mills went into the studio in 2000 to work on a solo album. later that year, he toured with a group of musicians under the name pi, first supporting robbie williams on his uk arena dates, then for some smaller headline shows. a new album was scheduled for release in spring 2001 according to mills' official website and the "nme". however his uk record label didn't feel the material proposed for release was commercial enough, and so mills negotiated an exit from his contract with them in 2001, continuing to record for the rest of 2001 without a uk record deal. he played at the glastonbury festival in 2001 with suns of arqa. at the start of 2002, he began working with andy nixon and dan mckinna, formerly of straw, and the trio formed a group, the jeevas. mills ditched all his previously recorded material up to that point, though some tracks would later feature as jeevas b-sides. they released two albums, toured throughout 2002 and 2003, with some dates in mid-2004. their records were released on their own cowboy music label in the uk and mainland europe, and by sony in japan. some tentative work was done for their third album, but when it became apparent during 2005 that the reformation of kula shaker would be permanent, the band officially split up.