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The
following is a transcript of an interview that Dominic recorded for
Radio Bremen's 'On The Tracks' show in November 2004 with Harald
Monkedieck and which was broadcast in January 2005.
Dominic, welcome to the programme.
It's nice to be here.
Have you ever counted the times you've been touring the
world?
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.
What is an average day on the road like?
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.
Is this type of lifestyle a bit of a necessary evil
sometimes?
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.
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.
So you're a family man. Where's home?
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.
Do you live with your kids and wife?
I live with my second wife and our baby and my four other
children live with my ex-wife.
But you're in touch all the time?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Did you identify with this sound from the very
beginning?
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.
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