It’s always a stone blast chatting with Ethan Miller (above, far right) of Howlin Rain and Comets on Fire: dude loves his horror flicks, and as a onetime English major at UC Santa Cruz, he can always be relied on to come with a fresh opinion and frisky curiosity when it comes to pop culture in general. Anyway, it was good to hear that the Goldie winner has been tapped by Columbia Records co-head Rick Rubin to make the leap from the Bay Area’s always tasty Birdman label to Rubin’s own American Recordings imprint, starting with Howlin Rain’s impressive, chance-takin’, and rock-out new LP, Magnificent Fiend, a co-release by both companies. For the first snippet of our talk, see this week’s Sonic Reducer. For the rest, let your eyes roam below. Howlin Rain plays with Black Mountain at the Independent Monday, Feb. 4.
SFBG: So what have you been up to?
Ethan Miller: It’s getting a little busy – kind of getting hyped up for the record and stuff, starting to do some work on it. Just press stuff, deciding details about ads and posters and stuff like that, just little things. What song is gong to be a single.
SFBG: How did this arrangement with Rick Rubin come about?
EM: Oh, kind of the normal old way – maybe it seems a little abnormal, because it’s Rick Rubin, and all things considered. He contacted me and asked me if I wanted to be on the label and we talked. I also think he is, like, an Arthur subscriber and an avid reader, and they did that cover piece on me, and I think that’s how he got turned on to Comets and Howlin Rain and stuff and checked it out and got ahold of me. It’s probably been more than a year since Rick and I first talked.