Growing up in a small town that has nothing but a local school system and slew of gas stations is enough to shatter all of your hopes and dreams of becoming a musical success, but one local musician did not let it get him down.
Following failed attempts to start a band in the area of southern Ohio, Thomas Hill packed up and moved to the growing music scene of Jacksonville, Florida and left his old life behind.
"After spending my entire life in the same small town, I felt like it was time for a change," Hill said. "I've always wanted to travel and see other things. I have nothing against where I grew up, but moving into a different place would not only be better for a musical career, it would help me grow as a person."
The small community of Chesapeake, Ohio leaves something to be desired when one is looking for musicians to start up a band, but Hill explained that a lack of musicians was not what was behind his move.
"It had more to do with what you can do with your music as opposed to finding other people to play with," Hill said. "Obviously Jacksonville has a much larger pool of musicians to find members to collaborate with, so that is a plus, but for the most part, it's just a much larger market for exposure."
Success in the Florida music scene is not new. The state has had many successful bands come out of it including Lynyrd Skynyrd, Limp Bizkit, Cold and Shinedown.
The main problem in a smaller music scene, like the one in Southern Ohio, is that people do not take the local musicians seriously when it comes to the future of the area's talent.
"If there's a good band from Huntington, people say 'they're good, but this is Huntington'," Hill said. "There is an unwritten, understood axiom that even if something is good, like a band, it can only reach so high because there is a ceiling that they will hit in such a small market."
Following his move to Florida, Hill became inspired by do-it-yourself musicians like Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. He then decided to go into the studio by himself to record his first E.P.
While some might find it daunting to go into the studio by themselves, Hill explained that there really was not anything that he disliked about recording his E.P. without any band mates.
"I'm the type of person who doesn't like depending on others to get things done, so performing all the instruments was perfectly fine for me," Hill said.
While Hill carries all of the songwriting weight on his self-titled E.P., he had a little help recording from Bobby Amaru, of the bands Burn Season and Amaru, who laid down the drum tracks while Stan Martell did the engineering, producing and mixing of the project.
After making the decision to record with Stan Martell, Hill was asking him if he knew any good drummers for his project, and by luck he mentioned that he was friends with Amaru and ultimately he was up for working on Hill's project.
"I was very fortunate to have (Amaru) involved," Hill said.
Even though recording is one of the most mentally grueling and important things to do as a musician, Hill said that he is not relieved to have it finished. Instead, he said that there is a sense of accomplishment when one finishes a project like this.
"Going into the studio is just one of those things," said Hill. "It's fun to go in and get your songs on tape and to hear them come alive, but at the same time I am usually happy to be finished."
Even though recording can be grueling, getting your music into the iTunes store can prove to be even more difficult as an independent artist.
"You can't get on iTunes without having support from a label or a distributor," Hill said. "Fortunately, I was able to find an online distributor for Marion Crane, but it isn't easy for bands who are not established to get their music on iTunes, which is kind of sad."
Hill also said that it is just one of those things that you have to deal with as an indie artist. The iTunes Store is the most popular legal downloading engine on the internet; so, to have credibility as a new band, according to Hill, you have got to get your material out there for people.
"As an entirely independent musician who does not have worldwide distribution for hard copy releases, iTunes is the way to go," Hill said.
The songs on Marion Crane's MySpace page have a dark, driving quality reminiscent of the style of music one may hear in a darkened theater watching a psycho killer stalking his or her prey. This is no coincidence. Hill admits than he often writes songs while watching movies and has definitely been influenced by them while writing.
"You hear a lot of musicians say they write their best stuff on drugs or while they're incredibly wasted, but not me. I usually make a big pot of coffee and put a horror film in and turn the sound down, and then just crank my amp up."
The greatest lesson that Hill can teach us is that musicians have to get out there and make things happen for themselves.
"You can't sit back and wait for things, especially when you're independent. Go out and make things happen. Prioritize correctly, spend time trying to make your songs unique, and don't let yourself be overwhelmed. It's a marathon not a sprint."
If you would like to hear the music of Marion Crane, you can check out www.myspace.com/marioncraneband.
Justin Hawthorne can be contacted at hawthorne2@marshall.edu.
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