For this week’s Spotlight On feature, we spoke to Irish musician Sion Hill.
The Mullingar native, whose real name is Nathan Johnston, describes his music as “hopelessly romantic, soulful Indie Pop”.
The singer is preparing for the release of his highly anticipated E.P. ‘A State Of Permanent Flux’ on November 19th, and is heading on tour in February 2022.
The talented songwriter spoke exclusively to Goss.ie about the most surreal moment in his career to date, his exciting year ahead, and more.
Check out the full exclusive interview below:
How did you come up with your stage name ‘Sion Hill’?
When I was living in Hamburg, Germany, very often people mispronounced my name so I decided that I wanted a stage name that would make me stand out. I loved the idea of having a name that could be a person but also could be a band… Like ‘Jethro Tull’, ‘Tame Impala,’ or ‘Biffy Clyro.’
I’ve always been interested in different cultures and more specifically the way Irish culture and language has been imparted throughout the world. I had a teacher in school named Colman who was very passionate about ancient Irish history and once told a story of how the ancient Celts had travelled to Israel to spread their Pagan religious ideas… Because of this, a lot of the old Irish language became intertwined with Hebrew and over time certain Gaelic words became a part of the Hebrew language.
One of those words was ‘Sion’ – which developed into ‘Zion’ meaning ‘heaven’ in Hebrew. What amazes me is that centuries later, a new religion developed in Israel – Christianity, which eventually made its way to Ireland and in turn became intertwined with the old Irish Pagan religions, basically doing a full circle.
I would not consider myself to be religious in any traditional sense, but I believe that there is something greater than us out there. It keeps me humble and helps to make sense of the many things that we cannot explain. ‘Sion Hill’ is not only a very common place name in Ireland (there is one only a few miles from where I grew up in Mullingar) but it is recognised across the globe. The name ‘Sion’ is the Welsh version of ‘Sean’ in Irish, stemming from the Greek Ioannes, which comes from the Hebrew name Johanan, meaning “God is gracious”.
Ultimately, I wanted a name that wasn’t tied to any one particular place but represented something beyond tradition… ‘Sion Hill’ is about diversity, inclusion, the blending of cultures and ideals, and above all – Never taking yourself too seriously.
When did you discover your passion for music?
I think it must have come from music class in primary school when I was maybe 8 or 9 years old. We had this one fabulous teacher, I think his name was Colin Rock, who ran some after school guitar lessons. I started playing a bit in the school orchestra and singing in the choir and it always excited me so much to go there in the afternoons. When I was leaving to go to secondary school, he gave me his bass guitar and that really stuck with me.
I really think having a teacher or parent or older sibling or mentor around when we are young that has their own love of music is incredibly important as a child. They say we are what we eat, but I also think we are what we hear.
Then my auntie gave me the Arctic Monkey’s first record ‘whatever people say I am, that’s what I’m not’ for Christmas when I was about 12 years old. The front cover had a picture of a guy in his late 20s smoking a cigarette and then the music was just these young lads strumming guitar really fast and singing about growing up and I was hooked.
Who are your musical influences?
I picked up the guitar after listening to bands like Green Day, Blink 182, RHCP… I suppose that really kicked things off for me until I started listening to my parents old records… Pink Floyd, The Eagles, T-Rex, George Michael, Elton John. That opened up my mind to a whole new world of music that was before my time. I think maybe that was my real inspiration.
As I got a bit older I discovered Neil Young, Bob Dylan and then John Mayer and became fascinated with folk, blues and soul artists and the way lyrics were delivered with such emotion and heart that you can actually feel what they say.
How would you describe your music?
Personally I don’t like genres. I know and understand that people in the music biz need to use genres for marketing purposes but really I just want people to make up their own minds. Music is music.
For me, I just want to make people feel good when they listen to my songs and hopefully you can relate to my lyrics and feel like you share a similar experience. But if I had to, I would say: ‘Hopelessly Romantic, Soulful Indie Pop Music’. Although, that may be a bit of a mouthful?
Who would be your dream person to collaborate with?
Alive – Paul McCartney. Dead – Kurt Cobain.
What has been the most surreal moment in your career to date?
Singing ‘The Wild Rover’ for 20,000 Germans on stage alone with just an acoustic guitar and a microphone and getting them all to sing along. I wish it had been one of my songs but there was something quite entertaining about having them singing ‘Ze Wild Rover’ back.
Tell us a bit about your upcoming EP. What is your favourite song from the album?
I’m releasing a 5 track E.P. called ‘ A State Of Permanent Flux’ on November 19th that I recorded in Liverpool just before the pandemic hit.
Up until this year, I had been signed with an independent label in Germany, licensed to Warner music and I was feeling totally trapped. I was being told that I was ‘too Indie for Pop and too Pop for Indie.’ They were making decisions about my music without asking, trying to control my art and I have no idea where any of the money was going. My mental health was suffering, I was drinking a lot and wasn’t in the best place to be honest.
So, I decided to leave the label. I bought back the rights to my songs and went independent. And it was the best decision I’ve ever made.
I wanted to go back to a more raw and real version of myself… Something that I felt was true to me. ‘A State Of Permanent Flux’ represents a very important ‘coming of age’ part of my life… almost a young midlife crisis (If that is a real thing? It certainly feels like it is) set on a bed of Indie-Rock, Soul & Pop Music.
Favourite track – ‘Walk on the Wire’.
You’re going on tour next year – what have you missed the most about the live music industry?
Yes! I’m so buzzed about it! I decided to wait until February as I couldn’t face having to cancel shows again, plus it gave me time to finish the album and release this E.P. to give people some new songs to sing with me.
What have I missed? Well, I’ve missed the travelling, for sure… but most of all I’ve missed singing and dancing with people. Being on stage is an incredible feeling and I always feel like I can truly be myself up there and can totally lose myself in the music and all the raw emotion that comes with playing live. There are so many special moments that happen on stage and you just don’t get that without the power of a live audience. Especially an Irish one.
What can we expect from you in the coming months?
I have a new music video coming in a couple weeks which is really amazing, I love it.
I’ve got the new E.P. dropping on Friday, a full length L.P. set for release in Spring 2022 that I recorded live with my band in a cottage in Clifden, Galway on the West Coast of Ireland. I think it is my best work yet, although an artist’s newest work is always their ‘best work.’
Then there’s my tour in February and some festivals in the summer… it feels like finally we’re getting back to real life again and I want to keep the positive vibes and just do what I’m doing and hopefully connect with and help as many people as I can along the way.
Oh yes and I’m playing in Dublin in the Workman’s on February 26th!
Photo credits:
- Styling: Vitor Lopes
- Photography: Miranda Shutler
- Location: The Adam & Eve, London.
Clothes/Fashion:
- Soup Archive
- Vail Archive
- Bargain Archive
Tickets for Sion Hill’s gig in The Workmans Club in Dublin on February 26th, 2021 are available here.
For more information on the Irish artist, check out his website here.
Check out the music video for ‘Could Have Had It All’ below:
