Blake Mills

Blake Mills has earned acclaim through his distinctive fusion of indie rock, country, and folk traditions as a songwriter. Esteemed equally as a session guitarist, a Grammy-winning producer, and a performing artist releasing music under his own name, he has appeared on well over 200 recordings alongside figures that include Kid Rock, Dangermouse, Paulo Nutini, Norah Jones, Lana Del Rey, and Weezer. As a founding member of Simon Dawes, later known simply as Dawes, he stepped forward as a headline act with the 2010 album Break Mirrors, though broader recognition arrived with the 2014 release Heigh Ho. Guests on that self-produced project encompassed Don Was, Jim Keltner, Mike Elizondo, and Benmont Tench. The same year brought further sessions with Diana Krall, Johnny Hallyday, and Sara Bareilles, plus a shared Grammy for Album of the Year earned with Alabama Shakes. Sideman and touring duties subsequently connected him with John Legend, Randy Newman, Bruce Hornsby, and Jim James. He resumed leadership duties by delivering the all-instrumental Look in 2018, then issued the widely praised Mutable Set two years afterward. A 2021 collaboration with Welsh songwriter, bassist, and producer Pino Palladino resulted in the New Deal/Impulse! album Notes with Attachments. In 2023 he teamed once more with songwriter Chris Weisman to record the soundtrack for the fictionalized rock biopic centered on Daisy Jones & The Six; that partnership extended into the subsequent release Jelly Road.

Born in Santa Monica, California, in 1986, Mills spent his formative years in Malibu, where he first played music alongside high-school friend Taylor Goldsmith. The pair established Simon Dawes, which issued the EP What No One Hears in 2005 and the full-length Carnivore in 2006; after Mills departed, the group shortened its name to Dawes. He later served as touring guitarist for Jenny Lewis and worked as a session player with Band of Horses, Lucinda Williams, and Julian Casablancas.

Up to that point Mills had not viewed himself primarily as a solo artist. His initial independent recording, Break Mirrors, was conceived chiefly to attract additional session opportunities and production work; the finished album nevertheless drew widespread praise for the originality of its writing, arranging, and production choices.

That approach proved effective. He co-produced Jesca Hoop’s The House That Jack Built in 2011 and handled production duties for fiddler Sarah Watkins’ second album, Sun Midnight Sun. Further production, co-production, and performance credits accumulated across numerous other artists’ projects as well as various compilations. His co-production and guitar work on “Oh Well,” recorded with Billy Gibbons and Matt Sweeney for the tribute album Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac, was frequently cited as a standout track.

Mills tracked his second solo album, Heigh Ho, at Capitol’s Ocean Way studio—the space originally constructed for Frank Sinatra—enlisting guests that included Fiona Apple, Jon Brion, Benmont Tench, Don Was, and Jim Keltner; the record appeared in September 2014.

He produced Alabama Shakes’ 2015 LP Sound & Color, earning a Grammy nomination for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical, and sharing in the album’s win for Best Alternative Album. Throughout 2016 and 2017 he produced projects by Perfume Genius and Dawes. Returning to his own catalog, he released the instrumental album Look in 2018, recorded during a period when he was acquainting himself with vintage guitar synthesizers.

Following subsequent tours and additional studio work with Bruce Hornsby, Bareilles, Andrew Bird, and others, Mills entered the studio again in 2019 alongside Rob Moose, Cass McCombs, Pino Palladino, Patrick Warren, Sam Gendel, and Gabriel Kahane. The resulting Mutable Set comprised eleven songs framed as a soundtrack to the emotional tensions of contemporary existence; five tracks were co-written with McCombs and one with Kahane. The album appeared in May 2020. That year he also contributed to releases by Ethan Gruska, Rufus Wainwright, The Killers, Phoebe Bridgers, and Perfume Genius, among additional artists.

During 2020 Mills worked closely with bassist, producer, and composer Pino Palladino on the latter’s first solo recording after four decades in the music industry. As the two musicians tracked and overdubbed material in separate studios with various players, exchanging files digitally, the project evolved into a full collaboration. Each piece originated in Palladino’s melodic and rhythmic vocabulary before expanding through shared reference points that encompassed West African and Cuban music, funk, jazz, English folk, and further traditions. The completed eight-track set, Notes with Attachments, was issued by New Deal/Impulse! in March 2021.

The following year Mills produced and performed on Marcus Mumford’s self-titled debut while also working with Perfume Genius, Andrew Bird, and Jack Johnson. In 2023 he composed, performed, and produced Aurora, the album credited to the fictional band at the center of the television adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel Daisy Jones & The Six. In addition to songs co-written with Chris Weisman, the record featured contributions from Mumford, Jackson Browne, Phoebe Bridgers, Madison Cunningham, and Roger Manning. Mills also appeared onstage during Joni Mitchell and Brandi Carlile’s Joni Jam concert at Washington’s Gorge Amphitheater in June 2023, Mitchell’s first ticketed live performance in more than twenty years. That July he released Jelly Road, containing further songs co-written with Weisman that grew out of their work on the Daisy Jones & The Six project.