An in Depth Interview with David Michael Miller
I grew up mostly in the country, south of Buffalo, NY, in Allegany County. At a very young age I began singing in church, surrounded by gospel music, which has impacted my writing to this day. Growing up through the 70’s and 80’s, I was exposed to all different styles of music, learning piano, sax and eventually, guitar. Blues, R&B and soul music always inspired me though I never embraced those forms until much later in life. I was composing from a very early age and was recording my own church albums at the age of 12. In college I did a short internship in Nashville and was somewhat disillusioned by the music industry. Not long after, I was married to my high school sweetheart, started a family and got away from pursuing music for a few years.
Church kept me connected to music, and round 1995 I started a band called Painted By Moses out of Buffalo, influenced by the Seattle scene, releasing a couple albums of songs I had written that sold over 2500 copies in a couple years. We had radio airplay all around the United States on college and niche stations, playing several large festivals in Western New York through Chicago.
After several more years of almost exclusively playing gospel music, my thoughts on religion evolved and I began writing differently, and finally letting my blues and soul influences rise to the surface. Inspired by Buffalo artists such as Tommy Z, I started a band called Beautiful Bones with my son Joshua, my nephew Nick Peterson and the legendary keyboard player, Jim Ehinger, writing and performing blues and soul all around WNY. We had the privilege of opening for several national acts including Joe Bonamassa and David Allen Coe.
With changes in direction of the members of that band, I joined with members of the Todd Eberwine band to form Dive House Union (DHU), a 6 piece jam band, fusing rock, blues, soul and funk. With DHU, I was the lead singer and primary writer, contributing most of the material for two live albums, one recorded at Kleinhans Music Hall and another at the Aurora Theater. With DHU, I also had the privilege of sharing the stage with many national acts such as Tedeschi Trucks, Jonny Lang, Gary Clark Jr., Bobby Blue Bland, Jimmie Vaughan and many others. DHU has toured regionally and competed in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN, making it to the semi-finals.
Most recently, my work on a solo album, Poisons Sipped, has afforded me unexpected international airplay, accolades, chart positions on the Roots Music Report, as well as birthing the formation of a new band from the musicians on that record, Miller and The Other Sinners (MATOS). This band is made up of members of The Campbell Brothers (Carlton and Darick Campbell), Jay Moynihan (Buddy Guy), Jim Ehinger (Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal) and other amazing artists from WNY. While working on our first EP, I had the opportunity to do a separate solo album, Same Soil, with Grammy nominated producer, Mike Brown, to be released July 1st. Same Soil was recorded with the help of some of the incredible musicians here in WNY, tracked in Temperamental Studios in Geneseo, NY, with 50% of the album recorded with pre WWII instruments. This album is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Myron Miller.
“I’m on a train that won’t slow down..” lines from a new song. I hope to draw the world’s attention to the sound of WNY music…. DMM
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