Today we’d like to introduce you to Gus Miller.
Hi Gus, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, you could tell our readers some of your backstories.
I am a 29-year-old American Roots musician in Austin doing what I love. I write and perform with my act Gus Miller Band and as a gun for hire in other groups around town. I got to Austin in 2012 when I moved down from my hometown of Dallas to study marketing at UT McCombs business school.
Before I got to college, I’d been playing guitar for about 6 years, and in that time, I started a few different bands for fun; a bluegrass trio and a couple of roots rock groups. By the time I got to Austin, I had only played a handful of live, full-band shows. I was still figuring out how to present myself on a stage, what works, and all the unspoken, intangible stuff you can’t rehearse at home. Many of these first shows were trial by fire sort of ordeals. I played a lot of bad shows. I would learn what works by failing at the moment, making mental notes along the way, with the goal of “ok, this next show is going to be better because I’m not going to do that!”
By my Sophomore year at UT, I had begun gigging around town and trying my hand at stringed instruments like Mandolin and Dobro. I was listening to a healthy dose of classic country, bluegrass, and plenty of Texas artists like Ernest Tubb, Lefty Frizzell, Buddy Holly, Willie, and all of those fellas. Since my band and I were under 21 at the time, we couldn’t play at most places that hosted live music or anywhere that would pay money, for that matter. So, we all got fake IDs because, gosh darn it, we wanted to play those shows! We started cutting our chops at all the run-of-the-mill bars on historic 6th Street, which seemed to have all “adjective animal” (Blind Pig, Chugging Monkey, Bat Bar, Happy Chicks, etc.) as their name, and I don’t know why!? Around this time, we also landed our first weekly residency at an Irish Pub on 6th Street called BD Riley’s. We kept that residency for 6 years until that location shut down due to Covid.
By the end of college in 2017, I had been playing 100+ shows a year, up to 3-4 nights a week, while balancing college stuff. There were a lot of hectic weekends. I remember one weekend in particular, the band I was with had been hired to fly out to Minnesota to play a private party on this dude’s ranch, and I had an important group project due come Monday. Music always came first, though. In the end, I did graduate college, and all the while was able to garner some musical accolades along the way, being a winning finalist in the Kerrville Folk Festival’s university songwriting competition, chosen as Artist of the Month by Austin Music Foundation among other press articles and releasing 2 full-length records. Overall, the gigs improved as I got my foot in the door at new places and met new folks. One of my final assignments at business school was to secure an internship. I distinctly remember going to the job fair on campus, and the University faculty working the door would not let me in because my shoes did not match my belt—no thanks, to hell with that. I secured a couple of music-related internships on my own accord, one is working with Austin Music Foundation with their marketing and events, and another with a music collective called Strings Attached, led by Will Taylor.
Both opportunities taught me a lot about the industry and what to expect going forward with my career. Meanwhile, my cohorts secured desk internships with companies like JP Morgan, Google, Oracle, etc. Congrats to them, but I dodged a bullet because I don’t have to worry about someone breathing down my neck every day about my belt and shoes matching. Right before Covid hit, I was gearing up to start my newest project, Gus Miller Band. I had been writing a majority of the material for a group I was previously with, and I wanted to start something that was completely my own. I was tired of the bureaucratic standstill that’d often occur, in that, everyone had great ideas about what and how we should do things. We were all very passionate about our efforts to achieve the music industry’s next echelon. Still, our goals needed to align into cohesive steps forward when it came down to business.
Around that time, I met producer/engineer Paul Martinez of VPM Studios and showed him some of my new material for the Gus Miller Band. He liked the tunes and gave me a chance to track them. We started working together at his home studio, and soon enough, we had 4 tracks ready for an EP, which would become my debut release as Gus Miller. He helped me along the way, teaching me how to approach studio time, all the technical things to be aware of, and be efficient in the studio. He even filled in on bass for some of the early Gus Miller Band gigs! After releasing that EP, he introduced me to another great producer/engineer in town, Paul Soroski of Soroski Entertainment, who worked with me in recording and engineering my most recent single, “Working Hard” (go check it out!). That is my Covid tune if you will. (Everybody’s got one). Both the Pauls have helped me immensely in getting where I am today. Thanks, fellas.
During the height of covid, when the live music scene all but shut down, I encountered many opportunities and built relationships that would not have occurred otherwise. The scene and community consolidated to a certain degree. We all looked around at who was still trying to make ends meet with music and banded together, figuratively and literally. I ended up living with some of these musicians I met, eventually forming part of the core lineup for the Gus Miller Band. I wouldn’t have met these fellas if not for Covid! I’m going to name-drop them, being the stellar musicians that they are: Jeremy Fowler (bass, vocals,) Will Patterson (keys, vocals), Calloway Ritch (guitar), Grahame O’Shea (drums), CJ Bills (mandolin, guitar). Between all the fellas in my group, I think there are at least 10 other music projects/bands everyone is a part of, including myself. For instance, Will Patterson released his debut record on March 10th with his project Mr. Bullavard. We’re always keeping busy, and the music never stops.
Another person who’s given me a lot of opportunity in the Austin scene since I’ve been gigging professionally is Julie (‘effin’) Nolen! Aside from being a fantastic bandleader, musician, and songwriter, she’s my favorite booking agent/event organizer ‘round town with her agency Pearl Snap Music Group. She’s set me up with countless gigs and residencies, always willing to go the extra mile for musicians to be heard and make some decent god-danged money. There are plenty of predatory booking agents/services out there, essentially just glorified gatekeepers that don’t positively contribute to the music scene while taking a cut of your income. She breaks that mold.
I plan to record my first full-length record as part of the Gus Miller Band this spring and follow that up with a tour for the fall/winter. We’ve got plenty of work ahead of us. We plan to track the record as live as possible, with minimal overdubs and post-production, so we must be Johnny-On-The-Spot with every part. We will leave room for spontaneity, but we’re not leaving anything up to assumption. Last week I did a demo tracking session with the band at a buddy’s studio (thank you, David Blake!). We’ll take notes from these demo tracks, adjust a few things in rehearsal, get everything 110% solid, then do another live tracking demo session to ensure we like what we’re hearing with another round of final notes/adjustments. Finally, we’ll track the record with Transient Mic. Transient Mic is a non-profit studio/production team led by Jeremy Fowler and his business partner, David Garcia. They aim to make recording art accessible to all. They recently secured a generous grant from the founder of Sweetwater, Chuck Surack, to make their vision a reality, and are currently retrofitting a school bus to be a mobile recording studio. Very much stoked for them and to be recording my debut album with them. Good things are down the road.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
In the grand scheme of my life? Yeah, the road I’ve traveled thus far has been pretty smooth. I’ve never worried about eating and paying rent, at least not yet, so that’s fantastic. Not to say I haven’t had my struggles. I often struggle to get out of bed. In all seriousness, it’s been a hell of a grind so far. The folks I’ve been working with work hard, but most importantly, we have a very good time while doing it.
Thanks for sharing that. Can you tell us more about your work next?
I usually tell people I play American Roots music, which is much less of a mouthful than saying I play Country, Bluegrass, Jazz, Western Swing, Rock, Folk, Blues, etc. Yes, that’s a lot of genres, but they are more similar than different when you dig down a little. It’s all roots music following like-minded rules, structure, lyrical ideas, progressions, etc. In a perfect world, I would like to tell folks I play country rock, but I believe the consensus of what “country” music is, is very misleading. The idea of something being country has been turned into a buzzword, at best. It’s a selling point with little reflection on the musical content, not all the time, but more often than not. One can handle an overly pandered thick country accent to sing country. And likewise, just because someone sings with a lil’ twang’ in their voice, that does not make whatever they’re singing inherently country or rootsy, and I’m tired of folks pretending it does!
The Grateful Dead, for instance, is a country rock group. “Nahh man, the Dead are the greatest jam band ever; they’re not country at all!” No. Wrong. This is a hill I will die on. It’s a country rock band that jams. Listen to American Beauty, one of the most defining albums of their career and even the 20th century (at least in America), and tell me that it isn’t a country rock album from start to finish. To each his own. Everyone’s got useless opinions, myself included. That’s why I tell people I play American Roots music and let them fill in the gaps of what genres they hear.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
To not take me too seriously and surround myself with like-minded folks. I’ve played with many musicians, and the best ones, in my experience, are those who have fun playing music. I’m serious about not being too serious (ha). You don’t have to be rigid for people to take your music to heart. Look at The Beatles or the Stones. They’ve made seriously groundbreaking stuff, different from how they presented themselves and performed. It boils down to whether you’re having fun or not to be successful and, more importantly, happy. I played a show with a fellow’s group the other week, and he threw a slap my way to signal a dynamic change in a song. Are you going to smack band members on stage, in front of an audience, to signal dynamics? What the hell is wrong with you? Sheesh. That kind of disrespect towards one another would not fly in my band. Someone from the infamous studio recording group, the Wrecking Crew, said it best: “Smile, you’ll stick around for a while. Frown, you’re outta town”. They cracked the code. It’s as simple as that to me. Those guys were the best in the biz. They were seriously, very good, but no one was serious. Lighten up!
Pricing:
- Booking and Info: Gusmillerband@gmail.com
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gusmillermusic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gus_miller_band/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Gusmillerband
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@gusmiller5599
