A Musician Freed From Self-Importance Through Music: Dominic Miller

This artical was originally published in jazzdergisi.com on September 11, 2026.

Widely known as Sting’s guitarist, Dominic Miller has 14 studio albums of his own and countless collaborations behind the work that has become part of our collective musical memory. He is returning to Istanbul once again, accompanied by a superb group of musicians. The concert will take place on Friday, September 25, at 9:00 PM at Zorlu PSM, Turkcell Platinum Stage.

Dominic Miller is the first international artist I represented in Türkiye. I laid the foundations of my current work in the music industry with him. We have done three concerts together, a fourth is on the way, and we are already planning for 2027. My work is not limited to connecting artists with concerts and managing the process; it also involves activities that contribute to an artist’s image and visibility. While planning the media campaign for his September 25 concert, I also wanted to interview him myself, asking him the things I was curious about, as well as questions I already knew the answers to but wanted others to hear too. So now, moving back and forth between my manager hat and my journalist hat, I’d like to share Dominic Miller with you.

First, a brief introduction for those who are not familiar with him. Dominic Miller was born in Argentina. Although he is the son of an American father and an Irish mother, Latin American culture is deeply embedded in him. He spent his childhood in Buenos Aires, which was also where his passion for the guitar began to take root. It was a culture where almost every household had a guitar and everyone could play it to some degree. He started playing at the age of nine, and his sister taught him Argentine folk songs. He later discovered the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, British and American rock, and naturally his horizons expanded somewhat, but the musician who set him on an irreversible path was Jimi Hendrix. “If somebody can make a guitar sound like that, then I want to know what this is about.” He was 11 when he said this. Around the same time, he was also listening extensively to Brazilian music, with his focus there being Baden Powell, one of his greatest influences on acoustic guitar. Dominic Miller describes Jimi Hendrix and Baden Powell as his two ‘guiding stars.’ Then came a period of interest in classical guitar, followed by periods of exploring American songwriters and British rock as he moved to the United States and England. The diversity of his musical influences goes a long way toward explaining his lack of a defined style -or, more accurately, the uniqueness of his style.

As a guitarist, he does not see himself as an expert of any particular genre and does not identify his playing with a single style, but says he knows different musical languages well enough to respond to whatever musical situation he encounters. He sees himself more as a chameleon capable of bringing the musical vision of the artist he is accompanying to life, while also being aware that he has a voice of his own. He says he never made a conscious effort to find that voice; over time, it came to him. But he is also quick to emphasise the importance of practice. “Don’t try to create your own identity, if you really want it, it will happen, but you have to do the work and be patient. When I was 15, I locked myself away, I didn’t come out of my room for 10 or 15 years, pretty much. So I didn’t have the kind of teenage years like lots of my friends did. I was obsessed with it. I’m not saying you need to be obsessed. Just play, play as many styles as you can and the identity will find you. That’s exactly what happened with me. Now when I pick up a guitar, the way I play is the combination of all the styles that I like.”

DOMINIC MILLER’S SINGER

At our previous Istanbul concert, while introducing Shape of My Heart, he had said, “My singer and I wrote this together,” and then, laughing, “Everyone calls me Sting’s guitarist, but he too is my singer.”

Yes, the wider public knows him as Sting’s guitarist. To me, his guitar tone is the hallmark of Sting’s songs. Even the least musically trained ear begins humming the song after hearing just a few notes from that guitar. That is a serious signature. Alongside Sting’s songwriting, some of Miller’s touches have also become embedded in the collective memory of popular music. He himself says, “If I have a musical identity, it is my sound,” and the work he has done certainly bears this out.

They have been together for 35 years, both in the studio and on stage. That is an unusually long time in the music industry, and I am curious about the secret behind it.

“Sting and I share a common sense of curiosity when it comes to music. This is what keeps us together. We have an almost telepathic communication on stage and in the studio. We like to surprise each other and even provoke each other.”

He describes him as the brother he never had (he has three sisters) and says he has learned a lot from him, mostly about a lateral approach to music.

Dominic Miller likens being an accompanying musician to character acting. He describes Sting’s songwriting as highly theatrical, with characters that are not necessarily autobiographical. His own playing, he says, is not autobiographical either; he takes on whatever character the song calls for.

So, does he feel that he has the musical freedom to fully express himself when creating or performing with Sting, or is his priority always to serve Sting’s music?

“He gives me total freedom to go as far as I can with the music. If he doesn’t like something I get ‘the look’. The main thing is he likes me to take risks.”

THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU

Dominic Miller is one of the most understated, grounded and fulfilled artists I have worked with in my career. Before our Alanya concert, we were having dinner when he said, laughing, “How un-Rock’n’Roll we are, aren’t we?” Indeed! I mean this both for him and for all the musicians in his band: there is zero diva behaviour and zero hunger for attention. As long as the conditions necessary for them to do their jobs well are provided, they make no additional demands. At our last concert, dinner arrived backstage ice-cold, and I was extremely embarrassed because I am the kind of person who feels responsible even for circumstances beyond my control. They simply ate their food without making me feel bad about it, and even comforted me. I am still filled with gratitude whenever I think about it.

When I reflected on that evening afterwards, I thought, “I suppose he plays for the biggest audiences in the world, eats in the finest restaurants and stays in the most luxurious hotels; he must be satisfied.” And yet, I have seen so many musicians who, even after achieving these conditions, remained unsatisfied, their hunger only growing stronger.

As I have got to know him better, I understand that it comes from being able to move beyond personal importance. He has placed the music -his heart- in the driver’s seat, and has managed to keep his ego where it belongs.

Neither in his music nor in his communication does he shout “Me.” He often says, “This is not about you”, and is aware that, as an accompanying musician, he needs to serve the music. But when it is his own music, is it still not about him? No. The boss is always the music. He has followed it throughout his 45-year professional career, and his excitement is still as fresh as that of the 11-year-old boy. “I’m still excited. I wake up every day with so many things that I want to do and discover.” he says.

Throughout my career, I have seen incredibly talented musicians gradually lose their appetite and excitement for what they do and turn into bureaucrats. I wonder what keeps that excitement alive.

“Keeping my ears and my heart open to everything and everyone helps me stay engaged.”

The fact that his attention is directed not at himself but at what he does is what makes him both an inspiring musician and an inspiring person. He is equally modest on stage, always maintaining a warm connection with the audience. His communication is respectful and full of shared affection. You can see his sincerity reaching the audience; the emotions flow both ways.

He tours with his own band, works extensively with Sting, produces for other musicians, along with many other contributions. What excites him most and brings out the child in him is the feeling of making music for fun rather than for work. Indeed, on stage he seems to be in a playground with friends, creating together, speaking a language we do not understand and having an unmistakably good time.

At the Istanbul concert, he showed his setlist and said, laughing, “I don’t have a setlist, I have like a menu to choose from and they don’t know what we’re gonna play. They really don’t. If they feel insecure, it somehow makes me feel more secure” And yet, as a bandleader, it is obvious that he establishes that sense of security through the space of freedom he creates for his bandmates. Having spent a large part of his career as an accompanying musician, he understands those who accompany him well, passes on his own experience to them, and learns a great deal from them in return. He applies the “This is not about you” principle that defines his work with Sting to his own band as well. He gives them the same space Sting gives him, and they, knowing that their contributions are not about themselves, serve the music.

The views of his bandmates about him also confirm what I have written above.

Mike Lindup (Level 42) - Piano, keyboards, vocal

“I’ve known Dominic since 1978 when we were teenagers at music college in London. We have been a part of each other’s musical journeys since then, so there’s a lot of love and mutual respect between us. As a bandleader he is very precise about the input he wants from us in his arrangements, whilst at the same time he welcomes flair, surprise and irreverence, especially when improvising. He has a keen sense of what’s going on with the audience and will most often treat his setlist of tunes as an A La Carte menu rather than a fixed running order.”

Nicolas Fiszman - Electric bass

“Besides his multiple qualities and skills as a musician, Dominic’s got a remarkable sense to create space in music. In his world, only one note may tell you way more than ten.” 

Rhani Krija - Percussion

“Dominic the friend and colleague, who always stood by my side when I first came to Sting’s bubble.  He is more than a musician for me;  he is an artist, born as such.

He is the manifestation of the philosophy ‘LESS IS MORE’, one tone out of his touch could tell you a whole story… and one line of his drawing could make you imagine a whole movie.

I enjoy not only sharing the stage with him but sharing all the moments of laughter and magic.

He is a guitar magician."

Excerpts from Dominic Miller’s Istanbul concert in 2022 

Dominic Miller spends approximately ten months of the year on the road, with recording sessions and different projects in between. He says he rests whenever he gets the chance; indeed, they want to retreat to their rooms as soon as a concert is over. There is no “let’s go out” or “let’s go to that club” kind of thing. There, you can see they’ve had their fill of all that. In the midst of these extraordinary schedules, these moments of rest are difficult for them to come by.

This pace also requires physical stamina and taking good care of yourself. He does yoga and walks a lot. Walking is his meditation; he often finds the first ideas for his compositions while walking. Chess also helps him clear his mind from his intense schedule; he says he could spend the whole day playing and forget everything else. It is clearly a demanding pace, but if you wake up every morning with a desire and enthusiasm for new discoveries, that energy -and the love for what you do- is what gives you the strength to keep going.

He keeps going, and so do I. But this way, this article may never end. So I am stepping aside now and leaving you alone with the Q&A.

Dominic Miller will perform at Zorlu PSM Turkcell Platinum Stage on Friday, September 25. Personally, I cannot wait. The best part of what I do is listening to music I love and being able to connect with the musicians behind that music. Fikri Karayel, one of the rising names in decent pop music, will take the stage as a guest singer on a couple of songs he describes as “the soundtrack of my life”. He is very excited too, and so are we all.

How did you develop your fingerstyle technique and what does fingerstyle allow you to express that a pick doesn't?

Flesh on strings is a perfect sound I think. I have my own strange right hand technique that kind of has its roots in classical guitar.

You seem to leave a lot of space in your playing. Is restraint something you consciously learned, or is it simply the way you hear music?

I’ve come to develop and understand the function of space in music. I’m still learning but when it’s right it’s magic.

 

You've said that you try to create a narrative with instrumental music, almost like a song with verses, choruses and bridges. What kind of stories are you telling when there are no lyrics?

No particular stories. I am more trying to create a sonic scene where the listener can create a narrative. So structure and form are important.

 

If you had to remove one thing from your playing -notes, technique, effects, or volume- to make the music more expressive, what would you remove?

Overthinking sometimes.

 

At what point does a guitarist stop serving the song and start getting in its way?

When they think too hard.

 

What do you think is harder: finding the right note, or knowing when not to play one?

Ha! Both are important.

 

If you had to name one quality that has been your greatest asset throughout your career, what would it be?

My instincts.

 

How do you deal with a musical situation when you're simply not inspired or when you're feeling stressed?

I stop moving and thinking and try to be patient for the answer.

 

Is there a guitarist who’s playing you still listen to and think, "I wish I'd thought of that”.

Larry Carlton on electric and Baden Powell on acoustic.

 

Are there any younger guitarists or musicians you are particularly excited about at the moment? Anyone you think we should be listening to?

Matteo Mancuso is amazing!

 

You've mentioned that you really enjoy playing to Turkish audience because you feel they have a high intelligence with music, and think perhaps because they grew up surrounded by such a complex musical culture. Is there a particular Turkish musical tradition, sound or instrument that you're especially drawn to?

I love how Turkish music has complex rhythms yet to you it’s quite simple.

 

A hypothetical question, for whenever you have the time and space for this kind of collaboration: if you were to collaborate with a Turkish musician, what would excite you more - working with another guitarist, or bringing an instrument from a completely different Turkish musical tradition into your sound?

I’d love to know more about Turkish instruments and make that collaboration.