February 24, 2005

Interview with Tony Mills

Long before there were drum machines and multi-track mixers there were musicians, singers and poets. We still have a strong presence of musicians and singers but over the years we have all but forgotten about the poets. In fact, until I reviewed Tony Mills’ replies to this interview I had not thought of poetry for sometime! But, I think as you read his answers you will agree that poetry is alive and well and as important as ever in the music of today!

Tony Mills has brought to light a very important thought; if music is the sound-track of our lives then the lyrics are our story. I hope that you all enjoy learning more about this colorful and genuine artist of today! For more information and to learn more go to http://www.tonymills.net!

1. With the release of “Sunset and Vine” just around corner I would like to start out by asking you to introduce yourself, Tony Mills, the man behind the album, the band and the music!

As strange as it may sound, in 20 years I don’t think a journalist has ever asked me about myself! Congratulations on an original question! Well; where do I start? I guess music has always been the driving inspiration in my life, probably since I was in my early teens. When Bowie and Mott the Hoople walked the boards in the early 70's in the UK, along with The Sweet and Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, music took over my life completely, from the usual football loving kid that I was before. I started playing in bands when I was 14, playing Beatles tracks in the garage and annoying the neighbors! It escalated from there to hiring rooms after school, developing into playing Punk in the late 70's and being massively influenced by the whole Iggy and the Stooges era. In not so many years again, I was playing local pubs and clubs around the UK with various heavy rock acts until I started working as a session singer for bands when I was 20. I sessioned live and in studio for various people including SHY in 1982 up until they were finally offered a deal in '83 and I agreed to join the band. From there, the roller coaster switched up a gear and concerts turned into tours and demos to record deals. I felt I moved with the times and got over the glam era in the mid 80’s with face paint and bleached hair and grew out of the 'gotta have an image' kick, finally. After singing AOR with SHY for eight years and having met and worked with most of my heroes, I was unsettled and left the band in 1990/1. I formed a much heavier outfit ‘SIAM’ which was likened to Queensryche and Dokken. This project tested and stretched my voice, recording and touring over the next five years, releasing albums, 'The Language of Menace' and 'Prayer', which until then felt my finest hours. It was the resurgence of aggression in the music that turned me on, together with a change of scene. Having been approached by various bands, from Judas Priest, Cozy Powell and John Sykes, and a whole lotta session work besides, through the late 90's, I came full circle and landed back on my feet in my homeland. A return to SHY in 1999 through requests from record companies in the UK found me recording 'Unfinished Business' to great acclaim in the world rock press, along with my first solo album 'Cruiser', which found success in German charts. That pretty much takes us to where we are now, with the release of 'Sunset and Vine', here in 2005.

2. I would also like to make sure you have a chance to introduce “Shy” as a band, and tell us about the time leading up to the release of “Sunset and Vine” on MTM Records…

SHY are a little different in line-up to what they were in the 80's and 90's, but not greatly. The keys man, Paddy McKenna left and moved away, so we have no real contact with him anymore. My return to SHY was under the pretext that I didn't have to work with the drummer Alan Kelly, which suited both of us, probably. Bob Richards from the prog rock band 'MAN' took his place and the rest stayed the same. I just use a great session keys man now, Joe Basketts, who is pretty unrivalled as far as I am concerned. So Steve Harris and Roy Davis still form the front line of the band with me, although we are a little older now.

Having recorded 'Unfinished Business' for Z Records at the turn of the Millennium, there was major unrest in the company and an exodus formed in the direction of MTM in Munich. SHY, along with other bands, were called to MTM, and we answered the call. We get on famously with Sebastian Eder, and two years down the line, with the patience of Seba, arrives 'Sunset and Vine'. It was a rough ride, working for six months with an engineer who was a certified manic depressive, (good start!) and then having to jump ship to Andy Faulkner at Sable Rose studios in Coventry, where the project was completed eighteen months later.

3. The new album is a sign of “Shy” making a name for itself and opens what I hope to be a successful new era in the bands life; could you tell us a bit about the story of the album, the history, the recording, song writing and so on?

It would be long winded to say the least, if I were to explain the meaning of every song, but I have always been a writer who has worked from subject matter rather than 'what fits'. Steve has always written the music for the band, and he is perpetually locked away constructing ideas and patterns, which I write against when he is happy he has finished them. Steve and I traveled back and forth across Birmingham throughout 2002/3 slowly building the framework for the record, recording demos on home systems until we finally arrived at the point where we were ready to record the finished article. Roy runs his own band rehearsing/recording facility in Birmingham called Madhouse Rehearsals, and we would meet there regularly and sift through ideas over a beer or two. We commenced recording at a studio called 'Blotto' in January 2004 with a fine engineer in Simon Bishop. Although the drums and rhythm guitar and bass went down well, it was clear that Simon was unwell and when six months had gone by, and we hadn't even recorded a solo or a vocal, it was obvious that we would have to change plans. We moved to Coventry in the late summer, and worked with Andy Faulkner again, the engineer of 'Unfinished Business' and the bassist from SIAM. Andy pieced the album back together and finished it not long before Christmas. The album was mastered by Mark Stuart (of Magnum fame) at Mad Hat studios in Wolverhampton.

4. Each album brings us a look into the artists and offers a full spectrum of emotions and musical experiences, is there one song on “Sunset and Vine” that has a special meaning to you that you could share the story with us?

Close up and personal? Mmmmm .... OK. Like I said, I have always written with a subject in mind, I find it more interesting that way, although to some degree it can mean that the finished article will emerge as a more progressive song than a commercial one. 'Where is the Love' was inspired from looking through my fathers' eyes at a relatively unhappy home-life and the urge to leave home as soon as I could. My sister felt the same, and by that statement alone, if you considered the lyric, it would tell you enough.

'In the arms that you would run to..
In the streets that you would walk through..
We were there, waiting for you..
We were someone you could talk to..
Through the night when you were dreamin'..
And the pain, when you were bleedin',
We were there for you to follow..
We were waitin for tomorrow..
Where is the love?'

As an unwanted child, I grew up with that knowledge, and I always knew that my father only did what was absolutely necessary, and certainly never went the extra mile for us. At the end of the day, he was kidding himself that he cared for us, and his true colours showed themselves later on when I fully understood. I have not seen him for many years, yet we still live in the same town. 'Where is the Love?' Well it was never anywhere to be found. It's funny, looking back, this obviously plagued me throughout my life, as the subject matter rears it's ugly head many times. On 'Prayer', the track 'Animus' was littered with it.

Did love become like drifting sands?
Falling through our dying hands..
Did conscience fade so finally?
Drifting slowly out to sea..
No devotion to be found
Are all defenses beaten down?
The way we planned our future line..
Drawn in primitive design......

5. Your music could be compared to a road map of your life, with different times showing different challenges and progressions, your new solo album “Freeway to the Afterlife” promises to once again show a different side of Tony Mills, would you tell us a bit about this album and your motivations behind it?

Now it will get deep! A complete coincidence really, I started working with Tom Briscoe a couple of years ago, a guitarist from the The Prefects, a punk band in the late 70's. He wanted to record some old Bowie tracks and when he'd achieved his aim, went off to do other things. But in this, thoughts of God had been spinning around in my head, and that old 70's soul groove that Bowie toyed with appeared and fixated me for a while. I have never been a religious man and have never prayed or gone to church. These matters wanted addressing and I needed to cleanse my head and my heart of any issues that I had about this subject. 'Freeway to the Afterlife' is the result of this contemplation, a project that I could never have seen myself writing or recording in a million years. It has finished up being some sort of quasi-soul/gospel album drenched in soul singers and wild saxophone solos.

Tracks like 'Salvation in the City' and 'The Healer' pull me toward the eternal question. 'Sensational' and 'Revelation' again look at how I feel in different aspects of peoples approach to religion, but the words don’t come across as deep; they can’t help themselves in swinging toward a more commercial angle for the song itself. At the end of it all, I am not a seer or any great visionary, I am only a singer/songwriter. I have not reached a final answer, or conclusion to the issues that I have, I have only debated with myself what it is all about. I guess at the end of the day, I have thrown all these possibilities into the air and they have landed in such a way to show you how I feel in a musical fashion.

'Hitchin' a ride, late one night..
I stood and watched the red tail lights,
Wonder where they're headin' to tonight?
Sometimes life goes somewhere,
And then it don’t head nowhere..
We're on a freeway to the afterlife.......
Think of the things we've done,
And all the people we've loved..
I sit and wonder about heavens above...
A one way trip, a one way drive..
I guess I'm feeling fine,
On the freeway to the afterlife.

6. It is nice to see you completing a solo effort, especially one that seems like such a personal mile stone, do you think there will be more solo work to come?

I have become a slave to music really. If I'm not working on a session for someone else, or writing material for SHY, then I'm invariably writing solo material of one form or another. This album will be a great burden off my shoulders; I need to be free of it, so that I can move on, having confronted my personal issues and dealt with them in the only medium I know how.
Christ only knows what will come next! Or maybe he doesn't.

7. You have been in the music world since you were very young and have seen a lot of changes, when you look at the music world now what do you think has improved and what do you miss about times past?

Well, communication has improved greatly, through technology. I remember my royalties from Japan would take 9/12 months to come through the post ten or fifteen years ago. Now they land in a split second. Multitrack recording has improved frighteningly really. I now work with a 48 track recoding system on a computer at home, where before I would have had two 2" 24 track recorders in a large studio somewhere hooked up, to do what I have to do. In some ways I think we all miss the old tape spinning round the reels, but it had to go sooner or later. The Internet is obviously a medium that we could never have imagined. I now receive requests from all over the world on my website to work on sessions of varying styles. All this, and no manager!!! Some things have definitely changed for the better!! I have warm memories about the 80's; there were genuine people who were generous with their budgets and really wanted you to succeed. Things have tightened up like there's no tomorrow and there's a margin everywhere you look now. Hopefully musicians to come will enjoy the experiences that I have undergone in my life.

8. Following that same thought, what advise would you give to those starting out in a music career - do you have any words of wisdom for those following in your footsteps?

Make damn sure you've got a good lawyer. And a good accountant, he's worth more than the lawyer. Don’t let your manager take any more than 20%, and if they plough a lot of capital in, make sure they don’t take the whole lot back, the day you land your first deal, leaving you with nothing but the elation of signing of a contract. Apart from that, the most valuable guy I ever had, was my onstage monitor engineer. If you cant hear what you're doin', you have a lot of explaining to do afterwards. And don’t get drunk before the most important gig you'll ever do. Deal with your nerves (or your boredom) some other way.

9. What is on the horizon for “Shy”? Are there plans for touring with this album and more releases in the future?

I think we would all like to tour the album. But back to money, touring is one of the biggest expenses in the business. If the label front the budget, the band tours and promotes the album (as long as the bill is right for the band) the band sells more albums and the wheel turns. We're waiting on financials from the label and when they drop the flag, we'll go. As regards more releases in the future, SHY is an animal that no single one of us can kill. I don’t think we'll ever stop writing and recording as a unit, not even if the demand were to die.

10. Outside of the music what activities do you enjoy, what else brings you pleasure in life?

At the moment? My beautiful daughter, Holly.

11. If you had the chance to write, record and perform a song with any artists in the line up who would you want to work with and what sort of song would you create?

I think, just to show my age, I would probably like to write an epic with Pink Floyd and perform with them playing all the instruments. Something style-wise to The Division Bell.

12. Do you have a closing message for your fans?

Yes. I have been a fan of many musicians throughout my life, attended many concerts, bought God knows how many albums (and given as many away to people so that they could get off on what I did) and I am a fan just like anybody else. But the devotion shown to me by my followers can only inspire awe. Thank you.

Oh, if there are people out there who are into what I do, and ever want to talk to me, you can do just that on http://www.tonymills.net All you have to do is leave me a note and I'll get back to ya, usually in the same week. But for now, all the best. Keep music live.

Regards,
Tony Mills

Posted by Kathy at February 24, 2005 11:59 PM