M.I.L.A.D – Unsigned and Uninhibited
Posted on 23 May 2008 by Halima Khatun
In today’s image conscious, money-driven music industry, there are two types of artists. There are the pop-puppets, those who lip-sync other people’s words and endorse everything from perfume to crisps. More often than not, a pop puppet will have a profile-boosting celebrity spouse. Many such puppets have been churned out of one of the various reality TV shows, or are fresh from an 18-month stint on Eastenders or Hollyoaks.
Then there are those artists who write from the soul and sing like they mean it. They would rather pen an earth-moving lyric, than be seen at China White on Saturday Night. As I chat to Milad Yousefi, aka M.I.L.AD, an Iranian-Swedish singer who writes the soundtrack to his own life, it quickly becomes apparent which category he falls into.
M.I.L.A.D openly discusses his struggle to climb up the industry ladder, how he turned down a record deal to complete his studies, and how his father’s untimely death inspired elements of his music…
M.I.L.A.D’s music is an eclectic mix of R’nB, Hip Hop and what he calls ‘alternative’. The InsideDesi team are fortunate enough to catch him at an early stage of his career, before he is surrounded by pushy PR representatives, and his own entourage. Today, M.I.L.A.D arrives alone and ready to tell-all.
His dark looks remind me of Darius Danesh, one of the aforementioned reality TV puppets. But unlike Darius, M.I.L.A.D hasn’t got a team behind him, pushing him to capitalize on his looks and song ballads. This, M.I.L.A.D says, has been a mixed blessing.
‘It’s great being able to play the music I want to, rather than have to conform to a record label’s genre. But at the same time, you have to do everything by yourself.’
However, doing ‘everything himself’ hasn’t been entirely without rewards.
He’s received acclaim from Club Asia, and performed at the Persian New Year, alongside his idol, legendary Persian singer Andy. More recently, M.I.L.A.D’s song ‘The One’ has been featured on renowned artist Shamur’s album ‘Shardana’, an album which is tipped to be a big seller in India.
M.I.L.A.D was personally asked to write the song for the album, no mean feat for the young singer. As if that wasn’t kudos enough, M.I.L.AD’s ‘The One’ can be heard on all the major Asian radio stations in the UK. To achieve this much without industry backing, one can only imagine what dizzying heights M.I.L.A.D would reach with the right help.
From the age of sixteen, he has been writing about everything from love, and karma, to death. M.I.L.A.D has first-hand experience of all three. This brings me onto my next question, the reasoning behind his stage name, M.I.L.A.D. He tells me it stands for ‘May I Live and Die’. A rather dark pseudonym for a singer, but then M.I.L.AD has been through more than your average 22 year old. Three years ago, M.I.L.A.D’s father committed suicide. His unexpected death shook the whole family, especially M.I.L.A.D, who found his father’s body. He tells me, whilst others turned to drink and drugs to numb their pain, M.I.L.A.D wrote music as a form of release. ‘I just wrote what I felt at the time. It was like a form of therapy. The death song helped me cope and deal with the loss of my dad. Music became my outlet, and it helped me through.’
M.I.L.A.D’s father lived to recognise his son’s musical talent. ‘My dad saw me perform once and he had tears in his eyes. He said he never realised how good I was. That was the first time he believed I could make it.’
Losing a loved one has brought the Yousefi family closer together. When M.I.L.A.D told his mother he wanted to make music his trade, she offered him her full support. Equally, M.I.L.A.D turned down the opportunity to sign with Warner before graduating, as he wanted to finish his Politics and History degree. This decision displays a level-headedness beyond his years.
So what is the future for M.I.L.A.D Yousefi? Well, being of Iranian descent, M.I.L.A.D has already been well received by his community, but he now has his sights set on conquering the mainstream music industry. ‘Anyone who says they don’t want to be in the mainstream music business is lying. It’s like saying they don’t want to be popular, and who doesn’t want to be popular?’ My goal would be to bring my niche music to a mainstream audience.’
With a diary at bursting point with bookings, not to mention a place on ITV’s Unsigned, it seems that it’s only a matter of time before the record label bigwigs come knocking on his door.
M.I.L.A.D’s album May I Live and Die will be released this summer.
To find out more about M.I.L.A.D, and to hear some of his music, you can visit his MySpace page on: http://www.myspace.com/miladmusic
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(6 votes. Average: 4.17 out of 5)Tags : interview
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May 23rd, 2008 at 1:35 pm
An interesting article but I have to disagree with your comment about Darius being a TV puppet.
Darius turned down Simon Cowell’s million pound offer in favour of finding a producer who would allow him to release his own original material. He went on to write the lyrics and melodies for all the songs released on his albums and sings them all with real soul.
There are similarities between M.I.L.A.D and Darius. Darius also had to turn down a record deal in order to return to his studies, his father was diagnosed with terminal cancer and this influenced the writing of his second album ‘Live Twice’ which he dedicated to his father. Thankfully his father is in recovery.
The backlash following Darius first TV appearance almost ruined any chance of him having a career in music, he has had to battle and work hard to reach his achievements and I’m sure that with those same attributes M.I.L.A.D will achieve his dream – I do hope so as there is no doubt he is talented.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Milad, I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 24th, 2008 at 1:54 am
Oh M.I.L.A.D deserve all the love and support because he is really a great singer.
he has all the specifications to be an amazing singer in the near future.
to support M.I.L.A.D check myspace :
http://www.myspace.com/miladforeverfans
…Rawan…
May 24th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
It is so wonderful to see you so passionate about your singing career. It is trully inspiring, one thing I know for sure is that your Baba will be proud of you immensely, like we all are of you.
Big respect sweetheart
xxx
May 24th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
M.L.A.D has got a lot of talent and alot of people are recognising this and this is apparent in the online support he gets on facebook and Myspace so keep supporting him!! we love Ya!!XX
May 24th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
M.I.L.A.D. is one the greatest artist that i REALLY admired cuz, u can hear it in his music/songs. His music has a unique rhymthm with an amazing voice. He write/produce his own music/songs…now that is TALENT & at the same time he is very passionate in which u can’t find in many other artists. He has many luv & support from fans (as u can see on myspace, facebook, & iLike)… as I’m one of them. I’m wishing M.I.L.A.D. all the best in his music careers!!!
take kare & much luv 4 u….Sone’ K.
May 25th, 2008 at 5:59 am
I saw you on my myspace/facebook, Musically ur good….[why is it tkng so long for u 2 b discovered?) but, boy, you look different on fbook / myspace…. Photo-shop does wonders! Gd luk …. ur lucky, us Iranians are wel known for our cosmetic surgery! x
May 25th, 2008 at 7:11 am
milad deserve all the love and support because he is really a great singer.her hold on good future tense,much nice really sing song.natural song. I think nice.forever milad,milad everything for you…..good luck M.I.L.A.D
hug.
xxxxburcuxxx
May 25th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
I LOVE DARIUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. CATCH HIM IN THE THEATRE NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.
May 25th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
I nearly agree with you Ken [Darious comments = :) ) . but this boy just looks down-right dirrrrrrty to me - unfortunately the world revolves around a squeaky clean image. he wont get far otherwise, lets be honest here. By th wy Jay Sean’s feature was amazing - I want him at my college leaver’s ball, love his music, style, everything. Pure Class. Well done on the website guys.
May 25th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
Kaynath you dont have a clue what you are talking about, what you mean dirty, its not his fault the people who did the feature did not even do some basic editing on his pictures whereas they clearly spent a lot of time editing Jay Sean’s pictures so unfair treatment and Jay Sean is good but he just like anyone else, M.I.L.A.D is the first artist I have heard who is so diverse in his music and dont just chat about the same thing and for your information he has already made it, I am from the US and I heard him on radio here, hes got a massive fan base here and plz plz can you come here and perform.
May 26th, 2008 at 1:10 am
I think Kaynath meant dirty in a good way
lol
May 26th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Never took MILAD seriously, bumped into him at uni few times but afraid was too busy to actually find out what he was really about.
Best of luck to him!
May 27th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
His amazing.
May 28th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
I wish MILAD the best of luck. Talent will out, as they say.it might take what seems a long time but it will be better to get the right deal for him.
What IMHO is inexcusable about this article is the championing of one talented Iranian singer/songwriter by denigrating another talented half-Iranain singer/songwriter, musician and actor viz Darius Danesh, by dismissing all of his achievements in music and entertainment as those of a reality TV puppet with a team behind him pushing him to capitalize on his good looks and his song ballads.
I presume this was done in ignorance , ignorance in the sense of lack of knowledge, of Darius the man and the total integrity and dedication to creating his own music he has shown throughout his career.
Ken was slightly wrong. Darius did not turn down 2 recording contracts. He turned down 3 of them.
The first with Sony to return to uni, the third a multi million contract with Simon Cowell and his record company which guaranteed him commercial success within weeks. A double A-side single was to have been produced by Pete Waterman and released 3 weeks after Gareth Gates replaced Will Young at number 1 so allowing each “Pop Idol” 3 weeks at the top. Darius would undoubtedly have been the next number 1. Darius dug in his heels and refused to be back down but not for the first time in the competition. He is said to have refused to have signed certain clauses of the standard PI contract and to have got a better deal for all ten for the PI tour.
He was serious about wanting to be free to get a contract to allow him to release only the music he wanted to i.e. his own songs.
After uni and before PI Darius had refused to sign a recording contract with an independent record label run by Barry Mason who co-wrote Delilah and other Tom Jones’ hits because, although he was promised he could co-write the bulk of his debut album, his first single release which he had recorded with them was someone else’s song. He knew that refusing to sign the contract meant he would have to pay back the full production costs of his single almost 12,000 pounds sterling. He took on that financial burden rather than give up his fight to record his own music.
As for Darius only singing or writing ballads, that is nonsense.
As a singer he has a fine baritone voice which he first used in public, singing in the chorus of the Scottish National Orchestra and he also toured in the ensemble of the Scottish National Opera Company.After the last date of the tour at the Royal Opera house in Covent Garden, darius declined an offerto train as an opera singer and set up his own rock band called Jade which broke up when its members went their different ways to Higher Education. As a “pop idol” he wrote up tempo songs, ballads and acoustic songs with folk/country influences. His second album was an eclectic mix of genres and singing styles amongst which was an original swing style song which was so in keeping with that era that it caught the attention of the American producers of Chicago the Musical who gave him his first West End lead role as Billy Flynn despite Darius being ten years or so younger than the usual Billys. To this day Darius is the still the youngest actor/singer to have played the role on Broadway or the West End.
So the creative freedom which Darius insisted on having, led to him writing a song which took him to the West End. He returned to London in December last year from Los Angeles where he was writing and recording his 3rd album, in order to perform at the Tenth Anniversay Gala performance of Chicago. He was then asked by Gareth Valentine the musical director, if he would like to audition for the role of Rhett Butler in Sir Trevor Nunn’s new musical Gone With The Wind. After 6 auditions he got the part and has wowed critics and audiences alike. The critics praised both his “resonant bass baritone” and his “beautiful high vocals”. He has been critically acclaimed for a part he has originated in a brand new musical with a new book, libretto and score. You can’t get much further than that in the West End other than to originate another role.
Darius is at present contracted until the end of September
but he is still a singer/songwriter and his desire to get out his 3rd album is as strong as ever. However, he won’t use samples, throw in cover versions, buy in songs or lay down vocals and expect others to finish the production, just to get it out sooner or at an optimum commercial time.
I would tell M.I.L.A.D that Darius Danesh is an excellent role model - know what you really want, don’t settle for second best, get as much creative control of your career as you can, never give up, if you get knocked down learn from it and go on, leave your options open so that when opportunities come along, YOU can make the best decisions for yourself. No regrets, just experience. It certainly hasn’t done Darius Danesh any harm.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Hey MILAD I hope are well, Congratulations on the achievments to date, you have only scratched the surface MILAD believe me..There will be many accolades to come for sure..
For those of you out there still not quite sure about MILAD you will come to find his unique, diverse sound that he incorporates into R&b and other genres..In addition to his god given talent he has a genuine love and care for the sound he projects through our speakers, it has meaning and depth which we can all relate to..
MILAD is a very humble and modest artist who has his feet firmly on the ground and will continue to do so in his future success. He appriciates the love and support from the fanz and he takes time to acknowledge every one personally, he aint in the music game for the fame the money and all the material sh**t that comes with it, I can truly say MILAD uses his music to articulate his feelings and emotions and can relate to them you know that is what its all about..
Tc and much Luv Rob
June 12th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
well Halima u aint dun any research b4 u started this article
u shud have looked in2 Darius’s material b4 u dissed him
i cudnt find any info on this m.i.l.a.d. guy , bt if he’s partly iranian , he doesnt really qualify to be in insidedesi does he? or does he sing desi songs in his r&b manner?
i dnt knw i’m askin
June 17th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
his really goo0d, i ado0re all his songs preety sweet best luck to him, ders alot of arab singers do0ing well in rnb..i need a lil help iv heard his song “the one” the music in the background sounds like an english song that i noe but i just cant get the right title for it, can you please help me anyone!
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:41 am
Hey rihab the anwser to your question is the one is taken from “Truth Hurts” which was produced by Dre but stolen off a Indian lady forgot her name. In terms of M.I.L.A.D he is not ARAB he is 100% Persian and from what my persian friends tell me very well liked. You just gotta think here is a guy who has not released a single song and has still achieved 1million plays on myspace countless interviews and performances with some of todays biggest stars. Mark my words M.I.L.A.D will be on every1s lips next year, well done insidedesi for covering him, he deserves it.