Tom Rowley, best known as a founding member of Milburn and later a touring musician with Arctic Monkeys, has opened up about how his time alongside Alex Turner and co. shaped his debut solo album, Moses & The Drones — including a track co-written with Turner himself.
Speaking to NME in a pub near King’s Cross, Rowley recalled the early days of Sheffield's indie scene, where Milburn emerged alongside Arctic Monkeys and Reverend & The Makers. "Everything was unknown back then," he said. "It was just, ‘I like playing music, you like playing music, shall we just hang out together?’ It was exciting. People looked out for each other. Then things started kicking off. It’s all a bit of a blur after that."
After Milburn split in 2008, Rowley found himself working odd jobs, including as an electrician doing PAT testing — "just putting stickers on kettles, rate boring," he laughed. "I was working in this scruffy factory in Leeds when I got a call from Jamie Cook saying they needed a keyboard player for the ‘AM’ tour. The next week I was in America trying to figure out the songs, and that went on for 10 years."
That decade on the road with Arctic Monkeys exposed Rowley to a world of extraordinary characters and experiences. "You come across some fucking mad people," he said, reflecting on how those encounters fueled the storytelling on his solo record. The album, Moses & The Drones, is set to capture the rock'n'roll chaos he witnessed, blending his own songwriting with the influence of his time in one of the biggest bands on the planet.