Bootlegger

One musician’s plan to keep the music alive

Three years ago, Mike Gilliland decided he had to write one million songs before he dies. 

Gilliland, a member of The Dull Drums, Cucumber and The Suntans, and Who & The Fucks, eventually realized it wasn’t possible, and “certainly not smart,” to write one million songs. But, refusing defeat, he decided he’d leave his fingerprints on a million songs instead. 

If his current project stays on point, he just might pull it off. 

If you’ve been to a concert in Tulsa since March, you may have seen a headphone’d person tending to a device in the shadows. Arcane and analogue with two wheels whirring, that contraption is a reel-to-reel tape recorder. The shadowy figure, depending on height and hair length, is either Gilliland or one of his friends who have joined his cause. The team’s goal is simple: record as much live music in Tulsa as possible. 

“On a good week, we’re recording five to six shows,” Gilliland told me. Of those shows, most have three to four bands on them. If each band plays eights songs each, and Gilliland does this for even one year, that’s at least 780 songs captured—music that, otherwise, would have been lost to the ether. 

Gilliland accrued the first reel-to-reel as an addition to his toolbox at his Auggy Reed Studio. “There is a way to use these machines and re-create the vocal delay Elvis had,” Gilliland said. “I couldn’t get the first machine to do that trick, but I took it to one of my band practices and bootlegged our rehearsal.” After recording several practices, and being surprised at the playback quality, Gilliland added more reel-to-reels, a compressor, and a mixer to his mobile arsenal. His unique microphone set-up, “The Three Eared Woman,” as he calls it (“because I like to party” he laughed, when I asked why) has been there from the beginning. Gilliland and his team—Orion Kim and Ike Wright— went into the field and started bootlegging shows. 

Moai Broadcast was the first show that really clicked, according to Gilliland. Before winding up his tape, he passed his headphones to the bands’ members and let them hear what they’d just finished playing. He could see blank stares as they listened in, he told me, “and then the smiles came to their faces.” 

That’s when Gilliland realized he was leaving his fingerprints on the songs. With the setup he was giving them a blown-out quality that certain bands loved but would never seek on their own. Soon after he was driving from south Tulsa to downtown five nights a week, leaving his fingerprints everywhere. 

In addition to bootlegging Tulsa groups and national acts passing through, Gilliland does traditional recording work at Auggy Reed. In a few cases where he’s missed a band’s gig, like Japan’s Otonana Trio, he’s had them over the next day to record before leaving town. 

He and his team’s most recent endeavor had them bootlegging the entire Easter Island Festival last month, with video captured by the team from the Tea Room Sessions. With additional help from friends, every song from every band over three days was recorded onto reel-to-reel tape. One of the more memorable sets for Gilliland, who was also sneaking downtown to play with his own bands during the fest, was from Captain Comfy. The band played non-stop from 4:30 to 7:45 in the morning, and Gilliland caught the whole jam on tape.  

Constantly recording projects for himself and his friends, Gilliland surrounds himself with sound 24/7. I asked where money figures into this, and if he has plans to sell any of the bootlegged material. “It’d be nice to do this for a living and quit my real job, but asking for money puts a pressure on the bands and their art,” he said. “Money stops me from making that million songs, man.” 

I asked him what he plans to do with all of the audio he’s bootlegging. Choice cuts of the Eastern Island Fest will be matched with video for a documentary, he told me. A database of everything his team has recorded is also a goal, though that’s down the road. In the meantime, his focus is solely on preserving what he sees as an extremely unique and important time in Tulsa. 

“It’s just a rich oil reserve that keeps brewing up, and I just know it’s going to explode,” he said.

“I just wanna exist in it.” 

QUICK TRACKS

Mike Bell is a man from Philly who plays pop punk and cries a lot. The Movies are his backing band, and they’ll be joined by Lesbian Summer and Lizard Police (full disclosure: I’m a member of Lizard Police) during Pony happy hour for their last stop on tour. May 8th. Soundpony. 5:30 p.m. Free.

Hip-hop/soul/other stuff group Mexican Cartel join the hip-hop/soul/other stuff group Verse and The Vapors to play from Mexican Cartel’s first album, “Nervous Breakdown” to be released soon. May 10th. Fassler Hall. 10:30 p.m. 

Sugary-sweet folk act Desi and Cody has a residency at Cellar Dweller. Pick a Sunday, any Sunday, and go see ‘em. 9 p.m. Free.

Nuns take shape as a full band to release its debut space rock opus, “Opportunities.” Rounding out the show will be Native Lights and The Bourgeoisie. May 16th. Vanguard. 8 p.m. $5. Read my review of the album at thetulsavoice.com.