Taking a taxi into Dalston, east London, I do a quick mental check over everything I’ve researched about Myles MacInnes – also known as Mylo, and widely proclaimed as the ‘saviour of electronic music’. As prepared as I ever am, I clamber out of the car, at what the driver tells me is the right address, a street door that looks like it leads into a warehouse.

 

The response to my buzzing up is instantly recognisable; it’s Mylo, softly spoken and shy-sounding. “Come on up,” he says, “third floor; door’s open.” As I ascend the slender staircase I’m greeted by Mylo, who extends a hand before I’ve even reached the top step. This is his place – the base he shares with various artist friends, and somewhere he’s not seen so much of in recent times.

 

Mylo, born and bred in the Isle of Skye, is just back from Japan, and shortly off to Ibiza. “It’s a tough life,” he smiles, before asking me if I mind if we nip out for something to eat. “I’ve not eaten lunch,” he stretches. But before we set off he excuses himself – to load the washing machine with the laundry he’s not yet had time to do. So I have a little nose around the studio – full to bursting with artists’ materials – while he sorts his socks.

 

Laundry safely in the machine, we walk to a café Mylo recommends: “It’s the quietest place, you’ll be surprised,” he assures me as I suggest that perhaps he might have to shout in order that my recorder picks up his voice. We plant ourselves at a small window table and start the interview – informal and relaxed. Interesting place, I tell him. “Yeah, it’s my base. But I’m hardly ever at home. But I’d quite like to move to Essex.” Really? “Yeah, I like it because it’s downtrodden. It’s a bit uncool. And I really like the fucked up seaside town thing. I was seeing a girl once and we went to Southend-on-Sea. It was just so great, you know. All these kind of weirdo guesthouses.”

 

Mylo’s mobile phone sounds out. He apologises, before answering the call and conducting a quick and professional conversation. It’s his manager, Eric. Anything interesting, I ask? “Yeah. War Child is doing another ‘Help’ album and wants us to contribute a track. I was quite flattered as there are, like, big bands confirmed for it.” Flattery indeed. The last War Child album, 1995’s ‘Help’ boasted contributors including Oasis, Paul Weller, Sir Paul McCartney, Neneh Cherry, Manic Street Preachers, Radiohead and Blur, and became the fastest ever Number 1 album in British music history. It was made in one day, and was aimed at raising funds and awareness for children affected by war. And ‘Help: A Day in the Life’ looks set to be another huge success – with Radiohead and Manic Street Preachers back, Gorillaz, Razorlight, Keane, The Magic Numbers, The Coral, Elbow and The Zutons all confirmed to record.

 

So it’s a big thing – and it’s comforting that he sees it as such. Mylo has come a long way since last summer, when the murmuring about a new DJ phenomenon first started. Back then Mylo had just come out of his bedroom, and was starting out in Ibiza, gradually turning people on to his unique blend of infectious pop hooks, bedroom DJ electronica, heavy-duty beats, raucous vocals and intelligent sampling. He had just released his album, ‘Destroy Rock & Roll’, through his own label – Breastfed, which he co-owns with two others – and was enjoying rave reviews from some of the music industry’s most lethal critics.

 

And things just got bigger from there. Mylo has taken his DJing and his live show – a full band comprising Mylo himself on guitar and keyboards, his brother Hector on drums, Lewis Harley on bass, William Threlfall on guitar and The Phantom on visuals – around the world and back again, making fans everywhere he goes. “It’s been manic – for me and the band and me and the label. Very much so.”

 

How are he and the band coping with the fuss that surrounds Mylo? “We seem to be coping with the scale of it quite well. And we’re still having a total whale of a time. So that’s still good. I mean, you really expect for something to go hideously wrong in that respect but you have to keep track and make sure everyone gets paid and everyone’s happy. I suppose that keeps it all quite real, even in the most bizarre situations. And spending so much time together keeps us grounded.”

 

“But then again I wouldn’t say this has been the most focused year of my life. Certainly not as focused as when I was making the record. Having said that, I was quite all over the place when I was making the record. I spent a lot of time reading, like, cold war spy thrillers instead of actually doing it. So that’s one reason it took quite a long time.”

 

Mylo first started dabbling in the studio in the summer of 2001, and some tracks on the record date back to around six months after that – including ‘Sunworshipper’ and ‘Destroy Rock & Roll’. “It was kind of six months of fannying about and learning a bit. But they were really simple tracks ’cos I didn’t know what I was doing. And then we eventually put the record away in January 2004. So it was a solid two years. I mean, most of the tracks only take about a day to make, so I don’t quite know what happened to the rest of the time. But I seemed to be busy.”

 

Do you find that if you don’t have to do something immediately you put it off? “Completely. I mean, it’s like last week. I had one very urgent thing to do and one very non-urgent thing to do. I had to excise this tiny Prince sample for the American release of the album, ’cos we were scared he was going to come after us. That was very urgent. It was putting off the American release.

 

“And also I had the parts for this Röyksopp remix, which isn’t due until the end of the month [August]. So it’s still quite urgent but not that urgent. But I spent the entire week fucking about with Röyksopp and not doing this Prince thing. And it got to the point where I had to fuck everything about, go up to Global Gathering on the Friday in a hire car on my own instead of with the tour bus, do the gig and come straight back. I got back about 1am and I did the Prince thing, you know, all night. And I had to leave for Japan on the Saturday morning. So, yeah, I have a bit of a problem with deadlines.

 

“When I was a student I always tried to go through as many exams as possible and avoid coursework or dissertations and stuff. It’s just like, when you have an unlimited amount of time to do something, it just becomes this ever-growing thing. There’s a writer called Spalding Gray who was recently found dead [in New York’s East River], whose first book was about actually trying to write his first book. He never got the initial first book finished but he wrote this short book about what a nightmare he’d had, and about how mad he was.”

 

Speaking of unfulfilled dreams, does he have anything he wishes he’d finished? “Tracks-wise, there are hundreds, which is kind of a good thing. I mean, taking them down to the studio and having little ideas is something I don’t have a problem with. And then all I need is to sit with a coffee and mess around with the keyboard and something of varying quality will result. Which is good because when I’m approached to do something – like this War Child thing – I should be able to go through the archive and, provided I haven’t fucking lost it or my hard drive hasn’t been nicked, there should be something there for me to develop and finish. It’s good to have all these unfinished bits hanging.

 

“In general, in life, I have a lot of unfinished things. I have quite a lot of unfulfilled ambitions, definitely.” One thing Mylo regularly mentions is his need to develop his DJing. Despite the music industry and fans viewing him as something of a hero, and the fact that he’s in constant demand around the world, Mylo insists he still needs to work on his technique. “I throw myself in at the deep end, rather than consolidating what I do best. I’ve been going and fucking up in areas where I have no expertise of any kind, primarily DJing, which I like.” A lot of people would argue with that, I tell him. He blushes and smiles, fidgeting in his seat momentarily, before saying, “Wow, that’s a nice thing to say, you know.

 

“But I don’t take things too seriously. I find the whole thing very hard to get serious about. I do have a kind of anti-establishment attitude towards the music industry because, as far as I can see, it’s fucked. And it’s fucked because you’ve got old skool DJs who take things far too seriously and worry about techniques and worry about using the right kind of mixing desk. And it’s like, get a life! And also, as far as recording, there are the big studios that don’t really need to exist because of the advances in technology. But they’re ripping people off. “Now you can get so much power on your laptop, which you couldn’t five years ago. And that’s completely changed everything. So I’m quite convinced that that’s not just me being a cocky little cunt. Although maybe I am.”

 

As unorthodox as his approach to DJing – and performing electronic music as a live band – is his approach to actually making music; while he’s not yet officially started work on the second album, he’s always working, and when he’s not coming up with innovative ideas for new tracks, he’s being approached by hoards of artists; whether remixes or collaborations, it seems everyone is eager to have the Mylo touch. Or at least have him take them under the Breastfed wing. What is the criteria for selection? “Well, there are three of us, man [Mylo himself, Kevin McKay and Duncan Reid]. We don’t have a proper office right now, and it is all a bit up in the air but Kevin’s kind of running it now. Sony have come in and taken a lot of the work for my album off our hands so Kevin and Duncan have a lot more time to look around and see what’s out there. That’s how it’s going right now.

 

“There’s a band about at the moment that are kind of like Bloc Party, and they’re really good, but we’re not just looking for another band like that. We’re looking for a band with songs that are really good. Cassius is another one of the house albums I had, and now he’s come back with something new, a deeply personal, rocky kind of album. It’s really quite brave actually and it really works.

 

“And some funny things which would be a dream come true like Sparks who were, like, a really weird-looking band from the 1980s. Everyone thought they were German but they’re actually from America and their stuff is so mad. They’ve got a new album which is just mind-blowing – it’s got the maddest of the maddest Queen stuff, but times by a thousand. I think it’s amazing and if we could put that out then I would be totally over the moon because they’re such legends and completely and utterly exorbitantly brilliant. And it’s completely uncommercial. “So what we’ll probably do is take what little money has been made from my record and use it on these totally uncommercial new projects. And then go bankrupt and that will be fine. And I also really like the Knife, a new pop band from Sweden who do things themselves on their own label, but we might be able to pick up their next album, for the UK at least.”

 

It’s quality over quantity then? “Definitely, yeah. I mean, it’s a small label and at the most we’ll be releasing three albums and then maybe a couple of compilations. I think anything that happens with the label now is going to get some attention. And any album we do in the future is going to be a make or break situation for us – like, what is this label all about? I mean, we are dead serious about turning it into a proper label.”

 

Still ambitious, enthusiastic and modest about his achievements so far, it seems Mylo can do no wrong. But, under no illusions of grandeur, he’s not complacent, and is still nervous about the re-release of ‘Destroy Rock & Roll’, insisting that it might not be so successful second time around. To his friends – and those who’ve known him since ‘before’ – he’s simply Myles. Saviour or not, there’s no denying the effect the arrival of Mylo has had on the music industry. “I’m not sure I care what a bunch of snotty industry brats say. They have their favourites but it’s meaningless. But right now it’s all good. I’m enjoying it. Even though I feel like a space cadet!”