Kane And Able

In order to celebrate the release of his second solo album Don't Forget Who You Are, Miles Kane – the English musician better known by many as The Last Shadow Puppets' co-frontman alongside his bestie Alex Turner – claims, “I cracked open a bottle of bubbly last night.” Cristal, was it? “Yes, I had 20 bottles of that,” he chuckles. And 20 strippers as well? “Yeah, 20 bottles of Cristal and 25 hookers,” he laughs cheekily.

Following the release of his debut solo album Colour Of The Trap, Kane toured Down Under for the first time as part of Falls Festival's 2011/2012 line-up. Punters who arrived early to the Arctic Monkeys sideshows scored the chance to bask in Kane's undeniable star quality in the support slot. And we were fortunate enough to lure the svelte Birkenhead native into Inpress HQ to record an acoustic session for theMusic.com.au. Kane performed his own Rearrange and a cover: Play With Fire by The Rolling Stones. “I remember,” Kane admits of the filming. “I was standin' up, yeah? Did I have, like, a flowery shirt on?” Affirmative, but surely he owns walk-in wardrobes full of similar items. “You know what? I used to have more, but then I got bored with them and had a clear-out. But then the other day I was thinkin', 'Shit!' You know when you fancy puttin' one on? But – rash decision.”

Colour Of The Trap's liner notes were littered with Turner co-writing credits. On his new set, the debonair Paul Weller co-pens a couple of tracks: You're Gonna Get It and Fire In My Heart. “Well, we just met and we got on,” Kane casually informs of how he came to work with one of his idols. “We haven't really looked back, and he's such a good guy and a nice fella, you know wha' I mean? And he's a mate now.” It has to be said that the pair are a perfect match, sartorially speaking, and when asked whether it feels bizarre to count the Modfather among his friends, he considers, “Yeah it did do at first, for sure, you know, and especially, like, when you're working together and [hiccups] excuse me. I was pretty nervous and stuff… Nervous in meself in terms of: I wanted it to work and I didn't wanna, like, let meself down or let 'im down. 'Cause we could've worked together and, well, we could've both been like, 'Oh, mate, this is horrific,' and, 'What's goin' on?' But thank god it didn't [turn out that way] and we done a handful of tunes together and, you know, I definitely would like to do more.”

The twosome holed up in Weller's Black Barn Recording Studios in Surrey, about which Kane enthuses: “It's beautiful. There's a little house next door that we stay in and it's quite a homely studio, I guess. It's really easy just to walk in and play.” Don't try to imagine these stylish collaborators kicking about in their trakkies, mind. “No tracksuit pants,” Kane stresses. “Not allowed. He's a very sharply dressed man.” So obviously Kane had the foresight to pack his finest suits for Black Barn. “Just like every day of my life, you know wha' I mean?” Does he travel with garment bags? “No, just a big old case 'cause I have to take so many clothes away with me,” he shares. Kane must be quite the ironer, then. “Yeah, I am an ironer. [Pauses] It depends if the hooker's still 'ere to iron.” A case of the old, 'Make me a cup of tea and then iron my suit before you leave, will ya?'

“Yeah, and then get out,” he giggles.

Much like his impeccable sense of style, Kane's musical output could be described as a modern designer spin on vintage classics and listening to Don't Forget Who You Are will make you wanna 'borrow' his iPod. “Every song was just carefully thought of,” Kane reflects. “Me and Ian Broudie [producer], you know, before going in studio we sat down and we mapped it out, really. We sat down and we decided, like, what mood that each song would have, in a way, and we'd probably reference – Don't Forget Who You Are, I'd say we were listening to Jeepster by T Rex just to get that sort of mood for that. And even that Out Of Control, we'd think of The Drugs Don't Work by The Verve. Like, it's different sentiment to the song and that but, in terms of the way it makes you feel, we wanted a song like that.” So with What Condition Am I In? “Yeah.” That one calls to mind the awesome '60s number Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In). “Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah,” Kane allows. Did he have that precise song in mind? ”Yeah. You are just on fire, aren't you? Ay? Telepathy. You've just got your A game on right now. We don't even need to do this interview. Start writing my biog, hahaha.”

Having been approached by director Sam Taylor-Wood after a Last Shadow Puppets gig “a few years ago”, Kane confesses he knocked back the chance to star as John Lennon in Nowhere Boy (2009). “I'm a musician, loove, and I wanna play my guitar and I wanna sing, you know wha' I mean? And I don't want an easy way of just fuckin' makin' a bit a dough by doin' something, you know wha' I mean? Like, I wanna be on stage and I wanna sing, you know? And I know it was nice and that film was great, but it was just not right for me. And even though [laughs] if there was a film that I would wanna be in, it would be probably to play Lennon 'cause he's me hero – so in that way I guess it was, like, kinda right, but it's just, you know: I'm not an actor, man.”

Kane agrees that just as acting is a specialist artform, so is singing. “I had to just teach meself to sing, really. I couldn't sing, you know wha' I mean? I just remember being in my mum's bedroom and, like, on a 4-track and, you know, I kept doin' it and doin' it. When I started singing I was just shouting, really, just to get the pitch right and it takes time and I'm still learning now.” When asked to recall some of the songs that helped him hone his craft, Kane ponders, “Ah, man. Loads, mate, you know?... Obviously there was Oasis and stuff like that, but one of those early ones was that Play With Fire, weirdly.”