to see more J-pop being used in that way.

At the end of the day, what do you hope your fans take away from your music?

As sad as it sounds, my happy-go-lucky music vibe came from my depression. I tried to cheer myself up by producing happy songs for many years. So, if my fans can feel happy or positive in anyway by hearing them – then my goal is achieved.

Where can our readers connect with you?

You can find me on SoundCloud/Spotify/Twitter/YouTube/Facebook/Instagram either under “mylkofficial” or MYLK for Spotify.