Charlton Hill
(coca-cola.com.au, June '03)
CAREER OVERVIEW
Charlton Hill is a rare breed in the Australian music industry. He is a singer songwriter. In a world filled with manufactured acts, Charlton has leant his craft the good, old fashioned way, by hard work. He writes and performs all of his own songs but also oversees every part of the business of his career. Like Alex Lloyd and Neil Finn, Charlton Hill is an artist taking a long term view.
He tells his story to Undercover Media’s Paul Cashmere.
BACKGROUND
Paul Cashmere: Let’s start with your early influences. Where did the early support for your career come from?
Charlton Hill: I guess the influence was from the family. We had a musical family. Nothing professional, it was just part of the household. My mother had a piano and used to get up every once in a while and bash some songs out. A late night family dinner and a couple of drinks would turn into a few songs around the piano. My father as well is quite a clown and never afraid to jump up and make a scene. He showed me that was okay. On that level that was a beginning and influence. Once I started to go down my own path for a while (as family and friends do) they asked me “how serious are you?”. As I showed the endurance and commitment they really believed in what I was doing and were a great strength.
PC: When did it go from dabbling to hobby?
CH: I think it was in my later teens. I had been playing in bands at school and had an academic side separate to what I was doing. I hadn’t worked out what I was doing as a side thing and putting all my time into it and making it my main thing. I think it was early teens and then more defined when I did go overseas. I became a solo artist at that stage. I felt I had people let me down in bands. At times they didn’t have the commitment I did so as a solo artist I could do that. I was 19 or 20 then. Now this is it. This is why I get up in the morning and if I am penniless then that is fine.
PC: So that is when you went from hobby to professional?
CH: Yeah. That is when I decided to put my head on the chopping block and get my music out there. Joining forces with a creative manager that is when I knew what I could do it.
MANAGEMENT
PC: What about getting your first manager? What were you looking for?
CH: It happened a little bit fatefully. He had come to see the band I was in at the time. As that band folded he became a real guide. I think I realised what I wanted as the relationship evolved with it. Anthony Copping is his name. He is a producer, a manager and a publisher. He is an entrepreneur. The continuing faith and support at a time when I thought I should just go up in the hills and be a monk. That was option two of course. He was there to say “this is what you are doing and why you are doing it”. I guess I inspired him to become involved in the first place. It is a great strength and totally necessary. You need someone to pick you up and spearhead you to record companies. It is very hard to walk in there yourself and do that sort of thing. You need someone to say those things so you can concentrate on what you want to do.
CONTRACTS AND DEALINGS
PC: What about with contracts. Are you hands on with negotiations?
CH: I am. I am very aware of it. It is totally irrelevant to my path but I have an academic background. I have a Bachelor of Economics. I dropped all that because I felt it had nothing to do with the life ahead of me but I did complete my degree. I am very aware of what is going on in that side. To be honest I don’t get totally involved. I choose someone who knows what they are doing and let them go down that path. I get them to give me a summary before I sign anything but you have to trust people who are good at their roles and not be too much of a control freak.
EQUIPMENT
PC: Being nomadic as you were, how did you go with accumulating equipment?
CH: It was pretty much a suitcase and guitar. Standing at an airport, standing at a train station I would have a bag in one hand and a guitar in the other. Due to necessity your wardrobe becomes pretty minimal. I am a great fan of leather jackets. I found THE leather jacket and you can wear that pretty much anywhere. You can wear it to a café to stay warm or I could wear it out if I ever had the chance to go to some sort of nicer event. I’d have friends who would score tickets to this or that and I would turn up trying to look as unshabby as I could. I dressed just enough to be let in the door. You become self sufficient and low maintenance. As long as I had my guitar I was happy.
PC: What do you have now?
CH: The guitar collection is ever increasing. Sadly on the odd occasion when I would have to sell a guitar and move to the next stage to make the money, now I keep all guitars. On a recording equipment level I have a laptop computer which basically goes with me everywhere. I can burn CDs off if someone hasn’t heard something or show someone an idea. On that system I now have a full recording setup and device that sits with it to put music directly to the laptop. That is all I need. That is my demoing tool.
RELEASES
PC: How did it feel when you first got a copy of ‘Waterline’ in your hand.
CH: It was very recently. It felt very exciting and very relieving and a real landmark. Because I was working so hard and not taking the time to acknowledge that these little things I’m achieving were now benchmarks that I set myself. For a minute there I stopped. I was in a café doing an interview and it came out there. I stopped and looked through my thanks to people. In about 5 minutes I was reliving my entire journey though faces and instances. I was pretty overwhelmed.
PC: It must have felt strange having the last couple of years of your life condensed to one 5 inch piece of plastic.
CH: I guess it is. There is something to be said for the old school record. At least it was slightly larger. I think other things are taking over from that. I have a clip on there and all sorts of things so there are more things to hold and see and observe so maybe that takes over from the record concept. It is kind of weird. If you give it to someone or give it away it is like “take my life”.
ADVICE
PC: Give some words of advice to someone just starting.
CH: I think as early on as you can, as soon as you recognise you have influences, don’t shed them but realise there is no way you can necessarily forge your own path by using someone overly. If it is someone you admire or who is a benchmark in music you will not end up with their exact same life or exact sound. It’s actually saying these people inspire me and now I must come up with my own sound and thought and content. That is how you will break into the industry and that is how you will stay in the industry. The more unique you are the further you will go and the longer you can stay. The earlier you realise that the better.
THE PRIVATE LIFE OF CHARLTON HILL
PC: Tell us something about Charlton Hill normal guy when you aren’t out there being Charlton Hill entertainer.
CH: It can be one of two things. It can be absorbing just taking in the world around me. Jumping on a bus or a train going somewhere I wouldn’t normally go. I pick a place out on the map and go. Or it is catching up with friends I haven’t seen for a while. For me it is about putting myself in strange situations and doing things that are not normal. The other one is giving out and grabbing a guitar and writing and sitting in solitude and putting down what I have absorbed in song.
PC: Would we ever find you veging out at home in front of the TV?
CH: I don’t watch TV. I hate TV. I will watch it if there is something to watch. You are more likely to find me at the movies. I will go to the movies by myself often. I would rather get out there. It’s hard to find quality in TV, especially when it is riddled with advertisements. I find that frustrating I don’t subscribe to that kind of life.
PC: What was the TV show that used ‘2’s Company’?
CH: Charmed used that one. They explained that there was a story it was relevant to and I acknowledged that it was a great medium to get music to people. I am not afraid of that at all using my music as a tool. For the amount of people who actually heard the song that way and came up to me to say they heard it like that, I guess that is kind of contradictory considering I don’t watch TV myself.
Charlton Hill’s album Waterline is out through Sony Musicworld.