PureVolume

Members: Pete Miller

I'm Pete. I play guitar, harmonica, piano, ukulele, bass, drums, mandolin, accordion, kazoo, and am learning the lap steel and hopi flute. My favorite type of music is blues, but I also really like country, gospel, soul, western, and rock 'n' roll with other bits of things thrown in. I'm really starting to like ragtime and jazz more and more.

Most of these have been done on one track in one take with me being extremely nervous to be recorded.

I have a Fender Telecaster, a beautiful Takamine, a '65-67 Stella 12-String, an old steel-necked Stella with nylon strings, another Tele with a custom neck and three pickups, a ukulele that is unlabeled but very old, Ludwig drums, an 88 key Roland FP-1, a Korg Trinity, a Hohner acoustic bass, an Ibanez electric bass, Marine band harps and a few others, a dumbek, a Pre-War Marino Pigini accordion, a mandolin, a '66 Fender Champ, a '74 Fender Quad Reverb, three fine kazoos and a Big Muff Pi.

I play and sometimes write lots of songs by myself. I play guitar at Faith Church: good gospel music. I collaborate at times with James Jackson in what we call The Townsmen. I am recording a heavy metal album for my friend Steven Powless. I am a dance musician for Modern dance classes at Texas Women's University. I write a lot of novelty songs. I used to play bass in lots of little groups but my mainstays in high school were Castille and Can't Explain.

I am 21. I am an English major, Latin minor an the University of North Texas. I work for my father, a brilliant photographer, Jimmages.com; if you're getting married in the area give us a call. I also really enjoy poetry: especially Roman poetry as I can read Latin fluently––though I love African American poetry and a few other greats like Frost, Wordsworth and Hank Williams. Dostoyevsky is my favorite novelist. I do not eat red meat, milk products (with the exception of small doses of cheese), or seafood. My favorite coffee is Maxwell House. I try to keep a steady stream of incense flowing in my room which is a garage and bathroom that have been tiled and painted. I am proud to live in Texas.

The three musicians that stand head and shoulders above everyone else in my eyes are Lightnin' Hopkins, The Beatles, and Waylon Jennings. I take lots of influence from Mississippi John Hurt, Alex Moore, Lead Belly, Hank Williams, Blind Willie (Johnson, McTell, and Davis), Albert King, Albert Collins, John Lee Hooker, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard, Sonny Terry, Ernest Tubb, Little Walter, Hank Snow, The Who, Johnny Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Sonny Boy Williamson, The Rolling Stones, The Monkees, The Kinks, Alice Cooper, and Simon & Garfunkel.

I should mention the new songwriters or bands that are really influencing me: Keren Ann, The White Stripes, Holly Golightly, The Booze, Red Molly, Jack Johnson, The Datsuns, and Weezer.

I hope you like my music; I promise it will get better as I go along.