In English, their name may suggest a certain timidity; but Mildlife, from Melbourne, Australia, are anything but cowards. Over two studio albums, 2018’s “Phase” and 2020’s “Automatic”, the band have gained a reputation for adventurous and distinctly astral psychedelic jazz, which brings to mind a meeting point between Roy Ayer’s sunshine jazz funk and the cerebral early wanderings of Pink Floyd. Ahead of the band’s first Spanish dates - they play Barcelona on May 7 and Madrid on May 8 - RPS spoke to the band’s bass player Tomas Shanahan about lockdown blues, the power of automation and playing to penguins.