Rarely is a German band as internationally successful as Milky Chance. German radio listeners almost stumble a bit when they learn that the group comes from Kassel. With a sound all its own, the multi-award-winning folktronica band delights a worldwide audience.
The band Milky Chance originally consists of two artists, who are supported live and in studio recordings by other musicians. Singer and guitarist Clemens Rehbein began playing guitar at the age of 12. In high school he founded the band Flown Tones together with Phillip Dausch. Dausch is responsible for background vocals, sampler and sequencer operation, and percussion in Milky Chance today.
The school band is on the road as a street music combo in Kassel and the surrounding area, but also in other European countries. The two friends Rehbein and Dausch take the music performance course at their school and take the Abitur exam in 2012. The other band members take different paths after graduation, Dausch and Rehbein found Milky Chance at this time. The two musicians record their first self-written songs in Rehbein's old children's room.
The band has the secret recipe for the perfect folktronica sound
While other bands often talk about the trials and tribulations of finding their own sound, about constant line-up changes or quarrels with the record company, Milky Chance's career has been successful in a linear fashion. The hit "Stolen Dance" is one of the songs that the founding members recorded while still in their childhood bedroom and uploaded to their YouTube channel in 2012. The self-produced and self-written song receives several hundred thousand clicks.
The successful musicians then found their own label in order to continue to produce, market and publish their music exactly as it corresponds to their personal ideas. In 2013 they self-release the debut album "Sadnecessary", which also features the single "Stolen Dance."
The song reaches No. 1 in the singles charts in France, Poland, Switzerland and Austria. In Germany and the Netherlands, the single places at No. 2 in the charts. In the top 10, the song lands in Italy, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Hardly any other German band can look back on such a global success right with the first single.
Milky Chance also achieved fame in the U.S. with "Sadnecessary": the music magazine Spin awards the record in 2014 as album of the week. This is followed by an appearance on the highly watched U.S. late-night show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!". With the European Border Breakers Award as well as the Echo for "Best National Act Abroad" Milky Chance win two prestigious awards.
The exceptional mix of folk rock, alternative and pop has a high recognition value and is a unique selling point in the modern pop business. Tickets for Milky Chance will soon be in high demand internationally, with the band touring New Zealand and Australia, among other places. Milky Chance's very first tour is so successful that it sells out three times: In the period between 2015 and 2016, a good 100,000 people attend the band's shows.
Milky Chance are a melting pot of musical influences
Since 2014, Antonio Greger has supported the two founding members on harmonica and guitar, and Sebastian Schmidt has been on the band's drums since 2017. In the same year, Milky Chance then put their long-awaited second album. "Blossom" has a similar basic mood as the debut album and also conquers the charts in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the U.S.
The band plays another tour and can be seen at many international festivals such as Lollapalooza, Coachella or Rock am Ring. In 2019, the band will release its third successful album "Mind The Moon". According to the trade press, you can hear the wandering years of the band on the record: Just as Milky Chance have seen the most beautiful places of many continents, their music also combines the most fascinating elements of different genres.
