Interview with jcole and ceniq of milk

Written by Adok

Asked what milk is, jcole replied: "Milk is some sort of 'Internet module and music label'. You know... labels, pretty much of them. We release music in module and mp3 format. Mostly ambient and idm stuff. And the URL is *Da-daaaa* milk.sgic.fi."

Jcole maintains the milk project together with Ceniq. "We haven't got anything in common, except we both are bit o' lunatics," jcole comments, laughing.

Jcole's real name is Jarno Koole. He was born in Finland and currently lives in a city named Oulu. "I've got nothing to say about myself. If you want to know about me, write to jasako00@dewey.oulu.net."

Ceniq, who calls himself S.Louhela at the moment, describes himself like this: "aw[tuh, wa-r983, 3q-97 h, and aw-89rth3. Yes. Hmmm... I got my first keyboard (a Casio of course) some day in 1985 and I've been playing since then. Currently I have Yamaha cs15 anal synth, Korg x5 and Roland mc505 (which I'm trying to sell, because I'm gonna buy myself drums and maybe start a jazz band). I got my first PC in the end of 1997 and started using trackers. I listen a lot of jazz and Warp music (like Red Snapper and Nightmares On Wax). I like ambient too. I'm trying to keep milk up at my friend's house (I don't have a modem). I also try to write little reviews of all the milk tunes. Well, that's all about me I think."

Back to milk. How did it all get started? Jcole: "It started like this, *finger snap*, in a pizza restaurant. We tried to find the worst name ever for our project, and then someone said 'milk'."

"Then you put up the site. Were there any complications?" I asked. "No," was Jcole's fast and straight answer, with laughter in the background.

Of course it was now interesting to know what artists released stuff under the milk label. "The members of milk who release stuff are me (jcole), ceniq, prob and daze. Prob is inactive at the moment, but with a good reason. There might come something from our ex-member amon one day. Other non-members and our favourites are Ylikulju and Kyllonen, their tunes are very personal and original. There's also my old friend illusion/DCS releasing very catchy stuff from time to time. The most active non-members must be kyllonen and distance, who give us tunes all the time. Full artist list is available on the pages.

"We're trying to release stuff from very talented people who don't show up much, I think. We're not keen on releasing stuff from da big allstars, 'cause there are far better musicians out there. I don't like the idea that every label releases stuff from the same big allstar all the time, it's too boring and eventually even the listeners get bored. I like new faces if they have the balls in their music."

Confronting the milk staff with the question whether there have been any highlights in their career so far, I first earned some confusion, so I posed a more precise question: "Have there been any really 'big' releases tha attracted a lot of downloaders and to which you got plenty of feedback?" The answer to this was: "We have had about 13000 hits in 10 months but no major feedback, except personal feedback to the artists. The DemoNews magazine was very pleased with illusion's release 'azlak' for example. We get subscribers almost every day and that's positive, it may tell something about the way people think of us."

In the end I asked ceniq and jcole whether they had anything they would like to tell the readers. The short and precise answer: "Have a nice day."

That is, browse to http://milk.sgic.fi.

- gigadok^hugi