Billy Bill Miller on Cold Sun, Roky Erickson, and the Long Road to ‘Rites of Osiris’
Billy Bill Miller drifts somewhere between the desert and the afterlife, a man who turned peyote visions into sound.
In another time he would have been a ghost-hunting preacher with an autoharp, but in this world he built Cold Sun—a band that sounds like Texas itself hallucinating under ultraviolet light. Half mystic, half gear-tinkerer, Billy threads feedback and ’60s folklore into something of his very own.
He once ran with Roky Erickson and the Aliens, chasing the spirit far past sanity and into the swamp of the sublime. Now, fifty years after ‘Dark Shadows,’ he’s back with ‘Rites of Osiris’. These are songs from a parallel Austin where geckos have voices and the amps are hypnotizing with feedback.
Billy talks to Justin Jackley about ghosts, peyote, and feedback the way most people talk about the weather. Still in motion, fine-tuning his haunted frequencies, Cold Sun never really ended; it just kinda slipped into the static, waiting for the right cosmic channel to open again.
And now, that signal is back. We hope news about the release of ‘Rites of Osiris’ will be here soon.
“We wanted it to be heavy but haunted sounding.”
The opening track on ‘Dark Shadows’, ‘South Texas,’ is my favorite track on the album. I was reading the liner notes about the peyote and the geckos and I wanted to hear some more about that if you wouldn’t mind?
Billy Bill Miller: I had ideas for this song, for the sound and the little guitar solo that’s in the choruses, and I got Tom (McGarrigle) to play that and I liked what he did. What he did was a little more peyote sounding than what I had in mind, and when it got down to writing the lyrics, one thing I drew from was tripping on peyote in this motel room in South Texas where there were geckos. Geckos come inside people’s houses. They really do. They like houses. A wild lizard might kind of shy away from people, but once they get to know them, they’re not shy at all. They like to jump up on the couch with you or whatever and watch TV. It’s not unusual to see them inside the house. And I don’t know if you realize that they have voices? They sound kind of like ducks but kind of like frogs. Somewhere between a frog and a bird. Those lyrics are just sort of like imagery of that experience in South Texas with these two girls, and we were high on peyote and there were geckos all around, which didn’t bother me.
It’s a very “dark” album which is especially unusual for something from this time period.
It seems to make some people really happy. I am pleased with that. I am a bit surprised. I listen to it and am sometimes surprised at how dark it is. It just doesn’t let up. Yes, it seems like this music is pretty dark. It’s what kids like, I guess. I don’t blame them. It would be nice to see what people think who are actually high on mescaline or peyote when they listen to this stuff.
I’ll see what I can do about that! The autoharp that you play gives it a really unique and haunting sound.
Before I started playing the autoharp I was aware that Edward Hermann used an autoharp in the music of ‘The Twilight Zone’. It was not rock music. I suppose that Tom and I were creating a type of “Twilight Zone” rock music. Mike and Hugh could both have fit the role of soundtrack musicians. I can see how people would like it. Do you want to ask me what kind of amplifier I use?
Uh, sure! What kind of amp do you use?
You know, I’m joking. I think maybe my own part went from doing a peyote soundtrack to doing a ghostly spirits soundtrack.
I’m pretty open to whatever you want to talk about.
I remember one time at a rehearsal with Powell St. John and the Aliens, I had just replaced my vintage effects rack with one that was all new and digital. Well, just more modern but very similar sound. And we were talking about it and I said to Bob, “Ah, here I am talking about my equipment. Makes me feel almost like a regular guy.” And he laughed and said “Almost.” I don’t quite know what he meant by that. But yeah.
Do you want to talk about the new album you have been working on? You said it was the first new material from Cold Sun in over 50 years?
‘Rites Of Osiris’ is the second Cold Sun album featuring the original members. I had left that project in the mid 70s to join the Aliens. Ten years ago, we got back together in California and recorded these tracks. After these recordings, they returned to Texas. It was near completion when the producer sadly died. I am now completing it and have five songs ready and four more that remain to be finished. It is unusual to have a fifty-year gap between albums, I realize. By the way, the second song, ‘Synthetic Love,’ is written for Cold Sun by Powell St. John. It is sung by Tom McGarrigle. Both of them have since passed away. Powell St. John is also featured on harmonica on song number three, ‘Greenback Dollar’. That is the only cover song ever done by Cold Sun. These are the original members except for the drummer. Mike Vatone plays drums. That’s Tom and Mike Waugh and I on there. All three, I guess you know, are on that new stuff. You don’t have any problem hearing the bass, do you?
No. It sounds great!
We made sure that it doesn’t have the technical problems that the older one had. That was one thing I regretted about the technical aspects of it, the way it was recorded.
Is that because of 4-track recording type stuff or what?
Yeah. And the original rhythm tracks were all bounced into stereo. So we had to think ahead of how things were going to be positioned and then put other things on top of it, and there’s a knack to doing that. And I don’t think they had the kind of savvy that George Martin might have. The Beatles used the same sort of technique but they had somebody that was really good at that. It’s still probably a fact that on some of the stuff, if you wanted to turn the bass up or turn it down, you’re out of luck, because it’s not isolated. It’s part of a stereo mix of drums and bass. But the Beatles soon went to eight and sixteen-track machines. Eight and sixteen-track machines were brand new then.
I mean, Frank Sinatra didn’t record using a track machine. Eventually he did. And the Elevators were one of the early bands to use an eight-track to record. I think the Beatles were still using a four-track at that time. But they could have used an eight-track, but they had a producer who was really a wizard with his own methods and it utilized four-tracks. And Joe Meek used four-track machines, but Joe was pretty good at that kind of thing. Anyway, that was when Mike did some incredible bass work on that upcoming album you have there. The guy who engineered it was able to bring out a lot of sounds that were buried. But when we recorded this new one, we kept on to the producer, kept on his case about, you know, we wanted more bass. Even though it’s got unlimited tracks so it doesn’t really matter.
Did you know Eric Johnson?
Yes, I knew Eric through mutual studio contacts. I remember talking to him after sessions.
Want to say anything about this?
Well, I always took a close look at his playing. He seemed dedicated to playing several lines with different techniques and juggling these in a way that made his one track sound like several players, not just one. People do this a lot with overdubs, but I have always thought that the individual components sound better without multi-tracking. Eric seemed aware that I was doing the same thing, which made me watch him ever the more closely. But with 36 strings I would think that an inventive guitarist would expect that I would do that.
Did you ever play with him?
Well, as a matter of fact, I did jam with him once after he arrived at a rehearsal and wanted to warm up. There was a drummer but no bass player, so I carried the bass with the harp, syncopated with other stuff. I used my thumb to hit the heavy bass strings. It was a piece that I had been working on. Eric seemed to have no problem realizing that it was supposed to be way out there. He rose to that heavy level pretty quickly. He seemed to play a bit differently with no conventional bass instrument in the mix. I wish we had recorded it. We were all inhibited about recording things like that, I think. I like the attitude of today better. Just record everything and wait for a robot to be developed that can sort it all out.
For people that haven’t heard it yet, how would you describe the sound on the new album as opposed to ‘Dark Shadows’?
I think that we strived to make ‘Rites Of Osiris’ even more dark. I am not so sure that it is. I think that some will find it more dark. It has a landscape that was helped quite a bit by Rick, my producer. We wanted it to be heavy but haunted sounding. I think it takes the ghostly spirits thing to the next step further than Roky did.
Do you think you will finish up this new album this year?
I think I’ll finish them. Maybe one a week. One song a week. Then a month or two from now it’ll be finished.
Ok. Awesome.
Does it sound obviously like the same band to you?
Yeah, I think so. Is it the same band?
Yes, except for the drummer. Hugh was unavailable due to death. We have Mike Vatone of New York City on drums, a brilliant guy, very adaptive to this style. There was one song that was heavier than the rest with drums. A good example might be ‘7 and 7 Is’ by Love, which has a much denser style than their other songs. The drums are based on the same ideas as the original drummer from 55 years ago. The new guy worked hard to maintain the same concepts. In addition to Mike Vatone on drums we have Tom McGarrigle on lead guitar and Mike Waugh on bass, the same lineup as 55 years ago. I don’t play any harmonica at all on this, but this time I had help from Powell St. John, who contributed one song and he plays harmonica on yet another song. There is no other harmonica on that album, just that one song. But I think it plays a major role in that song. So, what did you think of it?
I think it sounds great so far! It’s a really nice continuation from the previous album. I’m really looking forward to hearing the full album when it’s all finished! Did it go pretty smoothly recording it?
Getting the original Cold Sun members back together was a bit of a challenge. Roky could be difficult to work with. This was like a whole band of Rokys. Being an experienced lizard wrangler finally paid off. It harkened back to the old days, rehearsing at an abandoned snake farm.
Wow, that’s a great image! It’s been over 50 years since recording the previous album. Has it been more difficult to create at your age or does the accrued wisdom make up for that?
Well, certain electronics help out a lot with being older, and not a day too soon. My friend Gregg seems of late to write more and more songs about ghost towns. Ghost towns are a quaint part of the Southwest. Texas has ghost towns that inhabit my mind.
“People were saying ‘It’s too much noise!’ But Roky was saying, ‘Can’t you get that thing to be more noisy?’ Well, I tried.”
You are a lucky man to still be able to create music and still have so many loyal fans.
I was speaking to someone who asked me about Tom McGarrigle. He had the same birthday as me. I am a few hours older than him. Back in the day, people around the music scene really did not appreciate him at all. People kept saying “You need to get someone more like Johnny Richardson.” I like Johnny Richardson just fine, but Tom did exactly what I wanted, much to the chagrin of the locals. I suppose that I began to get more and more into the gnarly feedback as time went on, especially during the time with Roky. People were saying “It’s too much noise!” But Roky was saying, “Can’t you get that thing to be more noisy?” Well, I tried.
Haha! I love that!
Hey, you know weed is being quickly made legal and stuff, and psychedelics. The thing about peyote, it’s unfortunate, but mushrooms are kind of a poor man’s version of it. And mushrooms grow pretty quickly, but the peyote button takes five years to grow up. That’s why you don’t hear a whole lot about it, you know?
Yeah. Do you know of the San Pedro cactus? It’s another mescaline bearing cactus, but it has such a small amount of mescaline in it that it’s legal in most places, but it grows really fast in comparison to peyote. It’s a good little mescaline trip but it’s certainly not peyote.
Yeah. Imagine having a peyote kombucha.
That sounds pretty good.
Yeah. Or imagine having hemp bread with honey on it. Like a type of vegan butter made from hemp oil. The hemp oil and hemp flour bread spread with hemp butter and also honey made from bees in the weed fields or the peyote fields on cannabis bread. Sounds like that would be really good, doesn’t it?
It does. Do you still partake in anything at this point in life?
Yeah. Not like I used to. It’s like now everywhere you turn around there’s a store selling candy or something. For some reason gummies are popular.
Yeah, right. But then again, in Texas, we still don’t have anything. Texas is gonna be one of the last states if ever.
I do think a number of these GOP assholes are crooks and there could just be a whole flood of these assholes. When Bush was president, he built a lot of prisons.
Yeah, definitely.
Roky had this one song called ‘Hey Mr.’ and it has this resounding chorus all through the song. “Hey Mr. Khrushchev.” We more or less groomed, or our goal was, to groom Roky into being a socialist hero. I don’t know how much of his stuff you’ve heard.
A pretty fair amount. I don’t recall that song though.
No, it didn’t get on an album. It’ll have to be an AI Roky singing in the future, right? What do you think about that? His career may just be getting started.
I hope you’re right. I like the idea of using technology in that way. Something beneficial. I hope that something does come of that. There are some really interesting possibilities. How did you end up getting involved with Roky and eventually the Aliens?
I guess that it seemed almost inevitable that I would cross paths with Roky Erickson. Together we took certain things to the next level. When we joined with Duane and Jeff and Stu in California it was another step into soundtrack-oriented music. It got more rock sounding at the same time. It was electric and ethereal.
Right! Definitely different from his work with the Elevators.
It’s a strange world.
Thanks so much for doing this interview. It was really nice talking to you!
Nice talking to you. Talk to you later.
Good night.
All right. Good night, over and out, over and out and up and over.
Justin Jackley
Headline photo: Cold Sun. Courtesy of the artist’s private archive.
