Ethan Miller Album By Album

Ethan Miller

ETHANMillerhascomefullcircle.After20yearslivingin Oakland, he and his wife recently bought a farmhouse in Humboldt County in the far north of California, close to where he grew up alongside some of his future Comets On Fire bandmates. “There’s a saying about this place,” he confides. “They say it’s ‘behind the redwood curtain’. It means that you can get lost up here.”

Miller laughs heartily when reminded that he’s about to enter his third decade as a recording artist. “Making it that long in indie music is like 10 lifetimes!” he reckons – and in his case, that’s not such an exaggeration. A member of at least five different outfits down the years, even his ongoing journey at the helm of Howlin Rain has been a particularly bumpy ride, with Miller regularly forced to recruit an entire new band. However, you sense that he relishes the turbulence, which feeds back into his music – always motoring,oftenatfulltilt,navigatingvibrantAmericanbackwaterswithan infectiouslustforlife.“There’saregenerationeverycoupleofalbumsand henceanewaesthetic,anewfleshandblood,”heexplains.“Itrytocarrythe bonesonfrombodytobodytokeepthatoriginalflamealive.”SAMRICHARDS

COMETS COMETS ON ON FIRE FIRE

SELF-RELEASED,2001

Spontaneousspace-rocktear-up thruststhefledglingbandintothe vanguardofNewWeirdAmerica

BenFlashman [bass]andI wereplayingin anothergroup anditwas gettingalittle wibbly-wobbly. Iwantedtomakearadicalreaction tothatparticularmusical predicament,soIsaidtoBen,“Let’s doalittleprojectwherewejustblast thisthingout–makeitreallyfast andalittlebitemotionallyviolentas anexorcismofthisthingthat’s buggingus.”WegrabbedChris Gonzales[drums]andwentintothis garagewewererentingasapractice spaceinSantaCruz.Webasically putthefour-trackupandblasted throughthosesongsprettymuch firstorsecondtake,itjustmagically cametogether.

Wehadonetrackleftforthevocals andIaskedNoelHarmonsontohelp meout.HebroughttheEchoplexin andwestartedfoolin’withthat.And theminutehewentbananaswith theEchoplex,wewerelike,“That’s it–thisisthewholething.”And thenofcourseinsteadofbeingjust alittleproject,wewerelike,“Hey, wegotabandhere!”Itwasthe immaculateconception.We lookedinthebackofaMaximum Rock’n’Roll’zineandfoundouthow topress500records.Wesentitoutto somesmalldistributors,mostof whichneverpaidus.Thenfinally RevolverinSanFranciscocame alongandtook50copiesandaweek latertheycamebackandsaid,“Give ustherestofthepressing.”

Fromtherewewereset.Everynew bandprobablythinksthey’rethe greatestgrouponEarth,buttobe metwithsuccessestablishesa certainconfidenceandencourages boldmovesartistically.Sowewere luckytohavethathappenanditset usonaboldtrajectoryasagroup.

HOWLIN HOWLIN RAIN RAIN

BIRDMAN,2006

Afterthreealbumswiththe acceleratingCometsjuggernaut, Millercreatesanewvehicleforhis classicsongwritingurges

Isentthefirst HowlinRain demosto [drummer]John Moloneyinthe summerof 2004.Comets wasgettingalittlebitemotionally intense–we’dbeenworkingreally hardsince2001andweallwere lookingtorelievesomeofthat tensionandhavesomefreewheeling experienceswithothermusicians andwhatnot.Iwantedtoresetmy creativityandnotputallofmy desiresanddemandsonthosefour otherguys.Weprobablyweren’t gonnabringinbreezy’70sAMpopgoldrocktoCometsOnFire,andI lovethatstuff.SoIwantedtocreate aspacetodothatwithHowlinRain.

Cometswasademocracy–we madeallthedecisionstogether,and therewerecertainlyaspectsofthat wherethingscouldmovereally slowly.Sometimesitfeltlikefor everybodytoagreeonsomething webroughtitdowntothelowest commondenominatorinsteadof entertainingareallywildidea.SoI wantedtoputadifferentblueprint togetherwhereIwaskindathe bandleader;Iwouldwritethe materialandthebandwouldtryto endowitwiththeirownspirit.

Johnwasthebandleaderin SunburnedHandOfTheManand Ithinkhelikedtheideaofbeinga creativefoilbutnothavingtodothe heavyliftingontheconceptualend. AndIan[Gradek,bass/banjo]was mynext-doorneighbourinSanta Cruzandlongtimedearfriend,so wehadaverydeepconnection.He alsocamefromHumboldt,andthat firstalbumisverymuchaHumboldt Countysound.We’reveryremoteup here,we’reintothedeepwildsof Californiawheretheold-growth redwoodshittheocean.Andthat firstalbumreflectedsomeofthose feelings,bothhumanandnatural.

Comets On Fire play the Middle East Club, Cambridge ,MA, September 2006

COMETS AVATAR ONFIRE

SUBPOP,2006

Withthecracksalreadyshowing, thebanddigdeepforamasterful treatiseofgnarledcosmicwisdom

Because Comets had got to a place where we’d been rehearsing Avatar for a year, the tracking was fairly embittered and difficult – it wasn’t that spontaneous, explosive process any more. But I think the album came out having a deeper emotional complexity because of that stuff. It was something of a triumph, but a destroyer for us also. We were coming to a place where it was gonna be hard for the band to continue if we couldn’t find a more unified place for ourselves, and that album ended up containing all those mixed emotions.

At the time, I’d rather it were easier to do, but now I wouldn’t change the record – I think it’s beautiful as a statement. No band lasts in that perfect union forever. We tracked the entire album instrumentally before I wrote the lyrics, so for something like “Dogwood Rust”

Heron Oblivion in 2015: (l-r) Meg Baird, Charlie Saufley, Ethan Miller, Noel Van Harmonson

andinterestingrecordandalotof fansstillloveitthebest,butitputa strainoneverybodyinthegroup. Joel,Raj[Ohja,drums]andIsaiah [Mitchell,guitar],theyallleft[after thesubsequenttour]–andIdon’t blamethem.Theywantedforthe recordtomakeahugesplashandfor ustoreallyclimbtheladder.But there’snoovernightsuccess.

HOWLINRAIN MANSIONSONGS

EASYSOUND,2015

Chewedupandspatoutbythe major-labelmachine,Millerparks thegood-timechoogleforanalbum ofraw,wintryreflection

I found myself without a band and without a label – it’s just me, my guitar and my notepad, about to get some hustling going. We were forming Heron Oblivion at that time, so I asked them if they’d come in and be my backing band and we’d make a very improvised album. Some of those songs are literally the first time they’d ever played them. I said, “Here’s the key, I’ll give you a couple of hand signals,” but otherwise it’s a really improvised take. I wanted to make a Polaroid snapshot of the moment of invention, in complete opposition to The Russian Wilds.

There’s a deep level of intimacy on there; a vulnerable quality. I sang very close to the mic, I sang quieter. After all the bravado of the former two records, I just wanted to explore a different dynamic. It was partly an attempt to expand my emotional range in storytelling too. When it came out, I think a lot of Russian Wilds fans probably thought, “Ah, this is not what I signed on for – I want to hear big AM’70srock!”Butoneofeverysix orsevenfanswaslike,“Thisisthe bestthingyou’veeverdone,Itotally getit.”It’sourversionofNeil Young’sTransorwhatever.

Eminence grise: Miller in 2021

HERON HERON OBLIVION OBLIVION

SUBPOP,2016

Solealbum–sofar–fromthepsychfolksupergroup,featuringmembers ofCometsOnFire,Espersand AssembleHeadInSunburstSound

Noel [Von Harmonson] and I had this improv unit called Wicked Mace, and when friends would come to town on tour we’d do a jam with them. Meg [Baird] moved out to San Francisco to be with her boyfriend Charlie [Saufley], who’s an old friend of ours, so we thought it would be fun to get those two together for a Wicked Mace thing. We went to Charlie’s rehearsal space and the jams were just coming so fast and furious and so intense and fully formed… It immediately had its own personality and a couple hours later we had all these recordings. It was so amazing to us, we were like, “This has got to be a band.”

That whole record was so fucking easy, I don’t remember us labouring over very much of anything. We kept the music simple and let the vibes speak for themselves.

We have recorded another record and it’s almost finished, but we’ve been [finishing it] for a long time. Covid found us estranged from each other geographically and in the meantime we lost our rehearsal space, and as a result the band has been put on hold. But there is a record that just needs to be mixed and wrangled and the last few elements done to it, so I guess we’re looking for unification and motivation.

“I wanted it to sound like the band is blasting out live, 10 feet in front of you”

HOWLIN RAIN THE ALLIGATOR BRIDE

SILVER CURRENT, 2018

Anothernewlineuprelightsthefire asthealligatorrevealshimself…

My manager played music with Jeff [McElroy, bass] and Dan [Cervantes, guitar] in a former life and he sent them over to a session in Los Angeles for Mansion Songs. They came out so good and pro that I set them aside to keep the Mansion Songs vision in that raw space. By the time The Alligator Bride rolled around, I really wanted to take those guys off the leash. I wanted it to sound like you’re hearing the band blasting out live, standing 10 feet in front of you. And I think we accomplished that – it feels like a pretty explosive experience.

On the title track I was trying to encapsulate the way that American history, present and future get sucked into this fuckin’ vortex and it never clarifies for us. Our interaction with linear time has broken and slipped. Our country rewrites history so drastically to suit the winner that we basically live in a psychic timewarp.

This was when Obama was still president, which just goes to show that the US was not perfect before Trump took office. I felt like these things were already happening, so Itried to write a poetic little song about that – one that was still endowed with the suggestion of celebration and romance. But I didn’t know exactly what or who was at the centreof“TheAlligatorBride”.We recordedthatsongonthenightof the[2016]electionandcameoutand satonthecouch.Justin[Smith, drummer]hadhisphoneandsaid, “You’re not gonna believe this but it’s looking real bad – I think Trump’s taken this thing.” Sometimes you write a song and you’re not sure what it’s about, then it finds its meaning and it’s almost a supernatural thing, like you’d predicted it.

HOWLIN RAIN THE DHARMA WHEEL

SILVER CURRENT, 2021

Miller’s latest is a lavish, conceptual affair,featuringBobDylan’sviolinist ScarletRivera

Mansion Songs was a snapshot of floating ideas, The Alligator Bride is the band forming, and then The Dharma Wheel is fully coming back to a place that’s as sophisticated and rehearsed as The Russian Wilds. We knew what we wanted to say and were able to fluidly write and arrange things in a very idiosyncratic way that nobody else might think was very sensible. We chose the songs, we boiled them down, we rehearsed them and we took them out on tour. If we had a day off, I’d book studio time – we’d get off stage at 3am and by noon we were recording that same song. It was one of the most pleasurable records I’ve ever made.

I like the idea of the dharma wheel, in science-fiction terms, as being a portal. I wanted it to be like you drop the needle on the record and you go into this world that we’ve created. Many of the concerns of the outside world are still there, but it’s also a little fantastic or ultra-vivid – extra joyful or extra melancholy. The Dharma Wheel was going to be this two-hour-long record, with a whole grandiose concept. We’d finished the first two-fifths of it, but when Covid hit I realised it was going to be too complicated to pull off. So I took a listen to what we’d finished and said, “You know what, this’ll still make a beautiful single record.”I’lltrytoreleasetheother partofitinfuture.