We hope you’re sharing our enthusiasm for Milton Jackson finding his creative flow again after several years of hiatus. The Scotsman has played a key role in helping shape the sound of the Freerange label since their first release back in 2006 and they’re proud to continue bringing us his chunky, warm, deep house sounds we know and love!

Here on the Closure EP, we’re treated to three tracks of jazz-flecked summery grooves to move to. Kicking off with ‘Need Your Love’, Milton teams up with London keys-man and producer Ski Oakenfull for a bouncing piano house track that sounds like Roy Ayers jamming out with Kerri Chandler and Larry Heard over stripped-back beats and an infectious bass line.

Next up is ‘Day In, Day Out’, just the kind of sun-drenched soulful groove that MJ does to perfection with building strings, euphoric synth stabs and a little vocal hook for that icing on the cake.

Wrapping things up in fine style we have the EP title track ‘Closure’ which pushes the jazz influences to the front, and even adding a touch of gospel flavour in the heartfelt chord progression and organ pads. Crisp, punchy, swinging beats and MAW-style vocal hits keep things rough and ready and before you know it you’ll be bouncing along with a massive grin on your face.

Brucey bonus for the vinyl heads… they’ve added a favorite track of theirs from his last digital-only EP to this release. ‘Birdsong’ is a low-slung tropical delight which is one of those grooves that can’t fail to nice up the dance!

WWD: Hello Milton so good to talk to you. How are you?

I’m great thanks, good to talk to you too!

WWD: Where are you today and what are you planning to do after this Interview?

It’s a Monday so generally dull stuff although I’m looking forward to working on a track tonight that I have cue’d up in Logic. It’s Korg M1-tastic and has a good vibe to it.

WWD: You seemed to be away from the scene for a while. What were you up to in that time?

Yeah, I put out a few things but nothing sustained. I think I had been doing it for so long it was nice to take a break. We had just had 2 babies in quick succession, so music took a back seat for a while looking after them!

WWD: Do you ever suffer a lack of inspiration musically, or are your creative ideas always flowing?

It ebbs and flows, some weeks are better than others. I think it’s important if you aren’t feeling too productive musically to do other things, even if it’s just organising your tracks or folders, listening to other music, or practicing your instrument.

WWD: If you are lacking inspo, how do you find it? Or do you just go do something else?

Just go back through the old record collection and listen to some jams, or have a glass of wine, tends to help!

WWD: Tell us what your studio looks like right now? What are you using?

It’s nothing spectacular to be honest. I see these studios on socials and it’s crazy! Mine is basically some old Emu samplers, summing mixers and compressors with some modest synths and string machines.

WWD: How did you relationship with Freerange actually begin? Do you remember the meeting or the moment?

It was through Tom Szirtes aka Shur-i-kan, I had been working with him on some tracks back in 2005 and I met Tom Szirtes through Tom Middleton. (Too many Toms!) He had worked with Jamie and Freerange so we sent them some demos and we did a couple of EPs with them and it went from there.

WWD: Jimpster mentions you are responsible for helping to shape the sound of the label. How does that feel coming from him?

Very high praise from the Professor himself! Yeah I mean that is very kind of him to say, it was a fun time though, with Tom’s work, Jamie, Manuel Tur, Lovebirds, Pezzner etc and of course Dave Taylor. It had a very definite sound in that era.

WWD: Your last few releases on the label have had a super summery feel. Does that mean you are dancing on air these days?

I saw a comment online on one of my older tracks which was quite musical and a bit more upbeat and somebody said ‘I wish he would go back to this vibe’ so I did (hopefully!). I think as you get older the dark dancefloor stuff loses some of its appeal, so I wanted to make some summery upbeat tunes. Especially when we were in lockdown, it felt like a nice escape from the horrible things going on in the world.

WWD: Are you guilty of making a lot of music and not finishing it? Do you have loads of great stuff lying around? Or do you always get the job closed off.

Oh terrible. My hard drive is a wasteland of forgotten ideas and broken dreams. I would say the ones I close off make up 5% of my total started ideas. That, to me, is the sign of a true pro – someone who can start an idea, finish it maybe a few days later and then that’s it. I’d like to be able to do that.

WWD: Are you a jazzman at heart perhaps?

I think I’m actually a frustrated classical musician, I played classical guitar for many years and then stupidly didn’t pursue it to where I should have got with it. Unfortunately I was led astray by clubs and MPC2000s. I’m back practicing now though trying to get back to a decent level. You don’t really get classical guitars in orchestras unless it’s a soloist, but I’ve always been fascinated with orchestras and what life must be like on the road for a touring orchestra.

WWD: So what were you thinking when you called this release Closure?

All my titles come from books lying about in the studio, I take a word here and a word there to make it a title. Although the House Arrest one was obviously done in lockdown, hence the title! I didn’t mean it as closure/ending or any subtle meaning, I just had a book called Closure that was right in front of me!

WWD: Your new EP on Freerange is chunky and warm. Give us a little MJ brief on the tracks.

Yeah I was trying to go for the ternary vibe ABA and have top end lines that work under different chord progressions. Flip the chord sequence halfway through and keep the top line the same. I wanted to keep it fairly chord based. But I knew on Need Your Love I needed a proper musician like Ski to compliment it so I contacted him to collab.

WWD: What can you tell us about Ski Oakenfull?

Well Ski is another guy I’ve known for years and because I am based up in Scotland I never really see all these people I work with musically very often! So it’s all online. But he’s a great guy and fantastic keys player so it’s been fun to hook back up again. We first worked together in 2006 I think as we did remix swaps.

WWD: What other goodies are you working on this year?

Some more tracks with Ski and some more solo stuff. I’ve also been doing a few episodes of my mix/podcast series called Deep House Is A Way of Life which is good fun and a bit silly. I’ve also been working with Brian Kage on some tougher material and I’m really interested to see how that pans out as well!

WWD: Thanks for talking with us Milton! 

My pleasure 🙂

Release Date: September 16th, 2022. Buy Here

Milton Jackson: Facebook // SoundCloud
Freerange: Facebook // SoundCloud