gary miller profile picture

gary miller

Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted

About Me

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What do you get?Well of course you get some Roddy - he's probably been the greatest influence in my playing and my writing. And I'm old enough not to worry about taints of him shining through - a song writer of his quality, it can't be a bad thing to have coming through. But what surprised me was the less obvious undertones of other writers that have been important to me.So you also get Johnny Cash, Jackson Browne, Crowded House, Don MacLean, Billy Bragg, Hothouse Flowers, Traditional Irish & Scots (If you know what to listen for), Cole Porter, Nat King Cole, Bruce Springsteen, Mikey Scott of The Waterboys, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson... Then there's Justin Currie (Unfashionably pop and unfashionably socialist)... And then I think of Ivan Morrison... And, and, and...You suddenly find yourself going from C to C7 and Fmaj to Fmin and that's all those early Beatles chords you listened to surfacing so many years later.My first electric (an SD Curlee) and a cheap wee 10 watt amp blasted out The Clash and The Jam - They were my bands. My two elder brothers clocked on to Yes and Genesis and Todd Rungren - Prog-Rock-A-Go-Go.Police and Thieves - Cs and Gs and Ds - reggae style Clash and blistered fingers. Years spent liking stuff and equally not liking stuff - wasted years not liking certain types of music - the folly of youth. Is youth wasted on the young?Then this wee guy from East Kilbride - just up the backroads from me - is piling in with Major sevenths and augmenteds - this aural background to his songs that just blew me away. He was playing sweet,lyrical, melodic music and he still is today - and I am as hard pushed now as then to find a genre to fit him into.The past seven or eight years have seen riptide changes in my life. I lost my father. I married Christine my long-time partner. We had Cara, our beautiful daughter. My wife and I nursed and watched her mother suffer and pass from cancer. I tried my own business and failed miserably to the point of sequestration. The past couple of years have been periods of re-assessment and re-adjustment. And a constant for me was music, my music... And a man called Stephen Lynas. He's my best friend and he kept at me to do something with my talent. I ran out of ways to smile and say something sage to him by means of a diversion technique.Write what you know they say.I know a lot more than I did when I was in my twenties. Equal measures of hurt and hapiness.And it's led me to here.Does the world need another heart on his sleeve acoustic singer songwriter?I am fucked if I know.Tell you what...You tell me.GM

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 5/8/2007
Band Website: I_dont_have_a_website.co.uk
Band Members: gary miller russell mccullagh - if he ever get his finger out.
Influences: Right now it's ocean, seashore, shoreline, beach, waves, tide, bays, currents, ebb, flow, water, dunes, sand, ships, boats, undercurrents...You're only ever about half an hour's drive from the coast in Scotland. But three or four hours from the really good, steal your breath away beaches along the west highland coastline.I am often found there, or not found as the case might be... drifting.A tent, a gas stove and a case of beer...My idea of bliss.
Sounds Like: I am re-patriating this space to leave a permanent testament to Joe Strummer -As I get older he gets warmer and warmer and deeper in my thoughts.Makes you think - I'm glad that was my time - and that is meant unselfishly, I don't mean to hoard what he did or meant, I'm just glad he was around and that our paths crossed too.The time machine.....Last year (2006) maybe further back...I'm wondering about getting back into music - foolishly considering doing covers rather than my own stuff. Hiding my light well under the bushel. Playing London Calling, taking the trip it offers to take me until I gets to Four Horsemen and these lyrics just punched my fucking gut...'But you! You're not searching, are you now? You're not looking anyhow You're never gonna ride that lonely mile Or put yourself up on trial Oh, you told me how your life was so bad An' I agree that it does seem sad But that's the price that you gotta pay If you're lazing all around all day'And that was the final nail in the coffin of evasion...Because it hit me then that safe (Whatever your definition or instinctive feel of it might be) is not a good place to be, sorry, not a rewarding place to be. To just create is in itself so rewarding and to take yourself out in to the public arena (However big or small) is searching and it can be lonely. But it is simply a million miles away from the complacency and safety I felt about doing some covers to show people how good a guitarist I was with a lovely voice to boot (I'm smirking).I played the grooves of my London Calling LP flat - read the NME dry of its coverage of the guys taking USA by storm - Joe Ely assisted. I must have heard that song thousands of times. Then it creeps up on a 39/40/41 year old man and boots him firmly in the balls.I sometimes feel I am a man of many fathers... One of them is Joe Strummer. And I know that my own father (Passed also) would think that no bad thing.
Record Label: unsigned
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Be careful what you wish for Gordon Brown

Here's the quote first "Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first."   Now guess who?   Ronald Reaga...
Posted by gary miller on Sun, 16 Sep 2007 08:53:00 PST

Bass-A-Nueva - Yeah you! Read this...

There's gonna be (I hope) bassists reading this, talented (I truly hope) bassists from the Hamilton/Lanarkshire Area. I posted an Ad in the local music shop and the trail leads here - mi spazio. My re...
Posted by gary miller on Fri, 14 Sep 2007 08:12:00 PST

These four songs...

One's new to you. Well, in point of fact, they're all new. In a fit of post illness mania, I re-recorded all the songs now up (Hopefully) on my profile and I did it tonight. If I had you - is honestly...
Posted by gary miller on Tue, 04 Sep 2007 12:02:00 PST

Escaping the labyrinth...

Labyrinthitis - inner ear infection - dizziness, staggering, nausea, vomiting, eye flicker... A week long hell. As close to bed ridden as I've ever been. Even to the point of not moving my head a...
Posted by gary miller on Sat, 01 Sep 2007 06:24:00 PST

Donnie Darko - my redux!

A year or so ago. One of the papers, probably a Sunday number, was giving away 'free' the director's cut of Donnie Darko - a truly resonant film with/to me. I got around to watching it during the week...
Posted by gary miller on Sun, 29 Jul 2007 01:29:00 PST

My cheap, cheap science - Redux

Maybe I'm feeling vulnerable... Maybe precious... Who knows. But I'm getting a wee bit of traffic just now and felt I had to validate the overall quiality of the tunes you are listening to....
Posted by gary miller on Wed, 25 Jul 2007 06:01:00 PST

The night I died...

Last Tuesday. Beanscene, St Andrews. I know St Andrews very well. As a family we spent a lot of holidays there. Well more than just holidays as my Mum & Dad had a caravan there - the full summer ...
Posted by gary miller on Tue, 24 Jul 2007 02:20:00 PST

Jeezy Jingo

16 tons... Another day older and deeper in debt. Songs are true for a reason. Well, maybe songs are just true... Joyce (James before you joke) said - "Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millio...
Posted by gary miller on Sat, 14 Jul 2007 05:53:00 PST

Remember that time...?

Time Machine Time 01.02.1966 - Born 04.12.1979 - The Damned - The Apollo - powder pink stalls ticket £3.00 21.01.1980 - The Clash - The Apollo - powder pink stalls ticket £3.00 13 year old when I saw ...
Posted by gary miller on Wed, 11 Jul 2007 03:01:00 PST

I will survive...

I made it. It was a great night. I managed to silence some of the most seasoned hecklers in the trade. My trade off to them was 10 guitars - to which they alley-catted their hearts out. You cannot und...
Posted by gary miller on Mon, 09 Jul 2007 05:17:00 PST