Travis Tatum Mills, also known as T. Mills, is a self-proclaimed artist without a genre. Mills is promoting his mixtape, which will be released June 1, and is prepping for his upcoming summer tour with the Vans Warped Tour. Mills spoke with Daily Bruin’s Maria Simpson about his success coming off of his recent mtvU Woodie nomination for Breaking Artist and selling out headlining shows.
Daily Bruin: What has been one of the coolest things you have received from a fan?
Travis Mills: I just got back from Europe and they’ve been giving me, like, flags when I go to different countries. They have everyone sign it and then they’ve been giving it to me on stage. So that’s cool because I like to take those home and hang ‘em up. I’d say the flags are super dope because it’s a bunch of people coming together at one of my events and they’re all taking the time out to write me a note and tell me how they feel and I get to keep it. It’s like a souvenir of where I’ve been and what I’ve seen and who was a part of that experience with me.
DB: I hear your song “Vans On” pretty regularly on the radio now. How are things different now than they were maybe 18 months ago?
TM: A lot of people that I haven’t talked to in, like, five years are hitting me up. I also feel like I’m just doing a lot more press now. And I think the radio shows are what’s changed the most because I came from an independent touring background where it was me and six of my friends touring all on our own with no booking agent, nothing. Now I don’t get to have my band. I don’t get to play as long. So I guess the adjustment has been the biggest realization because it’s hard when you go from playing with a drummer, where you have a whole set worked out, to going up there just by yourself with just a track … in front of people who necessarily have only heard your song on the radio. So it’s adapting to different situations I guess.
DB: You refer to your fans as “faves” or “youngs.” What do you mean by that?
TM: Me and my friends just started this thing called “young favorites.” It was actually the name of my friend’s band when I was like 17 (or) 18 (years old) and I always liked the name. They stopped making music so I just started saying it and it kind of just caught on, I don’t know. I don’t purposely do it. It just flows out. That’s the name of my publishing company as well.
DB: Are there any artists that have influenced your music?
TM: I’d say Queen, Michael Jackson, Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix as far as guitars and the tingy sounds and strumming patterns. “¦ I don’t play guitar but when I’m in the room with someone I have playing guitars, it’s … trying to replicate that. It’s weird because I feel like I don’t have a genre, you know, so we just get in the room and we just throw all these ideas together. I just like working with people that I respect and I admire and putting our heads together and seeing what comes out of it, which is good music.
DB: What’s your next project?
TM: I have a mixtape coming out June 1 called ” Thrillionaire,” and then I’m working on the album, which is like 70 to 75 percent done. (It) should come out at the top of next year ““ January 2013.
DB: What are your feelings going into Warped Tour this summer as a seasoned veteran?
TM: This year is going to be fun. I feel like it’s just going to be a bunch of friends on the tour and it’s cool for me because I’ve done it before, so I feel like I’m just going to be calling the shots and telling ‘em how it is, how to do certain things and what to prepare for and what not to expect. That tour is a grind. You’re out in a parking lot every day, it’s like 115 degrees but you know it’s cool this year because I have my own bus, I have all my crew. And when I did it in 2009, it was just me and I was selling my own T-shirts and setting up my own equipment, and so this year it’ll be cool to have my friends and the people that I care about around me helping me do it
DB: What song was the most challenging to write?
TM: The ones I’m writing right now. I’ve had songs that I’ve been working on for years and are still not finished because I have to perfect the vocals on them and I’m so anal so I’ve just been spending a lot of time trying to perfect these songs and they’re still not done yet. So yeah, I’d say the new album, but to me that just says that it’s going to be superior quality versus anything I’ve ever done before. This has been the most challenging “¦ step of my career. Making music that’s timeless and that sounds good and that I want to listen to.
DB: Your lyrics have a certain shock value at times. Do you intentionally write provocative lyrics or is it just something you write “off the cuff”?
TM: I mean “¦ I don’t want to say I’m just sitting down thinking what can I do to shock people but there’s definitely a cheeky side to me. I’ve always been that way. But then I have songs like “Leaving Home” where it doesn’t talk about any of that … so the new album has matured a lot.