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Hi, this is Peter Creighton with 773 sounds and we have another great interview lined up. I'm really excited about this one. This artist is a multi-instrumental experimental pop music that waves in R&B and soul music into his music and I've been a fan of his for a number of years. This is Justice Hill.
Justice, how are you doing today? I'm doing great Peter, thank you. So let's go back a little bit to the beginning. How did you discover music?
How did you get into recording? Well, I was raised alongside music. My dad was a DJ back in college and I started singing just so when I could speak. I just grew from there naturally but it was always kind of a love for my distance.
I was sitting in choir and I never thought I was going to be a musician. At first I was really an option. And then along the way I started teaching myself piano very seriously around 16 years old I went out of school just to try to be cool, like in the slow pop song. And I learned it like an hour.
I was like, well this was really fast. So then I just started looking at YouTube videos and playing like Billy Joel songs and a Beatles songs and by the end of the weekend I learned like 10-15 songs. I just felt so good to me and just so natural that I just really went with it. And I was like, well I just went out just for music school.
I went to be a musician and I changed my whole life for it. And it just kind of became, it was this really interesting experience that my friend went out to me recently about how a lot of my friends were musicians who were like raised on these iconic albums and all these like really ten-pole things. I was introduced to them while I was like learning. Like I was introduced to all that I like to tune in on.
But as I was just discovering playing music. So like I got really into the floyd right as I was learning the scales and piano when I was 17 years old. And it's kind of molded how I've viewed writing music in general. That's really interesting because you definitely always hear the story when you talk to musicians where it's like, you know I first heard the Beatles and that made me want to then become a musician.
Whereas you're, it's almost like this parallel track for you where it's like I'm learning this, I'm learning this, I'm discovering all while Pink Floyd did this or Billy Joel did that and then you're almost replicating it. What was that like? Like what was that experience where it's like you're doing it like parallel like to never get overwhelming? Was it exciting?
Like what was the emotional impact with that? It was incredibly overwhelming. You know like I didn't know who I went to I got somehow got into Berkeley College of Music. My first day there I had to be told who the who Miles Davis was.
Oh wow. So it's like it was it felt very much like I was like I went from behind and like felt very underdog type deal. I realized then like 18 I was like if I want to be at the level of where I want to be at which is kind of now it's going to take practicing eight to 12 hours a day five days a week for like five, six years. And so I just like did it.
So I first heard about you a few years ago during COVID you were on a compilation disc called situation Chicago that really helped support independent local venues and everything. It was really cool and seeing where you were then and how you've evolved with your new album which is called Cooler by the Lake that really it just dropped earlier this year. Can you talk to me about like how you've grown as a musician like like how have you grown over the years with how you approach your writing both melody and also lyrics as well. Oh well I'd say it's been COVID right I had so much time but very little influence I felt like that first album I made was very much about being stuck inside and it was very like I was once I released my first song and then that was on the compilation record I realized I had an opportunity to like get all these ideas that I'd been like I've been in my head I've been on my demos I've been recording for me six or seven years to finally like get them down getting out of my career and sometimes I released that I spent the next four years trying to it was really nice to be able to slow down have a little bit of work out there and then I could and I just talked to myself like I wanted to make a full concept I wanted to take all these and I wanted to make something that felt more like my showing my shoe identity is like who I am as a person and so much of my identity I wish for being from the west coast of Michigan I like spending my time between here in Chicago or there in Chicago and so I just wanted to create an album that helps to write that and so write like help show how much I rely on like to be relaxing and peaceful park but I think the people of the city really rely on it quite a bit as like a foundational like it's like a part of identity really is a city like so make an album about something else besides my budget really well I mean it's one of those things too like even just with the title like cooler by the lake that is such a Chicago phrase that it grabbed my ears was like oh that's really clever I like that now when you were writing this album what did you start off with first did you focus more on melody or do you go with lyrics first so I started with I had when I started the album I initially started with a few riffs like I had a couple I had like two lines I had the it's cool by the lake and I had the the hook to think you hate me figure it out like I'm not when I wrote just some piano like so sometimes like especially if it's a song of mine that has it's like boom boom boom boom like I write that phrase I would try to write a lyric for it immediately and that like locks in that section and I try to and then I think of them kind of like building like a lego set or like building out a story right so I've created the connecting parts and I tried not to force any I tried it I want to be a ruler by that with my band is I try to make sure that we have time to think about what we need to write and it's about like I kind of come up with the idea of what I wanted to sound like well before I put pen to paper well like I like but come back specifically I knew I wanted a song that you know I wanted to have a three chord structure that repeats I wanted to feel you know like I want to be pulsating I want to like the same line to repeat over but I want to still be simple and like there's all these like rules I have to have for it and then so that but that way when I know I it makes it much clearer when I've gotten to the point of which I think the song is written where I'm like oh I would she use these things I want out of this but I see this myself to like to go out the box and then after that I built out we had a giant um chalkboard basically with every song every potential party would put into every instrumentation I went through it one check my check my check until everything was done in the track oh that's awesome I really like that for someone's like you had like the map in your head and you just had to put pen to paper order if you will exactly I'm with Justice Hill here on 773 sounds now Justice you got a couple of gigs coming up um where can people go and and check you out live well uh a couple of gigs going up I think pretty soon right after the same is on the 28th of October we're playing Fulton Street Art Collective opening up for this wonderful shot at cover brand with which I have a huge fan of and the following we're playing the hideout opening up for the soaps uh November 3rd and then our big show over the year it's gonna be the empty bottle December 18th and when we were in a Santa costume and a lot of surprises we got a lot of it's going Village Old Genius album release show full band and we're gonna be going crazy so the other prospective websites I check those out I hope to see you there you know awesome now do you have any websites or socials where people can go and check you out and follow you yeah you know I'm on Instagram at Justice Hill and besides that I was linked tree the link tree you know slash Justice Hill I just we were wherever we finally all just a cell dot bancamp.com we want to purchase the album or support me anyway it would be fantastic the new album is it's really good I've really enjoyed it when I listen to and for me like that opening track is so crucial because that's what grabs the listener's attention and right where you started it's a killer jam can you kind of walk me through like your approach of of writing that track yeah so that song was a very delicate process of which I wrote this that was the second thing I recorded for the album which I started with I recorded the like reverse guitar sounds in the beginning it was chords and I'm coming to that base and while I was traveling the country right after I released my first album so I got back to the back we got vaccinated I took my car and I drove to Vermont and I spent a few weeks with people I haven't seen in the long time and it was um I realized that I like killed with the album name like on the drive like I knew exactly I was like I'm doing this and uh this is the line don't move to Chicago if you hate the cold was like the start of it and so I wrote the opening lyrics but it took me a couple months after that to have I wrote the melody but I didn't know what the what the line was gonna be and it's till about maybe a year after that I was just back in my room working on the album on my next album and I was like you back where you started and it just came to me oh my there it is now you've been on the local scene for a number of years now from your perspective what's the Chicago local scene like um what what what gets you excited when you when you go and you play with other bands and everything you know the local scene it it can be kind of tough it's tough to kind of get into it I feel like people here you know the smaller time you get the more people are known each other longer right so it feels a look it's it's tough to like earn the trust of the community sometimes it's um can be a little intimidating for a florid but now that I've been a part of it for this long especially after like taking time to really try to help raise money first like during covid and be a part of this community outreach and all sorts of different areas in the city it's just such a place of honor in my heart like I'd be surprised like the words I encourage for people you wouldn't really expect like the people pay attention people really love them really appreciate art and music share no way that is because it's you know my girlfriend always is afraid to mention music around me because I oftentimes have like kind of hate music like it's hard to say excited about an industry that feels like every day is being taken over it's just a way to do the self things um and make and sell products and it makes it feel like people don't want to be inspired or to feel anything with like yourself and then you know this one was like that's right here someone completely you know what I'm saying I appreciate that and it's like oh no it's technology has made it seem like people are trying to make people do and this city very much does I'm very very proud of you part of it yeah I think you brought up a really good point this this this tool of technology that we were always told was going to unite us and build all this community and everything it's just made everything siloed and cold and you know one thing that I really love about that local community is the fact that it's people there it's people that have a shared life experience singing about what's going on it's relatable it's it's you know people with calluses on their hands that are going out there because they love to do it it's not I need to get a million streams on Spotify or things like that it's it's a passion of it so you know we're college radio station and what would you say to the listener that they want to get into the local scene but they're scared to you know it can be overwhelming trying to find out what it is and not only that you know it's the fear of the unknown how would you encourage that person to say no take that risk go to that local show yeah go local show go to the open mind and don't necessarily get up there but how do people do you know start with just trying to make a couple friends first I don't you know you don't necessarily put yourself in the spotlight right away I was like first yourself out of your comfort zone you can slowly deputel and into the scene and try to see who's like what group of people are smoking your life go say hi people are very friendly here you know you'd be surprised like a little bunch of like that like I see I stopped by the cold jam a couple months ago like I'm like wow there's a whole new a whole new generation of I'm covering the local musicians all me and each other up just worrying about what they're going to do is which is it's nice to see it's definitely the open mic scene is the way that kind of it's how I like my people you know all my friends like my teammates we all my most most have back over Milwaukee back there Justice Hill the new album is called Cooler by the Lake you can check it out on band camp and again you can follow Justice Hill on Instagram just search Justice Hill Justice thank you so much happy to thank you so much for having me at the end of the great day thank you for listening to this WXAV 773 Sounds podcast for more information on 773 Sounds please visit our website wxav.com