Whilk and Misky talk cocktails and beats

Whilk and Misky’s Nima and Charlie met randomly at a diner in which Charlie was working in November, 2012. Within 3 months the two became roommates and already being musicians separately, they naturally begun to jam. Since that random night out, Whilk and Misky have blown up the internet track after track starting with “Clap Your Hands” – a song that lingers in your head for days.

Quip caught up with the duo to chat about the beginnings, the changes and some basic truths.

Kateryna Topol: You guys have a pretty interesting story as to how you met and found your joined path to Whilk & Misky. How did you each first get into music?

Nima: I started playing keyboard when I was seven as a hobby…

Charlie: I started playing air guitar to “Johnny B. Goode” when I was five…

KT: Where did Whilk & Misky as a band name come from?

C: A long time ago I read that the ole Delta Blues would hoe down, round a fire, drinking moonshine whisky straight or with milk. Obviously they didn’t have, nor wouldn’t have afforded, the sodas we mix with whisky today. It was also a hangover cure for some – milk and whisky with some honey and cinnamon. I just found something poetic in the mix; the milk of life and the whisky of man all tangled up in Blues.

KT: How has your world changed over the last year, since you’ve officially become a band – if it did at all?

W&M: Things have become more organized. This is all we do now, so there’s this new pressure of endeavoring to deliver great music to the people we’re connecting with, but also keeping that serendipity of sound that made this happen in the first place.

KT:  Are you still jamming in the kitchen sometimes?

W&M: We are, but the kitchen has changed and it’s no longer a studio/living room/kitchen.

KT: Your tunes have a pretty wide variety of sound samples and instruments, are any of those live recorded?

W&M: Most of them are. We’ve always wanted to maintain the live organic instruments with electronic production. Even the snaps and kicks in most of the beats are recorded by us.

KT: Very cool. In terms of your production process, how long does it typically take for a track to come together?

W&M: Varies massively. Anything from a day to a month.

KT: You have a few tour dates coming up over the summer all in Europe, can we expect a North American tour any time soon?

W&M: We hope so, but we want to get things off the ground and running over here for now. This has all been pretty whirlwind, so we’ll be riding a tornado over soon enough.

KT: Your debut EP, First Sip, dropped last year, are you working on the next album yet or will a few more singles come out before that decision?

W&M: We’re always writing and have loads of songs stacked up so we’re just deciding what to do at the moment. There will certainly be an album, but there might very well be some singles coming out sooner. Why rush though, eh?

KT: Too true. As a parting note, can you tell us something about yourselves that no one knows yet?

N: I love ice cream!

C: I’m actually a robot sent back in time to save John Connor.