You are tuned in to the NPD Broadcast Network presentation of Off Camera with Sam Jones.

The best conversations happen off camera.

Hello and welcome to another edition of Off Camera.

I'm your host, Sam Jones, and in this episode, I sit down with Blake Mills.

After releasing two records with his former band, Simon Dawes, guitarist, producer, and songwriter

Blake Mills went on to become a go-to touring guitarist and session musician for acts including Jenny Lewis,

Band of Horses, Julian Casablancus, Fiona Apple, Connor Oberst, Kid Rock, Nora Jones, Lana Del Rey, and Danger Mouse.

A lifetime of career experience for most musicians. It constitutes Mills' resume at just 26 years of age. Impressive, even given that

he played his first gigs at age 13, in bars, but that's another story. Mills encompasses several rare

dichotomies, a true intellectual and a pop rock musician, a supremely accomplished guitarist, and also a songwriter to be reckoned

with, and a virtuoso who doesn't let his virtuosity get in the way of making great music.

Mills talks to off-camera about how his autodidact approach informed his musical development,

how today's musicians and fans are both helped and hurt by vast access to music online,

how he escaped a career in football, and what he and some talented collaborators are doing

hosting public jam sessions in a surf shop. If Mill's name isn't more well known, perhaps it's

because he works pretty hard to remain low-key. That may just change

with the growing popularity of his first solo album, Break Mirrors. So pull up a chair and listen in.

So Blake, thanks for coming in and doing this with me. And for, you know And for agreeing to let me dig into your personal life a little bit.

I want to start right away with your guitar playing, which is fascinating to me.

And before I even knew who you were, I'd heard, oh, there's this guy, there's

this new guy in town, he's, you know, getting all this session work, you know, guys that I know

that are heavy players are like, I don't know, this Blake guy's coming in, I don't know if they're

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