Miles Salter is a bit of a local creative workhorse. As well as writing for us, he leads his own band, Miles & The Chain Gang, who have been receiving some traction of late.

By Graeme Smith

“Things are building,” he says. “It is slow, but you do what you can…. Taylor Swift gets 37,000 plays in a lunchtime, but you just have to do your best and work on building it as best you can.”

Today marks the release of their latest single, We’re All Amateurs Here, which reflects on the condition of human imperfection. It’s a lively, percussive number full of early tinkles and handclaps before a brooding guitar riff comes in. When Salter’s vocal arrives, he is full of his usual poetry, and beautifully expressive for his reflective tale.

For the composition, Salter and band drew from classic influences like REM, U2, Talking Heads and Pink Floyd. “There are different influences in there,” says Salter. “It’s a tiny bit postmodern, I guess.”

The band returned to Young Thugs studio in York to record the song. Tim Bruce, who has been a gang member since the start (2018), played bass, new recruit and multi-instrumentalist Gary Stewart played drums, and Jonny Hooker provided keyboards, as well as production duties.

We’re All Amateurs Here is out now, and you can listen to it below.