[Artist of the Month] T. Mills – Thrillionaire Wishes

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Photography by Brock

T. Mills may be still under the radar to some but to those who have been able to catch him perform he’s a star in the making. Making his debut on the Vans Warped Tour in 2009, T Mills has been consistently touring and releasing free music building his fan base and caught the ears of majors Sony/Columbia who will be releasing his album Thrillionaire this month. We caught up with T. Mills to talk about connecting with Rocksmith, freestyling his first project, and his favorite songs on Thrillionaire.

Who is T. Mills before the music career?

I was a care free, energetic, ADHD, fast flying, chain smoking, never sleeping, tornado of fun not to mention fucking awesome.

How did you land a spot on the Vans Warped Tour? How did that help put into perspective that you
could do this for the rest of your life?

I had a single called “Vans On” so it made sense to do the Vans tour. Plus it was one of the first tours I’ve ever done (in 2009) & it’ll be fun to compare how it was then and how it is now. And touring has made me hate being home sometimes haha. I want to live on the road.

For your first project you said you freestyled most of the project. What’s your approach for recording now? Still the same or a bit more planned out now that you’re working with different producers?

I definitely take more time now when I write songs. I have a lot more experience than when I first started, so I can see where a song is going a lot faster. I’m more systematic with my song structures without limiting my creativity.

Looking back at it would you have done your project the same way or spent a bit more time on it?

Everything happens for a reason. I feel like the first thing you create art wise or anything for that matter compared to what you’re doing now is just going to show you how much better you’ve gotten. So I don’t want to look back and be like “ahh fuck I should have done this.” It’s just cool to see the progress of it all.

So fast forward to the Leaving Home EP. It was only 2 years since your first release but your exposure doubled for the good. What was the game changer in your career that helped you get more fans?

Being consistent with dropping free music and touring. Also, staying connected with people who support me on all my sites.

Thrillionaire will be your fourth project released. You teamed up with Rocksmith for a bit of a collaboration marketing wise. How did you tie together your album with a campaign for them?

We didn’t necessarily tailor Thrillionaire to the Rocksmith shoot but it was more of right place right time kind of thing. I’m a fan of their clothes so we decided to shoot the 2012 summer look book and a video for the shoot as well as have them back Thrillionaire. Bitches. $. Weed.

What are your three favorite songs on the project and how do they reflect the project as a whole?

Asstrology, Kocaine Kisses, & Lightweight. They don’t sound anything alike which is something I love! Asstrology has this spacey, dark, sexy vibe. Kocaine Kisses is a sample repeated throughout the whole song, poppy production, distorted vocals. Lightweight is a ratchet song for the nasty girls to drink all my champagne in the clubs too.

So at the end of the day what are your goals with Thrillionaire and what new positions would you like to be in as far as your career based off the success of the project?

Thrillionaire is going to show people I’m consistent and still growing and getting better with this shit. I’m still a new fresh developing artist but I feel I’ve already done a lot for myself in the short amount of time I’ve been grinding. I want to buy a house off this shit. With a big pool that I’ll never use. Who would of thought free music could pay your bills.

Follow T. Mills on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ilovetmills

Check out T. Mills official website at http://www.tmillsmusic.com/us/home