A child of the ‘70s in the deep south, Amy Hills was born into an extended family of hard-working shrimpers with a preacher father and teacher mother who both played music and valued the arts. She began Suzuki piano as a very small child and started acting and singing in plays, musicals, and operas, in grade school. As a teenager, Amy picked up the guitar and found a way to put the notebooks full of songs she’d been writing for years to music. She continued performing, both with theatre and her own music, throughout college at the University of Richmond, where she studied Theatre, Leadership, and Dance. As the token female in the University’s improv troupe, she became known for her comedic songs, roasting the school’s Greek program and predominately white and wealthy student population.
Several years as Technical Director and Production Manager for Charleston Stage Company led her to pursue an MFA in Theatre at Yale School of Drama. When not studying for her structural engineering and drafting classes, she was manically writing songs and performing with the Yale Cabaret. At the end of her successful first year at Yale, she was graciously given a leave of absence to pursue a songwriting career and moved to Manhattan (never to return.)
Summer of 2002, she landed in the center of the “Antifolk” music community (in its heyday) at the East Village’s now defunct Sidewalk Café. The Moldy Peaches (Kimya Dawson, Adam Green) had just returned from their world tour with the Strokes, Beck had signed with a major label, young Regina Spektor was charming everyone. Amy’s country-pop-crossover songs didn’t quite fit the “Antifolk” bill, but she was given regular gigs, developed a solid little fan base, and recorded and released several lo-fi demos and a solo acoustic record. For a time, she took the reins running the infamous “Antihoot” open mic and booking the club. She also founded and hosted her own open mic at a club uptown, DTUT, attracting a different set of folks and creating an uptown “scene.”
Making what was poised to be her first big studio record, she found herself pregnant (and single). Deciding to leave New York, she shelved her record and music career in favor of having her family’s support and a lower cost of living. Back home in Charleston, through a series of fortunate connections and events, acclaimed poet Mike Tyler contacted Amy for assistance with his NYC based publishing and production company, The Art Cannot Be Damaged, Inc. (TACBD, cutepoet.com). Soon after the birth of her child, a symbiotic artistic partnership with Tyler was also born, and Amy became Managing Director of TACBD for twelve years. During her tenure, she designed, produced, and released over sixty products, including seven books and a record with an international tour.
Pre-pandemic, fueled by the Jungian philosophy that the greatest burden placed on children is the unlived life of the parent, Amy decided to finish the record she had shelved. Working with NYC based Producer Thomas Kobrick, an all-star band of Grammy-award-winning musicians was assembled. Over the course of two years, they recorded and re-recorded in several professional studios, both in Manhattan and Charleston. Amy began writing about the process: how she had navigated the many storms of single motherhood and marriage; losing herself and becoming herself again; leaving bohemian East Village rock-n-roll life to become a married middle-class suburban PTA president mom of three finishing a record.
“The History of You and Me,” an epic twelve song record with a gorgeous narrative arc, ranging from simple guitar and vocal ballads to rock anthems, and its corresponding autobiographical memoir, are now set for release together in 2023 with release date and shows TBD. Amy was selected as an SSB Away Artist-In-Residence for 2022 and will be spending focused time performing and workshopping this release show and cultivating new projects (amyhillsmusic.com, @amyhillsofficial).