Kye Alfred Hillig’s music is a continuing journey of discovery
When Kye Alfred Hillig and his wife took a recent vacation to the Santa Clarita Valley in California, they stumbled upon the James Dean Memorial Interchange along State Route 46—the storied location where 24-year-old Hollywood actor James Dean died at the scene in a head-on collision.
Hillig—whose innate ability for songwriting is always on auto-pilot—instantly thought of a good friend of his who had recently passed away suddenly from a heart ailment. Similar to the Memorial Interchange being a sort of physical mile marker for Dean’s remarkable life, Hillig thought likewise his next album could be a fitting tribute to his beloved friend and a mile marker to his legacy.
Hillig’s 2016 release, Great Falls Memorial Interchange—named after his friend Mike Buker’s hometown of Great Falls, Montana—encapsulates 12 fine tracks, each one delivered by Hillig and his band in Hillig’s warm and friendly conversational tone.
On this album, Hillig’s delivery is looser and more freewheeling.
“I wanted it to be more fun,” Hillig says. “I’ve been into the blues the last few years. On The Buddhist [his 2014 release], there was no filter. It was [more] intellectual.”
On his first four releases, beginning with his solo debut, Aurora, released in 2012, and ending with The Buddhist, Hillig says those recordings were all heavily calculated. This time around he wanted the collection of songs to be more organic and to be given more room to breathe.
To that end, Hillig gave a direct order to his producer Chris Matthews, Jr., to consider everything sacred. Erase anything, he told Matthews, and I won’t pay you.
The bulk of the recordings, performed live, were done in a single day at Seattle’s Big Sound Studios. Minimal vocal overdubs were done.
Hillig is a serious orchestrator when it comes to assembling his creative team for each project. On Great Falls, Hillig wanted to explore the dynamic sound of the pedal steel guitar.
“I love pedal steel music,” Hillig says. “It’s like a cello.”
The standout performer on pedal steel in the Seattle area is Steve Norman, according to Hillig. “I wasn’t going to make the album if he said no.”
In addition to Norman, Hillig also welcomed longtime collaborators Yos-wa on bass guitar and David Bilbrey on guitar, as well as Bill Nordwall on keys (who Hillig describes as a prodigy), Jasen Samford on drums and mandolin, and finally, Jason Lackie on harmonica.
Hillig has come a long way as a songwriter. In my personal opinion, Hillig is a musical chameleon. In his teen years, he started out leading his punk band Pistol for a Paycheck where expelling high amounts of energy and thrashing about on guitar was the rule of the day.
“My instruction [to my band] was I don’t care how you play—just freak out,” Hillig says.
Following his punk roots, Hillig morphed into a garage rock phase with Destruction Island. After the demise of Destruction Island, Hillig said he was all but exhausted of the rock lifestyle. He was almost about to give it up.
But soon, his poetry translated to music and his music became a sort of therapy.
“It helps to metabolize the ugliness,” he says. “It serves as a toilet. It gets the horrible stuff out. The world has a lot of bad parts.”
On Hillig’s new album, his song “To Be Good,” is my favorite of the set. It also happens to be Hillig’s favorite.
Laced with soft keys, fluid pedal steel guitar, and a marching drum jaunt, Hillig probes the listener with questions like: Just cause you’ve lied does that make you a liar for the rest of your days?/Like it don’t matter what you say or do you’re incapable of the truth? Well ‘to be good’ what does that mean? Can you explain it to me?
“People’s mistakes don’t add up to a person,” Hillig argues. “Don’t be judgmental. I want [the listener] to come close to that place—by wrestling with that idea.”
No matter the song on Great Falls, Hillig takes listeners on a journey of discovery on each one.
Some listeners may find some of Hillig’s catalog of songs startling, at times off-putting, and often so vulnerable it makes them feel awkward.
“The trick is to give yourself up,” he says. “I show that I’m flawed. I show it in the truest way I can. It is my responsibility. I’m creating a relationship [with the listener].”
One maxim about Hillig is that he is predictability unpredictable, which is all the more reason to love his body of music and the journey he takes you on.
Key Songs:
“To Be Good”
“In Tandem”
“Whitney Houston”
“Ancient Burial Ground”
Coming Soon:
Kye Alfred Hillig and band will open for The Ramblin’ Years on Saturday, Sept. 10, at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle’s Ballard district. tractortavern.com
