Interviewed for GLAM.
By the age of 21, New York City-based singer-songwriter Hillary Capps had released two full-length jazz albums: A Perfect Dozen (2008) and Playlist (2010). She then released her first work of original songs, the EP Maybe in the Morning (2012). Hillary’s upcoming full length album The Wishing Forest is set to debut in early 2014. Hillary has quite an impressive resume for someone so young, already placing herself as a seasoned musician, whereas many her age are just starting to find their footing. Hillary Capps began performing professionally when she was still in high school, and as a result, her music has grown with her, and it offers a fresh take on a classic style. Hillary just released her new single off her upcoming album. The catchy song “New Melody” adds levity to heartbreak, a topic which typically lends itself to darker songs. Hillary Capps’ voice has a gentle strength, and her new tune blends jazz vocals with pop instrumentals, to create a spirited anthem for the broken-hearted, conveying that they are perhaps the ones better off in the end. GLAM recently spoke with Hillary about her new single, upcoming album, and wishes for the future. You started singing at age three and then you sang with your dad in a jazz band? I was 16 and I performed at my first gig, a wedding, I think it was, which was a long three hour set of a ton of jazz standards that I’d been learning for a long time. Is the rest of your family musical? Just me and my dad, really. Everyone in my family is artistic in some way, but music is really just me and my dad. Obviously, your dad was an influence; who were some of your other musical influences? I have a lot. It’s kind of a broad spectrum. But some of the ones early on are Ella Fitzgerald when I was learning the jazz standards, Norah Jones, Paul McCartney and The Beatles in general. More recently, Adele, Ingrid Michelson, Sara Bareilles is a big one. And then I have some influences, who are not so similar to my music, but I think I draw subtle things from, like Katy Perry and Feist. Can you tell us about your new single? My new single is called “New Melody.” It was co-writtten by Anthony Farina, who is the guitar player in my band and produced the album, and it is, in its simplest terms, a break up song. (laughs) It was fun to release a fun break up song of the summer. It’s a pop song, but it’s influenced by jazz in terms of a lot of the melodies and the piano in it. I tried to integrate new pop sounds with sort of an organic jazz feel underneath it. And you have an album coming out early next year? That’s right. It’s going to come out probably the end of January and it’s going to be called the Wishing Forest. Where did you come up with the name for that? The name is actually also influenced by my dad. When I was little, I grew up in Vermont, and my Dad lived in this place called Pocoho Road and he had an enormous property that was basically a forest, and there was this cluster of trees that he, and I don’t know how he came up with it, but he called it the wishing forest. He would take me and my sister down there with him we would pick a spot, and pick a tree, and make a wish for our future, or tomorrow, or whatever, and then we would just go on with the rest of our day. It was just this fun, sort of magical, little wishing forest and I found that a lot of the songs on the album were tied to wishing in some way, whether it was wishing for something to be different in the past, wishing for something to happen in the future, and so on. And the song Storybook, which is one of the tracks on the new album, references the wishing forest, so in a way, Storybook is the title track, it’s just not called the wishing forest. I love that. That’s a great story. Thanks, yeah. I think so (laughs)! You mentioned Adele and you’re kind of already on the same track [as her]. You know, you’re young and you’ve already put out two albums and an EP, and you’re about to put out another album; speaking of wishing, where do you hope to see yourself, or what do you wish or hope for yourself in terms of your career? Let’s say maybe five years in the future, where would you like to see yourself? With each album, I’ve kept progressing in a, I think, natural growth kind of way, and this one is the first full length that is all originals, and reflects kind of where I’m headed, maybe more so than Maybe In The Morning did. So what I hope to do is to continue on that path and keep putting out albums that kind of reflect my natural growth as a musician. What I would like to do it have more and more people hear it as I go on, and I think this coming year I’m going to start doing some mini-tours, with some dates on the East Coast and some dates in California, and maybe in Austin... So I’m just going to gradually grow it and hopefully get on an independent label within the next year, that’s one of my goals. And get some songs in film and TV, that’s a great way to get exposure to share the music and just kind of go on this, hopefully, natural growth path so that, to the point so that I can just be touring and making money just by doing music only, doing what I love to do. Doing what you love is something we can all aspire to! We look forward to seeing Hillary’s wishes come true.
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