by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
What: Don Miggs
When: December 11th @9:30PM
Where: Jack Rabbits
“I prefer to play for a room of twenty people who just really get it.”—Don Miggs
Old school rock with a slightly warped pop sensibility is how I’d describe the MiGGs. The front man and the engine behind the band, Don Miggs, is due to play in Jax on December 11th at Jack Rabbits. Don Miggs, as part of the indie foursome of the MiGGs, took the world by surprise in 2005, with the album Insomnia, a diverse mix of rock stylings that toys with your expectations of the genre.
In every band Don Miggs has participated in, he’s striven to be the creative force behind the music, even in those bands where he hasn’t been the lead singer. Miggs is driven and he knows what he wants to say artistically. He has vision and wants that vision executed in a way that is true to that vision, although he loves outside influences. I asked him about his need for artistic control, and he replied that his “control thing has been more out of necessity because…this is a hard business…and I’m not 100% sure if the people around me are going to be there when the next tour comes.” Still, Miggs wants a band that is “all for one and one for all” and likes the idea of creating music as a team. As to his current line-up Miggs says “I hope that these are the guys that stick around.” Bass player Michael Lombardo and Don Miggs form the core of the group, with Matt Lucich (who loves Motown and played drums on the last Queensrÿche album) on drums and Aron Forbes on guitar. Miggs has praise for all the members of his group, grateful for Lombaro’s “element of stability,” calling Forbes a “wunderkind” and lauding Lucich as “phenomenal” on the drums.
“It’s kind of a slow burn.” Miggs says of his career “There’s days when I look at artists that have gotten a lot bigger a lot quicker and I’ve been a little bit envious…and then I realize that there’s a certain rise that you have to your career—some go really high and then no one ever hears from you again. I’m…doing a ten year over night success story.”
It’s strange for Miggs to say that his career is advancing at a slow burn, since he’s done an incredible amount without the backing of a large label. 2006 has seen him get a song into the top 50 radio. Miggs has hesitated to get involved with a major label because he felt that it was like “getting in bed with the devil. They tell you who you’re going to be…” He believes that his success so far is “something I can build on as opposed to a flash in the pan. I’ve never been someone who wanted to win the lottery—I always wanted to earn my millions. I feel that way about music.”
Miggs has always been drawn to music, rocking in his crib as an infant and playing a drum solo from KISS at age six. Almost from birth, there was never any question for Miggs as to where he belonged: “It’s not a choice, it’s who I am and I don’t see myself doing anything else… It’s the only place I feel entirely comfortable: standing on a stage singing songs to people.”
Miggs will be performing solo acoustic at Jack Rabbit’s, which shouldn’t be a surprise to those who follow Don Migg’s career. He’s promoting his acoustic EP Late Nights and Early Mornings, something that’s just a little different than what he’s accustomed to. “It’s been a little foreign to me, just standing up there and playing guitar.”
He writes music constantly, and in different ways, sometimes methodically and other times as inspiration strikes him, whether it be in a car or in the frantic moments of late nights and early mornings. Those late nights and early mornings served as the inspiration for both the title of the album and the title song. “For me it’s been about late nights and early mornings, because I write kind of in those between hours, when everybody else is sleeping, when you kind of feel almost frantic and you don’t know if you’re going to get to sleep…”
|
