Mike Mills

Mike Mills is a graphic designer, a filmmaker, and one of our first features. 

I mean that. One of our first. Like, from issue #1. Yeah, he was in there. We thought of making a magazine and he was the first person that came to mind. That’s how good Mike is at what he does. 

Mike is also a thinker. I say, ‘also’, but after interviewing him at his house in Silverlake, I might argue that Mike is mostly a thinker, and that where many other artists follow a sort of vague direction based on responses from the periphery, Mike thinks his things through and is direct about his output. Where others go bowling and use those gutter barrier things - their eight pound ball bouncing from left to right very pathetically, Mike takes a moment longer to prepare and shoots a strike right down the center lane.

His design work is precise and intentional, with no frills or unnecessary abundance. Each dot is a dot observed and each word is a word understood. His films are the same way. They aren’t meticulous, but they are thoughtful, determined specifically to elicit something from within you, and with a gentleness reflective of his demeanor. 

He spent much of this interview with his eyes squinted and a smile on his face, searching his brain for the truest and most substantial answer he could provide me with, and his brain delivered. He is a no horseshit kind of guy and I appreciate it. As I was setting up the audio equipment for the interview, we began talking about therapy over the phone versus in person. It was a bit of a disagreement. When I said we can start the interview once this therapy talk is done, he said, ‘no, hit record.’ No horseshit. That disagreement is where we begin.