Los Angeles rockers MILLY have brought the house down in every room their native city has to offer—and plenty across the county, most recently alongside Militarie Gun. The band’s newest single “S.H.E.,” produced by Sonny DiPerri, is moody and elevated. They cite Unwound, Sparklehorse, and Incubus as inspirations in an Instagram post, but you can see for yourself.

We chatted with Brendan Dyer, who originally founded MILLY as his solo project, about home, being away from home, and UFOs … Maybe an interplanetary tour is in order? You can also catch them in Seattle, San Francisco, and LA in December. Read Brendan’s answers, and listen to “S.H.E.”, below.

Your new song “S.H.E.” is “inspired by a book on UFOs.” What book? Are you avid readers?

Brendan Dyer: Yeah it was that Bob Lazar book Dreamland ... I’m not a Bob fanboy or believer but it was an entertaining read. We like reading, but none of us take it too seriously. Yarden has a newfound love in it since finding a job at record/bookstore. He’s reading The Captain is Out To Lunch And The Sailors Have Taken Over The Ship by Bukowski. I mostly read music books. I’m reading Our Band Could Be Your Life rn. Alison is reading Reality Check by Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino. Nico is taking his time with The Gutenberg Galaxy by Marshall McLuhan and a collection of Edgar Allen Poe short stories.  

Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge is a UFO researcher. Do you see this arc for yourselves? If you weren't musicians, what would you be studying? 

Tom is cool and I respect his commitment to his research but I’m not sure. We do love hitting UFO roadside attractions on the road like the Thing in Arizona or Alien Fresh Jerky. And I was pretty into following all the drones over NJ last year. Maybe I do see this arc for myself after all. That or maybe studying puppetry. I recently got a Kermit The Frog on eBay so I’m looking forward to practicing when I get home. Nico’s got a weird obsession with mining disasters. Alison is into true crime, human anatomy, and holistic medicine. Yarden is our geography guy, and his top quest is to memorize every street in Los Angeles (80 percent completed). 

The cover, drawn by Benji Luke, is beautiful. Why does it feature horses?

I have a Mogwai tee with a shitty drawn horsey on it that was sort of the inspiration. Benji had a few more references like the Daniel Johnston stuff and he just kinda took it from there. Look at the cover and bump the jam, it just works. Benji’s art IG is @anystarcan and we love his band Garage Sale.

You call Los Angeles home—do you feel like there’s a real scene there? 

There’s so much music and plenty of scenes to tap into here. It feels like a dealer’s choice, honestly. You can find noisy art rockers in like Blimp, Fat Lady Sang, or Punxsutawney. Or trip-hop groups like After or 16 Underground. The IE has been influencing a good amount of emo and skramz in the area. The Oasis-revival is real as fuck here too. But there’s also a lot of good experimental jazz and cross-genre music from labels like Leaving or Minaret. Pick your poison!

You’ve had some lineup changes over the years. What do you love about the current version? What’s the biggest advantage to playing with a fourth member? 

Yeah we’ve had quite a few. I love the way we play together. Alison has a very spiritual and ritualistic approach to playing drums that I admire so much. We can do a lot with this lineup that we haven’t been able to do in the past. Some nights I just sing, no guitar cuz Nico can hold it down like that. Yarden has been my sidekick for years and on stage I always know what to expect from him. He is a stable foundation for my inner rock freak.

“S.H.E.” was released independently—what scares you about leaving a label, and what excites you?

Not scared—excited for some change and to find a new team of people to help us put records out. We want to be with some true believers. There’s something really cool to me about the self release vibe for now so we’re not in any rush. Shouts out to Dangerbird (our old home) for holding it down for us when we were getting our footing and helping us put out records. They were so nice to us. 

What’s the best tape or CD in your collection? Where did you buy it? 

I found a promo copy of Sparklehorse’s Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot on cassette for $1 one time at this spot in LA called Rockaway Records. It used to be open to the public but now it’s an appointment-based spot that specializes in rock memorabilia and out of print shit. I was in disbelief thumbing through a bin of dirty $1 cassettes to see that sitting in there. ‘Cuz it’s a promo it has like his managers phone numbers and stuff. Pretty cool. That’s my grail. Mark is my hero. I used to deliver pizzas to that record when I was 20, so it means a lot to me.

What have you been listening to on the road?

Kill Karl … Neil Young, The Bats, the new Wednesday album, Henry Badowski, Flying Burrito Brothers, The Byrds, Bill Fox.

Photo Credit: Lily Dale