Back in 2024, Miles Kane walked into Easy Eye Sound Studio for the first time. The English singer-songwriter and musician reached out to and wanted to work with Dan Auerbach, whose work he admired from afar but he’d never met.

When Kane got in touch to schedule a writing session with Auerbach, he hoped to write maybe one song that he could take back home for an album. But after the first day at Easy Eye, the two clicked and more seemed possible. Kane remembers walking into the kitchen at the Nashville studio, seeing two acoustic guitars and two chairs with two notepads. This set-up reminded him of being in his mom’s house to write songs, bringing a comforting sense of familiarity.

“In this day and age, say you’re going to work with someone, it’d be in the studio room, we’re doing the demos on the computer,” Kane said. “But just to strip back like we just did then, playing a couple of songs acoustic and just getting the song written in the basic form is something that can get lost very easily. It felt cool just to reignite that. I think it reignited something in me that I didn’t realize needed reigniting. It’s giving me a big confidence booster, and I feel like the mojo is high right now.”

 On that first day writing, Kane and Auerbach finished three songs including “My Love” and “Love is Cruel,” which are now featured on Sunlight in the Shadows. By the end of the day, Dan offered to produce Kane’s full project.

“It was such a beautiful thing,” he said. “I’m 40 now and I think the older you get, the harder it is to, one, find people that are real, and, two, the people that you feel love and respect from, as well. Don’t get me wrong, I was nervous going in there, because this is someone you’ve listened to for years. You’re on your own and there’s probably a bit of an expectation, whatever it may be. But straight away, I just felt at home. We wrote this album, Sunlight In The Shadows — it was written together and he produced it. It’s been a beautiful friendship plus a working relationship now, as well.”

Sunlight in the Shadows is Kane’s sixth solo record, after 11 total albums from previous bands The Rascals, The Jaded Hearts Club and The Little Flames plus two records with Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys as a part of The Last Shadow Puppets. When he hears his previous records, Kane can tell lyrically and in his voice how much he’s grown as an artist.

“When I listen back to those early albums, I sound like my voice is on helium,” he said. “There’s a slight vibrato in it, but that’s all part of the journey, isn’t it? I just like that each album tells a story of that chapter of your life. That’s how I look at it. Whatever you get obsessed with at that time, whether it’s a bit more surf, a bit more glam rock, a bit more soul, that will be what the album is at that time.”

“There’s a sense, isn’t there, of every album you could say that. I feel there’s been a shift in my soul the last couple years, I’ve just hit 40. The place that my gut feels right now feels really cool, and I like it, and I’m just channeling that into my work. I’m not listening to any noise or getting involved with any noise and I feel it’s a good place for me to be. I want to expand more on that feeling, which will come out in the music.”

 On the album’s title

“Picking an album title is one of the hardest things ever. There’s always the temptation to call the album [something that’s] not a song title, as well. But for me, ‘Sunlight in the Shadows’ is the journey of your life, and I’ve had ups and downs and we’ve all had our dark moments. I like trying to get more spiritual and following that gut feeling more than ever. When those dark moments have come, you do find a way out and it’s a song about that. It felt right for the album, it felt relatable. We’re all the same. We’re all just trying to be good at what we do, pay our rent, and have a good time. Sometimes life can throw these invisible bullets at you, whether it be love, friendship, whatever, and knock you off your path. Sometimes it’s good just to take that step back, breathe, and think, “No, I’m following that road that I’m on. I want keep on.”

Sonic inspiration for the record

“Me and Dan are very similar in many ways, especially in our taste and work ethic, and I think the people of Nashville [are], as well. The mindset reminds me of Liverpudlians, where I’m from, Liverpool. There’s a sense of that hard work that I find really relatable here and beautiful. We’d be putting on records like Link Wray, we’re listening to Ennio Morricone, Scott Walker, things like that. I love that twang surf guitar stuff and I love a big chorus. I love that epic-ness, the dramatic-ness. I like a bit of a Judy Garland vibe. I quite like all these things mixed into one, and he just totally got it and gets it. When you know who you are as a person, it’s easy to make the music you want to make.”

“I’m an only child and [my mother] raised me on her own, so we’re super tight. Throughout my career, and even any little demos, I like to keep her involved in my life. Because that’s just the way we work, she was the first one I played it to. I think the whole story of this album, probably where I’m at, it still blows her mind. She was a butcher in Liverpool in the market, I used to work there after school. So this whole world, I think there’s still an adjustment period, but I know she’s proud, and I want to make her proud. I just like including her. She liked ‘Always In Over My Head,’ that’s got, dare I say it, a bit Burt Bacharach-y, and she’s an ‘Electric Flower’ girl, as well.

On The Record with WNXP, Miles Kane also discusses covering “Slow Death” by The Flamin’ Groovies, working Dan the Automator on his debut record, his collaborative projects with  Alex Turner, and drawing inspiration from T-Rex and Wu-Tang Clan. Check out the full interview here or search WNXP Podcasts wherever you listen to podcasts.