Mile High Actors
ABMR: Rock n’ Roll is not dead. The kids are still alright. Not every song has already been written. There is still magick & wonderment in the universe just outside your door.
The latest generation of musicians incorporate many styles & many genres into each piece of art they create. I am inspired by them.
One of the coolest things I saw, that gave me hope in the future of music was at the Southwest Maker Festival in Mesa, Arizona a few years ago. An early-teens cover band playing Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana & just killing it on a Saturday afternoon. I imagined Kurt Cobain would have cried seeing that. I almost did myself.
While I’m on the subject of inspiring young musicians. Mile High Actors presented their debut album to the world on November 27th last year. They advise you to “Listen Loud” & I agree. They were the first band to blare out of my new studio speakers. Luckily, the squatters in the empty apartment downstairs didn’t mind.
I sent them some get-to-know-you questions because I am a fan. So please read on, check these gentlemen out. They are from Gilbert, Arizona. Share their music. Buy their art.
ABMR: Introduce yourselves. What are your names & what do you each contribute to Mile High Actors?
Jacob: My name is Jacob and I am the lead guitarist and the vocalist of the group, we both write and compose the songs together knocking ideas off of one another.
Joe: I’m Joe and I’m the drummer of the group, I also write with Jacob and occasionally provide comic relief.
ABMR: Arizona natives? What side of the valley? If not from AZ where are you both from?
Jacob: I was born in Mesa, but have been centralized around the Chandler and Gilbert area for a while.
Joe: I was born in San Jose, CA and lived in Gilroy, CA until I was about 5 and I’ve lived in Gilbert ever since, minus a 2-year stint in West Chester PA for Hockey.
ABMR: How long have you been both playing music? And how long have you been a band?
Jacob: I have played guitar for around 10 years now, the vocal thing is fairly newer but that’s just because a vocalist is hard to come by. We’ve been a band since around 2017.
Joe: I’ve been playing drums for about 6 years and have also picked up bass along the way. Jacob and I met in high school and early on we both loved music in the same way and ended up jamming for the first time towards the end of our Junior year.
ABMR: Tell me about the name Mile High Actors.
Jacob: Honestly, the name itself has been around for a while. Most of the reason being that there was nobody even remotely close to the same name when we typed out the full name in Google. However, if I recall correctly, we were just kind of throwing words around and stumbled upon it.
ABMR: What bands influence you sonically? What artists made you want to pick up your instruments?
Jacob: I have a whole list for guitar playing, but for the sake of the band, we drew influences from Queens of the Stone Age, Jack White and Iggy Pop, but obviously we have different influences for our playing. The artist that really spurred me on to play harder and stronger was Angus Young from AC/DC back in 2012ish.
Joe: I was raised around a variety of music tastes. My mom always played funk and Motown around the house along with Latin music which I think had the biggest influence on my love for good rhythm and emotion in music. But specifically for drums I always gravitated towards more fast-paced, crafty drummers like Fletcher Shears of The Garden and Bill Ward of Black Sabbath.
ABMR: Do either of you play any other instruments?
Jacob: I recorded the bass on the album, but aside from that when we jam and play together, we have a free rotation of playing. Over the past years of jamming together, I have gotten proficient with a drum kit and keyboard, and Joe doing the same with guitars and drums.
ABMR: Where was the album recorded?
Jacob: That’s a long story, but we’ll keep it short. Originally the album was recorded at CRAS (Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences), and everything was done but alas the files were corrupted. Then we decided to record everything in Jacob’s house, so everything that is heard was recorded in a tiny and sweaty closet.
ABMR: Who did the art?
Jacob: We designed the art together but we both can’t really draw or paint to that degree, so we had an old friend Phoebe create it by hand and then had our graphics guy, Andrew, make it digital and added the font. It was inspired by both an art piece by Banksy and an image we ripped out of a book, the title and credits of that work escape me at the moment.
ABMR: Give me a random non-musical fact about each of you
Jacob: I think it would only be fair if Joe and I swapped and told a fact about each other. If Joe isn’t doing music, he loves to play hockey and just genuinely enjoys everything about the sport. It’s a miracle I could get him off the ice to play music together.
Joe: Jacob is an excellent barista. He’s always educating me on the hidden secrets of the coffee world
ABMR: We know some of the same people. I am a fan of 2000 FT Turtle. Tell me about your connection with Clay & crew.
Jacob: Back in the day (around 2015 I think?), Clay and I worked at Chipotle together and we hit it off super well there. We found the connection to music and started playing together here and there. I was always blown away by the way Clay approaches the guitar and honestly was a big inspiration to me to even work up the nerve to even write songs. He introduced me to Max and we all got along, I have not had the opportunity to meet the other members. I brought Clay in during the beginnings of Mile High Actors back in 2017 and we actually worked on a lot of the music on the album with him, such songs include Lights Out!, Fallout, On the Upside and (I think?) City Lights. I have a few demos hiding somewhere with him in them. So I’d go as far to consider him as a founding member and collaborator of the group.
ABMR: Shout out one piece of art from 2020 that spoke to your soul. Could be a photograph, a song, an artist, a painting, or anything of the like. Something that moved you.
Jacob: The song “Emotional Rescue” by the Rolling Stones immediately comes to mind for myself. It set the tone for me when everything started during the pandemic.
Joe: “7th Seal” by Tijuana Panthers was a song that spoke to a lot of things I had to adjust to leaving hockey behind and the changes that come with my personal growth.
Jacob: We do have new music coming out relatively soon, so just be on the lookout.
We’ll try to play shows soon, it’s just a matter of what’s respectable, safe and appropriate for the atmosphere and music, we don’t want to blow the ears off somebody who’s eating dinner at a socially distanced venue, that’s no fun. If there are any booking inquiries, feel free to reach out to us at MileHighActors@gmail.com.
ABMR: After reading their answers I am more of a fan of them than I was previously. I seriously cannot get Lights Out! out of my head. The new single coming out in March is an amazing sequel to the album. Here are all their links. Follow them all & if you like what they do, tell your friends & your mother.