Five Mansfield siblings are blending each of their musical styles to create their own brand of electronic, jazz and hip hop. The Trio says its latest album, Two, is a true reflection of how the family band has evolved to create a unique, unified sound.
From three siblings to five
The Hill siblings each played different instruments growing up: Ariane the flute and accordion, Andrew the EWI (electronic wind instrument) and saxophone and Aaron the drums. They released some instrumental music together as The Trio. But Aaron, who's also the band's producer, says the project felt complete when they added two more brothers, Aiden on trumpet and Alan, a rapper who performs as Kid Kulture.
The family has a musical background. Their parents introduced them to jazz and they grew up performing at their church. Then, their church asked them to play a gig in downtown Mansfield.
"We just wrote a bunch of songs for that program, because we weren’t a band at that time but we were like, 'This actually went pretty well,'" Aaron Hill said.
Alan Hill, aka Kid Kulture, says he started rapping when he was in high school.
"We’d just be free-styling, but then I was like, ‘This is actually kind of fun.’ So I was going to ask Aaron to make a joke beat, just so I could go to school and show them that I made an actual track. They were like, ‘Why don’t you just come rap with us?’ Since The Trio had just started with their music."
"We take non-traditional instruments and make them sound more traditional"
Finalizing their electrojazzhop sound
With the different instruments set to Kid Kulture's rhymes, Aaron Hill said the band was able to write its own music, rather than sampling from others. “This whole album is about really finalizing our sound. With our previous two projects, we liked what we put out, but at the same time we weren’t happy with the sound that we created. So, I’d say this project we’re the most proud.”
They describe their sound as electrojazzhop, a blend of electronic, jazz and hip hop. "It was really just taking some of my production and seeing what else we could add to that, because I also make rap beats. We take non-traditional instruments and make them sound more traditional."
The Trio's next performance is January 31 at the Phoenix Brewing Company in Mansfield. They say they hope to start playing more shows in the Akron and Cleveland area.
