Former Perpetrators’ drummer Scotty Hills has moved away from his blues roots and shows the many facets of his influences in his music.
While he is best known for playing drums on the beloved Winnipeg blues rock icons’ first two CDs, he is exploring his more R and B side on his CD ‘Year of Septembers and ’ on an upcoming CD, for which he has released the first single and video ‘The Answer (We Are)’
In the meantime he is studying jazz music at the University of Vancouver Island in Nanaimo.
But in between everything else he comes to Lethbridge to play the Slice, Jan. 30 to kick off a quick Alberta tour.
“I was with the Perpetrators for five years, we used to play the Tongue N’ Groove a lot,” he said on the way to class in Nanaimo.
“ The solo CD is quite a bit different. I love country music and my mother listened to a lot of rhythm and blues, Motown, Stax and new age ’80s stuff, so I grew up with a lot of that stuff ever since I was a child. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” he continued adding he combines all of his influences into his music.
“It has influenced everything I do. Whether it is R and B or punk rock or blues it is a different side I like to show,” he said.
He showed yet another side of his musical personality by participating in a ‘Songcamp’ at Westlake Studios in Los Angeles, where he and a large group of songwriters from around the world gathered to write a song for pop singer Rihanna.
“It was a monkeys on typewriters sort of thing. I got invited with 72 hours notice to go to Westlake studios where they recorded Thriller and a lot of Quincy Jones albums. It was quite an interesting experience. It was 12 hour days, so it was definitely full time,” he said.
“We sang a lot of love songs, but a lot of songwriting is trying to find new ways to talk about old topics,” he continued.
He marveled at how much money goes into making a best selling pop album.
“They have to pay to rent the studio, and our hotels. They must spend millions for one song. It’s the old you’ve got to spend money to make money thing. It’s nice to have the potential to write something that will pay the rent. But it is just another side of me. A lot of great songwriters like Bob Dylan started as staff writers. It’s not really not my thing, ” he said adding one of his favourite part of the gruelling 12 hour days, was introducing some of the other songwriters to the old blues masters, who surprisingly didn’t know much about them.
“I was telling them all about Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf and all of these cool old blues guys,” he said.
He was working with a lot of younger songwriters.
“A lot of the biggest songwriters there are people who were writing hits in the ’70s and ’80s. It’s like any other job. They don’t stop until they retire,” he observed.
“ There is a formula to it. It’s all very monkeys on typewriters. It’s very homogenous,” he observed.
He emphasized his music incorporates everything he listens to.
““The Perpetrators are very much influenced by Hound Dog Taylor. I love that sound. My music is one part Nick Drake and two parts Philadelphia soul, he said.
His quick Alberta tour will be with drummer and bassist Jason Cook who also produced Hills' 2012 album Year of Septembers.
“ He’s one of the the best drummers I’ve ever worked with,” he said.
He will also be working on the next album, for which the first single/ video ‘The Answer’ has already been released.
“It’s kind of like the sound of the Black Keys, because we’re a two piece, but it’s indie R and B,” he said.
he noted his show will include the music from ‘Year of Septembers’ CD, some cover but no Rihanna songs.
He may include a couple older songs he wrote with the Perpetrators like ‘Roller Coaster’ and some new ones which didn’t make the cut for the latest Perpetrators’ CD.
the new jazz influence from studying at the University of Vancouver Island hasn’t directly made it into the new music yet.
“ I am learning a lot about how you use your singing voice. All of my influences are added to the music,” he said.
Scotty Hills plays the Slice, Thursday, Jan. 30 at approximately 9:30 p.m.
