(written by Islander) I always relish the opportunity to brandish the often bizarre and blood-curdling artwork of Paolo Girardi at the top of our site, and as you can see, we’ve seized the opportunity to do that again today. This ghastly painting also happens to be a literal representation of the title of the album […]
MetalTalk caught up with Rob Mills a few days ago in Saigon, where the clouds meant an afternoon of only 33°C. But the former Diamond Head guitarist does not have time to sip piña coladas, as he is busy with his language and music school in Vietnam and working as an online guitar coach at the Troy Stetina Music Academy.
With Diamond Head, Mills played on their All Will Be Revealed album and the live DVD The Devil Is Due, as well as festivals such as Wacken. For Rob, this was “fantastic.” Mills had been recommended to the band to fill in on guitar for a gig. “It turned out they were gonna play Wacken,” Rob says.
Rob Mills had ten songs to learn in ten days. Jess Cox was covering vocals, so the tracks were a mix of Diamond Head and Tygers Of Pan Tang. “I learned the songs and did a good show. We did a tour supporting Megadeth. We did Wacken and Sweden Rock Festival, a few shows across Greece and Italy. It was a great time.
“Then, unfortunately, I quit the band just because I was going through some personal stuff in 2006, I think it was. Then they toured the states a couple of times, which I was gutted about not being part of. But I had some great fun when I was in the band. It was great to play with the legendary Brian Tatler and the rest of the guys. They’re all great musicians. There was Nick Tart on vocals as well.”
Diamond Head with Rob Mills
Rob Mills confirms that playing Wacken is as much fun as it looks. “I went from playing pubs to maybe 100 people if you’re lucky in Birmingham and being in these bands trying to get a record deal. Still having some fun, but ultimately nothing came of it. Then the next year, you’re thrust onto the biggest stage in front of thousands.
“I think I had got to that point in my playing where I was comfortable with it. I just took it all in my stride, seemingly. After we did the show, maybe about a week later, Brian said, well, do you want to be in the band. So obviously I must have done a fairly decent job to get that.”
The guitar journey for Rob Mills began 36 years ago, watching Heavy Metal Heaven with Elvira, The Queen Of Darkness. “Guns N’ Roses at The Ritz came on,” Rob says. “They were just coming to prominence, and Appetite had just come out. I saw Slash doing all those riffs like Sweet Child O’ Mine and I was just like, I wanna be that dude.”
For the next tw years, Rob immersed himself and was “into the whole essence of what it is to become a great guitarist and chowing down all the information that I could.
“Obviously, there wasn’t internet back then, with the magazines and the books and everything, and having private lessons. It became this thing because I was getting pretty good at it. I was getting the adulation of friends and all that kind of thing.
“It’s the same old story, but I felt like maybe a kid that didn’t quite fit in. But then, when you start being good at something, you start winning over friends and being admired for something. You think, well, I’m good at this.”
Rob Mills – Speed Mechanics
Rob Mills decided to see how far he could take it, and along the way was inspired to help others, “to give that vibe and that feeling to somebody else. It’s fulfilling. You remember the journey you went on, and you hope to help someone on the same path to get inspired. To maybe say to the kids, ‘Do you wanna grow up and be something normal, or do you want to be a rock star?’ Because that’s a possibility. Obviously, not everyone makes it, but still, it’s a great thing to reach for, and a lot of kids want to do it.”
Adam Zindani from Stereophonics is someone Rob Mills worked with a few years back. “I was doing some guitar tech work with him, so he would come to me if he had any problems with the technique, as I was considered the guy to go to around those parts for shoring up issues with technique. I was spending a lot of time with him. He would ask me to clarify certain things or help him in certain areas where he felt he was struggling a little bit.
“That’s basically what I do now. It’s putting all the pieces of the puzzle together with the guitar. There’s a lot of information out there, and it’s not all good information. I pride myself on being someone who has gone through that learning process. I’ve sorted the wheat from the chaff, and I know what works and what doesn’t.
“A guy just signed up the other day for the Speed Mechanics coaching program, and he had his first session last night. As soon as he started playing this one notorious exercise, Exercise 25, the picking exercise from Speed Mechanics to the metronome, and I could hear straight away that his timing was a little off.”
The new student told Rob that he felt like the odd one out in the band, and he was letting his bandmates down. “I’m saying, OK, that’s cool. You’ve identified your weakness.”
Rob Mills gave him some exercises that would “turn that problem around in a month or two, if he applies himself.” One exercise involves clapping along to a metronome.
“I learned early on that it was really, really fundamental. It really helped me to develop that relationship that you need as a musician to the meter, to the pulse. Every song has that constant thing that you might tap your foot to. So tapping your foot’s one thing, but can you tap your foot and also play the riff at the same time? You’ve got to try and learn to do that.”
Mark Tremonti – O2 Forum Kentish Town – 14 February 2025. Photo: Steve Ritchie/MetalTalk
It boils down to attention to detail. Mark Tremonti has said that his favourite practice technique is one from Speed Mechanics, and structure is an important part of development.
“I’ve said this many times,” Rob Mills smiles. “I really don’t know what Troy was smoking when he wrote that book, but he was definitely on the planet of guitar wisdom. There’s some amazing structure in there. About 18 months ago, I was inspired by a guy on YouTube, an English entrepreneur named William Brown, who’d made a lot of money selling coaching programs.
“I was thinking, hey, maybe I could package it up because I’ve been doing lessons online. I thought I could do a coaching program. Then suddenly the Speed Mechanics somehow just resurfaced on my radar, and I was like shit, I remember that book.
“I bought it about two years into my development, and I remember my progress skyrocketing after studying it for a year or two. I try to now encapsulate that into a couple of months for anyone who signs up for the coaching program to have that experience.
“Down to how do you hold the pick. What pick are you using can be a vital piece of information. Are you getting all those fingers set up right? Troy mentions this in the intro about trying to play each note right behind the fret. You’re talking speed and precision, and you can get into those habits. I set the students up with a practice routine that makes that become second nature.”
The first concept of Speed Mechanics is to separate the hands. “He starts with some exercises for the left hand, dexterity exercises,” Rob Mills says, “but then, after a while, we go into right hand exercises.” There are pieces to learn. The most infamous one is Flight of the Bumblebee.
You can not only track your progress, but they also focus on ear training. “Ear training is very important to your development,” Rob says. “You want to get to that point where you can just hear a song, and know how it goes before you even pick up the guitar. You can get to that point pretty much with the ear training in this coaching program.
“In Speed Mechanics, you look at that, and you might think it’s all about playing as fast as you can. But it’s not. It’s more nuanced than that.”
Rob Mills
There was a different name for the series, but when Hal Leonard, the world’s largest sheet music publisher, became involved in the late ’80s and early ’90s, he advised Speed Mechanics.
“A lot of guitarists were looking for that speed,” Rob says. “But of course, there are definitely elements of speed in there and getting to that level of your guitar playing, where you can do those fast runs. It’s broken down into smaller sections. The section on picking, where he talks about inside versus outside picking, is a very important distinction to make.
“I remember seeing that, and I was like, ‘Wow.’ I had never added it up like that before. So the outside picking felt kind of natural to me. But when I tried to do the inside picking, it felt awkward.”
As Rob says, it is about identifying your weakness and spending time on the exercises, and jumping over the hurdle.
Troy Stetina had the book Roadmap To Mastery at number one on the Amazon chart when we spoke, and the methods are an established style of teaching. With Rob Mills and his background, guitarists of all levels can benefit.
“You can be a beginner, you can be intermediate,” Rob says. “If you’re already at the point where you feel quite happy, there have been people who have come on and still discovered many things. As musicians, as guitarists, we don’t know it all, and if we think we know it all, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
“Even advanced guitarists can learn something from it. Not only from Speed Mechanics, but I bring into it my melting pot of wisdom, my guitar nugget wisdom that I’ve learned over the past 30 years.
“If people get the book, they can obviously make their own way through it. But are you gonna get that little tidbit of information that makes it so much more accessible for you?”
Rob describes rhythm, theory, technique, improvisation, and ear training as the five main pillars. “Can you establish rhythm? As a guitarist, you don’t need to read music because we’ve got tab. But if you can read rhythm, that’s gonna bolster your understanding of rhythm. You can make rhythm figures, pictures in your mind, as you’re playing something. You can play something a bit differently, just because you know how to read rhythm. It’s quite inspiring.”
If, like me, you are the guitarist who can play some chords, but soloing up the scales is an issue, then Rob is your man. “A lot of those issues, you think it’s to do with your fret hand,” he says. “But it’s probably to do with your picking hand. That’s why there is a section on picking. You’re picking on adjacent strings, but you’re using a combination of inside and outside picking.
“If you were with me having lessons, so you can’t go from the low end to the high end as readily, so we’re gonna jump all over that and figure out why. What are the blocks there? What do we need to remove in order for you to do that?
“Just having someone like that to bounce off. If you’re on your own trying to do it, you could type in something on YouTube. But you never know what you’re gonna get.”
With the internet, you can now do this 1-2-1 coaching online. Rob cannot grab your fingers and put them on the correct frets, as in the old days. “But I can see on the screen what they’re doing,” Rob Mills says. “I can hear them, so that’s exactly the same as if we were in the same room.
“I’ve got really good at just looking at that and being able to see minute details in someone’s technique. You can see what they’re perhaps doing wrong and also congratulate them on what they’re doing right.”
You can contact Rob Mills at RobMuse75@gmail.com. Rob has a new Pretender To Pro course at TS Music Academy, a six-month coaching program building towards the goal of becoming the best musician you can be.
There are other Rob Mills courses at the Troy Stetina Music Academy website, as well as the full Troy Stetina course list. You can book online guitar lessons with Rob via rockstarguitarschool.co.uk.
Super Sometimes have announced the details of their second full-length album, coming quickly off the back of their last year’s ‘From Now And Then’.
It’s titled ‘Show The World What’s Underneath’ and will be released on May 15 via Pure Noise Records.
The band had this to say about what it represents for them, explaining, “’Show the World What’s Underneath” is us staking our flag in the ground as one of the torchbearers of pop-punk. There’s a little bit of something for everybody, and our take on the genre will definitely be a breath of fresh air for those who have been looking for something a little different in the scene. We hope it inspires more people to fall in love with pop-punk the same way we did growing up.”
The artwork looks like this:
And the tracklisting is like this:
1. Afterthought 2. Make Up Stories 3. Always You 4. Learned My Lesson 5. See This Coming 6. Show The World What’s Underneath 7. Spend 8. Common Place 9. Medicine 10. Prophet
The band have also shared the first taste of the record in the form of ‘Afterthought’, which may lay claim to the catchiest chorus of the year so far. As sun-stained, vibrant and celebratory as pop-punk should always be, utilising assets that have defined the past and present of the genre, it’s going to stick in your head all week.
They had this to say about what the song means to them, stating, “‘Afterthought held its hand up as the clear opener to the album as soon as it was written. From the beautifully melancholic verse to the finger-point–inducing chorus, the song is haunting and riddled with passion in both its lyrics and vocal delivery, intended to convey the intense feeling of longing and desperation for someone who treats you as nothing more than an “afterthought.”
The band are set to support Arm’s Length on tour across the US alongside The Callous Daoboys and Harrison Gordon later this year. Here’s where you’re going to get to catch them.
APRIL
21 – OTTAWA Bronson Centre 22 – MONTREAL Le Studio TD 24 – BOSTON Paradise Rock Club by Citizens 25 – NEW YORK Warsaw 26 – PHILADELPHIA Theatre of Living Arts 28 – BALTIMORE Baltimore Soundstage 29 – CHARLOTTE The Underground
MAY
01 – NASHVILLE Brooklyn Bowl Nashville 02 – ATLANTA Buckhead Theatre 03 – ORLANDO House of Blues of Orlando 05 – DALLAS The Echo Lounge & Music Hall 06 – AUSTIN Emo’s Austin 08 – PHOENIX Crescent Ballroom 09 – SAN DIEGO House of Blues San Diego 10 – ANAHEIM House of Blues Anaheim 11 – SACRAMENTO Ace of Spades 13 – SEATTLE Neptune Theatre 14 – BOISE The Shredder 15 – SALT LAKE CITY The Depot 17 – DENVER Summit Music Hall 19 – ST LOUIS Delmar Hall 21 – CHICAGO House of Blues Chicago 22 – DETROIT St. Andrew’s Hall 23 – CLEVELAND House of Blues Cleveland 24 – TORONTO Danforth Music Hall
New Jersey rap eccentric Fatboi Sharif was a Stereogum Artist To Watch in 2021, and he has put together a singularly bugged-out discography ever since then. Most recently, he teamed up with longtime collaborator Roper Williams for the 2025 album Goth Girl On The Enterprise. Next up, he’ll release a new collaborative LP with Child…
Medtalcore outfit Balmora are heading out on a headlining tour this June and they’re bringing along with them a couple of DAZE label mates — Holder and Azshara.
Set to take place from June 5 in Sterling, Virginia and coming to a close on June 26, the band will make stops in important major cities like Chicago, Toronto, Philadelphia, and more. These dates are in addition to the previously announced spring tour dates starting next month which will see them hit the stage with Poison The Well, Converge, and Spy.
4/1 — Syracuse, NY — Silver Street $ 4/2 — Cleveland, OH — House of Blues * 4/3 — Chicago, IL — Concord Music Hall * 4/4 — Pontiac, MI — The Crofoot * 4/5 — Indianapolis, IN — Healer $ 4/6 — Pittsburgh, PA — Preserving Underground * 4/7 — Toronto, ON — HISTORY * 4/8 — Montreal, QC — Newspeak $ 4/9 — Worcester, MA — The Palladium * 4/10 — Queens, NY — Knockdown Center * 4/11 — Philadelphia, PA — Fillmore * 4/12 — Baltimore, MD — Nevermore Hall * 6/5 — Sterling, VA — Crooked Run Brewing ^ 6/6 — Richmond, VA — The Camel ^ 6/7 — Raleigh, NC — Kings ^ 6/9 — Hollywood, FL — TBA ^ 6/10 — Tampa, FL — Skatepark of Tampa ^ 6/11 — Jacksonville, FL — Hard Love ^ 6/12 — Pensacola, FL — The Handlebar ^ 6/13 — Baton Rouge, LA — Mid City Ballroom ^ 6/14 — Houston, TX — The End ^ 6/15 — San Antonio, TX — Paper Tiger ^ 6/16 — Denton, TX — Rubber Gloves ^ 6/17 — Oklahoma City, OK — OKC Farmers Market ^ 6/18 — Memphis, TN — Hi-Tone ^ 6/19 — Springfield, IL — Abraham Lincoln Church ^6/20 — Milwaukee, WI — X-Ray Arcade ^ 6/21 — Grand Rapids, MI — 6th Street Hall ^ 6/22 — Columbus, OH — Dirty Dungarees ^ 6/23 — Buffalo, NY — Buffalo Tap House ^ 6/24 — Troy, NY — No Fun ^ 6/25 — Burlington, VT — St. Anthony’s Church ^ 6/26 — Portland, ME — Geno’s Rock Club ^ 7/17+18 — Chicago, IL @ The Rumble
$ Balmora only * with Poison The Well, Converge, and Spy ^ with Holder and Azshara
