How Milky Day Created His Most Honest Music Yet With “Impulses”

Known for his self-affirming singles, musician and producer Milky Day pushed himself further than ever before on his debut EP “Impulses”. In this exclusive interview, he breaks down how he did it.

Unbound Entertainment Group

Last year, in the midst of a breakup and job shakeup, Milky Day found himself in Wagga Wagga, an inland city in Australia situated between Melbourne and Sydney. Milky was there to visit his sister, who had moved to the small city for a brief period. The past year had been tumultuous for Milky. He hadn’t made music in almost a year, and his life had radically changed since losing a job in America. Maybe Milky didn’t realize it when he arrived, but Wagga Wagga wouldn’t just be a retreat to figure out his next move. It would be a place of deep reflection and, eventually, creation. 

The city, he told me this week in an interview from Thailand, is “very middle of nowhere”. With little to do and no friends to hang out with beyond his sister, Milky spent much of his time alone in his room.  “I feel like in that bare environment I was able to do some deep reflection on my life,” he explained. “It made me really confront how I was feeling.” 

Milky “stripped away” all temptations in Wagga Wagga. He stopped drinking alcohol, smoking, and even quit drinking caffeine. There was little nightlife, so Milky had no desire to go out. There was still social media, but Milky did his best to not hyperfixate on what everyone else was doing. Instead, the multifaceted musician tried to ditch the ever-present feeling of FOMO, and focus on creating something that he could share with his fans.  

“Being isolated,” he told me, “it gave me a workspace to get in the zone and work on my art.” 

Milky wrote most of the songs from his debut EP “Impulses” in Wagga Wagga. That EP, which was released in August, is darker and moodier than any of Milky’s previous works. While many of Milky’s songs are defined by a bedroom pop feel that is typically soft and gentle, “Impulses” contains elements of electronica, house, and even trap music. Milky pushed himself further than ever before with these songs, both in an effort to break out of a box that had started to bore him, and to challenge himself as a producer. 

“An EP provided an opportunity to package a concept, and for people to see that this is a piece of art,” he told me. He kept this idea in mind throughout the making of “Impulses”. It was important to be explicit about this: “This,” he said, “is a piece of art that I’m presenting to people.” 

That OG Milky sound is something that is almost instantly recognizable and comforting. The Korean-New Zealander has been making music for the past five years, and his wiry, often sweet voice, has become a source of comfort for the 50 million people who have streamed his work. 

He’s an artist who rarely follows trends. (“I can hear it when people are imitating sound,” he told me dismissively.) Instead, Milky’s kept his head down and cultivated a body of work that is adventurous and prone to his own artistic impulses. His oeuvre contains soft, crooning R&B (“Let Me”), sensual bedroom music (“Take It Slow”), even some acoustic pop (“Fool”). But the through-line of Milky’s evolving sound has always been the lyrics: encouraging, hopeful, and a reminder that if you’re in the thick of darkness, you’ll find your way out.  

Yet “Impulses” is bitingly raw. It’s vulnerable, an honest moment where Milky reminds listeners that he can be scared too. That, just like us, he has moments where he feels fucked up and lost. “I wanted the EP to be more personal,” he explained. “I wanted to tell people my life story, the things that I’m experiencing. Put it into a perspective where people can relate to it and digest it really easily.” 

The goal of “Impulses” was to tell a story both sonically, in Milky’s smart production, and through his thoughtful lyrics. Milky tried something new with this EP by cutting the last few measures of one song, then immediately transferring them to a new project. “Part of the reason I did that was I wanted the EP to flow seamlessly,” he explained. “So you’ll actually notice that the transitions are fairly smooth.” Sometimes, like the beat drop of “So Good”, he heard the music in his head long before he made it, “and then it was just a matter of finding it on Logic.” 

The EP opens with “Temptations” which Milky described as “the initial recognition of my demons”. It’s perhaps the most autobiographical track of why Milky isolated himself in Wagga Wagga. “It’s about me questioning why I feel this way or giving into temptations,” he said thoughtfully. 

“Temptations” leads to “Aura”, a song with a sick trap production that features a rap verse from Sway Bleu. That song offers an angstier lens of Milky, “which is me trying to self-medicate through unhealthy methods to escape this dark reality that I’m in.” Milky used the production as a way to conceptualize this story. “There’s a clear beat switch that goes from hard to dreamy and that is supposed to represent running away from your troubles,” he explained. 

On the EP’s lead single “Losing My Grip”, Milky envisioned a song where, after feeling good, everything comes crashing down.  “That’s where it was worse than before,” he said. “I’m questioning my life, and think I’m going crazy.” Milky worked with Soulace, a creative collective based in New York who are close friends. Milky collaborated closely with Soulless member Richard Ahn to develop the video’s concept. Ahn channeled all of Milky’s anxieties into the video, even in the smallest details. One example, Milky offered, is a shot of him crumpling up a sheet of paper that was his American visa. “When I lost my job because I’m not a U.S. citizen, I was worried about that,” he said. Thoughts would race through Milky’s mind: Am I gonna be able to stay here? Will I be kicked out of the country? But perhaps most pressing was this creeping feeling that he was done with the corporate world. Milky was sick of acting like a 9-5 was something to be excited about. “Losing My Grip” represented the breaking point for Milky. 

Things get weird starting with the next track, “Rest in Peace”. That song represents “a kind of ego death where everything’s being stripped away,” he offered. “Maybe I’m dying, descending to heaven or hell.” But the song takes a sharp left turn near the end as a choral, atmospheric section enters. It stands as one of the most vibrant and eclectic songs of Milky’s career. 

“Rest in Peace” flows seamlessly into “So Good”, a song that transitions from the moodier sounds to something brighter and cheerful. This represents when Milky realized that things might improve, and that he actually had a lot to feel grateful for. It’s a “silver lining amongst the chaos”, but above all, “So Good” represents how much Milky has learned and how much he’s changed in the past year. 

Unbound Entertainment Group

Looking back on it now, the past year has been the most transformative year of Milky’s life. When we first met in the spring, Milky had just signed with Unbound Entertainment Group, a management company that has secured Milky more shows and the opportunity to get his music in front of more fans. Thanks to Unbound, Milky had his first professional photos taken, and will soon release a limited edition vinyl of “Impulses”. 

Performing, too, has been a “learning curve” but one that Milky sees himself improving at with every show. The day before we talked, Milky performed in Thailand for the first time where he was able to meet his fans. Some gave him gifts: letters, Thai candy, even a teddy bear. “It was a reality check,” he said softly, one that allowed him to look into the eyes of the people who comprise nearly half a million monthly listeners on Spotify. 

Next month Milky will travel to Vietnam, another country he never imagined performing in, for two shows. “It’s my first time in South East Asia actually,” he said and briefly looked outside his large street view hotel windows. “It feels like I’m in an alien world because everything feels so unfamiliar and strange.” But his music has brought him here to listeners who don’t speak English and to places he never dreamed of visiting. He’s finding that his music is global, and that his message of hope is resonating far beyond anything he thought was possible. 

Some of this can be traced back to his early 20s. When Milky started college he left New Zealand for America. “I lived in New Zealand for twenty years,” he told me quietly, “but my entire family left New Zealand when I started college.” His parents moved back to Korea, while his sister settled in Australia. This year, Milky, too, made Australia his homebase. But for a long time, Milky didn’t feel like he had a home.  “I think that’s what prompted me to keep moving around because there wasn’t a central base to go back to,” he reflected. 

Today, as he tours to new countries, Milky tries to find the dilapidated restaurant run by the grandmother who cooks delicious food or the coffee shop where college students burrow in to study. He wants to see where others make a home. Not having a home has benefits, too. It’s made Milky curious, adventurous, and able to evolve. You can hear this wild, untamed spirit in all of his music. He’s always been telling us his story, just perhaps not as vividly as on “Impulses”.

“I think previously I was nervous to show people my bad sides because I always wanted to present myself in the best light,” he said carefully. Often, Milky wanted his music to reflect the dreamier, happier parts of life. “But I think showing people that I experience darker emotions,” he told me as he looked down, “it makes me more human and relatable.” 

“I want people to know, I’m just like them," he said with a slight, self-aware laugh. “Even though my life might seem cool because I’m doing what I love, I still go through the same struggles as everyone else.”

The goal of Milky’s music has always been to offer comfort to the listener. No matter what you’re going through, MIlky wants you to know that there’s a silver lining. Milky often acknowledges that “Impulses” might be darker than any of his previous work. “But I feel like the message hasn’t changed much,” he added. “I feel like my message is to tell people that they’re not alone in what they feel.”