The band released four albums since reforming the latest is Unsound, July 2012, on Fire Records. On stage, Miller had his Marshall amplifier at the edge of the stage on his right, with the speakers facing away from him (as seen in the reunion footage in the M0B documentary Not a Photograph). Mission of Burma reunited in 2002 with Bob Weston replacing Swope. Reformation of Mission of Burma (2002–2020)

Trinary System (rock trio more psychedelic and less punk than Mission of Burma).

Elemental Guitar (solo prepared guitar with loops).

No Man (a rock-oriented project with Russell Smith on bass and Ken Winokur or Malcolm Travis on drums).

Maximum Electric Piano (solo prepared piano with loops ).

M3, a musical collaboration with Benjamin Miller and Laurence Miller.

Hooker/Miller/Ranaldo, a free improvisation group composed of William Hooker (percussion), Lee Ranaldo (guitar), and Miller (bass).Binary System, an instrumental, piano/drums duo with percussionist Larry Dersch.Exquisite Corpse, an instrumental group with Miller on guitar, piano, and sampler violinist percussionist and a shawm/ sackbutt player.M2, an ongoing musical collaboration with Benjamin Miller with Miller on prepared piano.Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble, a multiple-guitar/live loops ensemble.

This group morphed into The Anvil Orchestra in 2020 and remains active with Miller, and percussionist Terry Donahue. The group's name refers to the many metal objects ( hubcaps, springs and pots) used by percussionists Ken Winokur and Terry Donahue. Alloy Orchestra, a trio with Miller on keyboards that composed new scores for silent films.Other bands and solo efforts (1983–present) Īfter Burma broke up, Miller turned his attention to playing piano with the more experimental, instrumental group Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, which he left in 1987.Īfterward, Miller had several collaborations, solo efforts, and film scores many of these post-Burma albums were released by SST Records: ĭuring the Burma years, Miller worked as a freelance piano tuner.

In subsequent years, Mission of Burma's small body of recordings grew to be regarded as important and influential. Mission of Burma disbanded in 1983 due in large part to Miller's worsening tinnitus, attributed in large part to their notoriously loud live performances. Relocating to Boston, Massachusetts, Miller was a member of the short-lived Moving Parts before co-founding Mission of Burma in 1979. He dropped out of college in favor of punk rock.įirst Mission of Burma line-up and break-up (1979–1983) The Miller brothers have an occasional ongoing collaboration called M3.Īttending CalArts in 1976, majoring in composition, Miller also studied piano and French Horn, and studied music by 20th-century experimental composers like John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. They recorded a demo for an album in 1970 these recordings were collected and released in 1992 and again in 2011 as With Magnetic Fields Disrupted. (Larry) Miller, he formed Sproton Layer in the fall of 1969 Miller played bass guitar and was the primary singer and songwriter. With brothers Benjamin (Ben) Miller and Laurence B. Inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Detroit-area bands like the Stooges, the SRC, and the MC5, Miller formed several garage bands in his teens, starting with the Sky High Purple Band in 1967. In middle school, he studied the french horn in band class, and at age 13, he picked up the guitar. Miller began piano lessons at the age of 6. These expeditions informed his later artistic outlook, which incorporates themes of nature, harsh environments, the passage of time, and self-reliance. His father was a professor of ichthyology, which prompted frequent travel to the Western United States during summers-in search of fish in isolated springs in the desert for comparison with the fossil record-in which he brought his son along. Miller was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on February 24, 1952. He also plays cornet, bass guitar and percussion. Guitar Player magazine describes Miller's guitar playing as balancing rock energy with cerebral experimentation. His main instruments are guitar and piano. Roger Clark Miller (born February 24, 1952) is an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist best known for co-founding Mission of Burma and performing in Alloy Orchestra/The Anvil Orchestra.

Roger miller