Hillside 9 Logan’s Versatile New All-Aggie Band
A new local band has been seeing more of the spotlight at Utah State University. Ever since it formed a few months ago, violin-toting Hillside 9 has been giving USU students something to talk about at events like the recent Mardi Gras, the Hub during HASS week and Poetry and a Beverage.
Hillside 9 began when music majors Keith Sorensen and Jamie Prince, who had similar ideas about what a band should be, met John Palmer, who Sorensen calls the “fire” behind Hillside 9. Palmer is the band’s lead singer, and primary song-writer. The three held auditions for guitar players, and soon Brad Terry joined as lead guitar and Matt Redd signed on as bass.
The newly formed band found their talents complimented each other well, and their varied backgrounds added a lot to the band’s versatility, Palmer said.
Sorensen, the drummer, and Redd have played a lot of jazz, while Palmer, self-taught, admires the vocal sounds of U2 and Billy Joel. Terry, also self-taught, learned guitar to the tunes of Metallica, though he admits his style has changed since he began to play acoustic guitar. Prince, Hillside 9’s talented violinist/pianist/ vocalist, has played a wide variety of music, from Beethoven to blue-grass fiddle, Sorensen said.
“She can play anything,” Terry said.
“Each individual brings a certain part to the band,” said Jenni Mammen, manager of Hillside 9.
Many of Hillside 9’s original songs were written by Palmer and Terry, while Sorensen, Prince and Redd add their knowledge of musical form and theory, Mammen said.
As a group, Hillside 9 admires the music of the Dave Matthews Band.
“Dave Matthews Band is very human music,” Sorensen said. “His music says things a lot of people want to say, but can’t. That’s what we want to do.”
Also, Dave Matthews Band is one of the few “real” rock bands with a violinist, Sorensen said.
Hillside 9, which takes its name from the USU Hillside apartment No. 9 where many of the group members met, hopes to garnish their “human” lyrics with musical originality.
Hillside 9, Sorensen said, has the potential and ability to make music that is both innovative and easy for people to relate to.
“This is the band I’ve always wanted,” Sorensen said.
“I like their originality,” said USU sophomore Jesse Green. “Almost all the songs I’ve heard them do are original. They don’t just cover a bunch of punk tunes.”
“We’re more versatile than your typical Utah band,” Terry said.
“We can do rock, pop, alternative, even country if we want to,” Palmer said.
“I want our music to help people understand themselves and the world around them,” Sorensen said. “I guess that’s kind of a lofty goal for a rock band.”
“Music is powerful to me,” Palmer said. “I want people who listen to us to feel the way I feel when I listen to music.”
Students who haven’t yet heard the sounds of Hillside 9 aren’t at all out of opportunities, Palmer said. The band will play at tomorrow’s USU Spring Formal, and will open at the Colors concert next week. Hillside 9 also hopes to produce an album over the summer.
“We’ve had a number of people both in and out of state take interest in us,” Sorensen said.
Already, Hillside 9 has gigs lined up in several summer festivals in Utah and Idaho, Palmer said.
With all the promise and potential, the band is still trying to keep the right perspective.
“The goal isn’t as important as the journey there,” Sorensen said.