
Lance Mills Interview
Q: Can you talk about your music history?
A: I learned to play guitar when I was ten years old, but I didn’t do much with it until my senior year of high school when I played in a band for a couple gigs. After high school, some friends were forming the Odell Walker Band and needed a bass player, so I learned to play bass on the fly while we gigged all over Vermont. We played together for about ten years and recorded an album in 1979 at Green Mountain Records. I took a break from gigging when my kids were little, and after a long hiatus I formed a couple bands called the Screwtops and Hi-Way 5. I’m not a classically trained musician and I can’t read music. I learn everything by ear and I write by ear as well.
Q: What is your creative process like? Can you explain some of the process for Green Mountain Saturday Night
A: I write songs different ways. Sometimes I start with a bass riff and build the song from there. Sometimes I have lyrics in my head and I put them to music. Other times I find myself playing around with chord progressions and I write lyrics to fit it, so it comes at the same time. I’ve had some songs – “Jessie’s Song” comes to mind – where the song comes fully formed and it almost seems like I pulled it from thin air. I actually wrote some of these songs while I was driving. It’s especially interesting to work out lyrics and vocal arrangements while heading down the road.
“When Sarah Dances” came from a poem I wrote about my daughter 25 years ago. I was playing with a C-F-G flatpicking thing and looking for lyrics when I suddenly wondered if that poem would fit… and it did. I wrote “Old Number 13” and “Long Long Gone” on a 1935 diddly bow I found at a flea market. It’s just one string and that forces you to keep it simple. “Ghost Shadow” was written on the bass first and then I wrote the lyrics driving in my truck. “I Let Her Fall” was written completely in my head while driving. I knew the song wanted a pedal steel right from the start. “Lordy Lordy” was another bass riff I wrote lyrics for. I wanted to write “Rope Tow Boogie” with that old blues riff from the start. I used Canned Heat’s “Woodstock Boogie” as a jumping off point and wrote the song from there. Same thing with “West Fairlee Falcon”… I had the music in mind and I wrote lyrics for it. I never really know when songs are coming or how they are coming. It just seems to happen.
Q: What are some of the themes you explore throughout Green Mountain Saturday Night?
A: I didn’t set out to record a concept album, but I may have done just that. I had a bunch of songs from different genres and I brought them into the studio to record them with no real plan. There’s a point at the end of a recording project when you listen to your album all the way through from start to finish for the first time. When I did that, something struck me. The first song is a lively rockabilly song that’s full of youthful enthusiasm and joy. The last song is a slow ballad about two young children (my grandfather’s little brother and sister) who died in 1900 at age 5 and 3. We’re basically tucking them into bed at night… forever.
In between these two songs are ten songs with themes of murder, love, betrayal, humor, despair, moonshining, inspiration, alcoholism, defiance, abuse and death. With most of the songs set in Vermont, we see covered bridges, skiing, rivers, valleys, back roads, graveyards, ghosts, grist mills and an old rope tow. After listening to this album, I realized that it begins with the unfettered enthusiasm of youth and ends with tragic death. In between, the album is filled with stories that reflect the trials and tribulations of living and dying.
Q: What are some influences upon making the album? Did it stem from other music or something else?
A: I think this record reflects the music I’ve listened to all my life. The Beatles have always been a big influence on my music. I love country rock bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Flying Burrito Brothers, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Pure Prairie League and Ozark Mountain Daredevils. Neil Young is a fantastic songwriter and I can’t help but be influenced by his writing and playing style. When disco came out in the mid-‘70s, it pushed me into discovering the outlaw country of Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings and rediscovering Johnny Cash and Hank Williams. Overall, I think the songs I write tend to lean towards early ‘70s country rock.
Q: What was the recording process like?
A: It was an amazing process, and a lot different than it was in 1979. We laid down the drum tracks first, with some rhythm guitar tracks and scratch vocal/bass. Then we added final bass tracks. Next up we added final rhythm and lead guitar tracks before starting in on vocals and some of the other instruments like keyboards, harmonica, fiddle, diddly bow and cello. Most of the songs ended up sounding like I thought they would, but some didn’t.
One song that really found itself in the studio is “Ghost Shadow.” This song started out as a late ‘60s rock song, but we couldn’t get guitar parts that fit. I eventually asked a couple keyboard players to give it a go and they found some interesting things that made us revamp the whole song. We ran the bass track through a Leslie speaker and redid the vocal to soften it up and create a dreamy effect. We added a theremin to the mix at the very end of the project. The song went from being an angry rock song to a kind of ghostly song. It was quite a transformation.
We played around in the studio quite a bit. We used the Leslie for a couple bass tracks, both diddly bow tracks, and some vocal tracks. We did a lot of work on the backing vocal tracks. I was very fortunate to be able to bring in some solid musicians to help out. It took two years to finish this project, and it feels good to release it.
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: My music is deeply personal. All of these songs come from experiences I’ve had, experiences people close to me have had, or things that might have been. I have pictures of my grandfather’s little brother Reginald and sister Jessie. They are sitting in chairs holding apple branches with blossoms. I have another of Jessie walking in a field. “Jessie’s Song” came directly from those photos and stories my uncles told me. My three grandchildren are the voices you hear at the end of “When Sarah Dances,” a song about my daughter Sarah. “Lordy Lordy” is based loosely on my alcoholic father who died at 47. Ghost Shadow speaks for itself. My music can be happy or sad, lively or slow, cheerful or dark, but it is always music from my heart.
Q: Can you talk about your music history?
A: I learned to play guitar when I was ten years old, but I didn’t do much with it until my senior year of high school when I played in a band for a couple gigs. After high school, some friends were forming the Odell Walker Band and needed a bass player, so I learned to play bass on the fly while we gigged all over Vermont. We played together for about ten years and recorded an album in 1979 at Green Mountain Records. I took a break from gigging when my kids were little, and after a long hiatus I formed a couple bands called the Screwtops and Hi-Way 5. I’m not a classically trained musician and I can’t read music. I learn everything by ear and I write by ear as well.
Q: What is your creative process like? Can you explain some of the process for Green Mountain Saturday Night
A: I write songs different ways. Sometimes I start with a bass riff and build the song from there. Sometimes I have lyrics in my head and I put them to music. Other times I find myself playing around with chord progressions and I write lyrics to fit it, so it comes at the same time. I’ve had some songs – “Jessie’s Song” comes to mind – where the song comes fully formed and it almost seems like I pulled it from thin air. I actually wrote some of these songs while I was driving. It’s especially interesting to work out lyrics and vocal arrangements while heading down the road.
“When Sarah Dances” came from a poem I wrote about my daughter 25 years ago. I was playing with a C-F-G flatpicking thing and looking for lyrics when I suddenly wondered if that poem would fit… and it did. I wrote “Old Number 13” and “Long Long Gone” on a 1935 diddly bow I found at a flea market. It’s just one string and that forces you to keep it simple. “Ghost Shadow” was written on the bass first and then I wrote the lyrics driving in my truck. “I Let Her Fall” was written completely in my head while driving. I knew the song wanted a pedal steel right from the start. “Lordy Lordy” was another bass riff I wrote lyrics for. I wanted to write “Rope Tow Boogie” with that old blues riff from the start. I used Canned Heat’s “Woodstock Boogie” as a jumping off point and wrote the song from there. Same thing with “West Fairlee Falcon”… I had the music in mind and I wrote lyrics for it. I never really know when songs are coming or how they are coming. It just seems to happen.
Q: What are some of the themes you explore throughout Green Mountain Saturday Night?
A: I didn’t set out to record a concept album, but I may have done just that. I had a bunch of songs from different genres and I brought them into the studio to record them with no real plan. There’s a point at the end of a recording project when you listen to your album all the way through from start to finish for the first time. When I did that, something struck me. The first song is a lively rockabilly song that’s full of youthful enthusiasm and joy. The last song is a slow ballad about two young children (my grandfather’s little brother and sister) who died in 1900 at age 5 and 3. We’re basically tucking them into bed at night… forever.
In between these two songs are ten songs with themes of murder, love, betrayal, humor, despair, moonshining, inspiration, alcoholism, defiance, abuse and death. With most of the songs set in Vermont, we see covered bridges, skiing, rivers, valleys, back roads, graveyards, ghosts, grist mills and an old rope tow. After listening to this album, I realized that it begins with the unfettered enthusiasm of youth and ends with tragic death. In between, the album is filled with stories that reflect the trials and tribulations of living and dying.
Q: What are some influences upon making the album? Did it stem from other music or something else?
A: I think this record reflects the music I’ve listened to all my life. The Beatles have always been a big influence on my music. I love country rock bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Flying Burrito Brothers, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Pure Prairie League and Ozark Mountain Daredevils. Neil Young is a fantastic songwriter and I can’t help but be influenced by his writing and playing style. When disco came out in the mid-‘70s, it pushed me into discovering the outlaw country of Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings and rediscovering Johnny Cash and Hank Williams. Overall, I think the songs I write tend to lean towards early ‘70s country rock.
Q: What was the recording process like?
A: It was an amazing process, and a lot different than it was in 1979. We laid down the drum tracks first, with some rhythm guitar tracks and scratch vocal/bass. Then we added final bass tracks. Next up we added final rhythm and lead guitar tracks before starting in on vocals and some of the other instruments like keyboards, harmonica, fiddle, diddly bow and cello. Most of the songs ended up sounding like I thought they would, but some didn’t.
One song that really found itself in the studio is “Ghost Shadow.” This song started out as a late ‘60s rock song, but we couldn’t get guitar parts that fit. I eventually asked a couple keyboard players to give it a go and they found some interesting things that made us revamp the whole song. We ran the bass track through a Leslie speaker and redid the vocal to soften it up and create a dreamy effect. We added a theremin to the mix at the very end of the project. The song went from being an angry rock song to a kind of ghostly song. It was quite a transformation.
We played around in the studio quite a bit. We used the Leslie for a couple bass tracks, both diddly bow tracks, and some vocal tracks. We did a lot of work on the backing vocal tracks. I was very fortunate to be able to bring in some solid musicians to help out. It took two years to finish this project, and it feels good to release it.
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: My music is deeply personal. All of these songs come from experiences I’ve had, experiences people close to me have had, or things that might have been. I have pictures of my grandfather’s little brother Reginald and sister Jessie. They are sitting in chairs holding apple branches with blossoms. I have another of Jessie walking in a field. “Jessie’s Song” came directly from those photos and stories my uncles told me. My three grandchildren are the voices you hear at the end of “When Sarah Dances,” a song about my daughter Sarah. “Lordy Lordy” is based loosely on my alcoholic father who died at 47. Ghost Shadow speaks for itself. My music can be happy or sad, lively or slow, cheerful or dark, but it is always music from my heart.