Miles Kane on new album ‘One Man Band’, returning to his roots, and meeting his childhood hero
The night before my phone conversation with Miles Kane on an overcast Monday afternoon, he was firmly perched on cloud nine. During Arctic Monkeys’ sold-out show at the Emirates Stadium in London, the 60,000 adoring fans went wild when he waltzed on to play ‘505’ with his long-time friends.
“I played one bum note in the middle, but by the end, I was rocking,” Kane says about his cameo, a natural starting point for our discussion. “I got a good cheer when I walked on, and we haven’t done that for a long time, so it was special. There was a bit of an energy about it. I’m pretty honoured, to be honest,” he sincerely states.
While ‘505’ was never released as a single, the closing track from Arctic Monkeys’ second album Favourite Worst Nightmare has undergone a resurgence in recent times. Kane played the guitar on the original recording, and over the years, he has regularly joined the Sheffield band to perform the number in concert. However, the Emirates Stadium show marked Kane’s first appearance with them since 2018.
On Spotify alone, ‘505’ has been streamed over 1.25 billion times and is Arctic Monkeys’ only track to achieve this feat that didn’t appear on AM. Kane explains how the Emirates Stadium collaboration was born out of a conversation he had at his home with Alex Turner a few weeks before the show, and he claims to have “kind of forgotten that we did that tune” before they started plotting.
“A good song will last forever,” Kane notes on the longevity of the modern classic. The collaboration marked the start of his partnership with Turner, with the duo forming The Last Shadow Puppets, releasing The Age Of The Understatement in 2008 and Everything You’ve Come To Expect eight years later.
While Kane was relatively well known in music circles before The Last Shadow Puppets due to his work with the Little Flames and the Rascals, their debut was his first introduction to the masses. The singer says it’s “maddening” the LP turned 15 earlier this year because he “feels the same” as when he created those iconic songs.
Even though The Last Shadow Puppets haven’t played together for a number of years, Kane has recently introduced some of their songs into his solo sets. Explaining his decision, he says: “I just love playing live, and I was missing playing them little tunes. I want to have a boss, banging setlist that doesn’t have a dip, and want everyone to have a good time.”
Considering The Last Shadow Puppets left an eight-year gap between albums last time, and 2024 signifies that void once again, it would have been amiss of me not to ask if a third LP was possible. “Probably, if I was gonna bet on it, I’d say yeah,” Kane speculates. “There are no plans to make it at the minute, but we’ve never planned anything out, so it just has to start when we write some tunes”.
At the moment, Turner is touring the world with Arctic Monkeys, and Kane is equally busy with the release of his fifth solo album, One Man Band, on August 4th. For this new record, the Wirral native returned to his roots by decamping to Liverpool to work on the album with his cousin, The Coral frontman James Skelly, who took charge of production duties.
“It was boss doing it with my family,” Kane says. “I had this clear vision of what I wanted to make, a super upbeat, anthemic record similar to songs of mine like ‘Come Closer’ and ‘Inhaler’ that slap you in the face but are emotional too. I have my guitar at the forefront, as it’s the reason why I do what I do. I started as a guitarist, and I wanted it to be the main thing, not to cover it up with the strings, the brass and the choirs,” he says of One Man Band’s sound.
While Skelly and Kane are family, they’ve never previously collaborated despite the fact they’ve “always talked about it”, according to the ‘Rearrange’ singer’. However, he doesn’t believe the timing was previously right, and their “heads wouldn’t have been together” but now “have this real strong connection again”.
One Man Band came to life at Kempston Street Studios in Liverpool, which allowed Kane to return to the city that made him. “You have to go back to go forward sometimes,” he passionately says. “It was just really enjoyable, and it’s where I’m at. What gets me going is the realness. When you’re younger, you do go ‘Wow’ at the glitz and the glamour, but it’s not worth that now”.
On the nostalgia-soaked track ‘Baggio’, Kane pays tribute to his childhood hero Roberto Baggio, the former Italian footballer, and looks back fondly on his early years. The mullet-donning Juventus legend waltzed into Kane’s life during the World Cup in 1994, when England didn’t qualify, and as a nine-year-old, he was dazzled by the sheer coolness that radiated from the Italian.
After releasing the song as a single, Kane took a voyage to Italy to hunt for his idol, resulting in the short film Searching For Baggio. Much to his surprise, Kane was successful in his ambitious mission. Although Baggio is now retired from public life, he made an exception for Miles after his daughter showed him the song written in his honour.
“It’s real as fuck,” Kane says of the film. “It’s just like something that doesn’t really happen, it’s still all super fresh in my mind, and I’m still on a high. He’s a beautiful man, his wife is beautiful, his daughter is beautiful, they welcomed us to his house, and I just couldn’t fucking believe it, to be honest.”
Discussing the song’s origin, Kane adds: “It’s a tune about childhood, and what are the givings that make you the man you are today. I was thinking back to being a kid, and I’ve got a very specific memory of watching Baggio at that World Cup, which started a love of everything Italian thereafter.”
In the studio, one of the studio musicians speculated that one day Baggio could end up hearing this song, and although it seemed like a pipe dream, Kane always believed it was a possibility. However, the reality exceeded any of his expectations.
Recalling their conversation, Kane described Baggio as a “spiritual guy”. He remembered of the unforgettable encounter: “He kept putting his hands on my heart and being like, ‘I feel that you’re real and keep as you are and don’t listen to anyone else.”
Adding: “There was this connection there, and I feel like I’m lying when I’m saying it, but it’s the truth. At least I’ve got the film to prove it. If I didn’t, people would think I’m full of bullshit.”
As a song, ‘Baggio’ epitomises the spirit of One Man Band, which finds Kane reconnecting with the motivations that caused him to live the life he leads. After nearly 20 years in the industry, including a spell living in Los Angeles, Kane could have been swayed by the bright lights. Instead, he’s stayed true to the mantra he famously professed in ‘Don’t Forget Who You Are’ by tapping back into the instrument, the place, and the people who made him.
One Man Band is available on August 4th via Modern Sky.