After creating music both on his own and with the now broken-up Phoenix band Whisperlights, violinist and vocalist Tobie Milford was wary of working with another group of musicians again.
Milford was worried he would not be able to find as good of a group of musicians as he had with Whisperlights. But now, Milford is back in the game with a new group, a new sound and an album in the works.
On Tuesday night, Milford and his band held an event at the Crescent Ballroom to raise funds for the group’s upcoming album “Listen to the Trees.” Milford’s band was joined by two other local groups, Longbird and Rising Sun Daughter.
Milford’s group does not yet have a name, but consists of Mark Michaud on drums, Tina Estes on the keyboard and backup vocals, Megyn Neff on the violin, Kirk Johnson on the viola and Ambur Gore on the cello.
“In a rock band the strings are an extra on top of the guitars and I want this to be the other way around,” Milford said. “Where the keyboard … and the drums are complementing what’s going on with the strings.”
Even before Estes had met Milford, she was a fan of his work.
“Tobie honestly was one of my heroes,” Estes said.
Estes came to know Milford through a mutual friend and the two wound up collaborating on projects together.
“I asked him to work on my project and he asked me to work on his, it’s just like putting the puzzle pieces together,” Estes said.
Milford was inspired to begin working with other musicians again after he was invited to perform with the Downtown Chamber Series at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix.
After having previously worked with some other string instrument players, Milford decided to pursue his 10-year-long dream of creating a true studio album with a group rather than on his own.
“I’ve been wanting to do a proper studio album for 10 years and I just haven’t had the discipline or the focus of mind to do it,” Milford said.
In addition to his work with music, Milford is a full-time sixth grade math and science teacher at charter school Phoenix Advantage.
Milford said his wife pushed him to pursue his dream of creating an album.
“My wife is like, ‘You need to stop talking about it and actually do it,’” Milford said.
“I’ve got all the resources I need, I have people supporting me on the management level and the promotional level,” Milford said. “I just need to step it up a little bit and make it happen.”
One of the main focuses of “Listen to the Trees” will be the influence of the string instruments in the songs.
Milford said listeners can expect to hear music akin to that of Sufjan Stevens, with the complex compositional style Stevens is known for but with greater emphasis on the string instruments.
The songs found on “Listen to the Trees” will have a structure more similar to a concerto than a pop song, said Johnson, violist and founder of Sounds Academy, a nonprofit organization that teaches at-risk youth about music.
“(With) pop music or radio music you can hear (the structure) being verse, chorus, verse ending,” Johnson said.
“With what we play that’s not there. There’s so many interludes within the music,” Johnson said. “If you’re looking at (the music) it looks much more like a concerto.”
For now, Milford and his band are continuing to play gigs for local events and raise funds for their album. Milford plans to do much of the work for the album over the summer, and he hopes to have “Listen to the Trees” completed by August or September.
“It’ll be a milestone for me to have it done,” Milford said. “It’s a personal goal and I don’t want it to get dragged on. I would like to have some closure and to see what I can do and not have to wonder what could have been.”
Contact the reporter at Alicia.M.Clark@asu.edu
