Drinking With Mike Milosh of Rhye

Not only can Mike Milosh of dreamy, indie duo Rhye sing in a stunningly high tenor, he also knows his way around the kitchen. Milosh doesn’t take his chef status lightly either; he’s the self-proclaimed best egg cook around. In fact, when we sat down with Milosh for an iced Matcha latte, Milosh challenged anyone who reads this interview to a cook off. Spoiler alert: he also makes a killer steak.

Rhye released their debut album, Woman, in 2013, and since then have garnered a flood of praise from The New York TimesSPIN and NPR, among others. Rhye is currently on tour all summer, but we recently got the chance to catch up with Milosh in Brooklyn to talk all things music, food, and drink.

Milosh, who hails form Toronto, told us all about his musical background, a near death experience with wolves in a Canadian forest, and his signature egg dish.

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Tell me about your musical background and how you came together with Robin to form Rhye.

I’ve been playing music since I was three. I began by playing cello, and I played a lot with my dad’s quartet–he’s a violinist. After that I started playing the drums and skipping class to play in this hilarious band when I was 15 called Euphoric Trance.

Wait–did you come up with that name?

No, unfortunately, the bass player did. But it was super fun because we played all the time and I discovered how much I loved drumming. After that I went to university for jazz and vocals, I and began producing. Things really changed for me when I got into electronic production. I started messing around with synths sequencers, made three albums, and did a remix for Robin. I ended up singing on it, and we decided to turn it into a track instead of a remix. I was in Berlin and he was in Copenhagen, so I went up there for three days and recorded “The Fall,” “Major Minor Love,” and “Woman.”  After that we sort of went our separate ways. I started going to LA often to my visit my now wife, Alexa, and then Robin coincidentally moved there. We kept working on the record and now we’re here.

When you make remixes do you have to ask permission from the person who you’re sampling from?

Well, usually people will pay me to make a remix for them. People are always asking me to do remixes and it’s very rare that I say yes, because it takes a lot of time and I’d rather work on my own track. When people remix my music, I’ll give them all the splits, which is the parts of the drums, keys, and vocals. Some people make remixes off of us and don’t ask and I always think its weird. I personally don’t like to deal with that sort of stuff, so I just let my publisher talk to people. I just like to make the music.

I read that you had a near-death experience with a pack of wolves that was life changing. Elaborate.

Yeah, it just happened this fall. I was with my friend and he lives in Monocenter, which is an hour away from Toronto. My friend has 80 acres that leads into a forest, and as we were walking one day he thought he saw deer. I looked closer and said, ‘those aren’t deer, man, those are wolves.’ I really like animals so I wanted to check it out, and I went and followed the wolves. We were standing by the pond on his property, and we realized something else was watching us. We looked behind us and there were six more wolves. Really big ones, too. We had a stand off for about 15 minutes. We didn’t move, we just stood by the water thinking that if they were going to attack us we could at least jump in. But it was freezing, so we would’ve lasted four minutes, max. Eventually it was getting dark, so we grabbed some sticks, made some noises, and walked out.  I found it to be a very profound experience that I can’t fully explain.

Wow, you guys were lucky.

Yes, it was really weird. The first track on my new album is actually called “Six Wolves.” As of now, there are no vocals and it’s just orchestral. I’m trying to find the right church to record with a pipe organ. I’m doing a lot of organ on this record.

Sweet. So..I hear you like to cook?

Yes, I cook all the time! I generally only like to eat cooked meals at home because when we’re on the road I eat so much crap. I’m the self-proclaimed best egg chef in the world.

What’s your best egg dish?

I’ve got a bunch. But I love doing this really simple boiled egg–6 minutes and 47 seconds is how long I boil it for. Then I sprinkle on some truffle salt, dice it up, and add steamed beets and onions with mushrooms and steamed spinach. Afterwards, I melt some goat cheese on top and place it on homemade bread. I sort of want to open a breakfast spot.

You should! Do you drink wine?

I do. I’m really partial to Bordeaux. I’m not a Merlot guy in general. I like wine, but I’m not a snooty wine connoisseur. I generally like oak reds, with hints of cherry, nothing too sweet or two dry. I try and pair it with what I’m eating, too. I used to be vegan, but now I’m really into eating meat, especially when I cook it myself. I’ve become a master steak chef. I’m challenging everyone I can in this interview to a cook off.

It will be known to all. Final question: before you go on stage what do you do?

I have one ritual, and it’s a chant that I make my whole band say before we go on. It changes night by night; it depends on the context of where we’re playing, but it’s pure humor. There’s nothing serious about it. It’s quite rude. It usually has something to do with genitalia just to take the seriousness out of the moment. The songs I sing are really emotional and if I go on too serious, it’s too much.