Blake Mills

When asked about his recent activities, Blake Mills mentions he's been “listening, writing, playing, and watching my social life wither away like the ice caps.”

Since the understated release of his debut album, Break Mirrors, celebrated as one of the finest albums of 2010, Mills has maintained a busy schedule. He's producing the eagerly awaited second album for The Alabama Shakes, and has collaborated as a producer with a diverse range of artists, including ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Sara Watkins, Conor Oberst, Sky Ferreira, and Fiona Apple, with whom he toured extensively in 2013 and 2014. As a session player and sideman, he has worked with Beck, Cass McCombs, Jackson Browne, Lucinda Williams, Moses Sumney, and Neil Diamond, among others. Rick Rubin and T Bone Burnett frequently seek his expertise as a guitarist, and Eric Clapton expressed admiration by telling Rolling Stone magazine that “Blake Mills is the last guitarist I heard that I thought was phenomenal.“ Perhaps his most notable pursuit has been creating his highly anticipated second solo album, Heigh Ho, scheduled for release in September 2014.

Mills stated, “The goals for Heigh Ho were songs, sonics, and capturing performance. I love my first album and its sound, but since making Break Mirrors I’ve encountered many records that seem conspicuously ‘lo-fi’ or reverb-heavy; so I wanted to explore a mix of sounds I hadn’t heard combined before, and I was lucky to gather this group to help me chart some new territory.”

To achieve this, Mills invited several of his musical idols − including Jim Keltner, Don Was, Jon Brion, Benmont Tench, Rob Moose, Mike Elizondo, and Fiona Apple (who appears on the slow-burning “Seven” and timeless “Don’t Tell Our Friends About Me”) − to collaborate on what would become Heigh Ho.

Mills remarked, “Different songs feature slightly different bands. These musicians are world-class, and also some world-class record producers. That combination led to something rare; a wide-open style of playing that consistently captures the spirit of a song. It mirrors the spontaneity, maturity, and tastefulness of my all-time favorite records.”

Don Was observed of his time playing in Blake’s band, “Blake arranged the music like Cézanne would’ve filled a canvas. He’s a mind-blowingly great artist with the kind of profound vision that defines true genius. It’s incredibly inspiring for musicians to play with someone like that! If he asked us to play in orange, we wanted to give him a shade so vibrant it would blind the unwary.”

Recorded at the iconic Ocean Way studios in a room designed for Frank Sinatra and used by artists from Bob Dylan to Ray Charles, Mills crafted an album that touches on numerous genres without truly belonging to any. “Sometimes music can be made without genre,” he says. “Fiona Apple once said music can be categorized as either honest or dishonest. That honesty captivates me. It’s what I aspire to embody in my own work.”

Lyrically driven by “situational awareness, a hidden longing for clarity, and the futile dream of being understood,” Heigh Ho opens with “If I’m Unworthy,” a raw, heartfelt track that gracefully embraces the weight of love and ends with “Curable Disease.”

“When I began writing for this record, I aimed to be less personal – more topical or character-driven. But I struggle with that. None of it resonated with me. That difficulty pushed me to find ways to write about my experiences without feeling overly self-focused.”