Losers’ Paul Mullen on their ‘positive’ new EP and the future of Yourcodenameis:milo

As Losers release their latest record ‘EP01’, frontman Paul Mullen has spoken to NME about how it was shaped by overcoming “darker times” – and teased what might be on the cards from the recently reunited Yourcodenameis:milo.

Formed in 2007 and comprised of legendary DJ Eddy Temple-Morris, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Tom Bellamy (formerly of The Cooper Temple Clause), and guitarist-vocalist Paul Mullen (of Yourcodenameis:milo, Young Legionnaire and formerly The Automatic), the band have been hailed by the likes of Gary Numan and DJ Shadow – with their electronica-tinged-rock often heard on films and TV shows including Game of Thrones, The Blacklist, Hercules, The Killing and A Discovery Of Witches.

“With Tom coming from Coopers and Eddie being a superstar DJ, it’s always been a collaborative thing – same with Gordon [Moakes] from Bloc Party in Young Legionnaire,” Mullen told NME. “Losers only started because I was in London finishing up a Young Legionnaire record and needed somewhere to stay because I had just split up with a girlfriend. Tom had a spare room, so I just stayed there for a month and on the last day we recorded a track together. Suddenly it became a thing. It’s not a supergroup, it just happened.”

This week they release ‘EP01′, their first new material since their third album ‘How To Ruin Other People’s Futures’ dropped in 2016. This time, it has a much more positive outlook.

“‘How To Ruin Other People’s Futures’ was definitely a difficult record to make, because all three of us were going through a tough time,” said Mullen. “It really shows in the music and the content – it’s a handbook on how to destroy yourself and the lives of others.”

He continued: “This new EP came about from having a lot of tracks lying around from a long time, and in coming out of this dark period we started to see them in a different light. We were just in a totally different headspace and have come to terms with a lot of the demons we had to deal with on the last record.

“It’s still got the Losers sound and has darker moments, but there seems to be a lot more hope with it.Things have to get bad sometimes unfortunately, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. It’s hard to see sometimes.”

Admitting that lockdown gave the band “the time and space to pause, take stock and look at what we have and how we can go forward with it in a new and fresh way,” Mullen said that Losers have a long run of new material on the way.

“We’re releasing a track ever six weeks, plus we’re also doing webinars with them,” he said. “We’ve done one with Dan Austin who engineered Young Legionnaire and has recently had Number Ones with Doves and You Me At Six. We just talk about our songs in detail, then me and Tom reimagine the track as a live version.

“From there we’ll group the songs into ‘EP02’, ‘EP03’ etc. We’ve got a whole bunch of stuff. It’s really exciting because it keeps us on our toes and connected in a way we could never be before.””

Fans of Yourcodenameis:milo where excited last year by the news that the cult post-hardcore band would be reuniting for a couple of shows in their native Newcastle. They released the acclaimed mini album ‘All Roads To Fault’ as well as the full lengths ‘Ignoto’ and ‘They Came From The Sun’ before they went on “indefinite hiatus” in 2007, with guitarist Justin Lockey now a member of Editors.

Speaking of what the upcoming shows mean to him, Mullen said: “It was always a really special band and I’m so proud of what we put out. It’ll be fun to play again and get back to 2004.

“I always get people coming up to me and saying how much ‘All Roads To Fault’ and ‘Ignoto’ meant to them, which is great. A lot of bands have also said they’re big fans of Milo. We’ve been discussing the setlists and trying to figure out support slots. Hopefully the shows can happen, they will at some point.

Asked if there could be a new Yourcodenameis:milo album, Mullen replied: “The conversation has come up. If we’re going to do it and do it properly then we’ll go the whole way and do new stuff. We’ll have to get into the studio for the first time after 14 years and see what happens. I’m writing constantly and I’ve got stuff that hasn’t really worked out for other bands and I’ve said, ‘That could be a Milo thing’. We just need the five of us to get in there and bash it out.”

He added: “I’d love to, but at the moment I’m out in America and everyone’s got their own thing. It’s hard to get five people in a room when they’re not 19 anymore. We’ve only ever said we were on hiatus, but for now these shows are going to be great and we’ll just feel it out. It’s going to be fun, so let’s see what happens.”

Losers’ ‘EP01’ is out now. Yourcodenameis:milo perform at The Cluny in Newcastle on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 September. Visit here for tickets and more information.