Q&A: Sawyer Hill Continues to Reinvent His Sound on New EP, ‘Heartbreak Hysteria’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY FAITH HOCHGESANG ☆
THERE ARE SOCIAL MEDIA ARTISTS, AND THEN THERE ARE ARTISTS WHO USE SOCIAL MEDIA — While the former’s careers revolve almost exclusively around their online platforms, Sawyer Hill is working to distinguish himself as the latter. A 25 year-old artist born and raised in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, Hill recognized his music was more likely to “go global” on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok than on the stages of local bars and DIY venues in the neighboring “college town” of Fayetteville, where Hill played his first gigs throughout high school. He still very much adores and contributes to his local music scene, but his music has come to resonate with millions of listeners across the globe.
In the fall of 2022, Hill began posting consistently on social media in the anticipation of releasing his first single, “Your Scene.” This momentum propelled his second release, “Look At The Time,” to viral success in the following year.
Hill’s latest release, EP Heartbreak Hysteria, is a testament to his ever-evolving style. The EP offers an exploration of his signature baritone vocals, with a strong, straight tone on songs including “One Shot” and “Hear From Me,” which Hill powerfully complements with a pure rasp on songs including “Aiming At My Head” and “Closed Eye Fiction.” Sonically, Hill continues to expand the instrumental playing field of his sound, introducing piano to the EP on “Need Me Now,” while staying true to his guitar-heavy trademark on hit tracks “High On My Lows” and “For The Hell Of It.”
Read below to learn more about how Hill’s dedication to his artistry has turned his virtual success into millions of streams and a global tour for Heartbreak Hysteria.
LUNA: Sawyer Hill, thank you for taking the time to speak with The Luna Collective! In April, you released your first EP, Heartbreak Hysteria. Congratulations! For readers who haven’t listened yet, how would you describe your sound and the story the EP encapsulates?
HILL: I would say it's definitely rock. It goes from everything from rock and roll that has this more nostalgic factor, to some really new pop rock, modern rock elements. I think really the main through line is the voice.
But yeah, I don't know if there is a narrative. It's definitely not a concept album, but I feel like each song encapsulates a different emotion. That's kind of where I got the name from because I was going and writing all the meanings down to each song, and it's heartbreak or kind of this manic sense of self, or this manic mind state.
But I don't know how I would describe my sound. It's definitely guitar-focused, just from always being in the garage as a kid and using those limitations. Nobody knew how to work a computer or keyboard, or anything. So through that, it's always remained this sort of “band-y” feel.
LUNA: Before the EP, you released some singles, including “Look At The Time” and “Firestarters.” How would you say the EP both builds off your established sound and diverges creatively?
HILL: It diverges from it a lot in terms of the voice. In “Firestarters,” there's that pre-chorus that uses this really different register. Over this EP, we really doubled down on that vocal register. So in that way, it's different, but also the same.
And it's different in terms of the production. I feel like those first few singles, we were just going into the studio and no one was really telling us what to do or how to do it, not that they're telling us what to do now, but the collaboration with people who are really experienced with recording music has definitely brought it up, pro-wise.
But honestly, the sound, I don't know if it's ever stuck in one direction. Each time I go into the studio, it's a little bit different. “Look At The Time,” to “Firestarters,” to “Feel Right Now” and “Symphony” was a whole different experience. And then to the EP, it's also different. And then it has some of that older feel with “Need Me Now.” I'm using a piano in some songs too.
LUNA: Is there a song on the EP that particularly showcases who you are as an artist right now, or where you might like to go in future projects?
HILL: I think “High On My Lows” definitely describes where I'm at. But also, you look at the songs throughout the EP, I think it's still hard to tell where I'm at creatively. I think I would feel kind of bored just doing a similar song all over the place. “High On My Lows” describes this emotional context. It describes where the vocals are lying right now, and the sound. And that sound is kind of new to me, honestly, because I didn't know that that was a way I could sound until experimenting around in the studio. When I'd use that register before, I would blow my voice out in three days doing it. But that song unlocked a lot of things for me, in [terms of] ways that things can sound.
But even still, making the EP was: okay, we got “High On My Lows,” which is very indie, using all these chorus-y guitar tones and whatnot. And then you have “For The Hell Of It,” which is capital R rock. And then you have “Need Me Now,” which is this weird, piano “Bennie and the Jets” ballad sort of deal. So it's hard to say that one of them really describes because they're all kind of all over the place, but “High On My Lows” is probably the most accurate.
LUNA: Because you were talking about register, how do you feel about having to go on tour and sustaining singing those songs for a long period of time?
HILL: Tour is a lot of fun, and it's probably my most favorite thing about being a musician. For years, when I was a kid, all we were doing was playing shows, and every three years we’d go into the studio and record, but the focus was always on the next show. That was always the focus, kind of idiotically, because you need to record music so people can actually hear what you're playing at the shows. But yeah, touring is the best part of it.
And then sustaining my voice, I'd always just sent it in terms of my voice, just went for it. I never really had anybody teaching me how to sing. But then, when we started playing a lot of shows, at the beginning of, maybe two years ago, a year and a half ago, I played three shows, and at the beginning of the third show, I was at sound check on the verge of tears not knowing if I could actually play the show because my voice was so gone.
I started taking vocal lessons probably a year ago now, and the main thing that's helped me with is not blowing my voice out. And I'm superstitious, so I can knock on wood, but I haven't blown my voice out yet. This past tour I got sick three different times. Some lady in scrubs had to shoot me up the ass with f*cking steroids, but I didn't blow my voice out.
LUNA: There you go. That’s all that matters.
HILL: But there's ways to sneak around it and stuff. There's ways to not blow your voice out totally. Definitely gets harder the more I experiment with my voice, the more I experiment with my melodies and stuff. “Firestarters” was hard to sing for the longest time, and now that's one of the easier songs to sing. And I have all these other songs that are harder to sing, they're getting more challenging.
LUNA: Tell me more about your creative vision with the “High On My Lows” music video, and what it was like filming it?
HILL: It was a lot of fun filming it. I try to stick with as many Arkansas creators as possible. I'm from Arkansas. There's a lot of creative people in Arkansas. A lot of people think that you have to go to a big city and work with somebody who has a giant resume and spend at least $15,000 to make a music video. And although you can do that, you don't have to. My first music video that I made with a different project for $500 is f*cking legendary, the best use of $500 you've ever seen.
And now, the “High On My Lows” music video, we did with all these Arkansas creators. And honestly, I've always loved film in an amateur-ish way, and cinematography. I’m not a professional by any means, but I feel like that song is a cheeky take on substance abuse in some ways, or just bad coping mechanisms to be more vague about it. It always felt kind of sad to me, but it's with that sarcasm of “I'll go all night.” My initial idea was to do something more that leaned into that sadness, but I think the song itself has such a fun energy to it. At a certain point, I changed my mind to go with something more fun, and leaning more into that party vibe a little bit. And I just started making a Google Doc of all these different visuals.
The opening scene is ripped from “That ‘70s Show,” like that Lazy Susan thing when they're in the circle joint session, all those quick pans. And there's the Last Supper imagery, because that was kind of a party in a way. Yeah, it was really fun to make. And basically, I get all these shots, I'm like “this is what I want to do,” and then I hand it off to the professional who's able to execute all those things. And working with the co-director for that video, Alec Ward, was really great. He definitely pulled off everything that I had in my head. It came off exactly the way that I wanted it to. And also, when I was a kid playing all these DIY venues that, at least in my hometown, stopped existing after COVID (which was a giant bummer). But there's something about the live aspect of my project that I really wanted to get across [in the video], at least where I came up from playing those venues. And the house venue that we're playing with all the graffiti on it and stuff is this legendary house/DIY venue in Fayetteville that unfortunately doesn't do any more shows. But I grew up playing that venue. It's called The Syc House.
LUNA: You have discussed your hometown of Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and described Fayetteville as a “college town.” How have those scenes contributed to your approach to performance?
HILL: So Siloam Springs has like 10,000 people, and it's a very small town, but the college town is Fayetteville, which probably has like 100,000 people. I would drive 30 minutes from Siloam, which was where I was living all throughout high school, to Fayetteville to play all the shows. I honestly didn't know what a college town meant until I started traveling outside of the country, or just around the country this year, and you see all these different cities, and then I came back home and you see all the dudes in their polo shirts and all the sorority girls all wearing the same exact thing, and it's like, oh, this is a college town.
There's a real blessing in playing shows for 20 people who don't know who you are for almost a decade, in terms of learning how to be comfortable on stage, learning how to get people involved, or to pay attention in certain ways. It taught me how to entertain people. It taught me to be comfortable in some of the bad moments of playing live. Taught me a lot. And they were all really cool venues. Either a bunch of drunk 18-year-olds or a bunch of really high 16-year-olds that came to the house shows. So it's a lot of fun.
LUNA: Your lyrics are very story-oriented and intentionally placed, with catchy tag lines and repeated phrases that often serve as the titles for your songs. Can you tell me more about where you gain inspiration for your lyrics, and more about your songwriting process, both lyrically and sonically?
HILL: I think lyrically, deep thoughts can be conveyed in a very simple way. I think if you're trying to convey something deep and you have to be overcomplicated about it with your vocabulary or your presentation, I think you don't understand that thought well enough to communicate it. I try to be very conversational, I try to say things the way that I would say them in a conversation. I try to keep it simple in terms of presentation.
Country music is really good about that. The way they say things is very simple. The words that they use aren't hard to understand, but it can be very, very deep music. Not talking about Florida Georgia Line, or anything like that, and it's not to say that people aren't making great country music now, because they are - The Red Clay Strays. But, yeah, good country music is able to describe simple things, or describe more complicated things, or more powerful emotions with simple words. I try to use simple words.
I feel like my songwriting process generally starts on an acoustic guitar or a piano, making a melody, and then figuring out what I want to say, and then making it rhyme.
LUNA: Do you feel like you write a lot from personal experience, the experiences of your friends, or just general concepts?
HILL: I write a lot for myself, and maybe it would be more beneficial to my career to write for other people in terms of writing something that someone else would want to hear, but I try to write things that I would want to listen to, or thoughts that are important for me to say. Definitely write from my own experience a lot, whether that's more metaphorical or more literal. There's a song that I was working on a month back where the lyrics were like, I this, me that, and I ended up shifting the perspective to someone else, maybe making it more narrative focused. But it still is about me.
LUNA: Do you feel like shifting that allowed you to make the situation more accessible?
HILL: I think so, yeah.
LUNA: Who is your dream artist to perform with, even if they’re outside your genre or aren’t alive anymore?
HILL: I would say The Beatles, all four of them, because A, it would be me making music with my favorite artists of all time. B, it would be making music with objectively the greatest artist of all time, and anyone who wants to argue with that can just take a look at the graphs, take a look at any objective source on music, but subjectively, they're also the greatest band of all time. And then C, it would be a medicinal modern miracle, because two people would have to come back to life for me to perform with them. So it would be pretty significant on a lot of different levels, in my opinion.
LUNA: This fall, you’ll be opening for YUNGBLUD on the North America dates of Idols: The World Tour. What do the next few months look like for you, and what do you hope to accomplish from now until when you’re back in LA to kick off that tour?
HILL: The next few months look like recording more music and practicing with my band. I want to give the best show possible for my fans, for YUNGBLUD’s fans. I'm also going to Europe, which is fun. I'm going to play some shows out there, do some festivals. I'm excited to play, to be in YUNGBLUD’s world for a little bit. I think he's doing something fresh and cool. Just as an artist, you gotta commend him, he could have sold his soul to pop music a long time ago, and he's definitely sticking within rock right now, and I think that's awesome, and I think he's really doing it in a cool and interesting way.
LUNA: Is there anything you want to do for yourself on a more personal level?
HILL: I need to think about myself more often. I feel like my brain is always focused toward the music and stuff. But I've been trying to take care of myself recently. It's easy to forget about that. I think about me more in that artist sense than I do in the human sense. And if I neglect that human aspect of myself, I can't be the best artist.
LUNA: Is there anything else you want to speak more about or introduce before we close?
HILL: Stay tuned for more music. Don't get too comfortable with these songs, or be comfortable, and realize that more songs that sound like that probably won't be there for the next one. I love that it's always gonna be kind of different.
