Uncommon Ground ^ Hines

Hines
Singer/songwriter, Hines, loves music, always had, always will. As a kid growing up in a Chicago suburb, music affected his life early on: beginning with Disney songs in kindergarten and evolving into Metal bands in junior high. As Hines matured so did his musical tastes. Phish became the catalyst that helped Hines discover bands like The Beatles and The Grateful Dead, and artists like Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, and Gillian Welch, (just to name a few)… all of which have impacted Hines’ original music. Maybe even more importantly Hines learned to respect and investigate all genres of music.

The story that most musicians tell is of one continuous path toward their final musical destination. Hines’ story follows a more disjointed path. Although he loved the idea of being in a band in high school, he was not convinced that music was to be his life. His first college experience was in Los Angeles studying film at USC, but he found himself spending more time involved with music than film. So, Hines relocated to Boston and began attending the Berklee College Of Music to study songwriting. Two years into his stay at Berklee, Hines was once again on the road. This time he ended up in Boulder, Colorado and spent the next three years working at a brew/pub. Now armed with a huge backlog of stories and experiences and the maturity to be committed to what he knew was in his heart, Hines moved back to his hometown of Chicago and began to write.

After years of working unfulfilling jobs, Hines decided it was time to pay the bills as a full time musician. As luck would have it, one of Hines’ favorite sandwich shops, Potbelly, was looking for lunchtime acoustic acts. Two years later Hines has amassed well over 1,000 hours of live performances at various Potbelly’s around Chicago. All this “paid practice” as Hines puts it, has given him years of live performance experience in a very short time. Dozens of original and hundreds of cover songs later, Hines was ready to record an album.

In Kindergarten, appropriately named because that’s where it all began, is Hines’ debut album. It showcases his folk/pop style and hints at many other genres with lyrics that tell a story. The thirteen original songs are an eclectic mix from the upbeat, ‘wanna dance to’ song like Oh Why to San Diego, a Dylanesque ballad of love and life, to the jazz driven, Kindergarten. He’s an artist that put every part of himself into the project having single-handedly written, performed, recorded, produced, and mixed the entire album.

One of the most difficult things for an artist to do is to describe their music. When Hines says “imagine Paul Simon after years of following Phish” he means it. Taking a cue from Phish, Hines’ goal is for every live performance to be unique. A different setlist each night, fun cover songs, and most importantly a show where fans have fun and leave wanting more.