Milky Chance is a German duo consisting of Clemens Rehbein and Philipp Dausch. The band has a unique sound that combines a smooth singer-songwriter sound with jagged, upbeat tones of electronic music.

Their song “Stolen Dance” has blown up the music scene over the past year. It currently has over 160 million views on YouTube. You most likely have heard the song playing on the radio recently, or in stores near you.

The band is currently venturing across North American on tour, stopping at the Skyline Stage at the Mann in Philadelphia on July 28. Then, after the road trip, Milky Chance hopes to put out a new album sometime next year.

Recently, we hooked up with lead singer Reihben, who talked with us about the bands’ experiences and goals.

I wanted to ask about your band name. It’s obviously very unique. How did you come up with it?

I came up with that name when I was younger. When I was starting songwriting – about the age of fourteen or fifteen or something. Really, there’s no meaning in the band name. It’s very different from when it began. It just sounds really weird.

How would you describe your music?

I think we’d call it "danceable melancholy." That kind of consumes it all. It is different sides of music, but it works. It’s a lot of singer/songwriter stuff mixed with electronic beats. Danceable melancholy is a bit more lyrical and this combination, I like it a lot.

Obviously your song “Stolen Dance” has become pretty popular. What can you tell me about it?

It took me two and a half years to write that song and finish it. It took a while to polish it up – the chorus and pretty much all of it, actually. These words were always stuck in my head and so I decided to work with them again two years later. It’s about a mixture of being young and naive and getting a lesson, really knowing about things, relationships and people. The verse is about getting older and knowing people. The chorus is about being naive.

What’s next for you guys?

Well we’ve got our upcoming North American tour now, so it’ll be a lot of on the road this year. Then we’ll take a break. Calm down and have some privacy, do some other stuff. We want to record new stuff in winter. About January, I guess. I finished writing new songs with my guitar. Then we’re  releasing a second album next year. I don’t know exactly when it’ll be, but that’s the plan for now.

You talked about touring. What would you say is the best part about touring for you?

Being on the road, the feeling that you’re on the move and able to see the world. It’s always felt very free. The feeling of being free, not having the life where you wake up in the morning, go to work, get home in the evening and then you watch TV or something. When you do shows you have a team. You go and do concerts all the time in the evening and the night. You really do have this really cool feeling.

It sounds cool. What would you say is the best place that you’ve ever played?

Oh man, it’s hard to pick favorites. We’ve played so many different countries, so many different concert venues for different people. There are always so many wonderful people with wonderful natures. Every place seems amazing.

Obviously you have collaborative partners in the creative process. What is that like for you?

For me and Philipp it was very easy because we both know each other very well. We know what each of us can do and what we can’t do. We have our roles. I do the songwriting because that’s what I always did. We also work together. We produce the songs together. We have the same taste in music and the same ears. If someone has an idea, it’s like, “Oh yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking!” It’s always very coincidental. We have something that’s very comfortable and really very useful. It can also be very complicated too.

How do you think social media helps you reach out to fans?

It’s very important nowadays. It’s the main media that we use. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter: we use all of them to inform and connect with fans and the people who pay attention to us. It’s very important to communicate with people and we can do that there.

Who would you say inspires you as artists?

A lot of different artists of course, but also our friends. We have a lot of friends who play instruments and are very interested in music. We both had a great education. We learned all about music history, so I guess all the people that we have gotten to know by now have been an inspiration of sorts. We also get inspiration from older stuff. We play some Ray Charles and stuff like Duke Ellington, but also newer stuff – especially singer songwriters, and electronic music. There’s a big electronic music scene in Germany that we really like.

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