Kitchen Knife Wife Interview with Dom Milbert

BBM’s Jeremy Williams sits down for a catch up with Kitchen Knife Wife’s Dom Milbert…”I’ve never actually done an interview before!” laughs Dom Milbert,the most recent though no longer new addition to Melbourne quintet Kitchen Knife Wife as we sip coffee in South Melbourne. Having just finished a photoshoot down a laneway nearby, Milbert has been deserted by his band mates Paul Luczak, Bernard Czaplinski, James Fleming and David Mudie, who all have other places to be – giving Milbert free reign to talk about their current single, the super catchy “Happy” and the dynamic group’s impending plans. But before we talk about the now, Milbet quickly fills me in on why he was added to the line up… “The guys have been together since 2008 and they released, I think, 2 EPs.

So this is not the first recording, but they wanted to fine tune a few things. I was added into the line-up earlier this year to fill it out. Now we are a fully blown Kitchen Knife Wife live outfit.” Having made a name for themselves very briefly on these shores some two years back, the then quartet quickly disappeared to Europe for a support slot on The Wombats tour, but are now firmly back on home ground and ready to rock. For Milbert, the transition from mate of the band to bandmate was not necessarily the most straight forward, with the rest of the band set in their roles and Milbert needing to fight his forward to establish himself. However, rather than dwell on the initial teething problems, Milbert is clearly loving every minute of his now more rounded role. “If you forget about the records and trying to be succesful, you are hanging out with your mates playing shows. You are not hurting anybody, you are drinking a lot of beer and it is a lot of fun.”

“The hope is to get one or two strong singles. To get a bit of airplay.” Having started working towards their as yet untitled debut album in December 2010, the troupe are more than excited to be able to finally unleash it to their fans come February 2012. But while their focus is firmly on their debut, the forward thinking group are following Calling All Cars lead and have already started contemplating its follow-up. “We are already looking forward to the second album, so hopefully this one will give us a good platform to build on and go from there.”

“There are few, they are all works in progress.” Though he concedes that by talking about the difficult second album he is inferring that the process has already kicked off, it soon becomes clear that album number two is very much in its early stages. However, like any band dedicated to and end goal, Kitchen Knife Wife are clearly playing close attention to the process and learning lessons from mistakes. “I think the one thing about the process of recording this album is that it has given us more confidence in our ability to actually write songs. Touring as well has been good for the creative output in a way.”

While their current single “Happy” may be garnering praise from all corners, Milbert is seemingly realistic about the future. Rather than getting lost in a romanticised notion, he appears to accept that Melbourne is swarming with good bands and while they may put in the hard yards, it does not necessarily guarantee them success. “It has always been a dream for all of us I think. But obviously so many people share that dream, so it is hard to strike that balance of a realistic career path and doing something that always pays the bills. Full credit to people who fully dedicate themselves to music, doing the honourable thing. I think the number one aim is to have fun. Number two, if that leads to a full time career then great, but if not at least we are having fun.”

By Jeremy Williams