Bringing the Instrumental Back: A Conversation with Molly Miller on ‘The Ballad of Hotspur’

From the 1940s through the 1960s, even into part of the 1970s, instrumental music reigned supreme in the popular consciousness. The swing era brought the music of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller to large audiences. Even as the end of World War II brought about rock and roll, many widely recognized groups still made primarily instrumental music, from the surf sentimentalities of groups like the Ventures to the South-of-the-Border flair of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. But at some point, popular support for instrumental music – save the artistic abomination that is “smooth jazz” – waned. Occasionally, a few hits would nevertheless breakthrough – Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” (Future Shock (Columbia,1984)) comes to mind. It was not because artists were no longer making interesting instrumental-based music. As seen with many artists on this site, incredible works were, and are, still being created. But it seemed the average listener could no longer connect with lyricless music. With The Ballad of Hotspur (Interrabang, 2024), Molly Miller- professor of Studio Guitar at the University of Southern California – and her trio proclaim that perhaps the rumors of accessible instrumental music’s demise have been grossly exaggerated.

While The Ballad of Hotspur is ostensibly a trio recording, one could view it as presenting a fourth voice, as well. The culture and ethos of Los Angeles is an inescapable element of the group’s output. It helps that all three musicians – Dr. Miller, Jay Bellerose, and Jennifer Condos – hail from the City of Angels. Ballad‘s undeniable country-western influences invoke the city’s old history as a Western outpost. As the Bay Area became a Gold Rush destination, LA was “the Queen of the Cow Counties” with ranchers living on the open plains. The album also incorporates a funkiness that recalls both groups like Ohio Lakeside Express, who flocked to Sunset Boulevard in the 1970s, as well as the Chicano and Latin influences they found there. Surf rockers like Dick Dale also emerge through the record. So does the city’s currently booming jazz scene.

As a result of incorporating these elements of their home city into the music, the trio presents pieces that are authentic to them but also catchy and easily appreciable by wider audiences. As a guitarist better known for her sideperson work with popular artists like Jason Mraz and the Black Eyed Peas than recordings under her own name, Miller is well suited to present more approachable music. Her lyrical approach – hinting at words that do not exist – further underscores the point. With The Ballad of Hotspur, there is much to like for both those who regularly listen to instrumental music and those who constantly surround themselves with lyrics.

PostGenre: The title of The Ballad of Hotspur references a character in [William] Shakespeare’s Henry IV. What is the connection between that figure and the music on the album?

Molly Miller: There are a few different things. When I was trying to come up with the title, I started thinking I should name the album after the name of one of its tracks. But I teach guitar at USC, and one of the assignments for my students was to play a ballad. That led us to talk more conceptually about what a ballad is. A ballad is not just a slow song. More than anything else, it’s a story about tragic and flawed characters. I like to think of my own music as storytelling and going back to that visual cinematic aspect of stories.

Those thoughts led me to think about all the old country songs and folklore that begin “The Ballad of …” for its title. For a while, I thought about naming the album “The Ballad of…” with no name attached. But my boyfriend mentioned Hotspur to me, and it felt so right to use his name. Hotspur is known for his speed and brightness. But he is also a flawed and upsetting character. And the name Hotspur sounds a little like something you would hear in the Wild West. The more I researched Hotspur, the more right it felt to use his name. 

PG: You mentioned the Country Western influence on the album. Where did that element of the music come from? 

MM: Well, at the start of the COVID pandemic, I was inconsolable. I had just turned thirty and was ready and excited to go on tour. Jen and Jay are much more mature than me. And so Jen convinced me to take the pandemic as an opportunity to write music. She wanted to make a Western concept record, and this album stemmed from that.

But we also had already been playing some of these kinds of songs before we fully went in that direction. We played a [Ennio] Morricone song called “The Vice of Killing,” which I always loved playing. And, in general, it makes a lot of sense for a guitar trio to have some Western flair. 

PG: It is interesting that you mention Morricone because while The Ballad of Hotspur does not sound like one of Morricone’s scores, it is very cinematic, like his works.

MM: Yes, that is something that we thought about when recording it. And I don’t know if it will happen, but we have talked about making some music videos, with the record as the soundtrack, that would tell a murder story out in the desert with some cowboy themes. 

PG: As far as The Ballad of Hotspur in a more general sense, how do you feel you have changed the most as both a player and a composer since your trio’s last album, St. George (self-release, 2021)?

MM: I think over time, you learn and start to know yourself more. I think during that process, you become less and less afraid. I hope I feel that way more with each record. It’s an evolution. I think The Ballad of Hotspur has better songwriting. And I think I’ve grown as a player. I like to think I’m a little less careful than I used to be. 

There is a throughline between the two records in how both borrow from country western and surf music. But while I started exploring those ideas in Saint George, I feel like they truly came to life with The Ballad of Hotspur. There was a lot of thought about bringing those elements into the arrangements, but I feel like my arranging skills also got better. I think my composing skills got better.  And I think I’ve grown as a guitar player.  The more you play with people, the better you become. I also think our bond as a trio got deeper the longer we played together and the more cities we traveled through together. 

PG: And as far as the group, how did you first meet Jennifer and Jay? 

MM: We had some mutual friends, and Jen is one of the most supportive human beings ever. She had invited me over to jam with them on some songs, I think with my brother, who’s a drummer. So, I went over to Jen and Jay’s house – they’re a couple – with my little brother, and we jammed on some tunes – some originals and some covers. It was super fun. 

Later, I needed a bass player for a super casual gig and asked Jen if she would play with me. She agreed and rehearsed with me and my brother. Jay came out as well and started playing some percussion with us. And we were getting a very cool sound. After that, I kept getting asked to do more casual gigs. I was playing at this hotel in Santa Monica called Casa Del Mar and then doing a weekly gig in Downtown [Los Angeles] at Perch, which I still have. I started asking Jen and Jay if they would want to play whenever I had one of these gigs, and they always said yes. 

It’s always been a lot of fun. I think it’s boring when you only call a tune, play the melody, take a solo, and then it ends. I think Jen, Jay, and I are each less interested in doing that than creating arrangements, a repertoire, and a sound that represents our identity. As I played with them more, Jen convinced me I needed to put out a record. So our first record,  The Shabby Road Recordings (self-release, 2017), is just the three of us hanging out at their house. We got together, recorded a few tunes, drank some wine, and ate some bread and cheese. It was super casual. 

Later, Jen convinced me I needed to make a record of original compositions. Up to that point, I had written a few original compositions, but not that many. Jen and I wrote some stuff together, and I wrote some alone. And then we got together and arranged them. And now thinking about the trio and writing music is a part of my daily life. The trio has such a grounding force and such a beautiful place for me to put energy into. But yeah, that’s how the trio was formed. It all happened so organically, and now it’s my favorite thing in the whole world. 

PG: So as far as composing, some of the songs on The Ballad of Hotspur took you up to two years to write. 

MM: Yeah. We started in March of 2020, but because of the pandemic, we couldn’t be in the same room for about a year. We had a bunch of songs that were almost complete and a few others that were only basic ideas. But from the time we got in the room, ran through all the songs, and started playing them in town to recording them was around a year and a half. 

PG: One of the songs, “Blues to Green,” you wrote in one sitting. Is it typical for you to piece a composition together all at once, or does it usually take multiple times to get a piece together?

MM: I think my favorite songs I have written always come pretty quickly. What I have found is that, generally, better music results when it comes naturally. The songs are better when you don’t have to work so hard. “Blue to Green” was done in one sitting when I was trying to think of some other songs. That’s my favorite way to write; when it all comes quickly. 

That said, however, sometimes I’ll write something and finish it the next day. Or later the same day. Sometimes I’ll write an A section in a sitting, and then I’ll do a B section later. I wrote a song last week that was done entirely in one sitting. And then there are the songs I write together with Jen where she’ll write an A section, and I’ll write a B section or vice versa. 

PG: You also have several great covers on YouTube of songs like “Nine to Five” or “King of the Road.” Do you feel arranging other people’s music has assisted you in composing your own? 

MM: For sure, for a multitude of reasons. It’s fun to do those covers. For the ones I do, I love the song. I love the story of the song, the feeling of it, and making the story come true. I think a really big part of growing as a player and as a composer is learning and studying other people’s music. Creating my own arrangements of those songs is a vehicle to create a convincing story or a convincing piece. A bad arrangement can ruin a song, and a good one can add something special to a song. But all those arrangements help inspire me to write my own compositions. 

Playing them also makes me a stronger player and gets me excited to pick up my instrument. I have always lived by that Bob Dylan quote, “He [who’s] not busy being born is busy dying.” If there’s something that excites me, I follow it. That’s true whether it’s my own piece, transcribing someone else’s, learning a new tune, arranging a tune, listening to music, or singing music. I’m always trying to hone in on the things that have been inspiring me.

PG:  The songs on The Ballad of Hotspur are incredibly lyrical, which makes sense because you often have lyrics in your head when you’re writing. Have you ever thought about adding a singer to the trio? 

MM: Actually, I am hoping I can get friends of mine who are great lyricists to write and perform their own lyrics. I have sentiments tied to all of my songs, but I don’t have fully completed lyrics. I have little mantras, sentences, or sections that are very clear lyrics for me. But I do have some feelers out to some friends to see if they could write lyrics. 

PG: Conversely, one could argue that there is also a power in keeping music instrumental because it seems not as many people listen to instrumental music as they used to back in the 1960s or earlier.

MM: I know. Well, we describe our trio as “bringing the instrumental back.” When we say that, I am thinking of people like Booker T and the MG’s, Dave Brubeck, Dwayne Eddy, Floyd Cramer, or the Ventures. There was a time when their songs were all you needed. I love doing instrumental music, but I also greatly want to get some of my friends who are great lyricists and great singers to put lyrics to some of my songs. Because one of the beautiful things about art is that there are so many interpretations of it. People can read a book, listen to a song, or see a play, and each takes different things away from them. 

PG: And in terms of different interpretations, The Ballad of Hotspur often seems to have a timelessness to it. Some parts sound older, drawing from the influences you mentioned. Your incorporation of ideas from Americana and jazz is reminiscent of Bill Frisell. And – perhaps partly due to the shared instrumentation- it seems to evoke the grooviness of Khruangbin. Was taking these different approaches and combining them something you did intentionally, or did it emerge more organically?

MM: I feel like it happens pretty naturally. All the names you mentioned resonate with me. I do like Bill Frisell, but I also like the guitar playing of  Adam Levine and Julian Lage. But I also like funkiness by people like Khruangbin and Booker T and the MGs. I use a wide range of references. All three of us in the trio listen to old music, and that music is timeless, which may add to the timelessness you mention. I think we’re all still digesting that music. And we listen to a lot of contemporary music too. Ultimately, the truth is that you can’t be anything but yourself. I feel like I am a conglomerate of a bunch of my different interests that then get filtered through me, whether from Americana, jazz, groove music, funk, old new music, new folk music, or new pop music. It all comes together. 

PG: Do you see a big difference between these different categories of music?

MM: No, it’s funny. I was talking with Jay and Jen last night about that, and Jay simply said it is all just music. One of the ways people make sense of the world around them is to categorize things. But at a certain point, all music is just music. There are many influences on The Ballad of Hotspur. Some people are going to call it jazz because it’s instrumental, and there are solos and some advanced harmony. But it is also Folk, Americana, surf music, and more. We are not intentionally finding elements to combine. Instead, we are making music and seeing what comes out. And as long as we are true to ourselves, what comes out will make sense, regardless of what labels some people may apply to it. 

‘The Ballad of Hotspur’ is out now on Interrabang Records. It can be purchased on Molly Miller’s website, where you can also learn more about her.

Photo credit: Jen Rosenstein