James Hill is an award-winning Toronto-based pianist and composer. Most well-known for his work as keyboardist with the jazz and hiphop sensation Badbadnotgood. As a co-leader he has released two albums and two singles with Autobahn Trio. As an independent artist, and band-leader of the modern jazz trio Local Talent, Hill released his debut album entitled Higienópolis on December 20th 2019. Local Talent is a trio of Canadian musicians Rich Brown, Ian Wright and James Hill. Hill’s compositional style, and approach to the piano, is rooted in jazz improvisation, but draws heavily from classical composition and pop-culture of the 90’s, an era which is nostalgic for the young composer.
Aside from his work with ensembles, Hill also composes dynamic music for solo piano, and makes indie music in his home-studio under the moniker Projectwhatever. With over five years of experience performing professionally, Hill has managed to play in over 35 countries at some of the world’s most prestigious festivals including Glastonbury, Montreux Jazz, Sonar, SXSW, Newport Jazz and many more.
https://www.projectwhatever.com/
https://localtalent251.bandcamp.com/releases
James 0:00
Maybe I’ll play some piano for you. Something like that.
Norman 0:13
Everyone, welcome to another episode of I Know this Guy…, the podcast where we dive deep into the lives of some of the most interesting people I know. Before we get started, please like and subscribe to I Know this Guy wherever you get your podcasts. By the way, my kids want me to say something about ringing a bell. What the hell’s a bell?
Norman 0:41
Everybody it’s Norman Farrar, host of I Know this Guy. And today, we have jazz musician extraordinaire, James Hill. James has his own solo projects and part of one of the hottest bands out there, BADBADNOTGOOD, a Hip hop jazz crossover band, and they’re filling stadiums everywhere. I can’t wait to get started. I hope I said that right. jazz, Hip hop crossover bands. Tell us a little bit more about it. Because a lot of people I’ve listened to the band and they are incredible. A lot of people haven’t even heard of that type of genre.
James 1:25
Yeah, The band started about eight years ago, and I wasn’t a part of it back then. I just joined about three and a half years ago, but it’s primarily a jazz band. And I guess the reviewers end up looping it. I mean, the band did some collaborations with Ghostface killah. And also one of their breakthroughs is kind of a collaboration with Tyler The Creator on YouTube. They’re covering an Odd Future song, which is kind of how they got recognition about eight or nine years ago at this point. So that’s where the hip hop connotation comes from. But currently, we’ve been touring a lot over the past three years. And we mostly just play, like we do some collaborations with rappers and stuff at live shows if we happen to know someone who’s at the same festival or something, but for the most part, we just kind of play like psychedelic jazz kind of rock kind of a lot of experimental music on stage. So for the most part, it’s primarily a jazz thing. I know that’s a kind of a vague term. So a lot of people don’t really understand, and including myself what jazz even really entails. But essentially what it entails, to me is just an openness during the performance, and we just kind of whatever comes to our mind, we just let it flow and we improvise a lot and we have loose forms and melodies that we can adhere to if we feel like we’re lost or out of ideas. But yeah, for the most part, I would label it jazz.
Norman 2:58
A lot of times I talk to entrepreneurs and they talk about the power of networking. And in this case, it really is the power of collaboration, isn’t it?
James 3:08
Yeah, yeah. I mean, networking as well, as always a really important part of it. In fact, I went to Humber College in Toronto, and probably, I would say, Yeah, 99% of the people I know today are somehow connected via the network, to those connections that I made while I was at school. So when I moved to Toronto, I met the professors and the other students, and then it just kind of slowly branched out like that. And if I could think of anyone that I know right now, who’s a musician, I could somehow trace it back to Humber for sure. Which seems maybe incredible. But I think I could do it every week. Maybe at the end if we have some extra time to kill you can drop some names and I’ll trace them back by degrees of separation or something like that. But collaborations are really important. I have a new project coming out under the pseudonym ProjectWhatever, which is my Instagram handle as well a kind of facetious name that I like. I chose it because I like to do a lot of art projects, visual art projects, a lot of different genres of music. So with that name, I can kind of do whatever the heck I want, get away with it without too much criticism, but I’m releasing some music for the first time under that under that name, and I’m releasing some features with singers and some collaborations with other instrumentalists and stuff. And it’s just such a common thing now and especially with you know, Coronavirus pandemic, it’s really easy to just kind of reach out to your musician friends and send them some recordings and then ask if they can record something on top and then make collaborations that way.
Norman 4:50
I got a notice just to go into a Zoom room just like we’re doing right now. And it was just the band just getting together for guys and they just broadcast just wanted to get their music out to an audience that they haven’t been able to do in the last eight weeks or so. So yeah, it must be really hitting the music industry really hard. And also, like a lot of musicians, they just love to be on stage and not being out there and just having to go through this type of medium. How’s that affecting you?
James 5:25
I am less solid than some people I know for sure. I mean, I’ve, I kind of thrive in that hermit lifestyle to tell you the truth. Like I have some friends who are just all about playing like they play so much. And when they don’t have an opportunity to play, they feel lost. And I just find them you know, walking around in the sketchy parts of town like blinded and they’re like, what do I do you know that kind of joking but yeah, I think me like I’m used to this lifestyle, just kind of staying at home writing music. I do miss it though. I really miss seeing my friends. Primarily, who are also my colleagues, most of them. I miss playing with them. I miss playing live shows, I miss that rush of being in front of a crowd. Yeah, I definitely miss it. And it’s a struggle and I haven’t actually put out any live performances via zoom or Instagram, television, Instagram TV or whatever. I haven’t put anything out yet. But I’ve been putting some stuff together and I’ve been recording a lot of music in this time. And a lot of it’s coming out in the next couple weeks. Actually,
Norman 6:32
I noticed that you said something about hermit.
James
Hermit the Frog
Norman
Do you get stage fright at all? Or you’re both there and it’s just second nature?
James 6:43
No, it’s definitely not second nature. Yeah, I do have stage fright. And it just kind of shows me that I care about it. Because I’ve definitely played gigs that it’s either at a venue that I don’t like or had a bad interaction with the owner of the venue or something, or like the situation is just like a little unsavory, and I’m not looking forward to it. And I don’t really, or I don’t know, it’s hard to explain the type of situation without coming across as like a jerk who doesn’t care about his trade. But there’s definitely been situations very seldom but that I’ve been in, where I just don’t care about how the music comes across. And in times like that, I get no stage fright. I just walk out and I end up playing a great show, and then I’m happy as a result of it. And it’s like, if only I could trick myself into believing I didn’t care any of the time while playing a show, then I think I wouldn’t have stage fright. But I think I do have stage fright because I just care a lot about what I do, and I want it to come across. And I want everyone to have a good time including myself.
Hayden 7:54
Like for years I struggled with just speaking on a microphone in front of people, right? That’s one thing I’ve kind of always admired about you, James. I feel like your mic banter, at least as long as I can remember, has always been. It’s always held interest. It’s very tangential. I guess that’s how I describe it. I think, like to get around that for me, it’s almost like yeah, tricking your mind into thinking that’s like a fun situation like you just going out. There’s no pressure to like, be something you’re not. And if you’re being honest with the audience, and with yourself on stage, then I think there’s it opens up that communication a bit more or that flow of energy. Because for me personally, I don’t know if you have any thoughts on that, like, Yeah, well, first of all, I appreciate you commending me like that. Everyone is listening to come to a show. I might say something crazy.
Hayden
Yeah. Look out.
James 8:46
I do tend to sit to say things. Yeah, I think I’ve driven by the energy of the performance that like it just leads me into this tangential spiral into like crazy land I shouldn’t use the word crazy so much because it’s you know, not as PC as it used to be. I was listening to a new classical FM right before like I turned it on every morning just turn on my stereo, and new classical FM is on and it’s always the same commercial. It’s like great music for a crazy world. I don’t know, maybe they’re not informed, but you know, whatever. Not really all about political correctness or anything. I just found that funny. But anyways, yeah, I find that when I’m in front of a crowd, I end up getting driven to just say absurd things. And I don’t know what it is that compels me. But I think it’s just the adrenaline of being in front of people. It’s also reassuring that like, assuming your show is well attended, which mine are always sold out. So it’s not a problem. That happened once I think I had all my bucket list to sell at a show and I did that with local talent for the first time, like, a couple months ago, I think it was in February of this year. Yeah, February this year feels like years ago. Yeah, February of this year was the first time so I crossed that off. So I have no real drive to do better in the coming months. But anyway, so yeah, I find that if the shows are well attended, then you know it there’s bound to be a lot of people that are into what you’re saying and into what you’re doing. Like there’s still always going to be people that aren’t into it. And who like if you accidentally make eye contact with them, they’re like, What the f man you know, there’s like what the hell you’re talking about, like you know, not into what you’re saying and that can be really discouraging but then if you just look to the right of them like their girlfriend or their boyfriend or whatever or you know if it’s the case of Dylan’s Shop Maybe they brought like their dog along the dogs are like, “huh huh huh” I’m into this man and just like reassuring or something, I don’t know. There’s always someone that you can look at who can bounce your energy off. So I find unless you’re really bombing the show, and like nobody’s having a good time, which is never the case. And I’ve seen you play a lot to Hayden and like I’ve never seen I have any of my friends I’ve seen I’ve never seen anyone bomb a show. Like, I feel like that happens in stand up comedy is because it’s more transparent, easier to bomb because it’s just you and a mic. Right. But yeah, at least when you’re playing with a group when you’re playing a group of musicians, like you could pass the baton to someone else and just take a breather for a second, like, if you feel like you’re bobbing, but you know, when it comes to talking on the mic, it’s like, yeah, you just look at someone who’s into it, and then you just kind of talk to them or something. I don’t know.
Hayden 11:27
Yeah, I think it’s like a feedback thing, right? or feedback loop. We’re like, yeah, positive feedback. Yeah, and like you said, it’s kind of easy. If you kind of focus on the negative there then you’re going to get negative feedback but if you can try and just focus on the things that are connecting with people or like if you get one laugh or or anything along those lines, like then it’s just gonna spiral upwards, right?
James 11:52
Yeah, it does. It absolutely does. And then that oxytocin or whatever it is serotonin. oxy cotton starts kicking in then you have
Norman 12:02
This cool jazz that’s good. Yeah.
James 12:03
Oh, that’s cool jazz. LSD starts to kick in. What am I talking about? I’ve been talking for 30 minutes. We should play the first song. It actually happens sometimes like I just go on such tangents and then like wow we should really play like I was afraid for the last few locals, so I should mention, because no one probably knows who the hell I am. I should mention that. Yeah, I have this project called Local Talent as well and I’ve a few co lead and self led projects. One of my self led ones is Local Talents. My most recent one it’s Rich Brown on bass, Ian Wright on drums. We’re all Toronto musicians. It’s like a jazz experimental band. We released our debut album in December of 2019. We’re playing shows and stuff as you know, in the wake of the release, and yeah, we only have seven songs, and the album in its entirety in its duration is 30 something minutes, 34 minutes. So when it comes to a show, like a two set show, like at the Rex or at any place where you play we often play two shows two sets that’s like an hour at least of music. And it’s hard to feel like we played two hour shows before. And somehow with seven songs, like it just fills up the time. That’s because I get into these crazy tangents like talking on the mic. And I do it like out of nervous energy, because I’m like, if I don’t talk a hell of a lot in the next, like, 30 minutes, we’re gonna run out of material, and then we’re gonna get booed offstage my greatest fear is to be embarrassed publicly. So I always overcome it, but chatting.
Hayden 13:41
I was around March last year, you mentioned that you were working towards releasing this album, or like it was in the works, then we kind of were getting the grant together and everything for that last March. Yeah. I know you mentioned non musical influences. And I was just wondering if you talk about that especially for a non music audience. I think sometimes the idea of incorporating ideas or the structure of a movie, and like putting that on music might seem kind of foreign. I don’t know if you want to talk about your process with that.
James 14:21
Yeah, I’d be happy to. The process for that project specifically, I was in this zone at that time. I was watching a lot of Miyazaki movies. I was always imagining things like that kind of Japanese animation style in my head while I was writing the stuff I want and the composer for those movies was Joe Satechi and he’s actually supposed to play a concert with the TSO or the National Orchestra, I can’t.remember. I think it’s what the TSO. He is supposed to play a concert at Roy Thompson Hall… anyways, and then COVID struck. And I was like, I’m actually that’s a pro for me because I couldn’t afford tickets. So there yeah, it’s like 250 bucks for tickets. I was like, come on. I’m just trying to live a childhood fantasy here. Anyways, yeah, I often, like visualize that kind of stuff when writing and I wanted that album to sound like a score for a movie like, Princess Mononoke or Castle in the Sky, or house Moving Castle, I wanted it to kind of feel like a score for a movie like that kind of have that emotional undulation from the beginning to the end, which I think it did. So I was just kind of just kind of in the zone at that time. It’s not always my process. But at that time, it certainly was. I kind of have a bit of that now too. But my processes are changing as I use new devices like I’ve been using Ableton so much since being isolated at home. Ableton is a digital audio workstation. It’s like GarageBand on steroids. For those of you who have Mac’s GarageBand It is just like a music recording software. And it’s got capabilities that you can record live instruments into it, but there’s also digital instruments embedded in the software. And you can and you can control them with a MIDI controller as I call them. I have one here I’ve uploaded Matthew recorded. That’s not a real piano, even though it sounds like you know, sounds like Barenboim some Symphony Hall or something, but it’s probably because it was a piano that was recorded there. And, and then put it into like this hard drive, basically I’ll try to simplify it and then you can upload it onto your computer and then trigger the recordings of every single note of the piano using a digital keyboard that’s linked up to your computer. So you can record that way. And it doesn’t just apply for piano, it applies to drums to oboes, to strings to everything. So, I’ve been using that platform a lot to record music, and the process is still kind of new to me. I mean, I’ve been doing it for over a year, but it’s like, no, it’s not new. I shouldn’t say it’s new. I feel like yeah, I’ve got a really good workflow on that on that digital audio workstation. But the process is so different than just sitting down at acoustic piano. Whereas you have clear parameters like 88 keys, lowest key, highest key, the and that’s that’s it and then you got to get creative with it. Whereas with Ableton it’s like, oh, I could be a cellist today. I could be a drummer today. I could be a rapper today. I could be whatever todayI could be a finger cymbals specialist and yeah, with all those opportunities are at your fingertips. It’s like I get so excited. And especially drinking a couple pots of tea a day, it’s like those two, those two things in conjunction, like, just leave me to, like, constantly go down these crazy paths like of workflow where I end up just really frantically putting pieces of the puzzle together to make songs. And I just lose sight of, like, any sort of visualization of those kinds of cartoons that I had during the writing of that album.
Norman 18:36
What was it like for you to go from your smaller gigs into stepping into the BADBADNOTGOOD and now you’ve got some massive audiences that you were playing to?
James 18:50
That’s a good question. I have so many funny stories about playing with BADBAD. We’ve traveled to over 35 countries multiple times, we’ve revisited multiple countries many times, especially like England and other European. Now England might not be a European country for much longer, but we’ve traveled to Asia a few times, South America quite a few times. And like, yeah, just the experience of doing that and playing for huge audiences, like, our biggest audience is probably 25,000 people when we open for the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Barcelona, and going to that from like playing jazz gigs in Toronto for like five people at the Rex. Yeah, or like at the transact or something. Like, there’s more people in the band than there are the audience. It was a trip at first. It was definitely a trip but I adjusted really quickly. I adjusted really quickly. There’s a certain impersonality that comes with larger audiences. It’s like way more nerve wracking now for me to play in front of five people than it is to play in front of 500 people or 5000 people. And the bigger the audience gets, the less, the less personal it becomes. It’s like, man, there’s gonna be at least 1000 people here tonight that have a great time. So it’s kind of reassuring, kind of like what we were saying before with Mic banter. So the funny story about that is that the first show we played together was, I think, 2016 or 17. I can’t remember which one but we played at the Ace Hotel in LA and it was like this really cool event like Bilal was there, Napalm was there from, Hiyatus Coyote. Who else is there? Like Miguel Atwood-Ferguson was there like Kamasi Washington was there and it’s like a crazy lineup of just really talented people. We’re playing and it’s my first show with them ever and it was like in a really intimate theater, kind of bridge the gap between big audience and really intimate small spaces. I was really nervous as this is the first show like this I’ve ever played. And then we yeah, we played it and it was cool. It went pretty well all things considered. I just tried to get the songs right and play some interesting solos and stuff. But then right after that, they’re like okay, we got this crazy opportunity to go open for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. My second gig with the band was flying to Barcelona to open for the Chili Peppers in a stadium like a stadium show. It was insane. We got there and it was just really hot. I’m like oh man, like I was just in LA a couple days ago and like, flew back to Toronto and went immediately to Barcelona for overnight like we were there for one night and flew back. And we get there and then our musical hospitality guy like pick this up at at the airport is like tiny like Tiny Spanish car and we all crammed in there with like all our instruments and like it was like really hot and he’s driving like super fast and I was like oh man, we’re gonna go play a stadium gig that same day the same day we landed we played the show. So we went straight to the stadium. There were like 500 people on staff they’re just setting up like with scaffolds and cherry pickers and stuff setting up lights and and we did our soundcheck and, and then like the show came, and I just really wasn’t nervous. Really, like I was nervous, but I wasn’t as nervous as I thought it would be. And I think it was just by virtue of the size of the crowd. It was like impossible to fathom who was there because there’s so many people there. It’s like, oh, man, my mom is watching Oh my you know, my whatever like is these people that might make you nervous because they’re, I mean, my mom doesn’t make me nervous when she sees me play but, but so bad example but you know, there’s like be like, oh Herbie Hancock’s in the crowd or whatever. Like he’s watching my show and Herbie Hancock has seen me play. We play the same festivals now. It was nerve wracking when there’s like these people you look up to who do what you do to a really high level. It’s kind of nerve wracking, but like, I knew there would be amazing musicians there. But I also knew there was like thousands and thousands and thousands of other people who I just didn’t know. And so that kind of takes the edge off. It’s interesting. And then after that Barcelona show, we ended up playing like hundreds more shows, and it just kind of got easier and easier as we went on.
Norman 23:25
So who was your biggest influence in jazz? Or who is?
James 23:31
So I think, in terms of the notes that they play, like, music, musical style, as opposed to like, who influenced me to go into music because the person who influenced me to go into music was my high school music teacher Greg Runions. So he is probably the biggest influence all things considered. He was also a good great piano player and vibraphone and drummer but in terms of people I really look up to as like their styles as musicians, I would say as a pianist specifically, Lennie Tristano, I just love. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of him, he’s kind of a little niche. Have you heard of him, Norm? I know Hayden has, because we’re in a group together that plays all that interest in music.
Hayden 24:21
What a phase…
James 24:22
Yeah, that phase hasn’t died, man. I still listen to Lennie Tristano and Juan Lee Konitz. It’s Connie Crothers, all the people from that from that school. And anyways, yeah, so he is probably my biggest influence as a pianist because he’s so free and he was around the time of Charlie Parker and Bud Powell and Billie Holiday. And the thing that’s most interesting about him for me, and it’s L E N N I E if you’re looking him up right now, trying to get on that inspo. He’s really interesting to me because he didn’t really adhere to the norms, the jazz norms, of which were kind of basically just sound as much like Charlie Parker as possible, was like what everyone was doing like back in the 40s and 50s. And he didn’t sound like Charlie Parker like he definitely was very influenced by Charlie Parker and Bud Powell and Billie Holiday. But he had his own style. And he was blind. Like he’s one of the like 50 famous blind pianists. And there’s so many blind pianists. And he just invented this whole style. It’s not super popular now. Not a lot of people when you say, who do you know who are jazz famous jazz musicians, like no one really knows who Lennie Tristano is unless you are a jazz musician. But he invented this style that’s just so interesting. And he had a school out of his apartment in Manhattan. And yeah, it’s just such an interesting guy. And I love his style and his approach and I really relate to it. So I would say he’s my biggest influence as a pianist.
Norman 25:55
I got to check it out. So Hayden, you’re gonna have to pull some of his music for me.
Hayden 26:00
Got all the good
James
Just download the workbook after this podcast and I’ll list the influences and source material and Barbers. Who sharpens Norm’s beard scissors, barbecue, sends him all ablaze. We’re kind of entering a new era. Like a lot of jazz musicians who are very famous are like, reaching the end of their lives. They’re like, super old. And it’s kind of sad. For instance, someone like Barry Harris or something a very famous pianist. And he’s such an influence even to like, really young jazz musicians today and just to have someone around who knows people from back in the day, who kind of invented the music that they’re into, assuming they’re into jazz is like an asset beyond measure. So it’s, it’s kind of like a new era we’re entering. There’s not gonna be many people who knew all those cats from the back in the day left. So I don’t know how like institutions and stuff we’re going to move forward with the canon of jazz it’s going to have to, it’s going to have to take a leap forward I think because it’s going to be harder to you know, be so enthusiastic about things that happened so long ago where there’s nobody left to kind of tell the story you know, it’s not gonna be that interesting for younger musicians.
Hayden 27:25
Like classical music where you kind of, there’s like a lineage of like teachers or you know, you can trace back certain teachers having studied with you know, so many generations back like not exactly sure how it works, but apparently, you can trace back certain teachers to like say Beethoven or someone like and kind of know who’s been in contact with them all the way down throughout history like Nadia Boulanger. She’s a good example because she’s studying with Gershwin and everything Herbie Hancock and Aaron Copland, no not Herbie Hancock, maybe Keith Jarrett, anyways, so many people have studied with Nadia Boulanger. We should do a fact check on this later. But yeah, I know Nadia Boulanger is French teacher basically, like a pedagogue and she knows like everyone and I’m not sure if she’s still living. I’m sure she’s very old. But she’s a legend. And like, everyone goes to study like classical. Not even just classical but like music composition, form, music, theory, all this stuff with her. And if you do that, like that credential looks amazing, because it’s like Nadia Boulanger for Christ’s sakes. Like she’s super, she knows everyone and since she knew everyone, you’re right, like just by this theory that you’re kind of talking about, like she probably knows people, who knew people, who knew people and like just kind of that society passes on to the generation that like close knit society of people who excel at what they do. And so maybe she like knew Gershwin, who knew someone who knew someone who knew someone who is like shoot, I don’t know,
Norman 29:16
Dog walker dog, the dog walker of?
James 29:19
Yes, whatever it may be like, Yeah, no, that makes sense. That makes a lot of sense.
Norman 29:25
I tried to play instruments. I was never very good, although I did play the trumpet for a few years, and I did like it. So my buddy Terry Charles, he’s a musician in Toronto. I bought a saxophone from him. And we decided that, oh, it’d be a great time to go up and visit my parents. They were in Maine, and I took it with me. So I went out on the stone and it was a quiet afternoon when I started playing. And I’m trying to play and I know, at that second, I knew I should just stop everything. Anything I ever have tried in music when I heard shut up? Shut up.
Norman 30:09
Somebody was listening to me trying to play the Tenor sax.
James 30:12
Oh what gig was that? It must have been me.
Norman 30:15
Oh, was it?
Norman 30:19
Well anyways, I just pissed off some family and I just thought I’ll pack it up and that was it for my musical career.
James
No, seriously?
Norman 30:28
Yeah, I mean, I wasn’t very good. But you know, then I passed on all my musical talent over to Hayden and you know, the other guys and they took it from there. So,
James 30:39
but yeah, you got Hayden like now you can live vicariously through his musical abilities. Like he’s like the armchair coach. Right. So yeah, exactly.
Hayden 30:51
You can never tell me to shut up now.
Norman 30:53
That’s it.
James 30:54
How are you so sure that they were yelling at you? Was it maybe you’re just so self conscious that you assume that they are
Norman 30:59
They were yelling at me. I could hear it like they were just yelling up the hill like, Shut up.
James 31:06
Oh, man.
Norman 31:10
You can hear the guy’s wife in the background. You know? She was screaming as well.
James 31:15
Really?
Norman 31:16
Yeah, I guess it was really bad.
Hayden 31:23
Triggered some weird trauma.
James 31:27
Yeah, maybe they’re veterans or something and like someone instead of bugle, they had saxophones on the front lines. Who knows? And you were playing saxophone in tone.
Norman 31:39
So I decided to grow a beard instead. I’m good at that.
James 31:44
Oh, you’re the best at that. No doubt about that.
Norman
The keyboard, so was that your first choice? Is it your love?
James 31:55
My love is sitting in the other room. She can’t hear you,Obviously.
Hayden
But if I scream louder.
James 32:06
I’ll tell her after.
James 32:10
If you scream louder, you turn up your turn up your output and scream louder. I’m not gonna be able to go through the rest of this podcast. I already have. I feel like I already have hearing loss like you got tonight is for sure. Like I feel that night. Why do you hear that ringing? It’s like, I think the refrigerator’s ringing. It’s like sometimes it is a refrigerator, but it’s also topped off with a little bit. You know what I mean?
Norman 32:33
Yeah, I was in the military years ago and in the artillery, and we didn’t use earplugs back then it was just PAW
Norman 32:45
Didn’t you even put grass in your ear or anything like that?
Norman 32:48
I can’t remember. Like I was trying to figure out if we had earplugs. We didn’t put grass in the ear. Nor any type of you know, deer poop or anything like that. But I was trying to figure out like did we ever use those earplugs in? I can’t remember. I don’t think we did. But nowadays, like if I see anybody, you know what? In the artillery, you’ll see them with headphones.
James 33:12
I wonder, wasn’t Napoleon an artillery commander? I wonder if he wears bugs in his ears or whatever. Right if you had hearing loss?
Norman
Who knows?
Hayden 33:21
Definitely had noise cancelling headphones.
James 33:22
I think so.
James 33:24
He had some beyerdynamic dt 770 80 ohms on at all times.
James 33:33
That’s really cool. We should do a podcast on you we should flip the switch at the end of this and because that’s interesting.
Norman 33:43
You know this guy then and we can.
James 33:45
Yeah, I know this guy. I actually recommended you as the next guest for this podcast.
Norman 33:50
Okay, perfect.
James 33:51
sent it to him. But to revert back to your question about influences and piano and love, I think I started piano when I was six and then quit like six months after because I hated it. I was always pretty adept at it. I just because I love tactile stuff like I was really into sculpting and, and visual arts and making stuff with my hands. I used to make jewelry too when I was younger and so I was always pretty decent at it, but I just never liked it because I didn’t like the discipline of practicing and I hated school to time I hated schoolwork. I kind of have a bit of ADHD or like OCD or something, drop a bunch of medical terms and maybe I have one of them. But yeah, I have trouble like focusing on schoolwork, especially work that people tell me to do. It’s always been a struggle for me. So I like piano. I’m surprised I didn’t stick to it. But I think I just didn’t stick to it because people were telling me what to do. So anyway, so I gave that up and then it wasn’t until late high school that I actually got into it. I was really into rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Dream Theater actually. And who else was like like Metallica, a little less than Metallica but it’s also really into Hip Hop, which didn’t really have an influence on my picking up an instrument again, but I remember I would always listen to like, like G-unit and Eminem and all and JC Black Album and that was like all coming out. I was listening to those every single bus ride which is an hour long as I grew up in the country, or just listening to these albums on repeat until I got to school. Anyway, I decided to think about getting a guitar. And I asked my parents one year for Christmas, if they would buy me an acoustic guitar because I wanted to like to play some Led Zeppelin tunes, primarily, Stairway to Heaven. Of course, the last part of Stairway to Heaven. Anyways, my parents got me a guitar, acoustic Yamaha guitar and Yamaya Turner, I think they bought it at Costco, actually. Funny enough as a classical guitar, I still have it actually lent it out to a friend of Singapore getting it back soon. Sentimental value. Anyways, and I got really into guitar and I joined a jam band at school, this would have been in grade 10 or 11. Yeah, grade 10 second semester, and I got really into it. And I was super into Jimi Hendrix at the time as well. And I was like, oh, man, I need to, like I want to play electric guitar now. And like so as most people do, they migrate to electric guitar, Bob Dylan case in point. And then I started playing electric guitar in the gym. And then I met this guy, John Kennelly, who also went to the same high school as me, which is Napanee District Secondary School. And he was so good. Like he was 10 times better than I was, and he just had like all his chops together. He was like transcribing solos, I can’t even pronounce transcribe because I wasn’t doing my English lessons correctly. And, and yeah, and he just kind of discouraged me I was like I need to maybe think about doing another instrument here where I can excel because I just felt like I could never catch up to this guy. And my pride was hurt, you know. So it was kind of fortuitous that my high school music teacher asked me if I wanted to play piano and he knew I had some experience when I was six. I guess I told him, although you didn’t really need any experience to be in the jazz band at Napanee District Secondary School, because not a lot of there weren’t a lot of musicians there. Yeah. And the ones that were, got beat up on the schoolyard. But yeah, there’s an opening for the jazz piano slot and it has this beautiful Korg Oasys key or chord track, no cargo aces keyboard in the music room, and it was like a big expenditure for the music program to buy this keyboard. I was like, that’s what I’m gonna own that I’m gonna like, rain over that thing. And so I just like spent so much time practicing just to be in the jazz band. And yeah, I cultivated skills on the piano really quickly and kind of gave up guitar for a couple years and I got really good at piano and and my high school music teacher gave me a mix a mixtape of like Chick Corea, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald likes a lot of the classics John Coltrane, Miles Davis. A lot of the classics like jazz piano players like Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock and Bud Powell and all those guys but then also just classic jazz recordings. I had never even heard any jazz until that point, which would have been like grade 11 in high school, and I was kind of blown away that they were just kind of improvising that stuff on the spot like on the fly. And, and I realized I was what I wanted to do because I thought it was super fun . It aligned exactly with the type of person I am, which is someone who likes to you know be tangential and just kind of feel free to do whatever. There’s no restrictions in jazz. And I just fell in love with it. And the piano just kind of happened to be the instrument of choice at the time because of a series of events. And then yeah, and then I was like, I’m going to go to Toronto and study at Humber College is the only school I applied to and then I got in, thankfully, and I went there. And then I honestly haven’t even looked back since and but now I play tons of instruments. I play guitar pretty well. I play guitar, like as much as I play piano now. Especially nylon string guitar, Brazilian music I’m really into and drums and stuff like that. But yeah, piano is like my main jam.
Norman 39:48
So James, we usually talk about a quote on the show. Oh, what’s your quote and why did you select it?
James 40:00
That’s a good question. Let me pull it up. I know I gave you a Schopenhauer quote and yeah and Zadie Smith quote. I honestly tell you the truth. I’m not really a quote guy like. I do read a lot like my second biggest No, my first biggest hobby is reading.No, It’s not considering that music is a hobby because it’s not a hobby. It’s a lot more than that. But I read a lot as much as I play music and I love to read. I love to write. I love to take writing classes and stuff like that. But I just for some, like, I don’t remember quotes, I can paraphrase a lot of a lot of quotes and ideas from authors that I like. But anyways, I so when you when you ask me to think of a quote, I did struggle a little bit because I don’t really remember that many but I did come up with some that I remember resonating with a lot when I read them, and one of which is , “Resounding streets and towns robs life of all peace and pensiveness” and that’s a quote by Schopenhauer. And I chose that because, I don’t know, I thought it’d be interesting to kind of talk about your thought it’d be relevant to talk about how all of us as musicians are kind of getting by during isolation and like, are we able to stay focused on what we’re doing? being at home, like unless you have a home, unless you have a remote studio, which I don’t I just, I’m in my bedroom, literally, right now. And I do a lot of my writing in here as well. It’s like there’s so many distractions. It’s crazy, like distractions from just literally everything other people in the building like people calling me like, like just you know, Everything I don’t want to get too specific but like, specifically, to get specific, the traffic outside is like insanely annoying, you know. And it’s like, I’m just trying to kind of get my workflow going. And there’s all those distractions that come with home life, being at home, that kind of get in the way. And it’s hard to make the division between just being at home, taking time off, and also still getting work done during isolation. So I thought that that quote was kind of fitting at this time.
Norman
I remember a movie, I think it was with Bill Murray. And he’s the same thing. He’s trying to get away from the loud noises of the city so he can focus. He’s a writer, and it gets out to the country and it’s beautiful. And what ends up happening is every day he’s trying to write something right. And he’s got a bit of writer’s block. Now everything’s quiet, it was a typewriter back then he’s sitting there. He’s just trying to think of something and then he hears this beautiful chirping noise of this bird. And he’s trying to figure what he’s going to write, keeps hearing this beautiful melody and he’s, you could see it he’s just you know, well after a couple of minutes that bird says get out his voice and all the sounds of the beautiful the country that everybody would think at first glance is calming and soothing ended up driving them absolutely crazy. And he related it back to the city. Well, it’s interesting because it is very hard to isolate, to have a, you know, to shut off everything so you can focus on something because I always find that there’s always that annoying something. Yesterday you know, we have a perfect Sound Studio, Everything was quiet. friggin lon more or your emails you start to do something and 20 emails come in. Well, what do you do, you check your emails. So trying to create that invite either if you’re a musician, or if you’re just the average Joe it’s so hard to do.
James
And to kind of expand along those lines. Yeah, Schopenhauer in this quote was talking specifically about whips because you know back in his day there were horse drawn carriages. And his biggest pet peeve was people whipping their horses or like brandishing their whips in the air. Just I don’t know. I’d have some display of something I don’t know if it’s macho whip.
Norman 44:37
It’s called whip MV.
James 44:42
Yeah, and he just goes on. I think it was called noise or something in this essay and he just goes on and on and on condemning whips. He’s like, these people who are whipping should be whipped like he stalked me like all this stuff and you know how caustic and intense. I don’t know if you’ve ever maybe you don’t but I don’t know if you’ve ever read Schopenhauer but he’s like Pretty like, or like he’s, he’s pretty intense with his criticism of things and he’s very straightforward and Frank and to like, comedic level and it’s funny to read how pissed off he is about these whips that are just going by outside and it’s like for me the whips are these these like motorcyclists and. I have nothing wrong, I have no problem with motorcyclists and I myself, have my motorcycle license and used to ride. I sold my bike about two years ago for studio time because I didn’t have any money and I recorded an album. But anyways, yeah, like I love the culture behind motorcycling. I love it, but like the man, a lot of these Harley’s they’re getting louder and louder. And they just like you know, their engine decompressing or popping from like first a second and just like accelerating out of a light or whatever it is. It almost feels like my glasses are gonna shatter and I’m not even kidding. And I live like that. Right on a major street in Toronto, and I was once in LA. I was at a Thai food restaurant and a motorcycle went by and it popped from first to second gear. And the glass of the restaurant shattered. I kid you not. I was there with BADBADNOTGOOD and we’re eating spicy food. We’re sweating. We’re already pretty anxious because like, am I gonna survive this meal? And then all of a sudden it sounds like a gunshot. And we thought someone shot up the place but it was a motorcycle, like either backfiring or are switching gears and like revving I don’t know what it was but it pops so loud. And then all the glass just shattered and everyone was just like, holy shit, like what just happened? So it’s like, something that is that loud and distracting, can just be so commonplace or is just so commonplace in our societies in our cities. It’s like how you would expect anyone to get work done at home you know, unless you have a nice sound isolation booth or whatever. And when it comes to reading, for instance, a hobby I just said I like to do. It’s like I used to go to the library and find peace and quiet there. But now there’s no Library’s open. There’s no cafes, quiet cafes open. There’s nothing like I’m in my house on a major street in Toronto and there’s like people screaming, there’s like engines backfiring, there’s like, I don’t know, there’s all sorts of distractions and it’s just kind of hard to keep peace of mind.
Norman 47:22
Yeah, can’t wait for this COVID virus thing to settle down so we can get back to a little bit of normal life.
Hayden 47:30
I feel like this time kind of presents itself as an opportunity to try and find some quiet. But if you’re in a situation where you can’t really escape or like it’s like you said with libraries, everything you had resources to get away and focus. Like, if you’re in a situation where that’s not possible. It’s definitely detrimental to your work. It is like or can be.
James
your mental home, even
Hayden
Yeah, and then even to go further, it’s kind of interesting where the hustle and bustle of everyday life kind of can force you to ensure that you have time for quiet. If you’re busy recording or gigging or working in any sort of time, that’s something in your day that you have to do. And that’s already like just a set thing in your schedule that you have to do no matter what. I feel like for me personally like having at least one thing to do in a day forces me or it kind of opens the door to add other things, like blocking off another half hour to read or just to think or write or practice or I don’t know if you’re that way James. That’s kind of like what I’ve noticed we’re because everything bleeds into our everyday kind of bleeds into so every hour plays into every hour kind of during this time. It’s harder to set a schedule for yourself or like to be disciplined.
James
It is yeah, it’s like I just want a lot of hour to do one specific thing, but it’s like, it’s hard when you’re at home because it’s like, oh, let’s have tea together. Like we might go up. It’s like, Oh I’ll just take five minutes to have tea. Okay, let’s play cards. Let’s play Buraco. It’s like, Oh, you want to up the Ante Eh? Get into a serious, but now we don’t, we don’t gamble. But like it’s like, whatever. Like, we’ll just do things that are common while you’re at home, that are not common if you weren’t at home, like distractions, essentially. And it’s really hard to allot an hour aside to just get in the zone, and just get in a state of flow and just get something done. Yeah. Yeah, it’s, it’s tough.
Norman 49:33
So yeah, we’re all struggling with this COVID-19 but along those lines, what are the types of struggles that you have to overcome to get to where you are now?
James 49:45
I got bullied a lot when I was a kid, because I was like, overweight, you know. And like, I mean, I’m super tall and skinny now and like, exercise a lot. And I tell people, you know that I was like a fat kid. No people believe it but like, Yeah, I got bullied a lot like when I was in elementary school. And that was always challenging, but I always had like lots of really close friends at the same time. So I just know that it did have an impact on me. The way that I view social relationships and the way I act in relationships myself, I’m very aware of the kind of trauma that exists from having been bullied when I was younger. So that’s always been like a challenge for me personally. And also just this feeling, I’m kind of a perfectionist. And as I mentioned earlier, like I feel like I have trouble with attention. Like I get this really frenetic energy and like I shake my legs and click my toes and do all these things to kind of expel that energy, but since I’m a perfectionist, I really struggle with knowing when something is finished, and it’s always been the problem. And it’s the problem with my last two releases under Projectwhatever. I’m releasing two singles which will be out probably by the time this podcast comes out. One’s called Nowhere for me, the other one’s called Promise. And like, I recorded them, mixed them, edited, mastered them, performed on them, like did everything for these tracks and, and like, I just never know when it’s finished, you know. And that’s really hard. And that’s really hard when you want to produce creative work and you want to just finish it, get it out there and move on to the next thing. So, all through my life, I’ve just like, I think it’s kind of a blessing and a curse because it’s also driven me to do things to a really high degree to like be the best at something for instance, like I just want to, I have the ability to put the time in because I want to be the best and like I want to be the best I can be and what I see my shortcomings so clearly. Even though you know a lot of other people by standards, audience, whatever they don’t really, they don’t really notice it, because it’s a personal thing. But I’ve always struggled with that, like, just how much is enough? And when can I take a break? You know? And that’s particularly evident now while I’m at home all the time, it’s like, how much during the day do I have to work to feel content? And then when I’m content, how do I go about taking a break? How do I go about having a weekend go into the park and not think about stuff that I think I need to do, or I want to do? Like, should I remaster this song for the 15th time, like, I don’t know, it’s really hard to know these things. And I know a lot of people struggle with that same thing with the same idea of perfectionism and not knowing when something is finished at work is finished. But like, yeah, it’s kind of a hindrance for me. I’m struggling with that constantly.
Norman 52:57
Again, how do people get a hold of you?
James 53:00
Oh Siri thinks I’m talking to her. Hold on. When I say ever said check me out she thinks I say hi name checker I am. Yeah. Anyways, yeah, check me out at Projectwhatever on Instagram and on Facebook check me out a Projectwhatever. You can also follow my band Local Talent at project Local Talent on Instagram but there’s also a link to that in my Projectwhatever main profile and then you could check out, I have multiple other projects like I have, I have a band called Autobahn Trio. It’s another Toronto band. It’s like an experimental jazz band. Real kind of real trippy stuff. Real abstract. You can check that out. If you want to CD or something. You can send me a private message on Instagram. I’ll respond to it. I’ll ship a CD. I’ve shipped them all over the world already. It’s no problem. We got some merch too. I make a lot of merch by hand. Also, we have a sh
Hayden 54:05
T-shirts.
James 54:06
Yeah, those are cool. Like me and my girlfriend do a lot of just fun like arts projects and stuff like that. And like you can see that’s her blanket she made on the wall. Yeah, I wish I could give you an apartment tour. But you know, that would be a little so I have to carry an interface keyboard, a microphone, microphone stand, computer, and my tea that’s kind of essential. I’m just like, carrying all this stuff around. But anyways, yeah, so that’s how you can get a hold of me. I got, I’ve, by the time you’re hearing this, I probably have two releases out two singles. That’s under Projectwhatever. You can check it out on Spotify. You can check out all of my stuff on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Google Plus, title, whatever streaming platforms you use. And you can also buy it on iTunes or buy it on Bandcamp. If you want to support me, that money will go to good use. Yeah, that’s how you find me. No, no secrets there.
Norman 55:05
We really appreciate you being on the show. And we always ask one question, and I’m gonna pass that torch on to you. Do you know a guy? I do.
James
I know one guy. I actually know two people who would be really good for this show. One, his name is Warren Katz. Really interesting guy. He was the tour manager. He is currently the tour manager for BADBADNOTGOOD. A close friend of mine. We’ve traveled so much together. He also travels with other bands, like Tennyson, and Ryan Hemsworth and travels a lot and he’s got so many stories like specific stories about the music industry, having dealt with many artists across all genres. like different levels of popularity, fame, etc. But on top of that, he’s just like a vagabond like this guy cannot stop. Like, even when he’s not working as a tour manager, he’s traveling, like he’s got the travel bug. And since the day he got his motorcycle license when he was 16. I think when he turned 17, he went straight to India and did a motorcycle tour solo motorcycle tour like across India. And he’s done tours across like Vietnam across like, across the entire world, like he’s across South America. He owns like 300 cars, and motorcycles. Yeah, like not not currently, but has owned over the course of his life. And he just keeps, like, he loves getting new cars and selling them and then, like, he knows everything about the automotive industry and like, he’s just such an interesting character. He’s got stories from all angles. So I think he would be a great person to talk to a close friend of mine. The other person is my partner’s father actually, he’s really interesting. He’s Brazilian. And so my partner’s Brazilian and we go to Brazil as often as we can. And he’s, he’s kind of like an entrepreneur, urban planner. And he has this company called obey, and it’s about bringing affordable social housing to San Paulo. And he just has all these really innovative, he’s an innovator. He has all these innovative ideas. He knows so much about what’s going on in the world, especially in terms of Urban Affairs. And it’s really interesting to talk to, I think you’d make a great guest.
Norman 57:44
They both sound awesome. That’s great. Okay, sir, well, thank you for spending your day with us or part of the day. Go back to the mean streets of Toronto.
James 57:56
I actually am going to hit the streets to buy a couple of herbs, I think, for my sister for her birthday so don’t tell her.
Norman 58:00
Oh, absolutely, you got my word. Hey guys and gals. Thanks for listening. For more great content please like, subscribe and follow I Know this Guy on all social media platforms. I know this guy relies on listeners and IQ. Please visit our Patreon page to find out how you can help.
Date: June 30
Episode: 6
Title: Norman Farrar introduces James Hill, an internationally known, award-winning musician and collaborator who is part of the Toronto, Ontario-based jazz ensemble BADBADNOTGOOD.
Subtitle: Nowhere For Me and Promise
Final Show Link: https://iknowthisguy.com/episodes/06-james-hill/
In this episode of I Know this Guy..Norman Farrar introduces James Hill, an internationally known, award-winning musician and collaborator who is part of the Toronto, Ontario-based jazz ensemble BADBADNOTGOOD.
He is a perfectionist and has explored multiple genres. He started his self-led band Autobahn Trio and projectlocaltalent. He has two new singles, Nowhere for me and Promise.
If you are a new listener to I Know this Guy…, we would love to hear from you. Please visit our Contact Page and let us know how we can help you today!
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