Growing up in the 1970s, Miller soaked up the musical environment surrounding him in the Motor City, taking a particular interest in the sounds of Motown, Philadelphia, Parliament-Funkadelic, and Santana. It was during the early '80s once the "dance music crazed" Alton became friends with a young Derrick May that he decided to start spinning records, citing Chicago DJs such as Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles as prime influences. By the latter part of the same decade