Mild Orange - four mates from Dunedin releasing bangers on their own terms
The members of London-based "Kiwi band for the world", Mild Orange, share a passion for travel and connection.
After America's online music aficionados raved about their 2018 debut Foreplay, Mild Orange songs like 'Some Feeling' and 'Freak In Me' have had streams in the tens of millions.
On their new album The//Glow, the four travel-loving friends pay tribute to both the nightlife of London, where they've lived since 2022, and heartland rock, which has soundtracked many hours of driving across the States for gigs.
"The twangy country guitars just got into our ears." Mild Orange singer/guitarist Josh Mehrtens tells Music 101.
Josh Mehrtens is Mild Orange's singer, guitarist, producer, manager and legal advisor.
@mild_orange
Moving from New Zealand to a massive city like London was quite an adjustment for the four Otago University friends, Mehrtens says, but three years on, they're enjoying the "strong" live music scene in their adopted home.
As an "internet band" - as opposed to one signed to and promoted by a record label - Mild Orange have had a super positive and mostly troll-free experience of the online music world, he says, but it's their shared passion for travel adventures IRL (in real life) that is really key to the musical modus operandi.
"Over the years, we've just cultivated a lovely listenership and really made an effort to connect with people in all corners of the earth… We're really proud to be a Kiwi band that makes music that we hope will resonate with people everywhere."
Mild Orange's busy tour calendar includes a yearly gig at a Moroccan surf hotel.
Mild Orange
As well as fronting, producing and managing Mild Orange, Mehrtens, who has a law degree, also acts as the band's legal advisor, while drummer Jack Ferguson takes care of their accounts.
As an independent band, Mehrtens loves that Mild Orange can steer their own creative project with utmost care and, ultimately, be in control of it.
"Maybe [record] labels are scared to talk to us or something."
While he says Mild Orange songs aren't tied to a particular genre - "We just write how we feel or reflect on what we've been living at the time" - the band does put pressure on themselves to innovate.
Mild Orange take inspiration from heartland rock on their fourth album The//Glow.
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On The//Glow, they reach beyond the "enclosed" bedroom pop scene that their often "quite dreamy" songs have been associated with, and use different guitars and orchestration to create "rock anthems".
"When I'm dark, you stay bright," Mehrtens sings on 'My Light' - a sparkling new Mild Orange track in which he comments on digital media.
Anyone listening to the track "with a musical ear" will hear that it just features two chords, but also many layers, he says, so it was very difficult to craft.
"I'm so glad we persisted with it - it's a bit of a banger."
'My Light' is also a tribute to Mehrten's wife Summer.
"The weight of the world can get a bit Intense sometimes, but she's always there for me."
