Post by blackcrowheart on May 16, 2006 13:50:07 GMT -5
Songwriter invokes great spirit
Songwriter invokes great spirit By Brad Kava Mercury News
www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/music/14538778.\
htm
* Audio: Listen to an excerpt from "Spirit Songs, The Best of Bill
Miller"
<http://multimedia.realcities.com:8080/ramgen/mercurynews/entertainment/\
miller_sky_051006.rm>
It's been a big year for Bill Miller, a singer-songwriter whom some have
called the Native American Bruce Springsteen.
He won his second Grammy in a row, this time for a compilation, ``Sacred
Ground: A Tribute to Mother Earth,'' on which he had three songs. He has
recorded most of a new album that he has likened to Radiohead -- dark
and experimental -- and he got a seal of approval from his toughest
critics: his children, in their teens and 20s, who said his new work
sounds contemporary, or ``alternative.''
The son of a Mohican father and German-American mother, Miller was
raised on the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation in northern Wisconsin and
now lives outside Nashville.
He's spent most of this 23-year career flying under the radar, despite a
songwriting talent and an eye for detail that has the ``All Music
Guide'' comparing him to Springsteen, Leonard Cohen and Neil Young.
His biggest career breaks, before the Grammys of the past two years,
were touring with Tori Amos in 1994, some shows with Eddie Vedder of
Pearl Jam and a phone call of appreciation from U2's Bono.
But slowly his fire has been stoked. KPIG-FM (107.5) in Freedom, near
Watsonville, has had him in its rotation for years, helping him develop
a Northern California fan base. He's been a regular on the Indian casino
circuit and has also toured colleges, speaking about his heritage and
playing his songs.
He plays Berkeley's Freight & Salvage Coffee House Friday and Santa
Cruz's Kuumbwa Jazz Center on Sunday.
You've had a spiritual change lately as well?
Everything has changed for me in this sense: I'm finally letting go and
letting God. There's too many people, I think, all over the place who do
too much for themselves. I've learned in my years to let go and let God.
It brought my faith to another level. Not only was it an honor to win
the Grammy, but it made me realize that what I had is a spiritual gift.
I learned I had to accept the gift and how to share my joy that I get
from my Creator -- instead of looking at record sales, or did I do
right, or having to be approved by a committee. I'm in pursuit of God's
purpose for me and God in general.
A ll this and you find out you are Jewish, too?
A relative of mine came out of the woodwork, on my mother's side, and
told me that my mother has Jewish descent on that side. I'm kind of
blown away in a positive sense, as well as knowing I kind of felt it all
along.
The tribal peoples of the world always connect. I always felt a
connection to the Jewish people. My keyboard player is Jewish, and he
always felt it too. I plan on going sometime to temple with him and
learning some of the music.
One of your songs got picked up in the last episode of ``Sex and the
City,'' and another, ``Underneath the Blue Skies,'' would make a great
commercial. What do you think of that as a way to get more people to
hear you?
I think I'm better off doing what I'm doing. Music and art is such a
bridge to the spiritual world. I don't ever want it to become pop music,
or the next Corn Flakes. It's something that needs to be kept holy.
I'd rather have my music in something cinematic, a film soundtrack, in a
great film. I don't see myself getting much radio exposure, except on
KPIG, or Triple A stations [adult album alternative].
True art, true music, true dance, true religion should be protected, or
it becomes nothing but mass media and secularism. I don't want Led
Zeppelin or the Beatles to be elevator music.
I'm from the generation that grew up listening to Zeppelin. I hate to
see it downgraded to the point where they are a Cadillac commercial.
A nd on this tour?
This is so different than
touring with Tori Amos, where I had 30 or 40 minutes to prove myself. I
feel like I'm coming to your house and you've invited me to dinner and
I'm sharing my world with you.
You said the album you are working on reminds you of Radiohead?
I started working on it while I was finishing an exhibition of paintings
that are now displayed in New York City, at the Gallery for the American
Indian. While I was painting blues and reds and warriors on horses, I
think I went into the dark zone.
There needs to be a warning with this album: Don't let pregnant women
drive while listening to it. I was dealing with issues that some people
don't like to talk about: death and the ongoing tragedies we face in
life. Are we realizing that every day is a blessing to be alive, or are
we taking it for granted?
I wrote these in times of stress and pain. I lost friends. I watched
friends lose marriages. I interwove a lot of these into the songs.
I was listening to Radiohead's ``Hail to the Thief'' a lot, and I didn't
take anything from them, but I liked the way they risk a train wreck, or
have a train wreck, and come out alive. We recorded it in a shed in the
country, 30 or 40 miles from Nashville, with me and [producer] Judd
Spence [who has worked with Cher, Amy Grant, Wynonna Judd and Trisha
Yearwood] playing all the instruments. There was no bathroom, and
nothing out there but the crows and hawks and farmland.
I wanted to keep it intuitive. I didn't want to go forever to make the
perfect song. I wanted it to have a very human element.
It turned into an awesome merging of two mad scientists. Either it will
work, or it will be the worst train wreck ever.
Songwriter invokes great spirit By Brad Kava Mercury News
www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/music/14538778.\
htm
* Audio: Listen to an excerpt from "Spirit Songs, The Best of Bill
Miller"
<http://multimedia.realcities.com:8080/ramgen/mercurynews/entertainment/\
miller_sky_051006.rm>
It's been a big year for Bill Miller, a singer-songwriter whom some have
called the Native American Bruce Springsteen.
He won his second Grammy in a row, this time for a compilation, ``Sacred
Ground: A Tribute to Mother Earth,'' on which he had three songs. He has
recorded most of a new album that he has likened to Radiohead -- dark
and experimental -- and he got a seal of approval from his toughest
critics: his children, in their teens and 20s, who said his new work
sounds contemporary, or ``alternative.''
The son of a Mohican father and German-American mother, Miller was
raised on the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation in northern Wisconsin and
now lives outside Nashville.
He's spent most of this 23-year career flying under the radar, despite a
songwriting talent and an eye for detail that has the ``All Music
Guide'' comparing him to Springsteen, Leonard Cohen and Neil Young.
His biggest career breaks, before the Grammys of the past two years,
were touring with Tori Amos in 1994, some shows with Eddie Vedder of
Pearl Jam and a phone call of appreciation from U2's Bono.
But slowly his fire has been stoked. KPIG-FM (107.5) in Freedom, near
Watsonville, has had him in its rotation for years, helping him develop
a Northern California fan base. He's been a regular on the Indian casino
circuit and has also toured colleges, speaking about his heritage and
playing his songs.
He plays Berkeley's Freight & Salvage Coffee House Friday and Santa
Cruz's Kuumbwa Jazz Center on Sunday.
You've had a spiritual change lately as well?
Everything has changed for me in this sense: I'm finally letting go and
letting God. There's too many people, I think, all over the place who do
too much for themselves. I've learned in my years to let go and let God.
It brought my faith to another level. Not only was it an honor to win
the Grammy, but it made me realize that what I had is a spiritual gift.
I learned I had to accept the gift and how to share my joy that I get
from my Creator -- instead of looking at record sales, or did I do
right, or having to be approved by a committee. I'm in pursuit of God's
purpose for me and God in general.
A ll this and you find out you are Jewish, too?
A relative of mine came out of the woodwork, on my mother's side, and
told me that my mother has Jewish descent on that side. I'm kind of
blown away in a positive sense, as well as knowing I kind of felt it all
along.
The tribal peoples of the world always connect. I always felt a
connection to the Jewish people. My keyboard player is Jewish, and he
always felt it too. I plan on going sometime to temple with him and
learning some of the music.
One of your songs got picked up in the last episode of ``Sex and the
City,'' and another, ``Underneath the Blue Skies,'' would make a great
commercial. What do you think of that as a way to get more people to
hear you?
I think I'm better off doing what I'm doing. Music and art is such a
bridge to the spiritual world. I don't ever want it to become pop music,
or the next Corn Flakes. It's something that needs to be kept holy.
I'd rather have my music in something cinematic, a film soundtrack, in a
great film. I don't see myself getting much radio exposure, except on
KPIG, or Triple A stations [adult album alternative].
True art, true music, true dance, true religion should be protected, or
it becomes nothing but mass media and secularism. I don't want Led
Zeppelin or the Beatles to be elevator music.
I'm from the generation that grew up listening to Zeppelin. I hate to
see it downgraded to the point where they are a Cadillac commercial.
A nd on this tour?
This is so different than
touring with Tori Amos, where I had 30 or 40 minutes to prove myself. I
feel like I'm coming to your house and you've invited me to dinner and
I'm sharing my world with you.
You said the album you are working on reminds you of Radiohead?
I started working on it while I was finishing an exhibition of paintings
that are now displayed in New York City, at the Gallery for the American
Indian. While I was painting blues and reds and warriors on horses, I
think I went into the dark zone.
There needs to be a warning with this album: Don't let pregnant women
drive while listening to it. I was dealing with issues that some people
don't like to talk about: death and the ongoing tragedies we face in
life. Are we realizing that every day is a blessing to be alive, or are
we taking it for granted?
I wrote these in times of stress and pain. I lost friends. I watched
friends lose marriages. I interwove a lot of these into the songs.
I was listening to Radiohead's ``Hail to the Thief'' a lot, and I didn't
take anything from them, but I liked the way they risk a train wreck, or
have a train wreck, and come out alive. We recorded it in a shed in the
country, 30 or 40 miles from Nashville, with me and [producer] Judd
Spence [who has worked with Cher, Amy Grant, Wynonna Judd and Trisha
Yearwood] playing all the instruments. There was no bathroom, and
nothing out there but the crows and hawks and farmland.
I wanted to keep it intuitive. I didn't want to go forever to make the
perfect song. I wanted it to have a very human element.
It turned into an awesome merging of two mad scientists. Either it will
work, or it will be the worst train wreck ever.