Nikki Hill: ‘Being Backstage At Bluesfest Is Like Rock & Roll Fantasy Camp’

At first, it seems like any other celebratory end-of-tour social media post. The band in close quarters, pulling silly faces. Some love-heart emojis in the caption. Comments asking when they'll be playing [insert city here] next. Upon closer inspection, however, the woman at the centre of the photo – blues-rock singer, songwriter and guitarist Nikki Hill – has written a brutally honest take on what it means to be out on the road in 2022.

“The risks of touring are massive, and we are always up against a clock even while things crumble around us,” Hill wrote. “It's a very real hell out here right now, and artists are cancelling tours as the factors become immeasurable, or coming home from tour to empty bank accounts. That's not a new conversation, but that doesn't mean it's not a very serious, and normalized, reality.”

Reflecting on her decision to be transparent on the matter – in a way that other artists such as Santigold, Gang Of Youths and Animal Collective have in recent months – Hill says that it fell pertinent to acknowledge the struggle of present-day touring in tandem with the highlights that come with it. “There's always going to be those conflicting feelings – the music industry is so chaotic,” Hill muses from her home in Memphis.

“One of the most important things for us, as artists, is to celebrate your ups. The downs? They will really beat you down. For every successful tour, there's all those other ones behind that will not go down that way. Acknowledging both was just something I needed to do. So many artists say there's nothing more gratifying than the connection with their audience – despite whatever's going on at that moment, it will completely overcome it. The fans, and people that support live music, make you want to continue to be in the fight.”

Hill, with her long-serving band in tow, has kept the fight going across the globe throughout 2022, in particular touring extensively through Europe for several months. She's found a particular following in Scandinavia of all places – which may initially seem surprising, given Hill's style of music is particularly rooted within an American style. As she's found, however, music truly is a universal language. “When I first started going out on the road stateside, the interest came pretty quickly from Europe,” she says.

“Every day I was getting messages from fans being like, 'When are you gonna come over here?' At that time, I hadn't done a lot of travelling so I assumed that everywhere outside of America was an Australia length of time away.” Hill laughs at her geographical naivete, before continuing: “It was really such a trip going all that way and seeing people singing along, especially in places that don't primarily speak English.

“It's still a trip, even now. They really seem to love music over there, especially American music. People bring me records of stuff they really love that they think I'd really like, and they're usually right too. It's wild to see the mark American music has made over there – they really study it, and they can talk about it forever.”

While Hill hasn't released new solo material since 2018's Feline Roots, she's been busying herself with a new side project called Sister Dynamite. The trio, which blends elements of blues, country and rockabilly, sees Hill playing bass alongside drummer Rose Cangelosi and guitarist Matt Hill – who, in addition to playing in Hill's touring band, is also her husband. “It's cool to just be a member of a band again,” says Hill.

“Not only am I not performing under my own name, I'm not handling the logistics and business side of it. It's really freeing, and it's been really cool to explore. I've never sung and played bass at the same time in a band before, either – I feel that's really using a different part of the brain, pairing those two.” As for her next solo album, Hill confirms that her fourth LP is a work in process – and, while likely for a 2023 release, she's going to wait for the inspiration to properly hit in order to get it out there.

“Being an independent artist, one thing I made sure not to stress myself out on was writing new songs in 2020,” she explains. “I made sure to not get really caught up in pressuring myself for a release – not least of all because all of my albums have been self-funded, and no one was certain what was going to happen in that time. When shows started to come back, I finally started to record new music. It's felt good to let the inspiration come to me naturally, versus having that pressure of putting something out just because you need to have something out.”

Hill and her band will bring her whole catalogue to Australia in 2023, where she will perform as part of next year's stacked Bluesfest line-up. It will mark the Durham native's fourth time playing at the festival – having previously performed in 2014, 2015 and 2017. Much like her now-frequent visits to Europe, however, the surreal nature of having a following so far from home is not lost on Hill whatsoever. “I always remembered seeing the Bluesfest line-up floating around, because some artists I was a fan of would be invited to play,” she recalls.

“I always thought it was super impressive, and being invited myself was such a wild experience. To be able to go that far away, and introduce your music to people you would have never met or interacted with otherwise... it's truly great. The band and I always say, being backstage at Bluesfest is like a rock & roll fantasy camp. You're sharing walls with these people that you've admired for so long – sometimes even your entire life. You're meeting new bands, you're discovering music... it really makes you appreciate everything you're doing.”

Byron Events Farm will host Bluesfest from Thursday the 6th to Monday the 10th of April 2023. For more details, click here.