Head For The Hills Q&A

by Kyle Mathes on October 6, 2010 in Music News

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Fort Collins, CO – An early October evening in a Northern Colorado college town brings us to a split-level home where a maroon Dodge Ram van sits. Inside rehearsing is the Colorado-based band, Head For The Hills. The bassist, Matt Loewen, welcomes us into the rehearsal where Adam Kinghorn (guitar), Joe Lessard (fiddle), and Mike Chappell (mandolin) are wrapping up with James Thomas, a frequent collaborator, on keys.

After a quick breather, Head For The Hills sat down with Mountain Weekly News to talk about their upcoming tour of the Midwest, thoughts on a new album, and to discuss their much anticipated four night Colorado Halloween run through Boulder, Aspen, Denver, and finishing on October 30th at the Aggie Theater in Ft. Collins.

What can the Midwest folks expect on the upcoming tour through the heartland?
Matt Loewen: A couple new tunes, some new cover songs and a new original tune. We get to play a couple places we’ve never played before. Excited to play some new markets that we’ve never been to.
Adam Kinghorn: We’re excited for Chicago’s Windy City Harvest Festival.
Matt: Yes, it’s a nice mini-sort of festival with a pretty stacked show.

What are some of the more peculiar things you’ve seen while touring across the country?
Matt: Well we were just in Northern California, so that was pretty hilarious since it’s the hippie center of the universe. And it’s the West coast so even without the hippies it’s still a ‘slightly’ different vibe.
Mike Chappell: It’s the wild West.
Matt: Car troubles…
Adam: All night drives…
Matt: I was electrocuted one time, in a back yard stage that we constructed.
Joe Lessard: Which explains the electrocution.

You guys were talking about the driving involved – who drives the most?
Everyone in unison: Matt.
Matt: There was no hesitation on that one.

So what’s your van’s name?
Mike: This one’s called Gladys. (their maroon Dodge Ram Van)
Matt: We had Greta and retired Greta.
Joe: Stepped-up to a much sexier Gladys.
Matt: [laughing]We endorse Dodge not Ford.
Mike: But if we drove a Ford we might endorse them.

Besides the local Colorado venues that you play, what are some other venues that you’ve played that you’d like to play again or a venue that you haven’t played and would like to?
Adam: I’d love to play more in the South where there is a big bluegrass thing going on. We really haven’t got to the East coast to play as well as the South.
Mike: I’d really like to play in New York City… just playing bluegrass in NYC is fun to think about. And as far as places we’ve already played, Oregon is always a fun place to go.
Matt: We’re doing the Mount Tabor Theater, that should be cool. I think we’re definitely looking forward to A) expanding into new markets and B) to play the existing markets and move from bars to, ya know, other venues that are… a bar and something else. [laughing]

What you’re favorite bar you’ve played in?
Joe: I think the Boom Boom Room was pretty sweet.
Matt: That’s what I was thinking.
Joe: In terms of historically, we played a bar in San Francisco called the Boom Boom Room. It’s right by the Fillmore and it was owned by John Lee Hooker for awhile. Kind of like his watering hole with a lot of blues…small place with a bunch of bad-ass artists.

After you guys get done with your Midwest tour you’ll be coming back to Colorado for a 4-night run starting October 27th in Boulder and ending October 30th at the Aggie in Fort Collins. What does coming back to Colorado for these 4 shows after touring mean to you?
Matt: We really haven’t played here in awhile. It’s been a long sabbatical, since May.
Joe: It’s exciting! We’re excited to premier some of this new stuff back in Colorado. Do some new covers with Peter Rowan.
Adam: We all met in Ft. Collins, so it’s a special place to play. And the Aggie is always great.
Mike: It’s fun to prepare for these shows. And it’s exciting to play these venues because we’ve never really done a run like this. [Boulder, Aspen, Denver, and Ft. Collins] There’s a lot of preparation we’re doing for songs and we get to take that out on the road.

Is there anything special planned for these Colorado shows?
Matt: Everything…costumes…[pointing to Mike] I have a costume idea for us two.
Mike: Oh yeah.
Matt: I can’t reveal it here but it’s a pretty good idea…pretty good. It’s easy and it’ll be recognizable…it’s like a duo. It’ll be cool.

Ken and Barbie?
Matt: Exactly! Yes, Ken and Barbie. And guess who Barbie is. [laughing] But we’re reviving some older covers, some stuff we haven’t played in a long time, more new original material. We’ve got some special visual design planned for the last couple nights of the run. Some fun things, special guests. One being James [Thomas], our keyboard consultant. A good guy who we do some shows with, he’ll be along for some of the run.

Is there any plans for a new Head For The Hills album soon?
Mike: Yeah, we’ve been talking. There aren’t any dates set or anything.
Matt: A live record will definitely be coming fairly soon. There’s plans in the works to get that going. There’s a couple things we’re working on. Studio record… there is an idea to release some EPs in succession then do a full release later. One new release in Head For The Hills world – we’ve got a soundboard download that is available soon. On the fifth there’ll be a download available on our website (www.headforthehillsmusic.com) of our last show at the Mish, which was in May… May 14th I believe.

What should both fans and newcomers be looking for as Head For The Hills continues to grow?
Adam: I’d say we’d continue on with the tradition of breaking the tradition of bluegrass and kind of bending the genres and putting our own individual influences into our songwriting and performances.
Matt: I don’t think that we have some delusion on ground-breaking originality. But each person is a filter for each of their own experiences and so individually there is an opportunity to take different directions that can be new for the band. Hopefully there’s something that’s a little fresh and different from our contemporaries.

For more information on Head For The Hills, please visit: www.headforthehillsmusic.com

10/6- Bourbon Theatre-Lincoln, NE
10/7- Iowa City Yacht Club-Iowa City, IA
10/8- Windy City Harvest Festival-Abbey Pub-Chicago, IL
10/9- Cranky Pats-Neenah, WI
10/11- Tres Hombres-Carbondale, IL
10/12- Redstone Room-Davenport, IA
10/13- Bottleneck-w/ Cornmeal-Lawrence, KS
10/14- Old Rock House-St. Louis, MO
10/15- Mulberry Mountain Harvest Festival-Ozark, AR
10/16- Mulberry Mountain Harvest Festival-Ozark, AR
10/27- Fox Theatre-Boulder, CO
10/28- Belly Up-Aspen, CO
10/29- Cervantes-Denver, CO (Guests: Peter Rowan & The Free Mexican Air Force)
10/30- Aggie Theatre-Ft. Collins, CO (Guests: Peter Rowan & The Free Mexican Air Force)

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