James Hilton

Spencer Roach
Dec 11, 2019
8 min read

Although James Hilton is in the initial stages of disseminating his particular melancholy, sad boy chords and slide guitar glory into the world of music streaming and live performances, the art of storytelling through songwriting and music runs deep for this Austin, Texas native. Produced and recorded with a cast of characters close to Hilton, his debut EP “California, Colorado” and the subsequent single “Like You Now” is a snapshot into the ambiguity of time and space when it is spent with people you love, a deeply organic construction of melody and lyric -- done through the magic of tireless dialogue and dreaming between Hilton and produce Marshall Pruitt -- ultimately this is a project that is raw in the best ways and a deeply personal dive into the psyche of James Hilton’s creativity.

Hilton is reflective and sentimental in the lyrical manifestation of spirituality, human relationships, and good ole fashioned storytelling for storytelling’s sake. The listener gets to experience a culmination of moments in Hilton’s work as serious as crying out to God as he begs for his “past, present, and future” to be taken away from him, additionally, however, there are simplistic adventures of friends reflecting and remembering back to a special place they spent some of their most formative moments.

His music represents a steady balance of dramatizing relationships of past into a song like “Lyin Song” while drawing from the love he has for legends a la The Cure or Bob Dylan, which he considers as transformative impression makers; clearly apparent in the melodic undertones of songs like “Trails End“ and “Like You Now.“ As Intrepid begins down this path of exploring the basis of art and content and whether that stems from either inspiration and/or creativity, we wanted to chat with a musician that likes grappling through the same thought experiment. Our conversation explored these constructs and much, much more.

I have been on this nature vs. nurture kick. Where do you stand on how much the outside world influenced your storytelling ability? Is it innate? I guess, what inspires you?

From what I’ve put out there and what keeps me writing is real life experiences; the dramatization of real life relationships for the sake of storytelling. That may sound like “oh well you’re BSing me by not telling me the truth,” but real life is kind of boring sometimes. I think I get a lot of inspirational energy from living and things like that, but that is not to say that it is my go-to or will be forever. I know of artists that read a lot and pull from stories and tell these incredible stories from other perspectives. Hopefully, I continue to grow in what inspires me.

About the song writing process, can you describe your MO? If it looks different each time, how has that been different?

It definitely starts with me just grabbing a guitar and sitting down; usually it helps to have the paper and pen out just so I don’t start playing and just keep playing without writing words, at least with what I want to do while focusing on the melodic and lyric side of things. People always ask if the lyrics or music come first. It definitely is both at times. I’ll be driving and say “oohh that might be a cool lyric.” I’ll look back on my notes and say, “that’s not even like a cool thing. That is so vague, why did I think that was worth writing down?” But sometimes it is going from the notes section in your phone and then considering “okay well what are the chords and the rhythm and tempo of this and exploring that.” Process wise, I think one thing I struggle to do is to just sit down and force myself to write a song from beginning to end. A lot of great songwriters really advocate for that. When you sit down, finish a song, it can suck and you can edit it later, or you can totally scrap it. It is like this muscle you have to exercise and if you don’t exercise it properly you’re going to get into the habit of not finishing your exercises and not improving.

Thematically when you were putting together the EP, did you have an idea of what you wanted and you wrote songs according to that, or were you piecing together songs you already had written?

I had a slew of like 5-7 that I had written and I just felt like those were some of the front runners of the best work I had. I wanted to capture that and record it. Everything was very acoustic and I didn’t really know what they were. Just more from a lyrical perspective and the feel of the song, I wanted to move forward with recording those.

A lot of these songs you wrote in a short amount of time. Did you write them like you described earlier or is there some sort of stream of consciousness and you write lyrics and add the chords later?

It’s maybe just that. I prefer to think of it as a stream of consciousness. I think there is something about the time I was in, when this batch of songs were written that I was just really inspired to put pen to paper and just tell a story almost. There are a few I have written that are inspired by real life almost -- almost the dramatization of real life for the sake of good storytelling. Hopefully.

So you guys recorded these songs at your house and you actually tracked the bass and drums at the same time, tell me about that experience.

Definitely fun above all. It was such a new experience to just be recording in general. We made a bunch of trips to Rock n Roll Rentals. I had no idea how this was going to turn out, it’s so DIY but in a professional capacity with the big boy tools. Marshall was awesome at orchestrating all of that. There was definitely a period of me and Marshall for pre-production and taking the demos I had done further, so what does the guitar sound like in this part, what do we want to hear with these solos, we’ll bring in Matt and have him rip on that for a while and see where it goes.

What artists or bands inspired you most for this EP?

A Local artist that comes to mind is David Ramirez, super Americana but also known to push the envelope on what that sounds like. The modern version of that, basically not being stuck in the acoustic guitar. RIP, but a lot of old school Ryan Adams. From a production stand point - War on Drugs, they kind of have this Bob Dylan, folky theme that maybe is more evident in their early stuff, but it definitely comes through when they create these full-synthy atmospheres, which we tried to dabble within production of some of the songs. Bruce Springsteen for guitar solo stuff for “Like You Know.” A wide range honestly.

What are you listening to right now?

Last week I was listening a lot to an album called Day of the Dead, which is a compilation of all these modern artists doing The Grateful Dead songs. Kurt Vile, been on a Kurt Vile kick, Just saw The Cure at ACL, they are so good. They are up there with some of my favorite bands.

The song “California, Colorado” is it the idea of a very ambiguous, “I don’t know where we are” type of interaction. Can you expand on that and tell me if I am totally missing the mark?

Totally, I think that hits it on the spot. I don’t know if I will be able to explain this well, but it is kind of this idea of being in between two places without even knowing where you’re going. There is obviously a relationship, but additionally the song points to kind of a dialogue within the character of the song and himself.

I’m trying to work through this process of approaching music, or poetry, or anything I may be reading and hopefully I learn something new and gain something from it, which is great, but if not, it is still totally fine.

I just wanted to say to the point of over analyzing. With music and songwriting, I don’t want there to be one finite take away to anything. I think that is what is so cool about art, you can look at it so many different angles, even tho that is the gist of [“California, Colorado”], someone else can get something totally different out of it. And that is fine. I just think it is cool when people have their own take on something.

Is “Trails End” a real life spot?

Yes, that is a literal place. My friends and I used to drive out there and the lake was dried up and you could go walk around shipwrecked boats that had gotten all dried up. It is just a really fun memory to explore and navigate and to write about. I think that song is pointed at one person but not from a me and them relationship but from the point of songwriting, I wrote it conversationally. It really reflects that group of friends and the memories we shared.

Can you talk about the motivation behind writing "Like You Now?"

"Like You Now" is kind of about conformity and this coming of age story during the verses. Then there is progression moment where I’ve reached this time in my life during the chorus that I am actually like you now. Playing with the idea that maybe these things I’ve rebelled against are a part of me now.

What have been some of your favorite moments while playing live?

Definitely playing with a band has been super cool. There is just no other feeling like that. And maybe selfishly, with other people helping you play your songs, it is such a badass feeling to experience that with them. There are always nerves involved but ultimately people are there for a community experience and at this point, it is like playing to a lot of friends.

What is next? Are you planning on pushing out more songs? Playing more shows?

Hopefully both, I think this year playing live has been really cool but its also been relatively new, outside of playing acoustic by myself somewhere. Actually having a band, from a time consumption perspective, I have been more focused on keeping that going, so I haven’t been writing as much. There are a few songs though that I am stoked to get back to the studio or house, where ever that may be. I have been fleshing out new demos a little more so when it is time to record most of the ideas are done and we can just get in there and knock it out.

Perhaps Emo Country is not a searchable genre as one might assume while perusing music streaming apps that James Hilton features on, but that is the niche in which Hilton jokingly prescribes to. Emotional and complex tunes that allow for people to listen to and experience in a wide range of interpretations. Debuting music that includes vast claims to not die with "your hands in your pocket" but encourages people to leave this world gasping for breathe with "your hands on your knees" is the bold entrance into the music scene of the historic live music capital of the world that warrants consideration to listen to now and stay tuned for what is to come. We had a blast talking through creativity and art and the impact that has had on James Hilton's music. Hilton is audacious and talented and you can find his music on Spotify, Apple Music, and his website: www.jameshiltonmusic.com.