After hearing "Smoke Trees" by Adam Hill, I knew I had to interview this guy. One of the best albums you've probably never heard. If there is any justice in the music world, that won't be the case in 2011. As Benny Smith, a Knoxville, TN radio personality put it, "Adam Hill has the passion of Westerberg, the emotions of Townes, and can take you as high as the hills of East Tennessee where he was raised."
I had the opportunity to interview Adam over the last couple of days. We talked about his influences, the ups and downs of being a songwriter/musician and why he keeps coming back for more.
T-Bone's Prime Cuts: At what age did you realize that music was "it" for you?
Adam Hill: I don’t know that I’ve ever said that or realized it. I love music. It fell on me as a kid. Lyrics just pummeled me. Sound was like a mountain. It consumes me but there’s always a ton of guilt with it. I have a Protestant Work Ethic and this sort of overwhelming sense of responsibility. So I never looked down the road and saw a time where I could play or make music. When I was in college I wanted to play, I wrote songs in class in my notebook, I ran from class to come home and make demos, I loved my band. But once we were successful enough to be offered something I got really scared because of the unknown. Traveling or making money or being able to take care of my rent and all that. I spiraled into a terror of fear and quit. I clung to the responsibility of having to finish school because that’s what I was supposed to do. So I decided to write the great American Novel. I figured I could write and keep a day job. Have a safe life. When all my friends moved away I started writing songs again. I felt bad to because I had quit music and felt like they all would hate me if I wrote anything new so I did it in hiding. Then I started playing again. I had no idea why. I had no plan. I had nothing. Just play gigs. Drink beer. Try and meet girls.
I was buying tons of records and playing in a little apartment I had making demos. I just played dive bars and stuff in Knoxville. I remember playing The Longbranch a few times. I just wanted to meet a nice girl, settle down and quit. I figured once I found love I’d quit the music thing. I met a girl. We moved to New York. I went up there thinking I could start fresh on that scene or get a real job, whichever happened first. One good thing about moving was it taught me that I could travel. I could leave home and the earth wouldn’t spin off its axis. But New York City, music and I didn’t jell. I couldn’t meet anyone. I had no music friends. I worked with a bunch of guys at a furniture store who were from the Bronx. They dug rap. So I got into rap. I never went out. I was too scared. I recorded demos. I played in my bathroom on my acoustic and made tapes. I pushed the tapes through the mail slot at the Rodeo Bar with a piece of paper taped to it with my phone number. That's how I tried to get a gig. I never talked to no one. I played an open mic once. So I decided to move to Nashville and try to be a songwriter. That way maybe I could write a hit and make a ton of money and be okay financially so I could feel okay to spend my time working on my songs. I was still terrible at meeting people. I stayed in the apartment. I’d go out sometimes and drink in a corner. I went to the Americana Fest one year and sat in a corner at 4 bars in 1 night. Never said Boo to no one. I met with like two Publishers in four years. Both said I was like Bob Dylan, probably not because I am - but because that was the closest thing they could think of. Both said I was way too artsy for anyone to cover. I had a few tunes I could hear as hits but no one else heard 'em that way. I finally made a record but I made it on my 4 track. I think Nashville thought it was a joke. At least anyone who heard it. I just couldn’t see spending money unless I knew I’d make it back. Didn’t feel like I deserved it. Well then I was done with it all again. I ended up living in Chelle Rose’s basement. She was always real good to me. Elizabeth (Cook) and Tim (Carroll) were nice to me. So in the basement, I had 30 or so songs written and I did the demos for them and decided to call it quits. So I quit again. But then my friend Greg needed a guitarist. He met a drummer named Shannon. I figured I’d play for fun. We got paid in pitchers. Then in 2008 I had songs again. This time I made a record for real in a studio. I melted my credit card and took some cash I had saved. So here I am now, but I have a wife and a family and feel really like I don’t need to be playing, like I’m too old and need to just focus on something worthwhile. But I can’t seem to help it. I love writing. I love playing and I figure for the first time in my life I’m going to try hard enough to see what happens. So I can’t say I ever knew a time that I thought music was it for me and I let myself think I could ever have it. Make sense? Music and I fight all the time. It hates me. I hate it. I still don’t even call myself a musician. I always joke that I play the spoons if someone asks me what I play. That was supposed to be an easy question wasn’t it?
TBPC: Growing up in East Tennessee, who were some of the musicians that influenced you early on?
AH: Local ones or big time ones? Well in East Tennessee music is around. I remember all sorts of stuff. Growing up with WIVK. It was country. Back then when it was real cool stuff. Guess I sort of hated it when I was like 8 years old but later I loved that stuff. John Anderson, Oak Ridge Boys, all that kind of stuff. Don Williams. My Dad loved Dolly Parton. My mom had all these Ray Charles records and Brenda Lee and tons of crooners. Nat King Cole, Rosemary Clooney and stuff like that. Then I got into Robert Johnson because of the movie "Crossroads." So, I got into blues. Then around 1985 when I was 12 or so I heard The Georgia Satellites and asked for a guitar for Christmas. I dug hard into The Beatles and The Stones. Then The Who really hit me. The angst of Pete Townshend really spoke to me. Country finally made sense to me I think when I saw the movie The Last Picture Show. I’d been writing lyrics and songs but never had my voice, I wanted to be like Bob Dylan and play guitar like Jimmy Page but then I saw the small town desolation of that movie and it clicked with me and the small town in East Tennessee I lived in. That and I fell in love with The Replacements. Paul (Westerberg) just made everything suddenly seem like it was on fire. I got the way that I wanted to express all the anxiety and fear and anger you get as a kid that’s kind of different and shy. But once country and The Mats happened to me I was pretty clear on what I wanted to do as a writer for the rest of my life. One of the first times I remember seeing a local band and being impressed was when I saw The Viceroys. Scott Miller and John Paul Keith. I saw them open for someone at The Bijou. Maybe it was The Bodeans. I was like - damn that rocked! They were just smoking. Opening up with that Roger Miller song too.
TBPC: One of the first things I noticed about you - was your unique songwriting style, You have a way of drawing people in and making them feel like they know who or what you're singing about. Did you start off writing as well as playing? Or did the writing come along later?
AH: Oh cool. Well thanks. Glad that comes across. I started writing as soon as I can remember. I was making my own comic books. I didn’t get a guitar until 1985 or 86 or so. After I heard The Georgia Satellites but I didn’t pick it up right away either. It ended up sitting in a corner. I had a bad Kay with an action that would be tough for a gorilla, much less a kid. But I was writing stories and drawing them since I could talk I guess. I was into Lennon and Dylan at first. Wanting to write like that. Which is just admiring something you can tell is really great but I had no idea how to turn something that was me. I had no idea what my vehicle looked like. So I wrote reams of lyrics for years. Then I got into guitar and would bash away on an A chord and sing song my songs to a tape deck. That continued on and on till this day. Just hopefully I’m improving as I go along.
TBPC: I've heard Chelle Rose cover your song, "Leona Barnett." As a songwriter, what's it like to hear someone else sing your songs?
AH: I always think wow I'm an awful singer. (Laughs) Really, when I hear someone with a real voice it's always vindicating in a way. I feel like wow, see that was a real song. Julie that sings on my record she's like a pixie machine. I swear all she needs are wings and she'd fly around singing like a siren. When she added stuff to my songs it was like dang maybe i should just have her sing them. I love it when people do my tunes. I had hoped at one time I could make a living off it. Like a Cole Porter or something. I wanted to be this eccentric sort of southern shut in who had a thousand songs and people covered them and I bought cool suits with the cash. I've got other tunes I wrote with folks in mind but CR was the first one that fit.
TBPC: You're a musician who's fought for what he has, struggled as to whether to leave it behind... yet kept coming back to it. What advice would you give to someone who might be going through something similar?
AH: Goodness, that's a good one. It's tough to see that you're not making good decisions when you're battling it all. I guess look up the definition of crazy and really believe it. I honestly feel like if I'd made better choices the last 13 years I'd be much farther along. Maybe hubris but I think that. I guess deciding you're in it would be good. Make sure you're not trying to sneak in the back door because that ain't gonna happen. Really if your worth doing it you'll never stop. You won't quit. Billy Joe Shaver said "I'd quit but there's no one to quit to." So if you're a writer, a real writer, it's a compulsion for life.
TBPC: What can we expect from Adam Hill in 2011?
AH: Hopefully I can keep playing out of town once a month and play Nashville. I have a day job and a wife and 2 kids so this will be a juggling act. I hope to get some new recording equipment and start the task of doing songs I wrote from 1996 to 2006. There are a lot of them but about 40-50 are worth a second look, of that we'll distill down to 30 or so. Hoping to release, digitally, 3 records. It'll be hard but that's the goal. I want to get caught up with my past. I feel like they need to see the light.
TBPC: Any parting words you'd like to leave us with?
AH: Bear with me. Thanks I suppose. I used to always try and be cryptic on the parting glance but I'm too tired now.
Adam on the net:
Photo Credits: Emily Rushton
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