Their name, Science Hill, is interesting and original and, for the band, brings to mind an unforgettable incident, “Dave and I worked for my dad and uncle in their cellphone tower business. Every year, we’d go to these towers, cleaning them up, making sure everything's working ok. One of the towers that we went to was in Science Hill , Kentucky . We pull up to the site and it's on this guy's property. The guy, who owns the property, was getting out of his truck, as he's getting out he's got this giant shotgun thrown over his shoulder. He's probably around 70 years old. We looked at each other like, 'Let’s let this guy know who we are, why we're here?' We explained we were there to work on the telephone tower, and he's like, 'Sure, fine, open up the gate, just do what you have to do.' The whole time we’re standing there talking, he’s got huge shotgun over his shoulder. We both came back and we agreed that if the opportunity ever came up, Science Hill would be the name we’d use,” Jeff explains.
Jeff’s first teacher and inspiration was his dad. “As far back as I can remember, he'd be down in the basement jammin' on his guitar and I would go down with my toy guitar and play along and sing with him. I’ve been singing my whole life. For my 11th birthday, my Dad decided to buy me a guitar just kind of out of the blue. He said, 'Do you want to learn how to play?' and I said, 'Sure, what the hell.' That's pretty much it. From then on, I got hooked. Few years after that, started to teach myself drums, picked up the bass, and a little bit of piano, as well. My Dad and I play in a cover band together called ‘All Over the Road’. All my musical ability, I pretty much owe to my dad. I never took lessons or anything, he taught me and I learned from books and watching the pros.”
” We’ve always liked funk and jazz and reggae combination and we’ve put that together with the rock thing. We knew to go a little more mainstream with it; I decided I wasn't going to do any, y'know, rapping or anything like that. I tried to use my voice, started to sing a little bit more. We wanted to keep in that same vein; we wanted to go radio friendly. Try to keep it within the 3-4 minute range with the songs,” Jeff says.
Signed to the indie label EliteROCK Records with management through Lucky 7 Management, Science Hill is looking forward to getting out on the road, “They're going to put us on a national tour. I think with some bigger, better-known names. We'll be the support band. That's kind of a big thing for the near future. For now, we're just doing some Midwest shows. We've also been in some serious talks with 311 about touring with them on their 2009 Summer Unity Tour. If that goes through, it's gonna be huge for us.”
Writing all their own original material, their styles compliment each other, “Dave tends to write stuff that's a little more mellow. Kind of complicated with a lot of the newer stuff that we're writing since we put out our album ‘Moonlight Swim’. Lot of chords involved, lot of tempo changes, lot of different leads with guitar harmony and stuff like that. My stuff, I tend to write kind of more, it’s not necessarily faster and heavier, but my stuff is a little more simple than Dave's. We like to experiment with different genres and tempos, odd timing on the drumbeats, and stuff like that. Dave is the main songwriter with the music and I do all the lyrics myself. We bounce back and forth as we're writing new stuff.”
Science Hill is anxious to get their music heard and meet their fans, “We're really just stoked to get out on the road. Our roots are in the 70's classic rock, that kind of older stuff. Is what we mainly listen to, that's kind of where we draw the inspiration because that's when music was music. We’re just four down to earth, regular guys. We don't have big heads on our shoulders. We just basically want to meet everybody we can. We love when we get out to new towns, hanging out, sitting in the crowd listening to the bands, and meeting the people that come out to see us. We'd much rather come out and mix it up with the people that come to see us, than sitting back stage, isolating ourselves. If we come through your town, come out and say “Hi” to us cuz we love talking to folks.”
| written by Debbie DuBois Miller
