What should people not familiar with The Hills and the Rivers know about the band, and how would you describe your music?
We're a family band centered around 4 Hill siblings. We're an acoustic ensemble that uses the limitations of our instruments and voices to explore influences from many genres, and we focus on creating music that attemps to transmit healing, inspiration and illumination.
Who or what would you say some of your biggest influences are?
Neutral Milk Hotel, Sufjan Stevens, Black Bird Raum, Rail Yard Ghosts, Leonard Cohen, Fela Kuti, 60s folk revival, old school jazz, old time music!
You played quite a few fests this past year, I remember seeing. What were some of your favorites?
We had a blast at FloydFest in Virginia, the biggest fest we've played at by far. Xtreme Folk Society Fest was a nice, intimate festival with a welcoming family feel. Pyro at Nelson Ledges was awesome, Starwood was an interesting pagan festival with lots of educational work shops, but 4th River Fest was my favorite, being our own hometown featival that we run from our own DIY show space.
Were you excited to share the lineup with anyone?
Oh yeah, playing with bands like Old Crow Medicine Show (a busking band with real deal chops that made it HUGE) Infamous Stringdusters and Jason Isbell (plus so many other great bands) at FloydFest was amazing. It was also awesome to open for Rising Appalachia at Pyro!
Are there any fests you played this past year that you would like to, or are planning on, returning to? Or new ones you might be looking at?
We're returning to Starwood, and a few others that I can't announce yet, and we've set the dates for 4th River to be August 16-18. We're always looking for new fests and audiences to share our music and message with!
What about this tour you're getting ready to go on? What are some shows you're looking forward to?
Excited to get to the west coast again! NOLA is always a blast, and we love the Pacific Northwest, also thrilled to be playing two shows with Mama Said String Band in Louisville and Cincinatti.
What are some other things The Hills and the Rivers are working on right now?
We're working on setting up 4th River Fest and have begun practicing new songs for our next release, which will probably be out in 2020!
What's some of what goes into running a festival like 4th River Music Fest?
Its a relatively small festival, which is good because theres not a lot of space for people to camp, but we are blessed with a lot of abandoned lots around the house and cool neighbors. We had about 300 people over the whole weekend last year.
When will people get an initial look at the lineup this year? What should interested bands know?
Well we'll be playing, obviously, and many acts from the 4th River Music Collective, but we do have a couple tentative headliners we're waiting to announce. We'll probably announce an initial line up after we get back from tour, probably some time in March. We're not really taking submissions, we always have more people that we want to play than we actually have time for!
Don't forget to check out The Hills and the Rivers, and catch them on tour or at a festival near you!
