Featured Artist of the Month        
Byron Miller

Just when Funk Mugs thought it was safe to glide again in a funk free air zone, bassist Byron Miller, a.k.a. “Psychobass,” has returned to re-funkify the skyways with some musical ESP – Extra Sensory PlushFunk – purposed for recalibrating hearts and spirits to the vibrations of Peace and Love…Indivisible…under Oneness 4 All. His fifth and latest offering is fittingly titled The Gift – a 9-track song flight of spirit replenishing grooves that is refreshingly instrumental (no special guest vocalists), placing the spotlight squarely on Byron and musician friends that include Kirk Whalum, Paul Jackson, Jr., Walter Beasley, Gordon Campbell, Phil Davis, Munyungo Jackson and more. 

“The Gift means two things,” Byron shares regarding the album title and concept, “and both are very spiritual. When I started playing bass, I never had a lesson. When I was a freshman in high school, I broke my foot as quarterback of the Highland Park Polar Bears in Detroit during a practice. As the youngest of four children, I was failing in school where my brother and sisters had all excelled. Trying to figure out what to do with me, Mom stopped off on her way home from work one night and bought me a Harmony electric bass – no amp. All she knew is that I loved music. She put the bass in my hands and I sat on my bed listening to old Motown records with James Jamerson and Bob Babbitt on bass, then some Chuck Rainey, Larry Graham, Santana, Led Zeppelin, Donald Byrd & The Blackbyrds…then two George Duke records: Feel and Faces in Reflection. I loved the freeness of the tracks. By listening to all of that music and more, I developed my own exercises based on playing off of octaves and the notes in-between, and taught myself how to play. After my sister Karla helped me cop a Fender Bass and my English teacher Mr. Johnson buying me a Custom amp, I started gigging. That was the beginnings of Byron Miller, a.k.a. ‘Psychobass.’ Today, I don’t ever remember not being able to play. I can’t look at that as anything but a gift”