Interview with Fickle Hill about is single "Warning Test Site Area: An Embarrassment of Riches"

Fickle Hill es el proyecto de James, músico de Irvine que tras dejar atrás su vida corporativa, volvió a la música como forma de conectar y dejar un legado. Con más de tres décadas de experiencia, acaba de lanzar "Warning Test Site Area: An Embarrassment of Riches" un álbum de 33 canciones que refleja su historia, su búsqueda creativa y su visión.

• 1- How did Fickle Hill come about and where does it fit in your life today?

I was laid off from a high-paying corporate job after spending years on my career. I was a bit lost and decided to take my passion for music and the time I was spending “jamming” or playing other people’s music to start re-recording my own. I had been in a few bands back in college and traveled up and down the West Coast from California to Canada playing live music, but ever since that time, I had put music on the back shelf as something I did just for me. When I found myself without work, I went back to the thing I love and decided to share what I had been doing in private since those college days. I never stopped writing songs, so I used that backlog as a spark. Now I spend an hour or two every day doing music. I am working again, but I am investing in my art too and dedicating myself to releasing my music as part of my legacy. Maybe it’s part of turning 50 and being closer to death than birth. Today, it is another job I do for myself to communicate with the rest of humanity. I don’t expect to make a single dollar, but if I can connect with somebody and make them feel less alone in this world, I have done more than money ever could.

• 2- Looking back, what changed the most in the way you make music?

Over the past 25 years, I have really concentrated on mastering multiple instruments. I used to consider myself a skilled drummer with a strong understanding of music theory. Now I spend my days playing guitar and utilize the amazing technology available in DAW software to create a solo artist who can produce everything on a song and keep it from sounding repetitive. Over the years, I have transitioned from being a live performer to a recording artist who utilizes production and software to craft my sound, just as much as any instrument I play. Some things stay the same, like my tendency to keep mistakes in songs. Even if I rerecord it, I will try to replicate the errors so that things sound natural and authentic. I have a certain distrust for overly perfect music. It loses its soul. I’ve also become much more honest and rawer in my lyrics without making it all about me. I try to find ways to engage in conversations with the audience, rather than preaching. I still get preachy at times, but I am getting much better.

• 3- This album has 33 tracks, how did you manage to put together something so big?

I made this album with the intent of creating as much music as I could. I know it’s a lot. I know it is an embarrassment of riches. I challenged myself to work harder and never allow a riff or idea to get left behind. I committed to completing everything and dedicated myself to continuing until I had nothing left. I was exhausted by the end, but I felt fulfilled and satisfied like I had washed my psyche. I have many volumes of poetry I can pull from for ideas and lyrics. I have hundreds of songs that I recorded in various ways over the years, and I can reuse them. I went in with the intention to drain the reservoir, and that’s what I did. Once it was all made, I spent a reasonable amount of time making sure I put together a journey. A piece of art that carried the listener along with me through emotions and energies that felt like a manic frenzy, but one that was very intentional in eliciting the same feeling you get from a delicious meal where you are stuffed and can’t eat another bite, but you want to go to that restaurant again. Within a few days, you crave that meal again. I was very intentional in making sure it was indulgent for the listener and not for me as an artist.

• 4- Which of these songs sticks with you personally? Was there a moment in the recording that marked you?

A Frayed Man was weird. I had written a song about feeling very isolated and having a hard time connecting to people, as my finances were falling apart. It was a genuinely poignant moment of sadness and frustration. Yet as I started putting together the music, I wanted to create the soundtrack for a cyberpunk anime fight scene. I started going more electronic and duplicating guitar sounds with warm, fat synth noises and driving drum tracks. I remember sitting back at one point, seeing the direction things had taken, and thinking to myself, 'I have never made anything like this before.' It was uncharted sonic territory for me. I was exhilarated and scared at the same time. I had never made glitch punk before, and it became this earworm in my head for over a week. I ended up releasing it as a maxi-single with different versions, including the original demo version, which sounds nothing like the final product on the album. If you want to hear how my process evolves as I create music, the maxi-single is a great example. I really hope that song lands with the audience. It’s probably one of the songs I most want to perform live.

• 5- Your music mixes many styles, was that something planned or did it just come out?

Very planned. I have become increasingly disillusioned with the genre label used for artists. It is a little fence that gets put around you, and you’re told you have to stay there and play nice. I’m not one thing. I am not one feeling. I am not one story. Sometimes I am an angry, loud, frustrated man. Sometimes I want to dive into the philosophical. Sometimes I want to use the profound metaphor of a murder ballad. Why would I want to be boxed in by a genre? That material is for individuals seeking to generate revenue and target an audience of repeat customers. I am not looking for customers. I am looking to connect to other humans through my art, and we are multidimensional people, so my art should be multidimensional too. If you compare two songs like "Slave on Earth" and "Docked at Harbor," they both explore life and death, but tell different stories. One uses Achilles’ words to express how life is always better than death, no matter how bad life may seem. The other uses the metaphor of old boats I was looking at in a harbor, and how in our youth, we are strong and formidable, but age wears us down, and we hit a point where we let younger people be strong and formidable because our bodies can’t do the things they used to do in the past. Those two songs have very different emotional centers and should be composed in various styles. I would be doing a disservice to the song and the audience, and myself if I forced them into a single style to meet some sound required by a genre.

• 6- What do you want people to feel when they listen to it?

This one is easy. Connected. Excited. Energized. I want people to feel like they are in a fist fight with their stomach full of butterflies and energy. I want them to feel like the 33 songs go by too fast, and they need to go back again. I want them to feel like they are not alone in this world. That somebody feels what they feel and understands. That none of us are alone, and we should celebrate the pain and joy with the same breath, because the pain and joy are what we all share.

• 7- If someone listens to you for the first time, where would you tell them to start?

Oh no. I have 18 albums, with more on the way, and hundreds of songs. Ugly Genes and Laboratory Retriever are good starting albums. Things like 101 and War Cry of The Gods are concept albums and very narrow, but Ugly Genes and Laboratory Retriever are broad, and I think anyone could find their new favorite song in those or at least get a taste for what I do that makes them want to explore more. Maybe Mr. Malapropism from Bald Faced Lies, just because I really like that one and enjoy the word play. Deep down, I know people probably need to do random tastes before they find the one that locks in with them.

• 8- What are you looking forward to after this release?

Making more music. Getting more fans. Becoming an underground secret, that people can treat like that old independent band you found in high school and feel like it was yours and special to you. I am looking forward to my next full-length album, How Many Times, which is set to be released on September 7, 2025. Yes, after releasing 33 songs, I already have more set to come out. I worry that one day I won’t start new work as soon as an album is released. I did that in the past and got complacent in just “playing music,” but I was unhappy and unfulfilled. I am excited to see where I go from here. I feel life wrapping up, and I want to get as much done as I can before I close my eyes and fade away one last time. It’s not just that I feel like I am being chased. It’s that I know I am being chased, and I want to see how fast and long I can run.