Don Dixon
Pt. 2
A BOB Interview With Fred Mills (Excerpts)
Yet in retrospect there are so many bands in the Chapel Hill and Triangle area that cite you guys as main influence in just getting up and playing. Robert Keely , Mitch and Peter were always talking about Arrogance.
You know, Mitch had that band, Sacred Irony that we were kind of contemporaries of. It's nice to think that we were able to inspire a lot really talented people to really do it. That was one of the things that we did kind of champion...I think we helped open the clubs up to original music at a time when they were very, very closed to original music, and made them realize that there was a market for it and that people would support it. And that people were talented and good around here and could actually pull it of...that everything didn't have to have that "Embers/Vegas veneer" for people to come out. There was a lot of people who were not interested in that.
You do seem to enjoy yourself onstage. At the R.E.M. show you were bouncing around with your little bandana on your head and everything.
Yeah, I miss playing, I really enjoy playing, and I do miss it. The touring that I have done with Rick and Rob has been great. The opening shows we did with Let's Active wer wonderful; had I not been so busy, we would have continued tha tour and done the whole country with them.
Now you played bass for LA at Maxwell's, didn't you?
Yeah, and in Philadelphia. I did two shows, learning those bass parts on the bus.
Jerry Lombardo (Let's Active Fan Club) said that even though he missed Faye...she's an integral part...it was a gas seeing you play.
Obviously there was a lot of songs we couldn't do...I thought I didn't make too many mistakes, all things considered! I fluffed a few things. I've been playing so long I can fake it pretty good.
Did you enjoy seeing yourself on T.V.? (MTV-I.R.S. "Cutting Edge" segment on N.C.)
That was kind of fun! It's such a weird show that it doesn't really matter, but I thought it was pretty good, thought Mitch came off real well.
Yeah, very downhome...
And very much himself, Mitch is a real natural.
The benefit show I saw over in Winston-Salem (April 12 with Let's Active, dB's, Chris Stamey) ...you came out at the end of that...
Yeah, I was around for that, I just came out and played a Slade song with them or something.
I read in Spectator that shortly after that a group of Winston-Salem musicians went into Mitch's to record "Tush". Is that true?
That is true, we recorded "Tush" and it's pretty damn cool.
Any plans for that to come out? That would be interesting to hear; I guess from time to time you feel like going in and recording stuff you'd never dream of putting out.
I don't know. It's really weird! This may show up somewhere You don't get to do much that doesn't turn outreally good. Like when we went to see "Purple Rose Of Cairo"...Anne from Swimming Pool Q's came up and sang on a song with Marty...and when we got back from the movie Marty and I decided that we would record "To Sir With Love". Great version, it will probably surface. I'll have to play that one for you.
Do you have any current favorite albums or bands right now? Aside from R.E.M., of course.
I really don't consume quite as many records as I maybe should. Because I'm always working on other stuff, there's just not the time to sit down and listen to other people's records.I find myself, when I go to record stores, I'm buying, like, the new James Brown re-issue, Demon records has just put out a really wonderful Major Lance compilation. It's really great; he was really good, a very unsung, terrific singer. And the stuff that Curtis Mayfield did, the arrangements and writing he did for him. Just great. So those are two of the most recent records I've bought...I mean, I really like a lot of things that are going on out there, but I spend so much time in the studio with people...
Is there anybody that you've either worked with or just run into that you would really like to work with in a musical capacity, playing together?
Mitch. I love Mitch. I can't think of any...you know, Mitch is really, in a lot of ways, probably my best friend. A very unique individual and also, still, still a very misunderstood musician.
He's gotten a LOT of press lately.
The press has been good, and accurate, to the extent that it's been taken. I just think Mitch is still, in many ways, taken for granted a little bit in his capacity as guitarist. He plays two solos on Marty's record, by the way; he does a great job on those.
Why did the extra cut, "Grey Scale", come out on the import copy of Cypress and not the American album?
Well, we felt we didn't quite get it right.
It works good in concert.
Yeah, I mean, Ithink it's pretty good on the record. But it's not perfect. And we wanted to save it so it could be done perfectly for his new record. So what happened was that the import stuff had to be turned in a lot earlier. At the time that's what we were thinking; then after we were able to think, retrospectively, we decided we should save the song and we should record it for the next record.
You haven't been overseas with them yet, and I was thinking you'd be an ideal Boy Handy...
We still keep enough independant things...we actually have not worked together on that many things...
People do speak of you two in the same breath frequently; obviously it's due to the Let's Active and R.E.M. records.
Exactly. And those are really the only three things we've really worked together on. He's helped me in the past on some things; I've helped him...
