Livestream with Hilary of Bellwether Ritual 10-4-23

Mike talks music, gear and influences with Hilary of Bellwether Ritual

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Instagram: hilaryblairbrown
Facebook: Hilary Brown

Transcript:

Mike: Hey everybody, another Wednesday, another live stream! Alright, so if you’re watching this on replay, what I usually say off the bat is to go ahead and jump ahead 2 to 5 minutes to get into the interview. Usually, the first couple minutes are just us getting our feet wet and making sure all the tech works.

[Music Plays]

Mike: Alright, let’s get started. Hilary, how’s it going?

Hilary: Hey Mike, I’m good! Good to see you. Happy to be here!

Mike: Awesome, good to have you! So, we’ll give everyone a minute to hop in here. If you see anyone posting comments or questions, feel free to jump in and answer them!

Hilary: Will do!

Mike: Cool! So let me just read something off the top, and then we’ll get into things.

[Pause]

Mike: Hello and welcome to the Bellwether Ritual live stream, where we talk music, the local Lehigh Valley scene, and beyond—band social media, and more. Today is Wednesday, October 4th. My name is Mike, and I’m the vocalist and guitarist of Bellwether Ritual. Hope you all had a good week!

Mike: Just a heads-up, we have a show coming up—a Halloween show, more importantly, on October 28th in Bethlehem, PA at the Flying V Poutinery. The show will probably start around 6 or 7 p.m. and go until about 10 p.m. So, nice and early.

Mike: Now, let’s get into it! Tonight’s guest is none other than Bellwether Ritual’s own Hilary Brown! Hilary abandoned her family’s hopes of a real job to pursue her passion for music and musical gear. That pipe dream evolved into a 15-year career as a marketing executive and brand strategist for some brands you may have heard of, including Martin, Fender, Jackson, and Gretsch. Hilary, welcome to the live stream! How are you doing tonight?

Hilary: Hey, Mike! Good to see you. I’m doing great—happy to be here!

Mike: It’s awesome to have you on. And big shoutout to Brian Wagner, who took some great pictures of us a few weeks ago when we did the gig with Chaos Guitars. So thanks for joining, Brian!

Hilary: Yeah, I love those photos! Thanks, Brian!

Mike: Absolutely! And Chaos Guitars is also in the chat, so thank you for joining. And shoutout to everyone else tuning in. If you have questions for Hilary, feel free to drop them in the comments!

Mike: Alright, let’s get into it. First thing I want to ask, is there anything you want to plug right off the bat?

Hilary: No, just happy to be here! But I do want to give a shameless plug for Martin Guitar. I recently moved to the area to work for Martin, so if you’re in the market for a new acoustic, definitely hit me up!

Mike: That’s awesome! Definitely a plug worth mentioning. And on that note, are you from the area? If not, where did you come from or how’d you get here?

Hilary: That’s a bit of a loaded question! I’m originally from Jupiter, Florida. So, a surfer girl at heart. I moved to Chicago for undergrad, and I spent most of my adult life there. That’s really where I got my feet wet in the live music scene. I started playing bass there—played a ton of instruments, but bass really stuck for me. I was part of the Chicago indie scene for a while.

After Chicago, I bounced around a lot—New York, LA. I’ve lived everywhere for work in the guitar industry. Eventually, it brought me here. I’ve been at Martin Guitar for about a year and a half now. It’s kind of like when you work at a restaurant—you don’t really eat the food. That’s how it was for me. I was getting more and more away from music and needed to get back to playing. That’s actually how you and I connected, Mike.

Mike: Yeah, exactly! It’s awesome that we’ve crossed paths. So, was there a specific person or moment that got you into music?

Hilary: For sure. If I had to say, my dad is definitely the person who got me into music. I grew up in a musical family—my dad was a musician, my brother is a musician, and he lives in New Orleans now. I was surrounded by music, and it was something that was always there. My dad was the one who really pushed his musical tastes on us, and I’m grateful for that now.

I was raised on The Beatles and Motown, and that evolved into a love for other genres. I had a thorough education in music growing up, and my dad made sure we played a lot of different instruments. I hated practicing at the time, but now, looking back, it’s definitely shaped who I am today and what I ended up doing as a career.