A BRIEF MILLERS TALE HISTORY:

The band was formed late in 1998. At first we were just writing songs together. I can't remember there ever being a discussion about whether we should play covers or originals - but it seemed we both wanted to try and write and perform our own tunes.

Our influences early on were a bit mixed. We both had fathers who listened to loads of country music when we were young which had made an impact. We also both seemed to have a bent for the singer-songwriter type folk thing that had been going on in various guises for quite a few decades as well as an appreciation of pop songs.

I remember Bec's music collection gave me a huge kick along at the time, as I had never really listened to a lot of the stuff she had. She played me Nick Drake's 'Pink Moon', Gillian Welch's 'Revival', some Chris Whitely, Shawn Colvin and Joni Mitchell. It was amazing. I was listening at the time to some mainly twangy, folky stuff like Richard Buckner, Josh Rouse and Maurice Frawley. I am also a long time fan of Michael Thomas (from Weddings, Parties, Anything). We were also both into the likes of Paul Kelly, Neil Finn, as well as a lot of the Australian guitar pop stuff that was around at the time ( You Am I, Ammonia, Pollyanna, Big Heavy Stuff, Knievel, Even).

It seemed we were trying to come up with some sort of part folky, part melodic song based thing that was no doubt a reflection of all of the artists above. Although the inspiration was not really anything new for a band starting out in 1998, I don't think we were particularly concerned about sounding old fashioned. We just tried to write songs that we liked and that came naturally.

In order to keep it simple at the start, we arranged the songs we had into the duo format. However, one voice with guitar seems to wear a bit thin after about 10 minutes, so we worked on including some harmonies and extra instrumentation like piano accordion and harmonica.

We played gigs around Sydney for about 2 years before finally getting it together to put out a recording. The 8 track release ("The Miller's Tale", January 2001) was done with the help of Vitamin Records and included songs from 3 different recording studios. One in New York where Bec's brother Patrick has a studio, and two in Sydney. For most of the recordings we put in a rhythm section and/or other instruments like low whistle, violin, mandolin, hammond organ.

After playing for a few months in Sydney to promote the release we went to Dublin, Ireland in May 2001 to live for a few months. We managed a bit more songwriting and a few shows before returning in early 2002.

After spending the first half of 2002 in Sydney, where we began work on our new album, we relocated to Melbourne where we have been ever since. In between a few shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, we continued to work on the album, including recording a fair amount of it at home. With some drum tracks and few other rhythm tracks done at Zen up in Sydney with Geoff Lee, at home we set about coming up with some arrangements for the songs. We also began recording a few other songs from scratch either as they were written, or as we remembered we had once written them. I guess we started about 20 or 25 songs during this time, which we eventually cut down to 12 or 14 or so. Our label offered us the opportunity to work with Jackie Orszaczky as an arranger / producer which seemed like a great idea as we are both fans of the work he has done in this capacity (You Am I's 'Hourly Daily', David Lane's 'Put Me In A Taxi to name a couple of albums he has worked on). From this, we ended up with 12 tracks which have become the album. We called in the big guns to get it mixed - Chris Thompson, who has won awards for his work with Augie March and The Waifs, mixed the album, and there you have it.

It was released on 5th July 2004, and we played lots of gigs as a result.

FEB '07: We have just recorded 5 new songs with producer Wayne Connolly in Sydney. Jim Elliott (drums), Chris Abrahams (keys), Jason Walker (pedal steel) and Wayne (guitar, percussion) all helped out on the recording. We played everything else we could get our hands on, as well as singing.

FEB '08: Just finished another batch of tunes with Wayne. Our new live show drummer Dave Kleynjans played drums on all of these. Most of them had been worked up in the studio at home, and we put the drums and other finishing touches down in the studio. We did record two new ones from scratch, pretty much by accident. These two were mostly written from scratch in the studio. Will be interesting to see how they come up when we mix!

JUN '08: They're now mixed and we have a record! Should be out hopefully by the end of the year.

by John