Tonya Mills

I was born in West Columbia, South Carolina. I got involved in music at age 9 singing in the school choir. At 10 I began piano lessons given by my aunt, but hyper as I was, I quit after a year because I could not sit still long enough to play scales and was tired of playing "They Say the Neon Lights are Bright on Broadway" and "Green sleeves". At 11, I enrolled in school band and played trumpet for 5 years. After my trumpet was kicked down the football stands so many times it wouldn’t play; at 16, I opted for a down-payment on a car and an acoustic guitar instead of a new trumpet. This decision was not inspiration based, but made rather on the fact that a crush of mine played guitar. I moved in (how original of me)! It was then I "learned the ropes" and taught myself how to play. When I was 17, I wanted to apply to art or music school, but my Dad professed that he "by God didn’t save money all these years for me to go to art school". So, off I went to the furthest-to-the-border in state school I could find, Winthrop College. For a year I leaned over my acoustic guitar, crying over a lost crush and madly bashing out Judds and Tracy Chapman tunes (not to mention some recreational drug use along the way). A couple of years later, after an onset of moderate epilepsy (and some acceptance) I got cleaned and I began to use writing as an outlet. After playing on and off at for a few years thereafter, at 24 I decide to try and make music a career. I played at coffee shops and restaurants throughout South Carolina, and at 26 left for Boston to attend Berklee College of Music. The culture shock of moving from the Carolinas to Boston took me off guard. I never felt like I completely fit in at Berklee, but believe I did become a better musician and gained experience with receiving exposure. I played around Boston at The Kendall Café and other clubs with a backing band and in 1999 and I recorded a demo CD at a studio on the outskirts of Boston. After 4 semesters and growing debt, I’d had enough and packed up for the south and warmer weather in Nashville, Tennessee, where I’ve been ever since.I’ve played in writers rounds locally in Nashville, experienced reverse culture shock, and made many new friends through music. I have a new CD currently in the planning stages to be produced by the very talented Tommy Womack. It will be comprised of a variety of songs, both recently written and dug fron the past, all reflecting a variety of emotions I’ve experienced. I hope you check back often and look for it. You may see a little of yourself.