Milford

ORIGINS: Blue Mountains, NSW

GENRE: Indie

YEARS ACTIVE: 1998-2003

 

MEMBERS:

• Paul Mckenna - Vocals, Guitar
  
• Christian Menzies - Bass
• Nathan Cox - Drums
  

RELEASES: 

 

• Me and My Monkey (2000) - Download Here.
  
• 1. End It
• 2. The Sky is Blue
  
• 3. Thumpy
• 4. Another Taste
• 5. Downy
  

SUMMARY: Milford was the brainchild of Paul Mckenna, who wanted to start a new band when he moved back to Blue Mountains after studying in Canberra for some time. He recruited heavy metal drummer Nathan Cox and then set about teaching his good friend and housemate Christian Menzies how to play bass. The band went on to play a handful of shows concentrated around the Blue Mountains, building a cult following and releasing an EP before slowing down and disappearing altogether.

 

SHOWS: 

• Jasper, Blaxland Community Hall - 26th June, 1999 
• Blaxland Tavern, Blaxland - 25th May, 2000
  
• Monkeyfest, Blaxland Hall, Blaxland - 16th December, 2000
  
• Community Hall, Warrimoo - unknown date
  
• Gearin Hotel, Katoomba - unknown date, 2003
  

ORAL HISTORY:

PAUL: I moved back from Canberra to the Blue Mountains as I was about to start studying industrial design at UWS. Sharing a house with my girlfriend at the time and my mate Christian, who I'd been to high school with in Orange. Although he had no musical talent and couldn't play an instrument, I had been widening his taste and appreciation of good music, and set to teaching him the bass. I spent every afternoon/evening for a couple months teaching Christian bass. One note at a time, over and over, until he was able to play about ten songs. The songs I was teaching him were all my own tunes, and as soon as he was competent enough we invited Nathan Cox to jam. Needless to say, Nathan was a fucking brilliant drummer. Being a metal/heavy style drummer, he was all over my indie stuff instantly. He understood the dynamics of my musical style and I barely had to explain what drum patterns or beats/fills I wanted at all.  

Paul Mckenna, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

NATHAN: Milford was pretty much Paul's baby. He's one of those very gifted musicians that can just play anything.

Nathan Cox, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

CHRISTIAN: Ha, I never played bass. Paul said he needed a bass player and that he'd teach me to play! We were friends from school. I learnt from scratch, he was a patient teacher. Found a cheap 2nd hand lefty bass and started plucking away. Was hard but Paul and I lived together at the time so it's pretty much all we did... decked out the garage as a jam room.

Christian Menzies, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

PAUL: There was a Uni band comp at UWS Nepean coming up so we blundered through the handful of songs Christian could play, over and over, for a few weeks, and started getting tight. The comp was fun. Christian was shitting himself haha. We played well and got a good crowd reaction and certainly impressed a few of the punters but didn't get any further in the comp. I remember one of the judges coming up after the set and commenting that we were fucking great, and a few people asked when our next gig was. There was a bunch of the mountains crew that came to see what this indie band was that Nathan the rock god was drumming with. They were ready to tell us how shit we were... but were suitably impressed. Not a bad result for our first performance. 

Paul Mckenna, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

CHRISTIAN: I was peaking... nervous. But I knew Paul and Nathan would keep it together if I fell. It was fun, that show at the Uni in Kingswood. It got easier over time. Like I said, Paul and I spent a lot of time in the garage jamming.  

Christian Menzies, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

PAUL: After the band com we started playing around the mountains a bit. Blaxland Tavern was our first 'real' gig. We played with another band, Glister, and I think another band that I can't recall. Again, we had a large contingency of local metal heads who were all very keen to hear this indie band Nathan, Lord of the Drums, was playing in... Matt Cleary, local rock god, who we had 'borrowed' Nathan from, told me he was quite impressed that we "didn't sound anything like that You Am I shit" and that it was okay for Nathan to keep playing with us. Haha! Some old dude also came up after the set and was full of praise. He said the way we played reminded him of the Hendrix Experience... not our songs but the way we played with simple and steady basslines and full drums and guitar sounds. I was a bit chuffed by that - but we definitely didn't sound anything like Hendrix.

Paul Mckenna, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

REVIEW: Milford kicked off the night to a small audience but didn't seem discouraged as they pumped out some form of rock I would like to compare to the likes of You Am I. I don't know much about this band but they held together very well, and I was particularly impressed with the vocals.

Anonymous Review of Jasper Show, Obzine Issue 2, August 1999

 

REVIEW: Milford opened the night around nine with their own blend of Sonic Youth/Smudge/noisy guitar styled rock. It's cool to watch the famous Nathan (Sickend/ex-Futile) play pop-type drumming. I really like this band, they have style. 

Mark Alston, review of Blaxland Tav Show, Obzine Issue 11, June 2000

 

CHRISTIAN: The Jasper gigs were definitely fun, and some Battle of the Bands show at the Tav was fun too.  

Christian Menzies, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

PAUL: Nathan often disappeared for weeks, sometimes a couple months at a time. He was hard to keep track of. Appearing and staying at our place for a week or two, then vanishing again. 

Paul Mckenna, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

CHRISTIAN: Recording was great. It was my first experience recording, playing to drums in headphones. Nathan nailed it first go of course. Took me a few goes. A friend did for us - Matt Capper. Turned out nice; lo-fi. We used to also do lots of old four track recording at home too. 

Christian Menzies, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

Review by Mark Alston, Obzine Issue 11, June 2000

 

REVIEW: They're a band I definitely want to see again. Their dirty guitar sound and melodies, and the vocal delivery, remind me of Bluebottle Kiss in their 'higher up the firetrails' days. 

Review by Phil Williams of Monkeyfest, Obzine Issue 18, February 2001

 

PAUL: Our last gig was at the Gearins Hotel in about 2003 I think. We hadn't jammed or played for about a year and a friend's band were playing there and needed another band so we said, fuck it, let's play. We had one jam a couple days before and just did it. We opened for Christian's mates and they weren't going to play after us because they said we were too good and couldn't believe we hadn't played for so long! We all got a kick out of that and were keen to get back into playing but, sadly, it just didn't happen, and that would be the last show for Milford.

Paul Mckenna, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

RELATED BANDS: Chuck, Futile, Amongst the Demons, Sickend, A Case of Severed Limbs, Brown Helmet, Grenade, Steel Cap Therapy