NOW!
Regarding from Melodicrock.com: Musicians Will Champlin andMiles Schon recently joined forces in a new band they are calling Miles of Will. The duo’s debut EP is out now and available via Facebook.com/milesofwill. Digital Downloads will be made available shortly. Here is a little background info on the pair, as reported in Marin Independent Journal (San Rafael, CA), interview by Paul Liberatore.
“They have mixed emotions about being the sons of rock stars. “We’ve got a little bit of a push because of that, which is great,” said Champlin, whose dad, singer-songwriter Bill Champlin, is a former member of Chicago and a founder of the legendary Marin band the Sons of Champlin. But, as a 28-year-old lead singer and keyboard player, just like his dad, being his father’s son can also be a source of considerable insecurity. “It can be pretty overwhelming sometimes,” he admitted. “You want to pretend like you’re not, and then you think, ‘But would people still like me?'”
When Schon, who’s 23, first picked up the guitar when he was 13, he knew the comparisons with his father, Journeyguitarist Neal Schon, would be unfair but inevitable. “There’s no comparison,” he said. “My dad is a guitar god, and I’m just a kid who picked up a guitar many years later than he did.”The Marin School of the Arts, the magnet campus at Novato High, started its first rock band class for him when he was a student there. “They let us do some classic rock tunes,” he recalled. “It was a great experience for me at the time.”
It helped him get past the paralyzing fear that he could never be as good as his father. “I had a big mental block about that at first,” he recalled. “After I’d been playing about a year, I realized I was a fast learner, but also how hard it is to play guitar. I don’t remember who said something that snapped me out of it, but I think it was encouragement from my family to keep playing and learning.” Schon met Champlin, who grew up in Los Angeles, through Champlin’s management connections. With singer Lara Johnston of Novato, daughter of Doobie Brother Tom Johnston, they opened for Kiss last summer.
After Johnston went her own way, Champlin, who inherited his father’s soulful voice, stepped up as lead singer of Miles of Will. Schon says he reminds him of Maroon 5’s Adam Levine.”Will has a pop-friendly voice,” he said. “It’s easy to like.” They just finished their first EP and will have it in time for the Voices of Latin Rock concert Jan. 26 at Bimbo’s in the city, their first major Bay Area show. Everyone there will know who their fathers are, but the sons are determined to sound like no one but themselves. “The truth is that you can’t sound like anybody but yourself anyway,” Schon said. “You can do your best impersonation, but that’s really just going to make for a better sounding you.”
01 – Haters (Miles Schon & Will Champlin)
02 – Now You’re Alive (Miles Schon & Will Champlin)
03 – Wild Ride (Miles Schon, Will Champlin & L. Johnston)
04 – Fangs (Miles Schon & Will Champlin)
05 – Time & Place (Miles Schon & Will Champlin)