New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Psychedelic singer, harpist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, screenwriter, actor and retro geek Erin Hill recently appeared on NBC NIGHTLY NEWS with Chuck Scarborough, and discussed her innovative science-fiction video album Girl Inventor - watch the segment, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3HcW-8GPYY
Girl Inventor is the debut CD by Erin Hill & her Psychedelic Harp. An audio version of the album will be released digitally on November 14th, and each of the CD's tracks will be ultimately accompanied by a short film. Hill comments: "Lyrically, most of my songs are like little Tales of the Unexpected, and that's what gave me the idea to make Girl Inventor a video album - 10 songs, 10 sci-fi music videos, each music video like a little four-minute Twilight Zone episode." The full video album & physical CD are scheduled for release in early 2012.
The NBC-TV segment coincided with the launch of Hill's Kickstarter campaign, which will finance videos 3 through 10. This Kickstarter effort is as dynamic and witty as one would expect from such a unique artist as Erin Hill - fans can even earn the chance to appear in one of her upcoming science fiction videos! Watch her Kickstarter launch clip, here: Erin Hill (the Sci-fi Harp Girl) makes a Video Album: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1242097495/erin-hill-the-sci-fi-harp-girl- makes-a-music-video.
Erin Hill is also proud to announce that Sundance
Institute Artists has supported her Kickstarter campaign by including the link in their 'alumni gallery'. Here's what they wrote: "If you like sci-fi harp as much as we do, then you need to hop on alum Erin Hill's groovy project. She was part of our 2000 and 2008 Sundance Theater Labs and even played her harp for our Board of Trustees. Pluck your own heartstrings and join her." https://www.kickstarter.com/pages/sundanceinstitute
Like Bjork, a-ha, Devo, Tim Burton and
David Bowie, Hill's artistic vision is witty and slightly askew. The first video from Girl Inventor was the
B-52s meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers-esque "Giant Mushrooms," which veteran critic Jack Goodstein praised as having "a kind of creepy humor that meshes well with the eerie quality of the music." "This is a talented singer and a promising songwriter... to say nothing of featuring the harp in a rock video." The video has already generated over 7,000 hits on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ml-gr5QiLQ. Read Goodstein's full write-up via tastemaker outlet BlogCritics and major daily Seattle Post-Intelligencer, below.
"Lookout, Science," Hill's upcoming second video, will star the legendary Marni Nixon. Nixon was the singing voice of
Natalie Wood in West Side Story, the singing voice of Deborah Kerr in The King and I, the singing voice of Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, and more. She is also an award- winning actress in films, TV and Broadway. Read this behind- the-scenes article about the making of the "Lookout, Science" video, via The Times- Ledger: https://www.timesledger.com/stories/2011/33/fh_sci_fi_music_vid_20110811.html
Chris
Junior interviewed Hill for MEDLEYVILLE: AN INVENTIVE APPROACH Erin Hill plays an electrified harp in a pop setting https://www.medleyville.us/2011/09/an_inventive_approach.html A momentary bout of laziness rarely leads to a new musical identity. But that's pretty much what prompted musician/screenwriter/actress Erin Hill to start writing and performing songs on the harp instead of guitar, which had been her instrument of choice. One day in 2005, looking to flesh out an idea for a tune, Hill reached for her available harp instead of getting up and retrieving one of her guitars, all of which were in another room. After writing the entire song "I'm So Glad" on the harp, Hill figured she should play it live that way, too. So Hill did just that, and afterward, a friend told her she should perform every song on the harp. "And it was kind of a V8 moment -- why didn't I think of that?" the New York-based Hill recalls. "So from that moment on, I started writing all my songs on the harp." She adds with a laugh, "It became the 'no guitars allowed' band." Aside from featuring an electrified harp, Hill's music has another uncommon quality to it: science-fiction-themed lyrics. She says sci-fi is practically all she reads, so when a member of her band put forth the challenge a few years ago to write a song based on a story about telepathic mutant rats in outer space, Hill was totally game. "It was so much fun," she recalls. "All of a sudden it just opened things up." Hill likens her songs to "little Twilight Zone episodes" and says one of the biggest challenges is to not get carried away by cramming the lyrics with every last detail that comes to mind. "I do write in the traditional pop format, so you have to have a chorus that can work for each time it comes up," she says. "Even people who don't get any of the sci-fi [references] ... can totally appreciate [the songs] on the non-sci-fi level as well." Girl Inventor, her third album in as many years and the first one credited to Erin Hill & Her Psychedelic Harp, is due in October. Hill has filmed a video for the song "Giant Mushrooms," and with the funds raised through her upcoming Kickstarter campaign, she'll make videos for the album's remaining nine tunes. -- By Chris M. Junior
WildysWorld featured Hill's 'Giant Mushrooms' video, here: https://wildysworld.blogspot.com/2011/09/video-erin-hill-her-psychedelic-harp.html
LyricalVenus interviewed Hill and also aired a podcast via KRUU Radio: https://lyricalvenus.com/erin-hill-her-psychedelic-harp-interview-on-lyrical-venus- 830/
https://kruufm.com/node/11432
More recent coverage:
BLOGCRITICS - VIDEO REVIEW By Jack Goodstein 8/1/11 https://blogcritics.org/music/article/music-video-review-erin-hill-giant/ Seattle PI: https://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/blogcritics/article/Music-Video-Review- Erin-Hill-Giant-Mushrooms-1686350.php
CULTUREBRATS posted "Giant Mushrooms" as well: https://www.culturebrats.com/2011/07/erin-hill-her-psychedelic-harp-giant.html
SCI-FI POP: https://scifipop.com/news/2011/07/06/cddownloadalbum-psychedelic-harp-rocker- erin-hill-sets-girl-inventor-sci-fi-video-album-for-1010/
More about Erin Hill and the Girl Inventor project: Hill is a fan-boy's dream - she's smart and hot and knows more about Star Trek and Buffy and Twilight Zone than you do, and she's ready for a marathon chat and/or viewing session to prove it. And, she's a proud, natural red-head. She's also a multi-media threat, having reached #1 on Billboard's World
Music Chart, appeared as The Pretty White Girl on Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show, and served as composer, screenwriter, and actor in the 2010 film Clear Blue Tuesday. THE NY TIMES said: "Erin Hill, as a giddy, harp-playing Trekker, is a standout.... The best and funniest scene in the film is Ms. Hill's...." Hill has played the harp since the ripe age of eight, and has long noticed its prominent role in the science fiction that's helped to shape her internal landscape: "From the time I was little, I noticed that where there was sci-fi, there was often a harp...Let's take Star Trek - there's harp all over that show! And what instrument does Spock play? Why, the Vulcan Harp! The Adventures of Superman, Val Lewton films,
Journey to the Center of the Earth, Wall-E.... The harp has that strange, sparkling, beautiful, mysterious quality that just fits with falling through space, time travel, the stars and constellations... and of course, space hippies and Vulcans." As for her inspirations: "Story-wise, I'm a huge sci-fi geek. Star Trek is my first love, then The Twilight Zone, and, of course, Buffy, Angel, and Firefly. Musically, I've probably been most inspired/influenced by
David Bowie, Devo, and The Beatles. For films, a few favorites are Silent Running, which if you haven't seen, you should go rent it right away - it's still just as relevant today as it was in 1972, The Day the Earth Stood Still (original), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (I actually appreciate all three versions), Minority Report, Children of Men, I could go on and on! Literature-wise, since I first started to read, I've devoured classic sci-fi, with the short story being my favorite form - Theodore Sturgeon, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick (exception to the short story rule), etc. And I collect sci-fi mags from the 1930's through the 1960's, my faves being Galaxy and Astounding Science Fiction (for reading and for cover art), then others mainly for the cover art." Erin Hill has the last word on how to describe her Girl Inventor project: "It's not a breadbox. It's bigger than that."
Erin Hill Biography: Erin Hill is a singer, harpist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, screenwriter, actor, and science fiction geek.
Radio 3, BBC says "Beautiful! Voice exquisite, words telling tales everyone wants to hear." She's had a #1 album on the Billboard world chart and in the Top 40 on the Independent chart (2009). She's a singer, songwriter and musician on the
Dream Jam Band's major label debut on EMI (2010). She's played with Kanye West, moby, Enya, a- ha, Cyndi Lauper, Levon Helm, etc. and has played solo at The Royal Albert Hall. She is also known as The Pretty White Girl on Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show. With electric harp as the lead instrument, Erin plays and sings with her band, Erin Hill & her Psychedelic Harp, which includes vocals, harp, bass, drums, and pedal steel. The music is beautiful and psychedelic pop: "Hill is a songwriting angel... with tracks that fascinate and mesmerize the audience." (The Louisville Eccentric Observer). Erin Hill & her Psychedelic Harp recently returned from Spain, where they played the 2011 Dia de la Musica Festival in Madrid. In the film Clear Blue Tuesday (2010), she is a composer, screenwriter, and actor. The New York Times says: "Erin Hill, as a giddy, harp-playing Trekker, is a standout.... The best and funniest scene in the film is Ms. Hill's...." And from Variety: "A memorable number is "Reckless," penned by Erin Hill and delivered by her character, Etta, a sci-fi soundtrack- session harpist and one of the film's few solidly intriguing personalities." On the Celtic side, Erin's 2009 album with her group Four Celtic Voices, Four Leaf Clover, hit #1 on the Billboard World
Music chart, charted in multiple Top Ten Heatseeker charts and in the Top 40 on the Independent chart. She is also in The
Dream Jam Band, whose major label debut is now out on EMI (August 2010), produced by Rick Chertoff (Cyndi Lauper, Joan Osborne, Ron Howard's The Grinch, etc.). As "Erin the Red," she plays bass, harp, keys, sings, and is a songwriter and arranger in the band. In 2008, Erin toured with and opened for a-ha in
Europe and London, where she played solo at the Royal Albert Hall (see the a-ha.com interview with Erin on a-ha's official site at https://a-ha.com/news/articles/behind-the-harp/. She has sung and played with Enya, Cyndi Lauper,
Kanye West (Live Earth, MTV, BET, etc.), moby, Joan Osborne, Randy Newman, Dave Chappelle, Marshall Crenshaw, Martha Wainwright, Duncan Sheik, The Smithereens, Savoy, Julee Cruise, John Flansburgh (of They Might Be Giants), Lenny Pickett (of Saturday Night Live), and Levon Helm (of The Band). She plays regularly with Will Lee (of
David Letterman), Jimmy Vivino (of Conan O'Brien), G.E. Smith (of Saturday Night Live), and Garth Hudson (of The Band). Erin is known at the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South in NYC for her rock 'n' roll arrangements on solo harp, playing (and singing) everything from Bowie, The Beatles,
Stevie Wonder and
Neil Young to Aerosmith, The Police,
Prince and Avril Lavigne. On the silver screen, Erin played
Sandra Mescal in the Tim Robbins' film Cradle Will Rock and appears on the soundtrack along with PJ
Harvey and Eddie Vedder. Erin has sung solo on HBO's The Chris Rock Show as the Hippie Chick, and on Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show as The Pretty White Girl who sings Dave's thoughts. Erin was in the original Broadway casts of Titanic, Cabaret, and Urinetown and has twice been part of the Sundance Theater Lab in Utah, originating the role of Ilse in
Spring Awakening with Duncan Sheik, and as musical director for Lil's 90th (also at the Long Wharf Theater in 2010) with Jo Bonney. In 2010-11 Erin toured with the Lincoln Center production of South Pacific as harpist and pianist. Erin is a songwriter and screenwriter on the upcoming sci-fi film Fade To White, which Erin describes as "On the Beach meets Saturday Night Live." Her songs can be heard in several other films, including Spent, Bad Bride, and American Desi. She signed The
Buddy Scott Trio to her label and their songs can be heard in the MGM film A Guy Thing. As a voice- over artist she's been heard on commercials from Coca-Cola, Match.com and Walmart to Play-Doh and Dunkin' Donuts. Erin is the harpist on the new soundtrack for The Fantasticks, on Martha Wainwright's acclaimed debut album Martha Wainwright, on the original Broadway cast album of Sam Mendes' Cabaret, on the tour of the Lincoln Center South Pacific, in various commercials (Dunkin' Donuts, etc.), and on MTV2's Wonder Showzen. Erin studied voice with Marni Nixon and at L'Ecole Hindemith in Switzerland and has played Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. She was a founding member of the band Wicked Felina with G.E. Smith (of Saturday Night Live), where she was a co-writer, co-singer, and played harp, guitar, flute, accordion, and hammered dulcimer. Erin's played drums with Martha & the Vandellas; she's a classically trained pianist and plays keyboards, as well as percussion, guitar, and vocals for Will Lee and Jimmy Vivino in The Fab Faux; and she plays saxophone and flute (and harp) on the Sam Mendes Cabaret soundtrack on RCA. When playing live, Erin likes to sprinkle in a few covers at her gigs, ranging from
David Bowie's "
Space Oddity" or The
Beatles "I'm Only Sleeping," to the Celtic classic "Danny Boy" or a Puccini aria, which she sings probably even better than The Doctor on Voyager ;-). Oh, yes -- she also juggles and is an expert at walking on her hands (one of which can be seen in Clear Blue Tuesday, and the other on The Rosie O'Donnell Show, the Tonys, and Late Night with
David Letterman).
