Back to the frontier: Q&A with Matthew Milia of Frontier Ruckus

Frontier Ruckus is known for painting vivid, poetic soundscapes that nostalgically mirror life in Michigan and beyond, and the band’s forthcoming album, “On the Northline,” once again delivers. Out Feb. 16, the new double LP is the band’s sixth full-length outing and comes on the heels of a few significant life changes for singer-songwriter Matthew Milia. He chatted with City Pulse about the new record and what he’s been up to over the last few years. 

It’s been quite some time since the last Frontier Ruckus album. When did you pen the “On the Northline” songs?

Matthew Milia: They’ve been around for a good while. Songs like “Magdalene,” “Everywhere but Beside You” and “Swore I Had a Friend” date back to before I even met my now-wife in 2017. You can tell those songs because they’re still marked by a certain melancholy and plaintive lonesomeness, which some might categorize as classic Frontier Ruckus. Then I wrote songs like “Mercury Sable” and “First Song for Lauren” while falling in love with my wife, Lauren. They’re marked by ecstatic bliss and disbelief with my good fortune. I love the tension on the record between those two batches of songs and the eras in my life they represent.

How was this produced? Did you work with a producer? 

We recorded it in Ben Collins’ home studio in Ypsilanti during the pandemic. I also recorded the two solo albums I was focusing on in recent years: “Keego Harbor” and “Alone at St. Hugo.” Working with Ben is just so effortless and fun — very DIY and intimate. We recorded to an old Tascam 388 reel-to-reel, which effectively broke down throughout the recording, so if you listen closely to certain guitar tracks, you can hear the warble get increasingly more pronounced.

Did you explore any new terrain on this new record? How does it compare to your previous record? 

We recorded the last Frontier Ruckus album, 2017’s “Enter the Kingdom,” in Nashville, Tennessee, with ex-Wilco and Uncle Tupelo drummer Ken Coomer. I really love the way that record turned out, but it definitely has a slightly tamer, slicker sound. “On the Northline,” to us, feels like a return to the core Frontier Ruckus DNA of “The Orion Songbook” or “Deadmalls and Nightfalls,” back when we didn’t quite know what we were doing, but everything had an undeniable rawness and intensity. We’d also been going more into a power-pop direction on recent albums, which I indulged to the max on my solo albums. However, this time, we limited ourselves to the basics: acoustic guitar, banjo, melodica, musical saw and trumpet. No 12-string guitars this time around. 

When you’re not playing music, what are you up to?

My dirty little secret is that I’ve been swiftly climbing the rungs of make fill entire column since 2019. So, I spend most of my time writing Cadillac commercials or shooting them in Los Angeles when I’m not home in Detroit. My wife and I have a 10-month-old boy named Sammy, who’s the light of our lives. So, life is splendiferously domestic. We bought an old Tudor home from 1937 in a historic neighborhood, so I like to putz around the house and pretend to be useful. I’ve also been writing more songs on the piano now that we’ve hauled in my wife’s childhood upright.

Who plays on the new album? What was the songwriting process?

Davey Jones on banjo; Zachary Nichols on trumpet, musical saw, melodica, and other keyed instruments; and myself constitute Frontier Ruckus proper. We brought in Connor Dodson on drums, who did several tours with us as a bass player, and Evan Eklund on bass, who also sings some killer high harmonies. My go-to steel guitarist, Pete Ballard, appears on a song, too. The process was more or less unchanged: I wrote the songs and sent everyone rough demos with chord charts, and they showed up with an idea of how they wanted their parts to go. The only song I didn’t write was Zach’s amazing instrumental, “Wherefore.” Zach’s had an instrumental on the last three albums.

Along with streaming, will there be some physical copies of the new record?  

Yep! Deluxe double vinyl, cassette tape and CD. All the things. We used Kickstarter this time to organize a bunch of fun bundles and hopefully let our supporters know how directly their support keeps this old machine running. We have an album release show in Ferndale at the Loving Touch on Feb. 17 and Traverse City on Feb. 24. I believe the Lansing and Grand Rapids shows will be later in the spring. 

Have any last words for your old-school Lansing fanbase? 

We rate this album among our best and send it out to all the Lansing folks who used to pack out Mac’s Bar with us. We’re honored to keep writing songs and making records and for folks still to be listening. 

For more information on Frontier Ruckus, visit frontierruckus.com.