We were lucky to catch up with Old Sand Mill recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Old Sand Mill thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
As the front man and singer/songwriter for the band, I can state for all of us that if we only knew the results of our fruition would take so long, we would have started much earlier instead of toiling at jobs, sports, marrying too early, and letting our dreams take second priority over our passions and creative needs and drive.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My partner and I formed a folk duo, Reynolds and Miller, and became very popular in the UK. When we moved to NYC, we quickly became a top folk act, dominating the main east coast circuit tours, and headlining at legendary venues in Greenwich Village, like The Bitter End, Folk City, Night Owl Café, The Village Gate, The Bottom Line, Max’s Kansas City, and Café What? We were discovered by icon and r&b singer, Nina Simone at a show we did in NJ. She got us signed to Vanguard Records, and we went on tour with Jackson Browne, Seals & Crofts, and Paul Simon. We were named Best New Folk Artist by the Village Voice. We moved on to Capitol Records and Paul Simon produced our debut album, “Cathedral.” Then we went electric as a Brit-styled progressive rock band, Pomeroy. We opened for Yes, Jefferson Starship, King Crimson, and Lou Reed. Our farewell concert was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), where we performed to 3,000 fans. The Ramones and The New York Dolls were our opening acts.
In 2012, we reformed with our current Celtic-flavored alt rock sounds. Now called OLD SAND MILL, our name derives from our folk duo name: reynOLDS SAND MILLer. For three years, Old Sand Mill worked on their debut album for Universal Records. We gathered many of our rock celebrity friends to appear on the recording, like Brian Wilson (The Beach Boys); Jerry Douglas (Alison Krauss & Union Station); Paul Simon; Grammy winner/R&B legend, Deniece Williams; Donovan; Darryl Jones (The Rolling Stones); Earl Mankey (Concrete Blonde); Gabriel Witcher (Punch Brothers); Howie Wyeth (Bob Dylan’s band); Sally Eaton of the Broadway cast of “Hair!”; and the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra.
Released in Europe in 2018, “The World is Getting Colder,” earned strong reviews. From Billboard: “This debut offers eclectic arrangements, passionate lyrics, psychedelia, catchy tunes, and occasionally evokes a spot-on Pink Floyd.” From Music Connection Magazine in the UK: “A groundbreaking debut.” And from Spin Magazine: “This album is a future classic.” Old Sand Mill’s first single, “Too Much Sun,” was a big success, licensed for 2 movies and a TV series on Disney Channel. The album still sells well on music streaming platforms. In 2025, we released our 3rd album, “The Example,” featuring an epic 10-minute Irish-themed title track . Our music is available through DistroKid Records and is available on all major worldwide music streaming platforms.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
When they first started out as an acoustic folk duo, they played 24/7 wherever they could secure a gig and an audience. They rehearsed and had a trove of original material, and were likened in the NYC papers as New Jersey’s Simon & Garfunkel. But the venues they played at best, had an audience of 250 and typically between 75 and 125, The cafes and clubs were all bare bones, and though they gained a big following in the NYC area, it took them four years of touring the east coast just to gain about 10,000 fans overall, though easily 5,000 were from NYC alone. After riding high and securing an album deal, and Capitol Records bringing in Paul Simon to produce our debut album, things suddenly went south. The duo Reynolds and Miller became splintered and strained when Reynolds decided to join Scientology. In short order, the friendship and songwriting collaboration came to an end, and Simon and Capitol left the project and the deal ended. While Reynolds gave his life, money, and soul to L. Ron Hubbard and his cult, Miller did a few solo recordings, wrote and recorded some successful TV and radio jingles, and slowly drifted away from music and performing, turning instead to writing and directing national TV commercials, finally moving to Hollywood to become a successful film TV, and award-winning music video director helming 135 pus MTV videos for artists like The Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, LL Cool J, The Black Crowes, Alison Krauss, and many, many more big name recording artists. But in 2004, Miller was directing a TV series for Disney Channel and they needed a particular kind of theme song. Instead of considering other well-known artists, Miller took advantage of the fact that as the director, it was his choice who to choose for the song. He chose himself. Along with some famous friends like Brian Wilson, Deniece Williams, etc., Miller delivered “Too Much Sun” and Disney used it. The experience of writing and recording again after 35 years away from it, led Miller to forming a band, Old Sand Mill, its name deriving from his folk duo, reynOLDS AND MILLer. For over two years, Miller and his new band of younger musicians wrote two album’s worth of original material along with rebooting a few songs originally intended for the abandoned Capitol Records album, and recorded the first of their two albums, “The World is Getting Colder.” It was an all-star affair with Brian Wilson (The Beach Boys), Jerry Douglas (Alison Krauss & Union Station), Paul Simon, Donovan, The Punch Brothers, Deniece Williams, Darryl Jones (The Rolling Stones), and more. The album was picked up by Universal Records and BMI Music International. The album was a major online success and sold thousands of CD’s throughout Europe, and their first single made the music charts. Reviews were excellent. Then some of the songs were licensed for movies and TV series as well for a couple of national commercial spots. Their second album, “The Example” was released in October 2025, and is already getting hailed by music magazines, and selling well on major worldwide streaming platforms. Again, it will be released in CD format for Europe. Miller was 25 years old when he was part of Reynolds and Miller and was proud that in their short years together, they amassed 10,000 fans. But resilience becomes evident, when Miller, now 70, and his band of 22-30 year olds, as Old Sand Mill, can claim over 1.2 million online fans, and without touring, just releasing the music, the band has sold over 40,000 downloads, and continues to this day. Bottom line for any artist who believes in themselves, never, ever, give up. Even it takes 40 years to achieve your dreams.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Social media was new to us, but we quickly learned that it is all about originality, consistent and compelling promotion, and of course, quality material. From strictly a music perspective, there is much to weigh about selling, monetizing, and marketing one’s music and art through streaming platforms and on social media. The trick is to tie it altogether so it cross promotes from site to site. One cannot hope to make a living from downloads unless they are willing to promote and upgrade the sites they are on, which activates their marketing and promo support. Some are bogus, but many are effective if you are pro-active and tenacious. Good platforms to start with who offer free streaming sites and have a wide distribution and credible accounting, are: DistroKid; Bandcamp; Spotify; Soundcloud; Reverbnation; CD Baby; and 151 Conspiracy out of the UK. There are others as well, from Bandzoogle and Tunecore to Songtradr and Apple. Finding one that suits your music first, then explore a small affordable upgrade, and let them distribute to many of the above mentioned platforms, as well as provide promo tools for the user. There is a rhythm to advertising and promotion. Consistent reoccurring. posts, but not overkill. And mix it up with a different click bait line each time. The key today is self-marketing and learning how to be pro-active with it. We started out with MySpace in 2011 and had a 1,000 fans. Today we have 1.2 million fans and have never toured, because we’re more of a studio band. Today, Old Sand Mill is: Chip Miller, Janaki Jennings, Tom Carroll, Kit Gleeson, Professor John Slack, and Howard Maynard.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://oldsandmill.bandcamp.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chipmiller8325/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oldsand.mill/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-chip-miller-7448301b8/
- Twitter: https://x.com/OldSandMill
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/chipdaniel2
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/old-sand-mill
- Other: www.DesertCAMStudios.com, https://distrokid.com/mymusic/oldsandmill
Image Credits
All photos by Band photographer, Susie Travis Miller
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