Interview with Milly Phillips
You can take the girl out of Taranaki, but you can’t take the Taranaki out of the girl. Milly Phillips dives in to present the two halves of her musical identity.
How did you choose to use your name, as a DJ name?
I feel like, amongst my friends, DJ names are definitely something that’s always been light-hearted & a bit of fun so for as long as I've been mixing my friends have known me as MilHAUS. Bit of a play on the Simpsons and then German house.
Recently, I thought I would tone it back a little bit, and now I am thinking of going by Milly Phillips. My actual name at birth is Matilda, an Australian classic…even though I’m not Australian. I like the ring to Milly Phillips though, it’s how people know me.
Tell us a little bit about the mix?
So the mix. The mix was a journey. A mental, emotional and spiritual journey [laughter]. I started by thinking about what I want to put out there. What’s the vibe? How do I want it to feel and sound? I think anybody that knows me knows that I am very split when it comes to music. I like to listen to house, techno & a bit of garage, but I also love my Kiwi roots which is drum n bass & jungle so I decided to bring it all together into one beautiful, potentially scary, mix. I figured that no one in their right mind wants to listen to an hour and a half of straight DnB, so thought to change it up a bit.
I think a lot of people in Australia, and a lot of my Australian friends, think of drum and bass as something that maybe it isn't. So I'm keen to change the narrative a little bit and introduce something that you might be quite surprised by.
What’s been your most memorable musical experience?
I think there are two that I’ll touch on that are really meaningful to me.
One was definitely New Years [last year]. Just being at Rhythm & Vines with some of my best friends back home. That festival has a very special place in my heart, it's a very magical festival and every time you go back it just gets a little bit better and better and better, and keeps you wanting more. There's a stage called Cellar Stage and it's parked up, sort of, in the middle-back of the festival; it feels like a little woodland. It hosted some amazing artists like Gerd Janson, Pretty Girl, Barry Can’t Swim. It was an incredible line up and incredible few days, and you could not move me from that spot.
And then the second one that I definitely want to mention was a bush doof that I hosted in January this year with a lineup of all my closest friends in Australia. And that was just something really special that I'll remember forever. A lot of different vibes and genres, but having your friends all there to dance throughout the night, for everyone, was really, really special.
Which artist(s) are you most excited by at the moment?
Oh, there are so many but there are two I’ll mention. The first one is this duo from New Zealand called Kédu Carlö. I've been following their journey for quite a while and been in their DMs on Instagram quite a lot. I'm pretty famous for sliding into artist’s DMs, and I’ve been asking a lot about upcoming Sydney shows. They are just really amazing, the first track I heard is their one called Donald, it’s outrageous, go listen. And their album from earlier this year is great.
The second is this young guy called Manoah Kenna. I found him on TikTok. I think he’s still at uni and he was doing this home grown boiler room. He produces a lot of his own songs and it was amazing to see these videos of his mates at this boiler room. He’s really, really talented, definitely worth a follow on SoundCloud; he posts quite a lot of new music there.
Upcoming release or ID you’re hanging out for?
I love Sammy Virji and he’s been teasing a song for a while, called ‘Shella Verse’ with Flowdan. It’s just been released. It’s this super fun UK garage track. I feel like he's definitely one of those artists that if you put any of his songs in a set it brings a lot of bubbly energy. Go check it out!
What’ve you got in the oven?
This mix has been a great challenge to get me out of my comfort zone. If I’m honest, it’s the first time I’m recording a mix so it’s been fun thinking through the process and it’s given me some good ideas of what’s to come, but for now I’m just DJing and crying as I say goodbye to all my friends moving to London.
What are you ordering from the bakery?
I'm a savoury girl at heart. I’ll always go savoury before I go sweet and my favourite thing ever from a bakery is what we [in Taranaki] call a ‘bridge pie.’ It’s basically just a cute, mini pie or party pie. You can pop it in your mouth, and there's something about those that are just way better than the big boys.
…But then you must follow the savoury with the sweet, so it has to be a custard slice, or what you’d call a vanilla slice. That’s a great meal right there, can’t have one without the other.