Radio Bremen: Dominic, welcome to the programme.

Dominic: It's nice to be here.

Radio Bremen: Have you ever counted the times you've been touring the world?

Dominic: I've just been told by the tour manager on Sting's production crew that I have just made it past a thousand shows with Sting, and interestingly enough he's just made it past two thousand so I've just realised I've played half of his career. Sometimes people say to me 'Where are going on this tour?' and the answer I usually, 'Wherever there is electricity...' But it is unbelievable the amount of places that we've played and it's always exciting, it's a constant journey of discovery.

Radio Bremen: What is an average day on the road like?

Dominic: Well every tour is different, but on this current tour that I'm doing now an average day would begin with me getting up at around 6.30 or 7am in the morning - I know that's not very rock'n'roll, other tours that I've done I might still have been up at that time - but an average day for me would start off very early in the morning. I like to go for a walk and one thing I do a lot is I practice Bach music on the guitar for a few hours a day because I find it very meditative and it's like my obligation because he is really my teacher. I'm a student of music so I go to school in the mornings and I do all the normal things like have lunch and whatever.

What usually happens on tour is that the band party will get together at about 2pm or something and we'll fly to the next destination wherever that may be and usually we'll go straight to a sound check. We'll go through a sound check and go through Sting's changes because he's got changes every day - subtle changes that the audience might not notice but we do. When we've done the sound check I will do yoga for an hour. I do yoga every day because that's what I've been doing every day for fourteen years and it's part of my thing. After that sometimes I'll play chess... I know it's not very rock'n'roll but I like to play chess with Sting or Jason [Rebello] who is the keyboard player, which we also play on the plane all the time. We don't like to talk to each other we just communicate in other ways. Sting sings all the time - he doesn't need to talk...

Then we do the show which hopefully is a blinding success but it's not always like that. You never know what it's going to be like. It's just one of those things, kind of like the lottery. We do the show and when that's finished, by this time remember I've been up since 6.30 or 7am in the morning I feel organically tired and one of the reasons I do get up so early is exactly that so that I can go back to my hotel and not be in a complete state. Because it's very difficult coming off stage in front of 15,000, or 20,000 or even a 100,000 people and you just can't go to bed. We can elaborate on this but there a lot of things that musicians do to come down from that and my method of choice is to get up really, really early so that by the time I'm done I'll go to the hotel bar and just hang out with the guys and then after just one ginger ale or something like that I'll go to bed. I'll watch CNN because I like to know what's happening in the world and just fall asleep like a baby... and then start all over again.

Radio Bremen: Is this type of lifestyle a bit of a necessary evil sometimes?

Dominic: The problem is that I don't really know any different. I'm a father as well. I've got five children but being a musician is probably one of the most selfish jobs anyone can do because you are trying to improve yourself all of the time but I'm fortunate enough (well maybe unfortunate enough) to be in the position where I'm travelling around the world. You know, the difference between the time we live in now and, let's say, the old days would be that musicians were much more local. Let's talk about 200 years ago. Musicians didn't travel they just played locally, but now with globalisation or whatever we travel because people want to hear us. We have ways of communicating with the rest of the world with CDs, radio and media, so I am travelling around the world and it's quite frustrating sometimes and quite a ridiculous lifestyle because I'm a father and I'm not with my children and it sometimes depresses me, but if I allow it to depress me I'll go completely crazy so what I do is try and maintain some kind of sanity by doing these things that I do everyday - by doing the Bach, by doing the yoga. It just centres me and makes me more able to deal with this ridiculous lifestyle because we are travelling around in a private jet, we're staying in the best hotels and I'm being paid a fortune to do what I love to do. I think that's a crime sometimes, but it's a wonderful opportunity and as long as my children and my wives - ex-wife included - know that this is what makes me tick that's OK, and if they see it's working for me then I suppose it's kind of working for them.

Radio Bremen: Do things become a blur when you've been on the road for a month or a couple of months?

Dominic: Yes, it does become a blur after a while but I kind of like the monotony of it in a way. You asked me about my typical day, and I do have a typical day - it's not typical to a lot of people but to me it is - and it's very strange because when I come off the road I've got to adjust to normal life. What is normal life, what is that? Sometimes I really crave for that. The irony is that when I'm on the road I sometimes I just want to be in this normal life but when I'm in this normal life I just want to be on the road. That's a problem that a lot of musicians in my position face and that's why some of these problems lead and escalate into all kinds of other problems which I'm fortunate to have put behind me. You just have to be very careful.

Radio Bremen: So you're a family man. Where's home?

Dominic: Home is in London. I live in London but of course I 'ship' my family out to see me whenever I can. I've got a strange concept of home. I live in a house in London but home to me is quite a deep question because I could look at that in many ways. Home is wherever I lay my hat and whenever I feel safe and home is in a hotel I'm afraid to say a lot of the time. It's strange. I could also tell you that I'm a certified hotel snob because if things aren't right I'll go crazy. I wake up in hotel rooms around the world in different places and I know where everything is because a lot of the hotels we stay in are set up in the same way. But home is in London and I feel very strange to be there sometimes because one of things about living at home is making sure you don't dial 9 to get an outside line. It's ridiculous. And there's no room service.

Radio Bremen: Do you live with your kids and wife?

Dominic: I live with my second wife and our baby and my four other children live with my ex-wife.

Radio Bremen: But you're in touch all the time?

Dominic: Yes, I'm in touch all the time with all of them as much as possible. It's very difficult for them but as I said before, as long as they see that I'm happy that makes all the difference in the world and I'm glad to say that I am at the moment.

Radio Bremen: There's a new album out, 'Third World' with original stuff. Let's hear 'Baden'... It's a typical Dominic Miller tune I think it's fair to say. Where does this music come from?

Dominic: I don't know. It's a typical Dominic Miller tune? That would have confused me a while ago but now I kind of understand. What makes a musician or instrumentalist what they are is their record collection because no two people have the same record collection. It's like your fingerprint, and that's who I am. My influences range from heavy rock to very deep classical music and on this occasion, to answer your question, I have been very influenced by Latin music - Latin American music - which didn't actually come out in my style of playing until I became more established as a musician. When you come from a country the first thing you want to do is get away from that style, I left Argentina when I was a kid, when I was eleven years old. I was brought up there and I didn't play any South American music - except for some Brazilian music maybe - but I wanted to be a rock guitarist, so for many years I went down that route but as I got older I realised that I couldn't really escape from that style and so Latin American music and particularly the rhythms are, I suppose, what define me as a player. It's not really for me to say but every musician is different, but to get your own style is probably the hardest thing to do as musician and maybe my style is more leaning to a Latin American rhythmical approach.

Radio Bremen: I think your individuality centres around playing the classical guitar in a rock and pop context. You have a specific touch that I think is very identifiable.

Dominic: Thank you. I always really identified with the music of bossa nova because when I was a kid growing up we used to play bossa novas the way that other kids in Europe would probably play Beatles' songs. It was just a natural thing to do. My older sister taught me how to play guitar and the first thing she taught me was One Note Samba or Girl from Ipanema. Those are like the equivalent of someone in Europe playing Yesterday. It's just a normal thing to do. So the Latin kind of approach or the nylon string guitar is the sound that I identify with.

Radio Bremen: Did you identify with this sound from the very beginning?

Dominic: Pretty much. A lot of people have a Spanish guitar in the house and my Dad had one and he played guitar. My dad used to play tangos and he played blues on a Spanish guitar and it was just a normal thing to do. The Spanish guitar is my favourite... Segovia put it in a way that I really identify with. He says it's like a small orchestra. Because I can get more sounds out of a Spanish guitar or a classical guitar than I can out of any amount of pedals with an electric guitar and a Strat and an amp. I can express myself better with a classical guitar. It doesn't mean that that is the right way to go. I play electric guitar as a job but I can say what I want to better with a classical guitar.

Radio Bremen: Another thing about your music is that its very much about moods and atmosphere.

Dominic: That's because I'm a moody old guy.

Radio Bremen: You are? Have you grown into this or have you been like that from the beginning?

Dominic: I suppose so, I don't know. Some people say that my music is moody and actually some people say to me that when they look at me on stage that I look kind of miserable and moody but the truth is that I'm deliriously happy. God gave me this face and this look and I suppose it's the same with my music. I find that with very moody music or sad music can actually lift the spirits. That's the role of sad music in a way. Sometimes when people want to feel better they listen to sad music. I mean, how do explain that? Because it lifts the spirits and I identify in a big way with moody music and I find it much more satisfying to the soul. You could talk particularly about Chopin or about Bach and when they're doing that stuff it moves me to... I can't find the words to describe how moody it is but I want to be like that. That's who I want to be like and I want to recreate that in the time that I live in now.

Radio Bremen: You put out an album of classical music yourself recently called Shapes. This recording project is a very special one for you probably? It's your adaptations of a number of classical pieces. It's not the originals... you've done some work. What made you do this?

Dominic: Yes, it's very special for me. It kind of happened by accident really. Because I'd been practising for so many hours on the last tour I did with Sting, four or five hours a day it just kind of evolved. While I was making the 'Third World' album I remember I wanted to include one classical piece which was a Bach partita just as a tribute to this work I had done for about two years and I remember the producer that I had came round to my house to listen to my 'Third World' idea as my own solo music. And he was kind of umming and aahing and saying it's OK, it's good or whatever and as he was leaving I said 'Oh by the way, I want include this tune,' which I demoed and that was the Bach partita and that was when he really stopped and said 'I think you should do a whole album like this'. And I thought you must be fucking joking, I can't do that. But then I called him back and said you know, I probably could do this, but the only thing is I can't possibly do it in a classical way like the way it was intended because if you want to hear classical guitar I recommend you listen to Julian Bream or John Williams, don't listen to me. But if you let me do it my way or do it in a way that I can identify with in a language or music that I can understand, or a style of production then I think we have a case. So that is when I really sat down and I tried some of these tunes out.

The first one I tried out was Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, then I tried some Bach and some Chopin and I thought 'Wow, this stuff is really, really serious,' but all I'm doing is redressing it in the times that we live in. It's the same structure. I couldn't possibly know how it was intended to be because I didn't live then. I live here today and I have every right to have an emotional connection with this music. I'm a working, professional musician and I want to play this stuff, but I don't want to do it in a way that I think it maybe should be done. I can only do it in a way that I believe in and that is the result of Shapes.

Radio Bremen: Weren't you afraid that this approach might be considered a bit cocky by the classical music world?

Dominic: No. I mean that is one of the reasons why I did it. I went to music college in London and to be honest with you it wasn't a great experience and I dropped out after a year. Part of me is thinking I'm going to do it now and I'm doing it. I'm allowed to express myself and I will be very happy to sit with a pundit or a critic and talk about this. I don't feel I have to justify myself at all. I have an audience who want to listen to it and I have an audience who feel emotionally connected to it and I believe that I can reach possibly a wider audience than somebody who is just looking for that one audience who want to hear it in the strict way. I go to clubs and play Bach which no one does and so there is teenagers and people who never listen to classical music. I'm playing this stuff and they don't even know it's classical music and that's a big achievement to me so I'm very proud to be able to do this and I listen with amusement to the pundits who say this is terrible and I've had some terrible reviews but you know what? At least I've had some reviews!

Radio Bremen: You've mentioned your childhood and upbringing so lets talk about that a little bit. You were born in Argentina. What was your family background like?

Dominic: I was brought up in an English community in Argentina. My father is American and my mother is Irish. It's a long story why they ended up there, they have their own reasons for ending up there. So I went to school in Spanish and my home was in English so I was brought up bilingual and I have a very strong connection with the country. It's so strong that when I watch Argentina play England in the football I can't help but support Argentina. So that's when I know that I'm from there. It's the same with the football team River Plate. I don't get excited when I see Manchester or Arsenal, I get excited when I see the colours of River Plate. They give me a warm feeling that I had when I was in that country. So I had a fantastic childhood living in Argentina. Very outdoors, I went to school in Cordoba. There's a lot of sports, horse riding... I'm very. very lucky to have been brought up there. And also, being able to speak Spanish.

Radio Bremen: And the music you listened to at that time?

Dominic: Well the music I listened to was The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater and Hendrix. When I heard Hendrix that was a big, big turning point. It was like I'd discovered God or something - a religious experience. I listened to the same things that a lot of other people listened to because in South America, The Beatles were big in the sixties and so were the Stones but we didn't have the variety perhaps that you would have had in Europe or America but the soundscape of my life was also tango music and folklore music, Argentine folklore music. People's music. That was always on but I just wasn't listening to it. But it as there and it's in me.

Radio Bremen: Let's talk about South American music a little. You mentioned before that you were taught guitar by your older sister, and that is some heavy stuff. Jobim is not easy to play...

Dominic: No, I mean Jobim I now realise is all jazz chords. So when I was eleven years old I was learning jazz chords, but it was normal. It was a normal thing to do. South American music... maybe Brazil is the most known country for South American music but if you move around to Venezuela or Peru there are a lot of waltzes... Antonio Lauro. And in Argentina there are some incredible music, particularly folklore music which is just music from the people like Misa Criolla, which is the people's mass. Stuff like that is just incredibly deep stuff and you go to Chile and you hear different styles of music. There is just a whole wealth of music to be discovered in South America, particularly Brazil and I was always influenced by the Brazilian music. It's very hard to ignore.

Radio Bremen: Was that just as prominent in Argentina?

Dominic: Of yes, Brazilian music is just adored around the world I think. It's the same as the way they play football. There's something about the Brazilian ambience. Frank Sinatra was the one who made Brazilian music really, really famous when he recorded the album of bossa novas. He really put Brazilian music on the map and then Stan Getz and people like that.

Radio Bremen: (A piece by Baden Powell Euridice finishes) The guitar sounds strange listening to it from this distance. It's not totally in tune, it's somewhat flat but it's still magical. Do you have an explanation for that?

Dominic: The thing is with Brazilian guitarists is that they never change their strings. It's a strange thing with guitars. You put new strings on and they sound lovely and bright and then what happens after a few hours of playing they go a bit dead and they sound horrible but then if you leave them long enough then the sound comes back and it has exactly that sound that you hear right there, where the lower strings don't have any definition any more, and I think that is beautiful. There are very few musicians who can play out of tune and make it sound good. John Coltrane is probably one Jimi Hendrix is another and certainly Baden Powell. I mean, it's not really out of tune to me. Guitars are intrinsically out of tune with themselves because it's all about tempered tuning and things like that and we could go into that, but guitars aren't in tune. There's always a problem with the G string and the D string and it's very frustrating but it's wonderful stuff and I actually find it kind of endearing that it's innocently out.

Radio Bremen: We'll stay a little bit more with the Brazilian stuff. There are so many great musicians, so many great composers Egberto Gismonti is just one of them.

Dominic: I think Egberto Gismonti is the modern day genius composer. Very under discovered as a composer. His music really reminds me a lot of Villa Lobos music. He's a serious, serious composer and I think he's touched by some very higher powers. He studied his music a lot in Europe I believe and he's recorded a few albums on the ECM label and I think when he came to Europe that's when he discovered the possibilities of being more impressionistic with sound. Kind of like the way in which composers like Debussy and Ravel took classical music and went into the impressionistic phase of it and what Villa Lobos did as well but I think Gismonti is doing some seriously big things in classical music. He's reinventing Brazilian music and bringing it to a more global arena I suppose and I am very, very touched by this guy's music. I mean there is Bach and there is Gismonti in the same sentence as far as I am concerned.

Radio Bremen: We talked about your upbringing in Argentina a little bit, about the sixties, and maybe we should move from one genius writer to another one, Jimi Hendrix.

Dominic: Hearing Jimi Hendrix changed my life completely, and actually at that point that I was kind of defenceless in that I knew I had to be a musician. That was the point that I knew. I was eleven. I think he died in '71 which makes me whatever it makes me. My next door neighbour came round to my house when I was eleven years old and he played me a Jimi Hendrix album and I thought 'Who is this guy, how does he do that!' I'd heard The Beatles, I'd heard the Stones but there something about the way Jimi Hendrix plays which made such a huge connection with me and I thought this is what I want to do. I want to lean to play like that and I want to learn the electric guitar. The sight of an electric guitar after that just used to give me goosebumps. And it still does. Whenever I hear Jimi Hendrix I get the same feeling that I got in my head when I was eleven years old. It doesn't go away. There is no other guitar player that does that for me in the same way. There are some that have a big effect with me but Hendrix is the 'guvnor'. As an instrumentalist he's probably the Paganini of our times.

Radio Bremen: So you were familiar with the sixties music and that was the time your family moved away from Argentina? You moved to the US to the American Midwest. Do you any recollection of what that felt like?

Dominic: Yes, we moved away in '71 or '72 and it was like landing on the moon. I landed in Wisconsin which a lot of American's consider the worst place to be but for me it was just unbelievable. First of all, everyone spoke in English which I wasn't used to and just the American dream... the cars. It was just a fantastic place to arrive at and you know that it's strange because now that I think about it I was only eleven years old but I felt like I was on some kind of big journey. I wanted to be a musician, I knew then that I was going to be a musician and it was just a matter of how and when. And so I felt that this was kind of like part of my world tour - I'm coming to America, and I'm going to be famous and I'm going to get an electric guitar. I'm going to do all the right things. I just love the memory of arriving in America but now I'm been all over the States and I've been to more places in America than most Americans have and I can now see that the place I ended up - Racine, Wisconsin - was not necessarily the most beautiful place in America, but whenever I'm in the Midwest now I get that same feeling. I still think it's the best place to be. That's where I'm from, as well.

Radio Bremen: What made your parents move there?

Dominic: My Dad worked for a company, he's a business man and the company he worked with stationed him in America.

Radio Bremen: And so you went to an American school?

Dominic: Yes, it was a great experience. The great thing about going to school in America is because I came from Argentina we were really into sports and athletics and soccer. I realised I was more advanced than the Americans were in that area except in basketball because that's what they do. But it just goes to show how athletic Argentina is really as a country. It's very outdoors and I realised I could beat everyone at running and hurdles and high jump and long jump and soccer. I was a bit of star. It was my first taste of stardom because I was from another country.

Radio Bremen: But you were British after all?

Dominic: Well, I don't really know what I am. That's another problem we could get into. I mean I have an American father, an Irish mother and I was born in Argentina...

Radio Bremen: So what is your nationality?

Dominic: I'm British. I have a British passport but I also have an Argentine passport which I actually carry around with me just in case there are any problems on a plane. Because being British and the world climate being the way it is it's not such a great thing to have British passport so if there's any problem, I eat the British one and I show the Argentine one.

Radio Bremen: Some very famous music came out of England in the sixties and here's one track... (plays A Day In The Life). How did that effect you? You were living in the States, had spent your childhood in Argentina and this music came from England. Was that a kind of universal sound for you?

Dominic: Yes, The Beatles were a global band at that point and it was a completely universal sound. I don't think there was anywhere on the planet that didn't identify with that in some way because they were the soundscape of the sixties. Them and the Stones. It was great to listen to it.

Radio Bremen: What attracted you in particular to The Beatles?

Dominic: Not so much the music, but the look of it, the image, being in a band, being in a gang. It was so important to be in band. I had a band. My friends... we couldn't play any music but we had a band.

Radio Bremen: What did you do?

Dominic: I used to play on my Dad's Spanish guitar, just a few chords. A combination of some bossa nova chords and some power chords, I don't know what it was. The drummer was using buckets. As long as it looked like a band.

Radio Bremen: That was in your Dad's garage?

Dominic: Yes, or the front room, or the garden. I had to be in a band - there was no question about it - and I had to get my neighbours involved, just to pretend to be in a band.

Radio Bremen: So it was sports and music for you?

Dominic: Yes, sports and music.

Radio Bremen: That was very popular with the girls presumably?

Dominic: Well er... (Laughs) I also realised that one of the only ways to get a girlfriend was to be in a band. I thought, that's very important to increase my chances of having a relationship with someone. If I'm in a band... there's a romance attached to be being a musician. I want that. It's like being a pirate or something. Not being academic... I was terrible academically but I wanted to be popular and have friends.

Radio Bremen: Are you still attracted to this romantic image. I mean look at the cover of your 'Shapes' album. There you are with a guitar case, alone on a back road walking into the distance...

Dominic: I suppose so. Actually it was an art director that put that together but I suppose that's who I am. There is a romance attached to being a musician there's no doubt about it. That was important to me then, but now I suppose there's still a part of that that I still identify with but now it's much more the actual music itself. But that's the thought process that got me into all this trouble I suppose. Being a musician, and it kind of went downhill from there.

Radio Bremen: But this was not serious, playing with a makeshift band?

Dominic: No, it wasn't serious at all, but I really believed that I was in a band.

Radio Bremen: But had some talent, you must have realised that?

Dominic: I had a little bit of talent but I knew that I had to be a musician and it was just a matter of time. I remember getting to the age of about 12 or 13 - it's an age of reason I suppose when a boy reaches that kind of age - and thinking 'Now what?' I thought 'How am I going to do this, how am I going to pull this off?' That's when I realised that I had to raise my game a little bit and I started taking guitar lessons and I realised where my shortcomings were. And I've been realising them ever since. In fact, I realise them more and more every day and that's why I'm studying music today more than I did them. But that's when I took guitar lessons and thought now it's time to get serious. I always had very good ears. I used to rely on my ears to learn. I used to put a record on and figure out how to play it which my peers around that time couldn't do that. They had to be taught how to play it. But I've always done that, and I've always been able to do that and I still do that. Now I can read music a little bit which helps me but my ears are better than my reading. But I took guitar lessons round about that time. I actually moved to England if you want to talk about that and got a really good guitar teacher and we studied classical guitar because that's really where it's at. I thought if you are going to be a guitar player do the hardest thing and so I started learning the pieces by Fernando Sor and Villa Lobos and thought wow, this stuff is different. I knew I was never going to do it, I thought I'm never going to play this stuff but at least I can play classical guitar and show my neighbour that I can do that. So it was important to me. That's when I really started developing myself as a player I suppose.

Radio Bremen: How did it become really serious for you? Dreaming of being a musician and actually earning a living as a musician is a big step.

Dominic: Sure it is, but I kind of knew, kind of had an instinct that to be a professional and to make a living out it it's not just going to happen for free. It's not just going to come. So I knew that I had to work on it. Because I knew I had some talent, and I knew I had a good comprehension and emotional contact with music and I had good ears. Those were my real tools and so with that I thought 'we've got this, all we need to do now is learnt how to play'. So I realised that the only way to do that was to raise my game and that's when I realised that I was better than the other guy who was my age.

Radio Bremen: You came back to the States when you were sixteen, so what did you do?

Dominic: When I came back to the States it was also another part of the process of my world tour and I thought OK, now I'm sixteen, this it. I've got to do it now. So I went to school, I saw the American way of life - high school, going to basketball games, cheerleaders, which was a great thing... I was an English guy in an American school but this time coming from England and not Argentina and I was like a bit of a star because I was going out with the only English girl in the school so we were like Charles and Di almost! It was important for me to have some kind of notoriety and I started a band with some of the other guys who were quite good but then one thing happened that completely, completely changed my life. I wanted to raise my game and I wanted to study in the best place that one could study music and take it to the next level, like jazz style music. So I enrolled to go to Berklee College of Music when I was sixteen for a summer course and it was on arriving at Berklee that my whole world collapsed and opened up at the same time. It collapsed because I saw that there were other boys and girls my age that completely kicked my arse as a guitarist. And I thought 'Jesus... I thought I was serious'.

At that point I was practising classical guitar, a little bit of Hendrix, a little bit of Jeff Beck and Led Zeppelin and whatever. I thought I'm real, it's just a matter of time before I get into a band and I'm on a world tour. But I got to Boston, in Berklee, and I realised that that wasn't going to happen unless I took it to the next level. My world did collapse and that's when I went from practising two hours a day to practising four or six hours a day, and learning about musical theory and learning about jazz chords which funnily enough were all the kinds of chords that I knew from bossa nova. I actually knew what they were. These guys were learning, but I actually knew that stuff and how to play it convincingly because I'm from Argentina, I can play that stuff. And I had a rhythmical edge over what they did, but what they had over me, the Americans, is that they had a work ethic that was infuriating. The Americans whenever they do things just do it better or something. Same with their athletes at a higher level. So I just had to raise my game and my world opened up because I knew that I was going to do it. It was at that point that there was no turning back and I knew this was going to work now and all I've got to do is be serious. Much more serious than I thought I was.

Radio Bremen: Did you listen to Stevie Wonder in Berklee?

Dominic: Oh yes. When I arrived in America and I was 15 or 16 I was listening to Stevie Wonder and he's not a guitar player but I thought this guy is the best songwriter in the world. That's when I discovered funk music and listening to that kind of African/American soul funk and he was the genius songwriter of his time.

Radio Bremen: So there you were in Boston becoming a serious player. Did you educate yourself by playing and performing as well as the performing situation is very different from being at school?

Dominic: When I cam back from Berklee and I went home I remember telling my parents - I was sixteen at the time - I'm going to be a musician, because up until then they thought it had just been a childhood fantasy. I was serious, I had a very serious look on my face. I said I want to be a musician and the first thing I wanted to do was to join a band. So I called around all the local clubs to see bands and I joined a soul band playing covers and we did two gigs in small bars and I was spotted by the rival soul band and I quickly joined them. So I suddenly joined a band, and they were all part timers but they were really good. Just soul, all black guys just playing funk - The Brothers Johnson, Quincy Jones all the funk kind of stuff and I loved doing that but the great thing is they used to rehearse every day and so that was the first time I realised that I'm not going to have a social life. I'm going to rehearse with these guys every day and once a week we would go and do show and I would get back about 2 or 3am in the morning and that was what my parents had to deal with. My school work suffered and so did my social life. I didn't have one and I thought yes, this is how it is meant to be. You're not meant to have a social life, you're not meant to have a proper relationship. This is what it is really like to be a musician. That's when I learned about sacrifice, it was my first experience of it and I've been doing it ever since. And so I was in a working band, not paid very much money but rehearsing every day for two hours after school. I used to go straight from school to the rehearsal room in the black part of town and the shows that we used to do I was the only white person in the whole building by far. And I was English on top of that and so it was an amazing experience for me. I didn't have a social life but this is how it was meant to be. I knew that this was the beginning and that it was all downhill from there.

Radio Bremen: So you were totally convinced that it was the right thing to do?

Dominic: Yes, I was absolutely convinced, Being in Berklee I listened to a lot of incredible music. It was the first time I was exposed to the music that was quite hip around that time - fusion music - and listening to a higher level of musicianship with bands like the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report and various incredible groups that I wouldn't have been exposed to if I hadn't gone there.

Radio Bremen: So life in the US was pretty good for you?

Dominic: It was fantastic, probably the best time of my life because that was when I knew what I wanted to do and was doing it in the right way and the way that I wanted to do it.

Radio Bremen: But after a while you left and went back to England?

Dominic: Yes, I went back to England when I was eighteen years old to go to music college in London. When I was in school I was practising all this time in America and playing in a band, had a girlfriend and everything was good and I thought 'I'm leaving.' This is part of what it's like to be a musician. You've just got to split.

Radio Bremen: Part of your 'world tour' again?

Dominic: Yes, part of my world tour, my fantasy world tour. So I thought I'm going to London because I had wanted to go to music college and take it further and to study more. So I got accepted by all the music colleges I went for in America and...

Radio Bremen: Did you audition?

Dominic: Yes, you have to audition and you have to have a certain grade as a player which we call grade 8 guitar and theory. You have to have the right paperwork for it which I did. I thought about going to Berklee but I didn't want to go there. I thought I want to leave this place and go back to England and I want to bring this stuff with me and 'destroy' Britain (laughs). That was my plan. And so I ended up in the Guildhall School of Music which is one of the best colleges of music in the world to learn classical guitar and composition, but I didn't have such a great experience there. I didn't really like the doctrine and this guitar teacher didn't really like me, he didn't like my approach because I was a little bit left-field, I'd just come from America and I was very jazz influenced and kind of still on this honeymoon of knowing that I wanted to be a musician. And he wanted to make me do things his way, you know, sit in that awkward classical guitar position and the composition and musical theory was like 'Oh God, is this it?' So I ended up not really working very hard on that and I was although I had do it, I had to learn these classical pieces and play them their way I just hated it.

But I ended up hanging out with all the actors because it's a music and drama school so that was when I really learned about show business as opposed to music. The whole concept of it's just not music and that was the first time I saw that all these people I was in college with - some of whom I'm still friends with - all they had in their life was music and I sort of thought well that's all I want but I really just don't want classical music. It's just not doing it for me. I want to be Jimi Hendrix still. I want to be Keith Richards. I want to be a rock star or something. I'm never going to be able to play like Julian Bream or be a serious classical guitarist so I kind of defied the system and rebelled against it. It was a dark period in my life and I was very disillusioned musically. It was sad and I look back on those times and with hindsight I did learn a lot but I just didn't comprehend it at the time.

Radio Bremen: So you became a bit of an unhappy person?

Dominic: Yes, I was very unhappy because I thought maybe I shouldn't be doing this, maybe I should have gone to Berklee, maybe I should have stayed in the States. But at the same time, whenever I was jamming with people - I mean English people can't jam and play funky. I'd just come from America playing in a soul band and no-one could play like that. But every so often I met some musicians who were really blown away by it so I started meeting musicians outside of college, people who were professionals, really doing it and I had something to offer. So I slowly broke away from college and started playing in bands and making a living. Well not a living, but earning cash. I was nineteen years old and this was the first time I had experienced having some money, I had some cash and £20 here and £30 there and it was like 'Oh, so that's what it is - I can actually make money out of this.' It was the first time I started making money.

Radio Bremen: You were in London, you dropped out of the college so what did you do?

Dominic: Well at that point I was just playing in various bands. I used to play in bars, on my own and I was very confused. I kind of put together a guitar duo that was like John McLaughlin and all of that and I used to play in festivals, little festivals and bars and pubs, and I would join one band and then another band... I was very confused because my biggest problem at that time is that I used to turn up to bands and they used to think 'What are you? You're not really a rock guitar player, you're not really a classical player, you're not a jazz player, so what the fuck are you?' It was a very strange, confusing time and I was still kind of making things work, making some money but not enough and I was very, very confused and disillusioned with myself. And in this disillusionment the first thing I did was I got married when I was twenty four and my wife got pregnant and that was probably the best thing that ever happened to me because at that point I thought I've got to sort this out now. I'm twenty four years old and I should be a superstar by now and I'm not. So at that point I started going round to recording studios a lot more and people used to invite me. And I used to do it for free - if you want guitar I'm your man. So free sessions, no artists in particular but to cut a long story short that kind of escalated and I got a name for myself in London as being a studio guy,

Radio Bremen: Was that also because you had this financial responsibility because of your family?

Dominic: Yes I thought I have to make money now. No more bullshit. I'm not going to be a classical guitarist because I'm not good enough. I knew that. And I'm not going to be like John McLaughlin because I don't do that. In fact I realised I was not really good enough to do anything. I wanted to be Hendrix but I don't really have that together. I didn't really have a style that I was good enough at. I was just interested in so many styles of music from bossa nova to a bit of jazz and a bit of Weather Report stuff and at that point I just sort of thought maybe I should have just concentrated on one kind of thing. So I became known with small time record producers just to go in an do their demos. It was 'Let's get that guy because at least he can play what we ask him to play and he's not going to complain'. Which of course I could because I had the technical ability to do what was thrown at me, and I could put electric guitar sounds together and I could play anything that they asked me to play. And for a few years this just happened more and more. I joined a few bands - at the same time I was playing in a couple of live bands. One of them was World Party which had some success and another one was called King Swamp who got signed so I got to go on a tour occasionally and pretend to be a rock star and make OK money, but my real thing around that time was being in the studio. I worked with various artists and slowly I remember going from the bottom of the second division to the top of the second division, like the b-list players, and I was getting some artists that were making records and had five album deals.

One of them was Julia Fordham, World Party was another and that kind of turned into producers becoming my real clients and not artists. Because a producer is the guy that hires you. When an artist signs to a new label they get a new producer and the producer gets to make the record he wants to make, and the producer has a list of three or four guitarists, three or four drummers, three or four bass players and I was number three or four on their list. But they're going to call number one or number two and so I realised that the only way to be a session player is to be number one on their list. The session player world is a kind of fantasy for a lot of people. You have to be the best or you've got one chance in four of working. So it's not until you get through that door and work for that good producer and you get the second call where he calls you again and the third and the fourth call that you are becoming a proper session player and I was becoming a proper session player and making quite good money for the first time and supporting a family. The crescendo happened when I was working with Julia Fordham. It was the first time I met a producer called Hugh Padgham who was Phil Collins' producer and David Bowie and The Police and I thought 'Wow, this is my first real producer, I've got to impress this guy.' And he was impressed with me and I remember saying to him 'Give me the Phil Collins album and I won't let you down.' And he laughed and said 'Darryl Stuermer is doing Phil Collins, you're not going to get that, Dream on!' But I persevered. I was very, very ambitious at that time. Aggressively so, and I remember saying to him 'Look, I want that gig, you give me that gig, I need to have that gig'. So I called up Phil Collins' studio two or three times and said, 'Look, I want to play on your record.' Just because he was Phil Collins. To cut a long story short, they finally said 'Who is this guy? OK, let’s bring this guy in and just see what happens.' And that was a life changing moment.

Radio Bremen: So there you were with all kinds of top names, playing in the studio but what made the Sting connection?

Dominic: What happened is that just after I did that Phil Collins album it was very, very successful and it's so strange because my whole life completely changed after that because suddenly everyone knew who I was. Hugh Padgham was Phil Collins' producer and he was also Sting's producer. It's as simple as that. Sting was looking for a guitar player and he asked Hugh, 'Do you know any guitar players?' And he said, 'Yes, I know Dominic Miller'. So I remember Hugh saying 'Do you want to go to New York and try out with Sting?' And I thought, Sting? Well I like The Police, kind of, but I'm not really a big fan. And I thought, no I don't mind that. Sure. I was a little bit big-headed because at that time - I'll just reverse a little bit - I remember Chrissie Hynde out of the Pretenders calling me up in the studio while I was working with someone, 'It's Chrissie on the phone', the producer said. And I go 'Chrissie who?' I say hello down the phone, and she says 'It's Chrissie, Chrissie Hynde'.

'THE Chrissie Hynde?'

'Yes, the Chrissie Hynde'.

'Well..., can I help you?

'Yes, I want you to be in The Pretenders'.

And I go, 'Well, you've never met me'.

She said, 'That's OK, my friend has seen you play in a club in LA and do you want to be in the band, yes or no?'

And I'm going 'Well don't you think we should meet?'

She says, 'I don't mind. Do you want to meet? I don't mind, but you're in The Pretenders if you want to be.'

That's kind of what was going on in my life at that time. Very surreal. So went round to her house and she gave me the job but I didn't play for her. It was all about the attitude. It wasn't really about playing, she knew I could play. It was around that time that I didn't really feel like I had to prove myself any more. The amazing thing about the Catch-22 concept of getting in a situation where you've done something that people recognise means you don't have to prove it anymore. What a great feeling. A lot of guitar players in my position were going from studio to studio trying to show them how great they could be when really all you have to do is play simple. It's so easy to say that but it's so difficult to do. Just play simple.

So really I was thrown into this situation of going to New York. I really didn't care either way whether I got a job with Sting or not but I flew to New York and went into a rehearsal studio in mid town and there's Sting, that guy, Sting, cool, and I plugged in my guitar and we jam for a couple of hours. I feel quite comfortable with it. I didn't know any of his songs but I think now in retrospect he found that quite intriguing, quite interesting that I hadn't prepared for it. I was just acting on my instincts. But I remember one point where he played this song Fragile to me and I though, I recognise that. That's cool, I like that. That's sort of Brazilian stuff. I remember saying to him 'Did you write that song?' and then all his crew fell about laughing, like 'Oh, my god, how dare I say did you write that song'. So when he said, 'Do you want to play it?' And of course there was no problem for me to play that song because I'd been playing songs like that all my life since I was eleven years old, that style of music. So I remember jamming with that song and that was perhaps where he realised that maybe I was OK. He threw a few difficult situations at me, like things in 7/4 or 5/4 and of course being a Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra fan that was no problem to me. You know, bring it on, I don't have any problem with that if it's a test.

I remember we just jammed some more on some Police songs which I kind of vaguely recognised and I put my own style into it and then at the end of two hours or thereabouts he said 'I want to talk to you,' and I thought he's just going to say, 'Look, thank you very much but no thank you.' And he said, 'I want you to be in this band... I want you to be in my band. Do you want to do an album and a tour?' And I looked him in the eyes and thought first of all I thought 'Are you serious?, because I didn't think it had been all that successful and that was the day that changed my life completely. This is fifteen years ago and I'm still working with the guy and not only with him but I'm working in whatever situation I want to work in now. And playing with Phil Collins and Sting and the producer Hugh Padgham - those people have changed my life. I can do what I want now and have the freedom to express myself in anyway that I like to and work with incredible musicians all over the world. And not only that, but to write with different people I've developed as a songwriter and I wrote a song with Sting. I couldn't believe it. I remember him calling me up saying 'There's this little riff that you've come up with'. I was just sitting by the fire jamming and he said I want to turn that into a song, do you mind if I turn that into a song? I went, 'No'. He said 'Do you want to know it's about?' And I went, 'I don't care, go for it, I'd love to collaborate with you on a song'. That song was Shape Of My Heart.

Radio Bremen: Maybe we should end the programme with this song Dominic, it's a good way to end the programme. It's been great to have you. Thanks very much for coming by.

Dominic: It's been great to be here. Thank you to you and all your listeners, I hope to meet you all some time.

© Radio Bremen | November 2004