Preview: Derek Miller’s tech savvy updates the blues with experimental sounds – Edmonton Journal

June 17, 2015

It took a few years for music technology to catch up with what Derek Miller was looking for, but it finally has.

The 40-year-old singer-songwriter from Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation in Ontario found himself driving race cars and doing a little acting in the interim, waiting until he came across the right equipment to implement his vision. Despite his reputation as a blues-rock performer, Miller is something of a technophile; now that they’re accessible he’s using digital audio workstations, iPhones and iPads to do live monitoring mixes, even integrating synth sounds into his music.

“Other major acts are coming through places where we play and saying ‘What are those Indian guys doing?’ ” Miller laughs from Montreal, where he’s currently touring with Kristi Lee Sinclair as part of the Red Ride tour. “We’re doing cool stuff with low overhead. They’re picking up that we’re on the forefront.”

As Miller points out early on in the conversation, aboriginal artists have always been on the forefront of musical exploration. Miller himself has long been steeped in blues, soul, early rock ‘n’ roll and just about everything in between, but he’s also ceaselessly looked around to see what else he can incorporate into his musical stew. That desire to investigate and push his music forward intrigued other artists, such as Willie Nelson, who agreed to sing on Damned If You Do, a song off Miller’s 2010 album Derek Miller and Double Trouble, where he teamed up with Stevie Ray Vaughan’s old rhythm section.

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