Mike Mills of R.E.M. is no slouch.
He recently composed a concerto with his childhood bud, Robert McDuffie (whom Mills calls Bobby), a world-renowned violinist. He calls it a concerto for violin, rock band, and string ensemble.
The rock band includes John Neff (formerly Drive By Truckers, Japancakes), William Tonks (Barbara Cue, WERI, Six String Drag), and Patrick Ferguson (Five Eight, Psychedelic Furs). Mills’ concerto is five new pieces and a new arrangement of “Nightswimming”, with Mills on grand piano and McDuffie on violin.
PopMatters saw the show at the historic Newberry Opera House from side-stage left, and even the venue crew were having fun enjoying the music. The opening John Adams piano and violin piece is the heaviest of the classical music, then Fifth House Ensemble plays a few movements from an upbeat, enjoyable Philip Glass piece, then the rock band joins the crew for the final movements. The audience was dancing, with their sippy cup lids on their beers.
Just because the rock band grew up, doesn’t mean we can’t all have fun. Mills sat down with PopMatters talk about fun. Real fun.
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How is composing different with your new concerto for violin, rock band, and string orchestra with Robert McDuffie?
Well, the primary difference is I got to work a lot with our arranger, David Mallamud. He really helped me understand the songwriting for a string orchestra and for the violin itself. It was specifically for solo violin, that I had a lot to learn. And my background comes from, you know, adding 18 string arrangements to rock music or for a film.
I’m curious about how those things intersect for you. What makes it different in developing the song?
Well, I try to approach it as though it were really different. What we’re trying to do here is break down the walls between classical and rock, and play with it. In writing this piece, I tried to approach it as simply five really good songs, with even better melodies. I approach them more as rock songs, and then adapt that into Bobby’s virtuosity — and the capabilities of the string orchestra, too — to add to the songs themselves.
I had some experience working with several chamber music ensembles this past summer, and I noticed that the way they communicate is, in some ways, like one giant instrument within a rock band.
Because that’s not inaccurate.
The way they communicate … is kind of a democratic approach.
Throughout a piece, sometimes they play in unison and sometimes they’re completely different parts, for the different groupings. Yeah, it’s insane, just because there’s so much more complexity to play within the composition and the arrangement of the songs. And it’s faster.
In the six movements, anyway, were you composing them for an overall experience together? When I listen to them, it’s almost a visual experience.
That’s nice; thank you. As I’d begin building the concerto, I could see that there were certain … there were a couple of themes. They were intentional from the beginning.
Tell me more about that.
Well, there was a certain commonality of melodic approach. At first, I thought it might be distracting, but it is an overall connectivity between the pieces. It’s very subtle. Most people probably wouldn’t notice it.
After listening several times, it’s as if they’re going back to the melody within certain lines of the song, and it creates continuity throughout the pieces. And that’s where I say, the flow is a little bit visual for me.
Well that’s great. As I said, that was not … it was not intentional in a certain sense, but you find that in listening to a songwriter or composer over the years, they have certain melodic techniques that they end up using. And so I’ve heard a little bit of that in this concerto that I was previously unaware.
I’m also interested in the wonderful folks from Athens, Georgia, that you chose to come on as your rock band: Patrick Ferguson (Five Eight), John Neff (Drive-By Truckers), and William Tonks (MrJordanMrTonks). How did you choose those guys? I happen to be a longtime follower of the various projects they’ve been in.
After we learned the basic movements, they were able to arrange and adapt each of their parts within the context of the rock band. They interact with Bobby and with the string ensemble and integrate with the whole piece.
I had such a wealth of musicians to choose from here in Athens. I’ve either played with or listened many times to all of those guys before (Ferguson, Neff, Tonks), and I knew that they were capable of not only playing what I gave them, but also contributing some ideas of their own to the piece.
As I was watching some video from when you all were playing in Italy, I was fascinated by watching each of you watch each other in the live performance. Now you’re getting ready to take this on tour. Are things changing at this point, or is it too early for that?
Well, we had a rock band rehearsal last night that sounded really good. It’s just good to check in with each other in the course of a performance, you know. You want to make sure everybody’s feeling good, and you’re part of this, and just acknowledging what you’re doing. It is fun, enjoying the uniqueness of — at least in our world — of what we’re doing.
Very much so. I’m looking forward to getting to see one of these shows in a few days in South Carolina. I’m interested to see: here’s the string ensemble with their sheet music in front of them, contrasted with the rock band guys up front. That seems to flow in a more casual way than I would have expected, based on the word “concerto.”
That’s one of the issues I have with this. I mean it is a concerto, in the sense that the defining aspects of a concerto are to showcase the virtuosity of the soloist. That is the point of the concerto. Trouble is, if you hear the word “concerto”, it immediately builds up these walls in their minds about us, some stuffy guys. This is much more like a rock show: you know, audience participation, audience connectivity. There’s nothing stuffy or formal about it. We’re here to have a good time, and everyone else should be.
Yeah, I was thinking more like what I see in Vitamin String Quartet or Kronos Quartet or some groups like that. It’s much more of that interactive experience.
Yes, that’s definitely what we’re after. It’s just joy every time we play it, since all four of us rock musicians are used to playing within the context of a band. To have this much larger organization all pulling in the same direction… it’s always quite exciting and new every time.
That’s cool. Are these other pieces, like the Philip Glass symphony and John Adams piece that are part of the recording, are they part of the live performance?
Yes, the John Adams road movies and the Glass symphony.
Cool. Yeah, I’m only familiar with it [laughs] from my cult film obsession, like Koyaanisqatsi from the early ’80s and that tonal stuff.
We’re only the concerto. The other pieces, the John Adams is piano and Robert McDuffie on violin. In the Glass piece, is those two, plus the orchestra. In total, there are 15 string performers, plus the conductor, and the four piece rock band and Bobby.
I know that you’ve been a lifelong friend with Robert McDuffie, but how did the initial seed idea for this collaboration come about?
Bobby came to me at dinner one night and said that, you know, he could play Tchaikovsky and Beethoven the rest of his life, but he wanted to try something different. And he asked me if I wanted to write a half hour of music that would combine a rock band and a violin and a string orchestra. And I was at a point in my life where I was looking for the next thing to do and though, “That’s really cool.”
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