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Morris Mills will make a night of beautiful music this
Friday.
He
will be celebrating the release of his second album “Beautified”
in
the next month
with a concert at 11 p.m. Jan. 4 at the Hard Rock Cafe, 63
W. Ontario St.,
Chicago. The cover is $10. He will play mostly original material,
but, he will perform two Prince songs: “I Could Never Take the
Place of Your Man” and “Purple Rain”. The album will be
available on internet outlets like Spotify, iTunes and Amazon.com,
Mills said.
“I
am singer, I am a songwriter, I'm not a poet, but, I'm a poet in
music,” he said. “I'm just a man that loves music.”
His
music spans all genres including rock, pop, soul and blues. He has
been compared to artists like Maxwell, Lenny Kravitz, Curtis
Mayfield, David Bowie and Prince. He said that no matter how much people try to put him into a category, everything he does comes from an individual place.
He
has also worked on a cover of The Smashing Pumpkins song "Disarm" with Matt Fink-- better known as Dr. Fink--
who played keyboards in Prince's band for more than 10 years. Rosie
Gaines, a vocalist best known for her work with Prince on his 1991
Diamonds and Pearls album, has also expressed interest in recording
one of his songs. In addition, Soulpatrol.com awarded his single
“Beautified” best song of 2011 and Rawartists.org nominated him
for music artist of the year 2012.
“I'm
going to do something different, I'm going to do something else,”
Mills said. “They are going to say that I remind them of Prince,
but, not that I sound like Prince.”
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| Courtesy of Morris Mills |
Musical
Beginnings
Mills
is a self-taught guitarist and pianist and his love of music goes
back to when he was five years old. He was introduced to different
types to music at a young age: His mother listened to blues, country
and soul records and his dad liked pop, classical and rock music. He
cited Elvis Presley, Tom Jones and The Jacksons as early influences,
he said.
“It
wasn't white music. It wasn't black music. It was music,” he said.
He
walked around the house singing and performing, imitating The
Stylistics, a 1970s soul group, with his siblings and he was writing songs by the time he
was in grammar school. His mother was very supportive of her children's musical aspirations – she herself played the trombone in
high school. She bought his older brother a guitar and allowed him to
build a studio in the basement of their Broadview, Ill. home, where he
and his brother recorded on four-track, and later, eight-track tapes.
“(My
brother) would wake me up in wee hours of the morning to sing the
vocals on songs,” he said. “We would spend all day in the
basement.”
The
first time Mills heard Prince was when his older brother, who was in
college at the time, brought home the album “For You” in 1978. His brother told him to “listen to this guy that sounds like you.”
Before that, he had been listening to singers like Stevie Wonder,
Eddie Kendricks and Curtis Mayfield and imitating them in his
recordings, but, from the moment he heard that album, Prince also became a
major musical influence, Mills said.
Prince
and the Minneapolis sound were very popular by the time Mills went to Proviso East High School. He remembers there were many neighborhood bands forming
that paid homage to the artist and the biggest showcase was the high
school talent show. He got his band together and auditioned for the
talent show his sophomore year. They performed "D.M.S.R." (Dance Music Sex
Romance), from Prince's "1999" album at the audition, but, were kicked
out because of the song's suggestive lyrics. The experience was
devastating, especially after he saw other local bands flourish after
the talent show, he said.
"I would watch the bands and I would fantasize about being onstage," Mills said.
"I would watch the bands and I would fantasize about being onstage," Mills said.
Not
long after the audition, he moved to Lawton, Oklahoma to stay with a
relative, because he was experiencing some family problems, and there honed
his craft by performing at a high school on an local army base. By
the time he came back to his old high school in Illinois for his
senior year, he easily passed the talent show audition.
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| Courtesy of Morris Mills |
Mississippi
Bound
After
high school, he did some touring, however, his musical dreams were
put on hold after he became a husband and father. Yet, he had never stopped writing and recording music and he was also sending out demos and performing sporadically, Mills said.
While married, he was studying to be a minister and after he got divorced in the early 1990s, he accepted a job as an assistant minister in Jackson, Mississippi. However, the situation was not permanent, he said.
“I kind of made it up in my mind that I wouldn't do that (ministry) again,” Mills said.
While married, he was studying to be a minister and after he got divorced in the early 1990s, he accepted a job as an assistant minister in Jackson, Mississippi. However, the situation was not permanent, he said.
“I kind of made it up in my mind that I wouldn't do that (ministry) again,” Mills said.
The
move to Mississippi turned out to be a life-changing event, but not
right away. During the time he was working at the church, he was
introduced to Vasti Jackson, who became a very important musical
mentor. However, after the ministry job ended, he did go back to
Illinois where he worked in “corporate America” for about a year. Mills later returned to Mississippi to pursue his music at Jackson's
behest, he said.
Jackson,
was well known for his writing work with artists Tyrone Davis, Johnnie Taylor and Buddy Guy. He took Mills under his wing, introducing him to blues
music and local musicians. Mills
also became involved in the neo-soul music and spoken word scenes in
Jackson and surrounding cities. He
added that Jackson was also instrumental in getting him away from
relying heavily on computers while recording: one day Jackson put him
in a room with a piano and tape recorder and told him to learn “Ooh,
Baby, Baby” by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.
In
addition, Mills was staying in a home he rented from Jackson that had
its own recording studio. Jackson was working with blues artist Bobby
Rush on an album there that ended up being nominated for a Grammy
award.
Mills later put his own band together and opened for artists like Brian
McKnight and Jon B. when they did concerts in the Mississippi.
“(Jackson)
taught me how to be a real musician,” he said.
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| Courtesy of Morris Mills |
The
Road to Success
Mills
later moved back to Chicago, put a band together and started touring
the city regularly.
He
released his first album, "Love and Coffee" in 2005, which actually
supposed to be the soundtrack for an independent movie he was making
with William Pierce that was never completed. He has worked on other films, including My Phamily Barbeque and seven other movies. His most recently completed film "Ran$om Gains" starred Elise Neal, best known for her work on the TV comedy The Hughleys and Wood Harris, who starred as Avon Barksdale on HBO's The Wire
Two
songs from that album garnered him major attention: Radio
Personality Terry Bello, Senior Executive Producer of the
International Soul Summit, which takes place yearly in Atlanta, heard
his music on MySpace.com and took an interest in him as an artist.He
included Mills' song, "Steppin' Out Tonight," on the Heineken Soul Star Series, a compilation CD that
included well-known artists like Angie Stone, Rashaan Patterson
and Anthony David, among others. The CD received international
attention and helped really push his career, he said.
He
said that the song “Hello,” which was co-written and produced by Jackson from the album "Love and Coffee" also brought him
attention around 2009. It caught the ear of Stephanie Levine, owner
of Lovebrand Records, who got in contact with him and flew him out to
New York for his first music video, directed by David Watson. She
also heavily promoted the song on the East Coast and internationally.
He worked with her company for two years.
Interscope Records also digitally released “Beautified” as a single in 2011, he said.
He
said with his newest album, however, he wanted to move toward
featuring a more rock feel, but, he was worried about what some fans of
his first album might think.
“I
was afraid I was going to lose my soul base, but, at the same time, I
wanted to be true to myself,” Mills said.
He
said some of the artists he would like to work with in the future
include British Singer Lianne Las Havas, Coldplay, Bruno Mars, Taylor
Swift and, of course, Prince. He is also looking forward to touring
in Budapest in 2013 and expanding his fan base there. He has also had
an offer to tour with Lee Fields and the Expressions. He also is working on another movie, "Soul," which should begin filming this summer.
“What
is me is that category you can't put me in,” he said. “That feel,
that fun, that electricity.”
Check out Morris Mills' music at Reverbnation.com/morrismills and soundcloud.com/morris-mills.
Stay beautiful, Kristi
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Lead photo courtesy of Morris Mills.
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Like us on Facebook: Dyes Got the Answers 2 Ur ?s and Beautiful Nights
Check out Morris Mills' music at Reverbnation.com/morrismills and soundcloud.com/morris-mills.
Stay beautiful, Kristi
--
Lead photo courtesy of Morris Mills.
--
Like us on Facebook: Dyes Got the Answers 2 Ur ?s and Beautiful Nights
