Milly Mason and Matt Kiano on Pure Local Extra

On the 19th of October, the Pure Local Extra show here at Newport City Radio was joined by Milly Mason and Matt Kiano, two local musicians, to talk about themselves, their music and anything else. 

Firstly, we talked about their first music influences, the artists they listened to when they were younger. Matt told us that he listened to all sorts of music as the result of his father, musicians like Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Green Day and Eminem. He recalled being shown music videos from these artists at a young age. As for Milly, she said that growing up she listened to artists like The Beatles and Bruce Springsteen, the latter being a huge influence for her music. She added that her songs are more narrative focused and aren’t based on any real events, something greatly inspired by Springsteen.

We then listened to some of our artists’ music. We started with ‘Living a Lie’ by Matt, a sister song to another one of his songs ‘Yeah That’s Me’, the title track on his most recent EP. He added that Living a Lie is a song about some of his views on the world. He told us that his producer loved Yeah That’s Me and wanted him to keep on that style. He wrote something similar in terms of themes but different in terms of how it sounded. He added that it was essentially Yeah That’s Me but with more of a “punch to the face”. Next, we listened to ‘Your Heart’ by Milly Mason, her newest song and our record of the week. She told us that the song isn’t based on anything she’s experienced but instead is more of a story. 

We spoke briefly about the style of songs and how they get ideas, Milly said that more melancholy and relaxed songs come to her due to her simplicity. She added that she does enjoy happier songs but finds them harder to write. Matt said that he feels he doesn’t have control over the mood of a song. He just writes his idea and will only know until it’s been written or recorded. In terms of getting ideas, Matt said that he mediates and occasionally gets ideas while meditating. Milly said that she occasionally gets ideas while trying to fall asleep. She added that she usually gets the melody.

Both artists also told us what genres they’d like to do if they weren’t doing their current ones. Milly said that rock would be her pick, saying that being in a rock band would be cool. Matt said that he’d love to be a pop girly.

We then spoke about our artists first ever songs. Milly’s first song being a ukulele song called ‘different’ from when she was 12 or 13. She said that it’s atrocious and that we’ll never be hearing it. As for Matt, his first song being called ‘Space Cowboys’ and like Milly, we’ll never be hearing it. According to Matt, he was 15 when he wrote it and tried to write lyrics that were funny. 

Lastly, we talked about what’s next. Milly’s next gig is going to be with Anthem Cymru in Newport as part of their youth showcase. Matt’s next endeavour is going to be getting a band together for solo work.

As per the norm, we had our game of ‘kazoo that tune’ where our guests and hosts play a famous song on kazoo. Kym, Amber, Milly and Matt gave a cover of The Final Countdown.