In Conversation With.. DMC General Manager, Dave Miller
This month, we are delighted to welcome Dave Miller to the team as DMC General Manager. We’ve worked with Dave for several years across our annual programme of events and our October conference, and we couldn’t be happier to have him on board.
We thought the best way to introduce Dave was to find out more about his work, what to expect from his involvement with DMC and his thoughts on the Dumfries music scene. Welcome to the team, Dave!
For those who don’t know you, let us know a little about who you are and what you do…
Well, I’m Dave Miller and I have been a professional sound engineer for the last ten/fifteen years or so. It’s something that I took a bit of training for at the University of West of Scotland in the beginning, but have mainly honed out there “on the job”. I’ve carried out a range of roles, mainly mixing live sound for concerts and theatre throughout the UK and internationally. As a result of some higher profile work, I started to attract bands and songwriters looking for recordings as well. Being something I was really into creatively, I started recording in hired spaces - old halls, cottages, warehouses etc - with a small portable rig, and finally took the plunge on a “bricks and mortar” studio space in 2016 which I currently work out of. Alongside all of this, I’ve always been passionate about delivering high quality youth development work within music - which I still do on a freelance basis - workshops and training projects. I think this is definitely something born out of a lack of that type of opportunity growing up in a largely rural region.
Are you a sound engineer, a producer or both? How do the roles differ and how to you manage to be both at once?
In some ways, that’s an easy one. My “bread and butter” is my work as a sound engineer. It’s a technical role where right is right, and wrong is wrong. It’s easy to define, and definitely more of a technical skill. In years gone by, in a recording environment, you would have needed both of the roles - the engineer to ensure the technical quality of a recording and a producer to shape and deliver the final product, or creative vision. Now that technology has led to everything in the recording process being easier, quicker, and cheaper, we tend to see to two roles merged, and in most cases the engineer taking on both. That’s certainly where my exposure to the producer role came from and although I like it, I find it much more of a creative role, much more “hit or miss”, and very challenging actually. I still take pride in simply performing a technical duty to a high standard. Specialism is definitely underrated in 2020!
Are there any emerging acts on your radar right now locally? Nationally?
There’s a ton of great music out there, both nationally and locally right now. I know there is sometimes a feeling that they don’t make them like they used to, but if you can afford the time to really delve into the masses of material out there, you can find truly great, timeless music. Locally speaking, I’ve been listening to a lot of Corto Alto - a Glasgow-based jazz-funk outfit with Dumfries roots - and I really love what VanIves are doing - that new single is great! Nationally is tricky as my taste changes so much, and I actually listen to a lot of American music, but I really love This Is The Kit, Pictish Trail and you can’t knock what Joesef is doing right now!
Before the lockdown, you were hosting a series of ‘Listening Parties’ - what was the idea behind this? How would you encourage people to still participate in their own ‘Listening Party’?
Yea, it was such a shame that I had to put the remaining ones on hold. The concept there was a pretty simple one, I set up a series of “listening parties” - one per month - where each time, a guest of mine would pick an album that would be played start- to-finish, on a turntable, through a decent sound system, in comfy surroundings (all with tasty drinks too). I wanted to start something midway between a record club and a roving listening lounge, that didn’t just exist from one point of view, like for the audiophile, or the music mega-fan. In an age of really fast-paced, multitasked music consumption, I just wanted there to be an environment for people to enjoy music for what it was, even if that just meant turning off the phone and zoning out for 45 mins. I think there’s a lot to be said for that in general, even from a wellbeing point of view, and like you say, I’d still encourage people to do this on their own. Dig your favourite record out and listen to it start to finish without distraction. Read the liner notes. Think about how the thing was created. Lockdown is such a great opportunity for that in the house. It’s amazing the perspective that can give you sometimes - particularly for the creatives!
How has the current global pandemic affected your business and have you been able to adapt?
Unfortunately, the impact on my business, and most other event/entertainment industry businesses, has been pretty catastrophic. We were approaching a point in the UK where music, particularly live music, was showing such strength in all kinds of ways, and to see that undone so suddenly is pretty heartbreaking to be honest. All that said, the music industry has had to reinvent itself so many times in the past, and I’m sure people will take the positive opportunities that are still there and run with them. From my own point of view, I have managed to just alter my workflow to maintain the recording part of my work (adding remote services, supporting artistes looking to stream stuff and so on) but the live concert stuff is so hard to alter given the nature and magic of live performance. It simply relies on a shared experience, and that is the appealing factor! There are some really great examples of that adaptation starting to come through though, with Glasgow Jazz Festival launching an online platform, and the Snuts attempting the big car park gigs and so on. Hopefully if we can all get through the short term, we might see some great things come out of a wee bit of a shake-up.
You’ve recently joined the DMC team – welcome aboard! What can we expect from your involvement with the organisation?
Thanks! I think DMC’s work to this point has been fantastic, and it has been really great to see such a music focus within an organisation based in Dumfries, so I’m delighted to be on board. Obviously, the annual conference has played a big part in that work and I’d like to help maintain the quality and diversity in programming there. I think DMC’s move to become an organisation with a wider delivery of projects “all-year-round” will give me a good opportunity to bring in some unique programming ideas from my own work, that compliment what the organisation is doing already. Looking at listening spaces, and our consumption of music, in a similar way to my “listening parties” might be an example of that, or looking at how our local artistes access our resources, and assistance. I’ll be specifically looking for new ideas, and things that haven’t been done yet, and I think this will make the annual work beyond the conference really interesting and sustainable. In a broader sense, I think it is really important that we start to push out and provide a national platform for the fantastic artistes we have here in Dumfries and Galloway, so I’ll be trying to foster links with national organisations, and really advocate the need for D&G to sit amongst that national picture.
How important do you think it is for people to engage with local projects to further their own skillset or career?
Engaging in local projects is something I’ve always been keen to promote - for things I have been involved in, and things that I haven’t. I think now, more than ever, people living in Dumfries and Galloway have such a wealth of talent and resource around them that it is no longer necessary to reach out to Glasgow, Manchester, London to acquire skills and knowledge. We’ve seen great skills development projects in all sorts - music production, music marketing, gig promotion, photography and videography - right here in the region, not only from DMC but Catstrand at New Galloway, DG Arts Festival, Absolute Classics, Business Gateway and so on. There is something for everyone if you look for it. I’d be really keen to promote DMC as an organisation to signpost all of this for the music community too, whether that’s people looking to further a hobby, or for those looking to make a career of it. The other great thing about engaging in projects is that it expands your networks so much - we don’t have many events outside of gig for musicians to do this, so it can really help when it comes to future collaboration.
How do you view the Dumfries music scene and and is there anything in particular that you feel would help build and prosper it?
I think the scene is really strong on a local level. Yes, there are challenges and gaps in facilities (like not having many small music venues appropriate to the size of the town, or having one commercial rehearsal room in the entire region) but the bands and artists make the most of what they do have and create some fantastic music. As the world moves to a more isolated way of working (not just in the current lockdown period) with young artists playing on a youtube channel instead of live gigs for example, it is important to maintain “community” within music. It really helps everyone prosper in what they’re doing having others around for support. Another thing which comes from my playing beginnings is that back then, lots of bands would come in from outside the town, share bills with local acts, and in turn local bands could develop relationships with other bands, promoters, venues etc in other parts of the country. It fosters community within the local music scene and makes it so much easier for everyone to get out there and do what they do. I think striving for that kind of activity within the scene is really helpful too.
Once lockdown restrictions are lifted and the live music scene is back on track, what’s next for you?
I have a couple of cancelled tours which will no doubt try to run next spring, and just about every festival in the diary has postponed to 2021 so it’ll be back into prep’ing all of those (and hopefully seeing them run next time round!). Aside from that, I’m just really looking forward to getting the DMC programming ideas flowing! On that point, I’d love to hear from all sorts of new collaborators, so if you’d like a chat, to share any ideas, projects, or ask for support, I’d encourage you to get in touch with DMC and we can set something up!
Wanna chat to Dave?
Get in touch with your ideas, thoughts or just to say hello by emailing dumfriesmusicconference@gmail.com