Must See Gig: Blues Lawyer w/Fitting and Hella Dusty @ The Golden Bear 3/19/2023 Sacramento, CA

After the past few years, we all felt uncertain about what the local Sacramento music scene would look like as we slowly emerged from the years of COVID lockdown. We may have wondered what would happen to our music venues and whether bands would survive or disappear altogether. So far, 2023 seems promising; while some local music venues just managed to survive by the skin of their teeth, we also find that a new venue, The Golden Bear (2326 K St.), has emerged as a local hot spot to catch budding local bands and emerging artists from surrounding areas.

This Sunday, March 19, 2023, is no exception! On this day Mt. St. Mtn. has booked this line-up at The Golden Bear stage and will feature some dope bands, including Sacramento’s own indie rock band Fitting, the corky lo-fi rocker Hella Dusty, and introducing Oakland’s own Blues Lawyer!

This is a special gig not to be missed, and Blues Lawyer is a real treat you need to catch! Blues Lawyer is comprised of Rob Miller (guitar/vocals) and Elyse Schrock (drums), who share songwriting duties, held together by bassist Alejandra Alcala and sprinkled with the magical leads of lead guitarist Ellen Matthews. While this group has seen some lineup changes in the past and has been releasing music since 2018, they have really hit their stride with this group of musicians and their recent release, ‘All In Good Time, ‘ out now on Dark Entries Records (SF). It’s a fun pop-rock record featuring lo-fi pop tunes that deal with life journeys and finally learning to be okay with not knowing where you’re headed in life, and living and rolling with the punches as they come, something we can all relate to.

And like all of us can relate with, Blues Lawyer struggled through the pandemic shutdown, even having to cancel a fully booked tour in Japan and never being able to properly promote their previous release, ‘Something Different.’ However, not wanting to let this hold them down, they found themselves carrying on and writing songs for ‘All In Good Time’ via email, eventually getting vaccinated and heading into the studio to complete this latest release. Even with most writing taking place via email, the album has a great natural feel. There is nothing stiff feeling about the songs. Instead, they give these light-hearted bummer jams an upbeat feel that makes you want to groove. The lyrics also expose a vulnerable side to the band’s writing, making the music relatable. Such is the case with ‘late bloomer.’ Personally, I can totally hear my own mom in my ear all these years telling me I’m just a late bloomer. Still, I am always questioning myself, thinking about giving up in the musical world. But like the lyrics say, “late to start, slow to fade, a late bloom is worth the wait,” so hang in there, people, and stay the course! Blues Lawyer has done just that. They stayed the course. Now they are preparing for a tour with Chime School (SF) in the Pacific Northwest in April, and in September, they will be headed to Europe! All of this is very epic for an entirely DIY band and something we love to see (take note, Sacramento bands, you can be DIY and still make things happen)!

I had the chance to catch up with the Blues Lawyer founding member Rob Miller, whom I’ve known for many years and have always been a big fan of his music since his days in Mister Loveless and Mall Walk. When I found out his band was coming to Sacramento, I jumped at the chance to ask questions about this project, learn more about the band, and share their music with the local Sacramento music community!

Check out our interview with front man Rob Miller below, peep their uplifting music videos linked at the bottom (created by their insanely talented drummer/vocalist Elyse Schrock), jam out to their album ‘All In Good Time’, and then catch them on Sunday, March 19, 2023, at The Golden Bear in Sacramento, California along with Fitting and Hella Dusty!

Sac.Indie.Music: So it’s my self-imposed traditional first question I like to ask every band….tell us how you came up with your band name? (To be honest, I initially thought this was a weird blues band when I first heard the band name, but I was pleasantly surprised when I checked out the music and loved it right away!)

Rob Miller: That’s fair – it’s a terrible band name, ha! I was working at a guitar store around the time we started the group. My coworkers and I would often refer to the type of customer that would purchase a $4,000 guitar to display in his man cave as a “blues lawyer.” My friend, Sean from the band Moaning heard me say this, laughed and replied, “blues lawyer? That’s a great band name.” 

Sac.Indie.Music: Tell us a little about your current band members; who are they, and what other bands have they been in? Are they all from Oakland? Etc…anything special you want to share about them?

Rob Miller: First you have Elyse Schrock- gifted vocalist, drummer, and video visionary for the group! Originally from Texas, I met her way back in 2013 when we were working together at Rasputin Music in Concord. She was my manager and one of our first interactions (that I can recall) was her getting annoyed with me that I had found an Only Ones record in the .50 bargain bin records lol. We became fast friends but wouldn’t begin playing music together till some years later. She’s been a part of virtually all of my favorite Oakland bands- Pang, Fleece, Puzzled, THE WORLD! Then there’s my good friend Alejandra Alcala, punk funk bass player extraordinaire from Naked Roommate and Preening. She was born and raised in Oakland. Last but certainly not least, you have Ellen Matthews, who is the best guitar player I’ve ever met in my life! The guitar is just an extension of her – no one sounds like her! I can recognize her guitar playing from miles away. She can jangle, she can shred…it’s a privilege to be in a band with her! Ellen and I are both from Walnut Creek, a pretty awful suburb in the East Bay lol Although I moved there from Ohio when I was 15 (I moved around a lot as a kid) so I don’t really feel like I’m from there but would be lying if I said I hadn’t spent some of my formative years there. 

Sac.Indie.Music: The band has had a fun (to me) rotating list of members, and I think at one point it even included your brother, James H. Miller, and also the ever-talented Nic Russo (a.k.a Dick Stusso). But at the heart of it all, it seems to be you and Elyse Schrock (drums), who got the band started. Tell us, how did you two meet? And what eventually made you want to stick with this band and keep moving forward?

Rob Miller: Yeah! So, the original concept for the band was that it would last a few weeks during my brother, James’s visit back home to the Bay (he moved to New York some years ago). Elyse and I were living together at the time and had talked about starting a band so, naturally I asked her to join and was delighted when she said yes. I was also doing some touring with Dick Stusso at the time and have always been a huge admirer of Nic’s (Dick Stusso) playing and songwriting. So, I was thrilled when he joined us. Basically, I wrote the majority of the songs that would end up on the first record over the course of a few days and then taught James the bass lines. Then the four of us got together for a couple practices, booked two shows- one at a bar that some friends ran out of their house and another at White Horse. Played those two shows and then decided that it was too much fun to stop. So, we asked Alejandra if she wanted to join after James went back East. She said yes and the rest is history! 

Sac.Indie.Music: Recently Elyse Schrock moved out of Oakland and up to Portland. How have you adjusted to that change? What does the future hold for the band with one of the founding members moving away?

Rob Miller: I definitely miss being able to get together more frequently but we’ve been making the most of it. The pandemic really taught us how to collaborate remotely by exchanging ideas via voice memos and logic sessions. We have to be a lot more intentional about how we write songs which I think has made both of us a lot better. We don’t jam. Most of our songs are fully formed before we play them together as a band and our collective objective is always to serve them.  I’ve come to embrace the “man plans god laughs” philosophy lol…so I don’t know what the future holds and feel that I’m more along for the ride than I am steering the ship. I will say that we have more music recorded, nearly ready for release and a couple tours in the works. So we still got at least a little gas left in the tank. 

Sac.Indie.Music: The band has regularly released music nearly every year since 2018 (except in 2020). How has the rotating cast of band members influenced the band’s music over time? Also, was it challenging to bring new people in, learn old songs, and write new songs over the years?

Rob Miller: It’s important to us to always be writing and pushing the band’s sound in new directions. Mostly because making stuff is just how we have fun in the band. I think Blues Lawyer is really defined by Elyse and I’s writing dynamic. Bringing in new players is something we’ve really only done out of necessity– either because we are chasing a new sound or because someone just doesn’t have the time or energy to commit to the project in a way that we need. The shift from my brother James to Al (aka Alejandra) on bass was pretty seamless – Al’s style is sort of that archetypal punk sound – mostly down strokes with an overdriven tone. When I write the bass lines I typically imagine them being played in that style. Bringing in Ellen was a creatively motivated decision. I had seen her play with Nopes and knew she had something special. I learned that we shared some common interests musically (Guided By Voices, Tommy Keene, REM, etc) despite Nopes being mostly a noise rock group (something I know very little about.) So I demoed out all the songs for ‘All In Good Time’ and sent them to her asking if she would join the band and play on the record. She came to our first rehearsal with fully realized ideas and it was really exciting, especially after having spent so much time away from live music as a result of the pandemic. I’ve been in lots of bands so it was pretty easy to tell that we had a good thing going early on. Learning the old songs was pretty easy cause the songs themselves are pretty simple lol 

Sac.Indie.Music: Speaking of Ellen Matthews, she is the group’s newest member on guitar (She is immensely talented!) Tells us more about how you two met and how did you get her to join the group? And I have to add, She has really added some magic to the group, what do you enjoy about her style, and how do you feel it has added to your sound?

Rob Miller: I met Ellen in the Oakland music scene. I’m sure it was at a show but I can’t remember which one. Her band Nopes used to play A LOT and her performances were really memorable. I would always walk away really wowed by her playing. My initial read on her playing was that it sounded like that Greg Ginn inspired “every note but the right one” style. But that’s really just a small part of what she can do. She can compose incredibly beautiful arpeggiated parts to accompany the jangly songs in addition to these super hooky leads that just elevate the songs dramatically. It’s like a perfect amalgamation of J Mascis and Peter Buck but also entirely her own thing.  

Sac.Indie.Music: Blues Lawyer has steadily been growing its fan base with each album release, but ‘All In Good Time’ is (so far) seems to be your strongest release. How has the reception to this album been? 

Rob Miller: Thanks! We’ve been really pleased with the warm reception the album has been getting, especially considering that it is so noticeably different from our previous two records. I love that a lot of smaller blogs and radio stations have been excited about it. It feels very grassroots, which is important to me. Sometimes a band is able to sort of project “overnight success” as a result of a Pitchfork review or something but it often doesn’t feel real. This feels real to me in that I am actually communicating with a lot of these folks and they seem like real lifers- people like yourself that love and support independent music.

Sac.Indie.Music: You (Rob) have worked a lot with Andrew Oswald (Marbled Eye) on your records over the years, and he also worked on this newest Blues Lawyer album. How did you two meet, and what do you think has kept you going back to Andrew to work with on all the Blues Lawyer albums?

Rob Miller: Wow, taking me back here…I think I first met Andy at my friend Nick’s 19th birthday party. Andy and Nick were living together in Oakland at the time and Nick was a fan of my first band, Mister Loveless (Nick would later play drums in Mister Loveless, then Mall Walk, Dick Stusso band, Flex TMG, AND now a solo project of mine lol) They threw a party and Nick asked Mister Loveless to play. Andy was like full on crust punk at the time lol so I never would have thought we would become friends let alone collaborators (kids are so tribal at that age) but I’m so glad we did. We’ve been making records together for years now and I feel really privileged to know someone like Andy. He has a remarkable knack for helping groups reach their goals sonically without compromising any of their ethics. A lot of engineers/producers do things one way. Andy is really versatile. He can be a fly on the wall in a rehearsal space or can be as involved in the production in the big time studio as one might like. He has great musical ideas and works hard on the smallest projects. He’s a real record producer and someone that I imagine I’ll have a working relationship with as long as I’m still making music. 

Sac.Indie.Music: I read that ‘All In Good Time’ is also the first Blues Lawyer album where you and Schrock have shared songwriting duties. How did that impact the feel of this newest album?

Rob Miller: We had collaborated on writing songs on previous albums but this is the first to feature songs that Elyse wrote entirely on her own. Her songs have had huge positive impacts on the feel of this album and the band’s sound in general. Her songs tend to add an edge to the band that I think is really crucial for balancing out my bummer jams lol. She’s really good at composing hooks that are at one time both pretty and aggressive. Something I think that very few people can pull off authentically. Her newest songs are her best. People are going to lose their shit when they hear them lol

Sac.Indie.Music: My favorite song on this album is ‘Tangled Mess.’ Can you tell us a little about what that song is about? And also, what are some of the band’s favorite tracks on this album?

Rob Miller: Oh wow, thanks! That’s nice of you to say! I’m obsessed with 7th chords and wanted to do a sort of country tinged alt pop song like “Big Gay Heart” by Lemonheads. It’s an attempt to understand expectations and disappointments in relationships. I’m not sure what everyone’s favorite tracks are but I really like ‘Late Bloomer’ and ‘Make Up’ a lot. 

Sac.Indie.Music: I’ve followed your music for many years, Rob. And seeing you in this band has been fun, watching you collaborate with others in the songwriting process, even sharing vocal duties in this group. You also seem much more open and vulnerable in your writing (or not, you’ve always had a guarded vulnerability in your lyrics). What impact has this group had on you regarding your approach to writing songs and being in a band in general? What excites you about this band, and what do you hope for its future?

Rob Miller: Thanks Izzy : ) I sincerely appreciate that! Being less afraid to be vulnerable or sincere in my music is something that I think has just come with age but it has definitely been accelerated by being in Blues Lawyer. Everyone in the band is just really supportive and encouraging of expressing that type of thing. What excites me most about this band is that we’ve made the kinds of records I want to listen to. More so than any other project, to be honest. I can confidently say that if I wasn’t in the band – I would be wishing I was. Being in a band in your mid 30s isn’t a walk in the park as I’m sure you well know but what excites me most about Blues Lawyer is the prospect of making more records. That’s all I really want to do. Tours and shows are fun, don’t get me wrong but I enjoy the writing and recording part most. 

Sac.Indie.Music: Tell us about any upcoming shows you have! and if there are any other local bands people should know about and follow. 

Rob Miller:

Saturday, March 18th, 2023 | Oakland, CA | Thee Stork Club (LP Release Party) | w/ Umbrellas and HITS

Sunday, March 19th, 2023 | Sacramento, CA | Golden Bear | w/ Fitting

CHIME SCHOOL + BLUES LAWYER PNW TOUR:

Wednesday, April 19, 2023 | Bellingham, WA | The Ballroom | w/ Pig Earth and Put Upon (mem. of The Mantles)

Thursday, April 20, 2023 | Seattle, WA | Billiard Hoang | w/ Star Party

Friday, April 21, 2023 | Olympia, WA | Le Voyeur | w/ Field School

Saturday, April 22, 2023 | Eugene, OR | Luckey’s Club | w/ Mo Troper

Sunday, April 23, 2023 | Portland, OR | Turn Turn Turn | w/ Mo Troper

SF bands: Umbrellas, Chime School, Galore, Reds, Pinks and Purples, Whitney’s Playland, The Telephone Numbers, April Magazine, The Lost Days 

OAKLAND bands: Neutrals, HITS, Moon, Naked Roommate, Non Plus Temps, Flamingos 

SAC bands: ghostplay, Julian Never, Fitting