Making music: Miles ahead
Danny Miles, best known as drummer for rock band July Talk, has stepped out from behind the kit as a hip-hop producer, songwriter, and solo performer. He's working on his third solo album.
Call it a mutual love affair.
Four years ago, Danny Miles joined the influx of notable Toronto musicians relocating to Hamilton. He quickly fell in love with the city and its vibrant music community, which, in turn, has made him a valued and popular member of it.
Miles’ move to the east end has coincided with a dramatic expansion of his musical career. Until recently, he has been best known as a co-founder and drummer in July Talk, one of the most successful Canadian rock bands of the last decade-plus. Beginning in 2015, with their gold-selling, self-titled debut record, July Talk has won three JUNOs
for Alternative Album of the Year, and has toured extensively internationally. Along this journey, Miles has earned a
reputation as a highly skilled and energetic performer behind the kit.
In the last couple of years, however, the affable Miles has stepped into the spotlight first as a hip-hop beatmaker/producer and now as an entertaining rap meets rock singer-songwriter and solo performer.
Over a beer at Bernie’s Tavern, he devoted much of his HAMILTON CITY Magazine interview to discussing this creative transition, one that he has embraced enthusiastically. He’s just as excited about his move to Hamilton, where his grandfather Tom Moulton was a fullback for the Tiger-Cats in 1960 and 1961.
“My family moved here at the end of 2021, selling our little condo in Toronto and buying a house here,” Miles says. “Hamilton was an obvious choice for its affordability, but I felt like it was also a place with a good music scene and a thriving music community, rather than going somewhere without a scene.”
Hamilton wasted no time in making Miles feel welcome. “The day we moved in we met all our neighbours immediately, and they’re all super nice and cool. Then I had an outpouring from the music community here, reaching out, saying ‘You should hang out at this place, etc.’ I met a lot of people really quickly then realized how many were from the Toronto music community that had already moved here,” he says.
“I knew The Dirty Nil guys a bit and got to know them really well, and Luke (Lalonde) of Born Ruffians came shortly after, plus I soon met all the local musos.” Of the latter, Miles singles out the well-connected Benjamin Rispin (Rules) as a crucial figure.
“He has become close in so many ways with my music, plus we have a moving company together. We’re now best friends, and I have met a lot of people through him.” Rispin now directs Miles’ videos and collaborates on songs. He tells HCM: “My friend Danny Miles is one of the most gifted and prolific collaborators I have ever had the pleasure of working with. It is rare to find a creative counterpart that is as generous as Danny, and one that also shares so many
common tastes.”
Watching Miles’ progress as a lyricist and frontman has been one of the coolest things Rispin has seen.
“In my opinion, he’s one of the best additions to the Hamilton music community we’ve had in a long time. His passion for songwriting, working with other people, and love for our local indie artists is something to
be admired.”
Miles’ first musical moves outside July Talk came in the duo Tongue Helmet, alongside longtime friend Timbuktu, on their well- received 2019 psychedelic hip-hop album Psychotropic Ape. He then made a mark as a beatmaker and producer, prior to his first solo recording, last year’s Beautiful Music.
Entirely self-produced and recorded at Miles’ home studio The Pillowfort, this all-instrumental album comprises 27 short compositions featuring accessible melodies and beats and incorporating hip-hop, funk and jazz elements.
The album was spawned after he’d produced a record for Toronto hip-hop group Swamp Thing (featuring Timbuktu). “I had an insane amount of instrumentals that I loved even more than some of the ones they picked,
and the Beautiful Music album came together very naturally and easily from that.
“I wanted a seamless album for vinyl, a record to put on at dinner parties. It is an instrumental hip-hop record but because there is no rapping on it, it fits into other genres. You can like rock music but you can put it on in the background.”
The response to the album exceeded Miles’ expectations, boosting his creative self-confidence immensely. “The amount of love for it from other musicians I look up to was really flattering,” he recalls. “People like Shad, Aquakultre, Saukrates and Lee Reed.”
Shad’s early support helped spread the word. “When I put out the track ‘Orchid’ as a video on Instagram, Shad responded, saying ‘I’d love to rap on it.’ The version he recorded just floored me, and it’s my most successful song. Some legendary rappers, including DJ Jazzy Jeff, contacted Shad about the song.”
This positive feedback spurred Miles to release and record a sequel album, Beautiful Music (The Ruined Version). Released in November 2024, it features guest vocals and raps from a stellar cast of Canadian artists, including those mentioned above, along with Eamon McGrath (a former bandmate in July Talk), Kevin Drew (Broken Social Scene), Moka Only, Tarek Funk, and Ghettosocks.
Miles singles out a freestyling recording session with Drew as a “brilliant” album highlight. The critical and peer reaction to those records made Miles want to do more. He has been doing exactly that, but in quite a different way. The new material he is writing and recording features more conventional songs and he has been stepping up as a
vocalist for the first time. His first three singles, “Not Gonna Fit In,” “All We Do Is Party!,” and “Reckless Kids,” possess a rap-meets-punk rock-party vibe, and Miles takes to the mic with real authority.
“I’ve been on a creative rampage and have at least two records’ worth of material. I think this next album is scheduled for February, but by November I have to decide what songs will be on it so I can send it out for vinyl.”
There will be no guests on the next album, but Rispin has helped with the writing and arranging.
“Often it feels like I’m close to being done with a song but he’ll come in with fresh ears and rapidly fire off ideas. A lot of happy accidents happen.”
Expect an eclectic but cohesive record, says Miles, who grew up in London, Ont. “I sent it to Moka Only, and he heard Prince and Bowie on there. There’s heavy Prodigy and Nine Inch Nails type stuff, alongside more straight rap material. Mostly this record will be live instruments and I kind of sample myself, manipulating sounds through
different mixers and plug-ins.”
Defining this diverse sound is a challenge, with Miles offering “garage rap or alternative hip-hop” as possible descriptors. “I see it as fitting different genres the way Beastie Boys and Beck do. I’m passionate about many different styles of music and that is what comes out. Unlike the first two releases, these are fully fleshed-out songs. More pop structured stuff hidden in weirdness.”
Miles has taken to this new solo persona like the proverbial duck to water, while noting it presents a different challenge. “I can play drums for hours and not get tired, but singing is something else. I get excited jumping and dancing around, which makes it more challenging to sing. It feels natural though.”
He has been honing his solo skills with recent shows in Hamilton and beyond, including some with his local pals B.A.
Johnston and Lee Reed. Miles has also displayed his chops as a DJ with a recent set at Supercrawl and an ongoing residency at Bernie’s Tavern on Cannon Street.
While he has been concentrating on his solo work of late, Miles stresses that July Talk, the band that really launched his musical career, is still very much a going concern, and one he remains passionate about.
“That band clicked from day one and still clicks. We’re working on new material now, and when we get together in the studio that is still undeniable. The unit won’t die and we don’t want it to.”
He candidly acknowledges that “nearly 15 years in, there obviously is baggage. There is trauma from the years on the road, being exhausted, but we all get along so well and a lot better than many of our peers’ bands.” The media and industry marketing focus on July Talk as a band generally places extra emphasis on the charismatic co-vocalists and frontpersons Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay Goldstein, but Miles, there since the beginning, stresses his role goes way beyond that of a hired hand.
“We’ve always written together,” he notes, adding that “it can be frustrating when you are asked many times on tour, ‘How long have you been in the band?’ It is not a hired-gun group.”
Expect a new record and more touring from July Talk in 2026, though Miles says it won’t be on the scale of the band’s early days, when they toured Europe 20 times and he got to know cities such as Berlin and New York so well that he felt like he lived there.
“Back then, we were doing four-month tours, but you can’t do that with kids.”
Dreimanis, Goldstein, and Miles all have babies.
It was the rapid early success of July Talk that prompted Miles to pursue his passion for music fulltime, at the age of 28. “I was a sales rep for Mill Street Brewery in Toronto, making good money and having a fun time. When July Talk started taking off, I had to make a career decision.
“I’m very glad I made the choice I did. It has been a wild experience."
