Birth name Michael Edward Mills Name Mike Mills Children Hopper Mills Labels I.R.S.Warner Bros. Parents Paul Mills | Years active 1980–present Spouse Miranda July (m. 2009) Genres Alternative rockRock Role Music Video Director | |
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Born December 17, 1958 (age 66) Orange County, CaliforniaUnited States ( 1958-12-17 ) Occupation(s) MusicianComposerProducer Instruments Bass guitarVocalsGuitarPianoAccordionPercussion Books Peace, Love, & Barbecue, Mike Mills Movies Beginners, Thumbsucker, 20th Century Women, Beautiful Losers, Does Your Soul Have a Cold? Similar People Miranda July, Christopher Plummer, Melanie Laurent, Ewan McGregor, Mary Page Keller |
Vice talks film with 20th century women director mike mills
Michael Edward "Mike" Mills (born December 17, 1958) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer who was a founding member of the alternative rock band R.E.M. Though known primarily as a bass guitarist, backing vocalist, and pianist, his musical repertoire also includes keyboards, guitar, and percussion instruments. He contributed to a majority of the band's musical compositions.
Contents
- Vice talks film with 20th century women director mike mills
- Air mike mills
- Early life
- Career
- Discography
- Personal life
- References

Air mike mills
Early life

Michael Edward Mills was born in Orange County, California and moved to Macon, Georgia when he was 10 years old. Mills met Bill Berry, who would later be his bandmate in R.E.M., in Macon.

Mills and Bill Berry started out in bands together. Early projects included the band Shadowfax (later called The Back Door Band).

Mills attended the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, which is where R.E.M. formed.
Career

Mills is credited with being the chief composer behind many of R.E.M.'s songs, including "Nightswimming", "Find the River", "At My Most Beautiful", "Why Not Smile", "Let Me In", "Wendell Gee", "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville", "Beat a Drum", "Be Mine" and "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?". In particular, R.E.M.'s 2004 album Around the Sun was heavily shaped by Mills' piano and keyboard contributions.

Mills is also responsible for the prominent backing vocal and harmony parts found within the band's back catalogue, with his vocal contributions arguably being most noticeable on 1986's Lifes Rich Pageant and 2008's Accelerate. In addition to providing backing vocals, he has also sung lead vocals on the songs "Texarkana", "Near Wild Heaven", The Clique cover "Superman" and The Troggs cover "Love is All Around".
Mills said there is no possibility of an R.E.M. reunion. Mills described it as "31 wonderful years and the opportunity to end it on our own terms." The band had been talking about disbanding since 2008.
Mills continues to write music and perform with friends on various projects. In 2012, Mills contributed piano playing to a Record Store Day single released by Drive-By Truckers member, Patterson Hood, in protest of a Walmart development being built in Athens, Georgia.
Mills is a member, along with Steve Wynn, Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck, and Linda Pitmon, of The Baseball Project.
Mills also performs as part of singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur's band. On April 3, 2014, while performing with musical guest Joseph Arthur, Mills broke the news that David Letterman would be retiring in 2015. Mills took a band selfie that he posted to Instagram and did a short interview about "breaking" the story
Since 2010, Mills has played with a rotating group of musicians for a series of concerts built around Big Star's seminal album, Third/Sister Lovers. Known as Big Star's Third, the concerts have taken place in London, Sydney, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York.
A longtime Big Star fan, Mills wrote the liner notes for the 2014 reissue of the band's first two releases, 1972's #1 Record and 1974's Radio City.
In 2016, he toured to support a Concerto for Violin, Rock Band, and String Orchestra with childhood friend Robert McDuffie.
Discography
Personal life
Annoyed at what he characterized "lazy journalism" surrounding comments about Michael Stipe (and whether he was out of the closet or not), Mills and guitarist Peter Buck "announced via YouTube that they were finally coming out too ... as straight."
Mills is an avid fantasy sports player, with interest in NFL, NBA, and PGA teams, among others. He is also a fan of Georgia Bulldogs football, the University he attended in Athens, GA.