Percy Hill faded away in 2005 but the fans’ love for their music continued. The late 90s lineup of the New Hampshire group will reunite for two shows this weekend – Friday, March 25 at the Port City Music Hall, Portland, ME and Saturday, March 26 at Paradise Rock Club in Boston.
Nate Wilson, Aaron Katz, Joe Farrell, John Leccese are ready to recreate the magic from their 1999 Jammy-winning album Color in Bloom. For these shows, the band will be joined by longtime friend and collaborator Yahuba Garcia. Jambands spoke with Nate and Aaron about everything Percy Hill.
Getting to the upcoming shows, can you tell me the thought process of choosing the venues that were selected for those shows?
Nate: The Paradise is like home. It’s the venue we’ve probably played the most over the years. The NH Seacoast is where we got our start but Boston was the closest big city. We worked our way up through smaller clubs in town but the Paradise was the biggest room we played. We were thinking of doing just a one night only thing with the reunion but when I talked to Andy Herrick about it he suggested doing a second market. Portland made sense cause we have a lot of history there and it is also a really vibrant music town these days.
The Port City Music Hall show is sold out and few tickets remain for the Paradise show. How does that make you feel, that the love for Percy Hill is still very much alive and present?
Aaron: The atmosphere at a Percy Hill show is joy, beauty, fun, energy, love and soul. The connections people make to themselves and each other in that environment are meaningful and lasting.
Nate: The fact that we can step away for this many years and have this kind of reaction is definitely humbling. Just nice to know that the work we put into the music over the years is appreciated still.
Can you reflect back on the recording of Color In Bloom ? What memories do you have from those sessions?
Aaron: I remember the two-inch tape machine. I remember zombie rides (we looked like kids going to summer camp) in the van from Dover Street. I remember feeling like we were all doing something we genuinely loved and believed in. As far as band relationship, it was a bit like the honeymoon period when everything happening pulses with possibility. I remember the moment John made the call to track to click. I remember it feeling effortless, exciting, comfortable, fun and overall just feeling right.
Nate: Honeymoon period is a good way to describe it. I had spent a lot of time hanging with Aaron listening to his songs and we had thought a lot about arrangements – just living inside that material; well before the newer Percy Hill line-up had even come together, going back to early college days. So we had logged a lot of time on that material already. There was a lot of excitement when we got to that recording because I think it was a lot of ideas finally coming together all at once.
Color In Bloom was recorded by Chris Magruder on a 2-inch tape/Neve board with no Pro-Tools or computers of any kind.
Nate: Chris is a great engineer and has a really steady hand as far as getting performances out of everyone and keeping everyone in a positive headspace. Joe and I had already worked with him on the first Percy Hill album. I didn’t know enough to have the reverence for the vintage gear we had at our disposal but I’ve certainly developed an appreciation since.
When you were recording the album, did you get a sense it was going to be special?
Aaron: At that time I was 21 and all I wanted to do was either sit in a tiny room with a piano creating ideas or be out drumming for wild dance parties. I honestly didn’t think about how others might react to what we were recording. I do know we all put every ounce of combined heart into those tracks.
Nate: I had pretty high aspirations for it but I was honestly discouraged at first because it took a lot of word of mouth and a lot of us banging our heads against a wall on the road before that record actually got any attention. I remember reading a really scathing review in some local paper in Buffalo by someone who was obviously a fan of the older lineup. And it made me laugh because it reminded me of that scene in Spinal Tap when they’re reading all their bad reviews, but I never doubted the strength of the music. But with no record label behind it, scant resources, no distribution and so forth, we had to go out and literally press it into people’s hands. The accolades started happening after we were done touring behind it .. if I remember correctly.
What allowed for everything to come together as it did?
Aaron: Have you ever had the feeling while you are planning something or during the something that what you are doing has already happened and you are just along for the ride following the predetermined path? For me, Percy Hill feels like a part of my life path and a piece of who I am. As for coming together we were all in the UNH music scene. I auditioned for UNH Jazz band with John on upright bass. When I first met Nate, we were inseparable constantly playing sessions and writing in the PCAC. Nate introduced me to Steely Dan on his 1980s vinyl player. Percy Hill was already established with Nate, Joe and Al Ostroy at the helm so the stage was set. We just had to get on board, write/record material and push ahead full blast as only serenely naive, hormonal, adventure seeking, glory chasing, freedom tasting lads in their early and mid-twenties could do.
Nate: Like most things it probably just comes down to the amount of time you’re able to put towards something. At that time we had no other duties and we were motivated.
You won the very first Jammy award for best studio album for Color in Bloom, does that seem like a lifetime ago? What memories do you have from that night?
Aaron: I remember driving down to Irving Plaza from Dover, NH with Zander L in his VW bus. We were just honored and happy to be a part of this community of music lovers.
Nate: Like I mentioned before the accolades seemed to start coming in only after the “relentless touring” phase of the band had ended. I actually had a day job at the time while I was waiting to get my scholarship back at UNH. I was working at a paper company that resembled Dunder Mifflin in more ways than one, when I got the call about the Jammy. I remember the distinct feeling of “are you kidding me?!” It was certainly an honor, it was just a funny point in life for sure. It’s worth mentioning that I was an awful employee.
How did the idea for a reunion come about for this late 90s lineup of Percy Hill?
Aaron: I was producing the Essex Street stage in Salem for one of the Halloween month weekends and I got a call from Scott Mohler about booking one of the bands he represents. While on the phone, Scott mentioned he had been listening to Color In Bloom on repeat with his friend Colin Winsor (I think he jokingly said they were holding each other crying).Scott mentioned the idea of doing a project similar to Percy and he wanted to reach out to Joe Farrell who also lives in Portland, Maine. Scott contacted Joe and Joe thought it would be a good idea to reach out to Nate. Scott put an email together pitching the idea of a Percy Hill reunion show. Nate said yes, called John and two weeks later we were looking at each others’ balding heads on Google Chat.
Nate: We just discussed some ideas and places where we might be able to do it. Time frames. It took a few months to find the right dates that would work for everyone. Getting together with Aaron, John and Joe was something that had crossed my mind a number of times over the last few years, I think it just needed a little push in the right direction.
When you went your separate way in 2005 officially ending Percy Hill, it seemed like the chances of ever having a reunion were unlikely, what changed?
Nate: Time, perspective, maturity and all that. I had some regrets about the way things ended on a personal level between some of us back then, as I know everyone did. Disagreements always seem pretty trivial when you have the perspective of 10 years to look back through it all. It felt like the right time to bury some of those hatchets, and it also felt like if a reunion was going to happen we’d better get on with it while enough people out there still remember the music.
When and where was the last show that you guys played together before the breakup? Did you sense that things were coming to an end?
Aaron: I think it was a boat cruise around NYC Harbor. (Sept. 9, 2005) At that time we were all already moving in different directions.
Nate: I don’t remember much about that particular show but I do remember those last few years of the band were topsy turvy and communication between the four of us had all but fizzled. Aaron had his own band out on the road for a while and then had put a ton of effort into producing our last record Afterall. John and I had become pretty busy with Assembly of Dust. I was writing songs with Reid Genauer and when I wasn’t doing that I was preparing to audition for graduate school. Long and short was that everyone’s life priorities were on different pages and our expectations were incongruent. I don’t ever remember a moment of finality for the band. I don’t know that we ever announced a break up. I think we just stopped. So maybe we never really did break up.
Was there anyone in the band that you continued to stay in touch with and maintain a musical friendship with? And if so, how much did that play a role in getting PH back together?
Aaron: We all went out into the world to better understand ourselves. We needed a lot of space in order to see the bigger picture of how special and rare this music is and how much of a gift it is that we were allowed to create and live it. It’s an intense thing to be that close to a bunch of dudes at such a young age. Running around the country in a van was liberating but at around hour 2,000 that funny fart smell fades. I see us now like a big block of ice. What melts away first on the outside is any drama and pointless ego driven fights. As the outer layers melt away we are left with what matters. The beauty of this music we create because of our unique connection. There is gratitude, creativity, chemistry, family, humor and love at the center.
Nate, for you, this is the second of Percy Hill reunions, as you reunited with Joe and the rest of the original lineup several years ago. Can you compare the two lineups.
Nate: They’re two separate entities really, although at the time we revamped the lineup it felt like there was continuity because Joe, Myself, my brother Zack (original percussionist), and Allen Ostroy, our manager, were all still working together. But listening back now it is a pretty stark contrast. The original band was rooted in more of a classic rock sound – Grateful Dead, Santana, Allman Brothers – that was the stuff we were into when we started out. When John and Aaron came on, the direction changed a lot. The song writing became more focused and more nuanced harmonically and the feel was more about 70’s R&B, Soul, Pop… or at least our attempt at those things. We always tried to bridge that gap for the fans of the older lineup, even after Color in Bloom and all that. We’ll be throwing some of that Setting the Boat Adrift era stuff in there for these upcoming shows as well.
You guys played a brief set at the Andypalooza benefit recently, what was it like to be back on stage with Nate, Joe, John as well as Yahuba after not playing together for 11 years?
Aaron: Like opening the dust covered box in the basement you packed everything away in only to find that is where your slippers have been.
Nate: It’s like we never missed a beat. It’s nice that everyone has kept playing a lot and maintained their chops. Sometimes when the “band breaks up” the dude, who goes on to sell insurance or whatever, puts his guitar in the closet and that’s it. Everyone here has stayed very active in music and it shows…so that’s nice.
And how are rehearsals going for the reunion shows?
Aaron: Rehearsals have been amazing. All positive energy from all parties. It is a joy and blessing to be around people you know so well and with whom you have had incredibly powerful, life changing experiences. Having Yahuba on board kicks everything up a notch. Everyone sounds energized, inspired, mature and grateful.
Nate: Everyone has continued along their musical paths and now brings all that experience back to the table here. 5 really accomplished musicians coming together and I think it sounds better than ever. The hardest part is to refrain from rehashing old stories and focusing on the task at hand.
Aaron, you and Joe, have been less visible in the jamband scene the last years. What have you been up to? And can you tell me what Joe has been up to?
Aaron: Joe runs the music program at King School in Portland. He is also a major family man and keeps active playing/recording all over the Portland scene. After Percy, I played in AKB, Geminatrix and The Dejas. I ran a number of inner city Hip-Hop cyphers and played drums for rapper and former Patriots linebacker Tully Banta-Cain. Producing albums led me to Salem, Mass. When I arrived in Salem, I got a call from the director of a group home for abused/at risk youth. The director was a Percy Hill fan and he asked me to come in and do some music at the group home with the teens. Now seven years later, my role is still to create a high energy positive space where the teens can come in to feel safe and open up about their lives in order to face, deal with and potentially heal past trauma. Working with music in this way and witnessing its transformative healing powers on human lives has strengthened my love, devotion, passion and respect for it. I also now play with my girlfriend Sarah Blacker either as Sarah Blacker and Aaron Z. Katz or BlacKat and I recently sat in on drums for a few shows with Pink Talking Fish.
One of my favorite songs from that album is “Ammonium Maze.” Aaron, can you talk about the songwriting process for that song? And could you explain the meaning behind, the song as I’ve never been able to figure it out?
Aaron: A bigger piece of the writing process for me is sitting as still as possible at the piano and waiting. Sometimes minutes and sometimes many hours. If I can get to a mental state in between thinking hard and complete non-attached openness the ideas start to emerge to my lighthouse through the sea fog. Some ideas present themselves complete and others come in small pieces at a time. For “Ammonium Maze,” I was reacting to an environmental science class I had taken on climate change and how selfishly removed I had become from the issue. The chorus for me says: I’m guilty and following others in this destructive way of life. “Lost in the hands from that which we grow”.. Disconnected from nature. I look at myself as the problem. Laziness, desire, convenience, ignorance, wastefulness, path of least resistance, greed (fat pounds of the class). “so soon we end alone again.” I was just imagining a scorched Earth with few survivors. The verses and bridge maintain that theme of being stuck in an unhealthy and dangerous cycle (maze) as things collapse around you.
Another one of my favorites is “Sun Machine.” Nate, can you talk about your inspiration for it?
Nate: It’s funny that you asked Aaron about “Ammonium Maze” because “Sun Machine” has a similar theme. It’s kind of a sci-fi idea about someone who designs some sort of biosphere in preparation for an environmental apocalypse but then refuses to come out and refuses to let anyone in. It was one of the first songs I wrote lyrics to. I think its interesting that this stuff was on our minds almost 20 years ago and it is also a little depressing that not much has really changed.
So after the reunion shows what’s next for you guys individually and could there be more Percy Hill shows on the horizon?
Aaron: I am playing shows with Sarah Blacker, running programs for at risk youth, producing shows on the North Shore, writing, reading, meditating, jumping rope and getting into Wim Hoff. I hope there is a long road ahead for Percy Hill. The music that came through us all those years bonded us in ways that can’t be seen or talked about. That musical gift now comes through the same but were wiser, stronger, happier, mature and more stable men.
Nate: The possibility certainly stands. As of right now it’s just these two shows and we’ll see where it leads afterward. Things are staying busy with Ghosts of Jupiter as we’re finishing a new record which is due out this fall. Excited about all musical possibilities these days for sure.
