Paul Mills

Paul Mills is a film composer, keyboardist, producer, and mixer/recordist who spent 30 years making albums with varied pop and Christian musicians before shifting his main focus to film music in the late 2000s. His scores include the 1999 Luke Wilson comedy Kill the Man and the 2015 American football drama Woodlawn. A native of Dumas, Texas, Mills played piano from an early age and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in music theory and composition from the University of Houston. Soon after graduating, he became touring keyboardist for Scott Wesley Brown and Twila Paris. Coinciding with a growing interest in the emerging MIDI technology of the early '80s, he learned his way around a mixing board and began to find work in Houston area recording studios. Alongside work for Christian artists like Petra and Wayne Watson, he contributed to recordings by musicians spanning Air Supply and Sammy Hagar. Meanwhile, his screen work included serving as music director on episodes of Sharon, Lois & Bram's Elephant Show in the '80s, and composing for a number of short films and documentaries. He then wrote the score for the romantic comedy The Marianao Kid, released in 1992. Subsequent credits included 1997's Still Breathing, starring Brendan Fraser, and 1999's Kill the Man. Among several documentaries, including 2009's The Mysterious Islands, he provided atmospheric, keyboard-based scores for October Baby (2011), the inspiration picture War Room (2015), and Woodlawn (2015). By then finding regular work in the movie industry, he also composed music for films such as Molot (2016) and Sweet Sweet Summertime (2017). ~ Marcy Donelson