Banking On It

Adrian Rafter (aka Edo) and Dyl Thomas are Milwaukee Banks, a slinking electro-rap duo bringing a whole lot of shade to the Australian hip hop sound. Formed just over a year ago, the Milwaukee Banks project has gone from the bedroom to packed clubs at great speed, even though the pair barely intended to start a band.

Rafter has been DJing around Melbourne for the better part of a decade, as Opulent Sound and later producing beats under the name Flight Tonight. “Dyl was always rapping and performing in bands and doing live music. I was always into electronic music,” Rafter explains. “I was sending Dylan beats and stuff that I was working on and I was telling him about my experiences of reaching out to different vocalists and trying to get people to sing on different tracks. He just one day said, ‘You should really send me some stuff man, I’d be keen to rap on this stuff.’ I kind of hadn’t thought of that approach.”

In 2013, their stoner reverie Pluto Bounce debuted on Interview Magazine and turned a few heads in the media, and a respectable career was born. But ‘casual’ is still the new of the game for these guys, as Rafter explains. “I feel like with previous projects I’ve been involved with there were always limitations. Everyone always had to have a predefined role. So in previous projects Dylan has been involved with he was ‘just’ the vocalist, who couldn’t do anything else, and in previous projects, I ‘just’ did beats, but never the bass lines or whatever. Now, if you want me to sing on a track I’ll sing on a track. There’s a lot of experimentation on effects with vocals and trying different things electronically.”

Milwaukee Banks are all about collaboration. Last month they released a remix EP featuring five new versions of their songs by artists at home and abroad, including a remix of Hazy by Lucianblomkamp, a remix of Pluto Bounce by friendships and a remix of Rose Water by UK-based producer SertOne. The band now has a double A-side in the pipeline featuring collaborations with Rat & Co and Andrei Eremin, who produced the original Rose Water EP. While the two-track release is away for mastering, Milwaukee Banks are gearing up for two Melbourne Music Week performances, including a monster bash hosted by Ferdydurke and Section 8 as part of the Live Music Safari.

“RaRa did a remix of Purple And Green for the remix EP but they didn’t just remix the track, they dropped new verses on the whole thing. They put their own raps on it and Dylan did a new verse. We’re playing with them at Melbourne Music Week so we’re going to play the remix. It’s the first and probably the only time people will ever get to see us do the whole thing.”