Harmonizing Creativity: Aaron Hill's Musical Diversity and Community Impact

00;00;00;06 - 00;00;05;07
Truth In this art
Most only a couple months down.

00;00;08;13 - 00;00;10;13
Truth In this art
I think I recognize.

00;00;10;24 - 00;00;32;29
Rob Lee
Welcome to the truth in this art. I am your host, Rob Lee. And today I'm excited to be in conversation with a multi-talented pianist with a diverse range of influences, including jazz, hip hop and gospel. He's known for his innovative Street Serenade series and his group, the Erin Hill Trio, which pays tribute to the legendary Keith George Standards Trio.

00;00;33;02 - 00;00;36;06
Rob Lee
Please welcome Erin Hill. Welcome to the podcast.

00;00;36;18 - 00;00;37;06
Aaron Hill
Hey. Hey.

00;00;38;06 - 00;00;39;00
Speaker 4
What's happening here?

00;00;39;23 - 00;00;43;16
Rob Lee
I appreciate. I actually lot. I gave you the full intro. This is.

00;00;43;16 - 00;00;44;24
Aaron Hill
Just perfect. Perfect.

00;00;45;18 - 00;00;51;18
Rob Lee
I've had a few people say, you know, can I just get that and use that from like my ringtone? I was like, whatever you need, whatever you need.

00;00;51;25 - 00;00;52;26
Aaron Hill
Yes, that's okay.

00;00;54;10 - 00;01;12;14
Rob Lee
So again, thank you for coming on. And for starters. For starters, I want to talk about a bit about your sort of like your journey as a creative, as a renaissance man, as a man who wears many hats and currently you are wearing a hat. And how did you end up in this sort of current work that you're in.

00;01;13;04 - 00;01;13;20
Aaron Hill
When.

00;01;14;19 - 00;01;30;22
Speaker 4
At age five, my gifts were uncovered by my mother went for Christmas, she bought me my first record player, 26 records, one for every letter, love songs that made me dance and learn my alphabets better. At eight, I was good at rhyming words but didn't know it until one day my mom said, You're a.

00;01;30;22 - 00;01;36;26
Aaron Hill
Really good poet. It was Mother's Day. And I was surprised because all I did was.

00;01;36;26 - 00;01;41;10
Speaker 4
Give her a record with thoughts and words that are wrong. So that's where my my journey started.

00;01;42;22 - 00;01;45;01
Aaron Hill
And that that actually is.

00;01;46;01 - 00;02;02;23
Speaker 4
The first like eight bars of a children's book that I wrote recently that just tells my whole story. That's really where I started. I started off at age five with my mother. She gave me some records and that opened up my mind to music in a new way. And it was a lot of love from there.

00;02;03;22 - 00;02;12;10
Rob Lee
Wow. I mean, that's the first time that someone started out their story with, like, some bars. So let's appreciate it.

00;02;13;23 - 00;02;15;05
Speaker 4
So for me.

00;02;15;22 - 00;02;33;28
Rob Lee
Yeah, yeah. Because I look back on my stuff and think some of those really early things like you kind of start off with a point where, you know, you want to pursue something creatively, you know, like, but I was a kid, it was, I thought I was going to be a the next great illustrator, next great comic book artist.

00;02;34;12 - 00;02;38;22
Rob Lee
And, you know, I did rap for a little bit. We would never play those songs in here.

00;02;39;24 - 00;02;41;18
Aaron Hill
That would be my okay, this is just.

00;02;42;19 - 00;02;58;08
Speaker 4
My journey with the reason why everything started off as bars, because everything would go from my mother giving me the record player to me becoming a rap artist, you know, even before, you know, piano and that kind of thing. So I can relate. And if I play a song, you got to play a song.

00;02;59;29 - 00;03;05;28
Rob Lee
So my aliases were they were out there. It was a lot of marble composition books.

00;03;06;12 - 00;03;06;29
Aaron Hill
In college.

00;03;07;04 - 00;03;12;11
Rob Lee
Back in the late nineties. It was something it was something that a lot. Not a lot. It was something, though.

00;03;13;01 - 00;03;13;25
Aaron Hill
Is true.

00;03;13;25 - 00;03;24;21
Speaker 4
And that's the thing about it. It was true. It was truly who you were, you know, and you know, this self-expression, you know. So I know you learn something great from it, you know. And it was fun times probably.

00;03;24;28 - 00;03;41;09
Rob Lee
Yeah. And there's a lot of cornrows being worn. Yeah, yeah. It's a lot of Jimbo's on a white T's career, you know, don't make don't bring it back. Know those kids are doing like 90 days or have your 2000s days. I'm like cosplay as myself from high school one day.

00;03;41;25 - 00;03;43;08
Aaron Hill
Oh okay.

00;03;43;08 - 00;03;43;17
Speaker 4
Though.

00;03;43;24 - 00;03;46;00
Aaron Hill
I know I'm only that around.

00;03;46;06 - 00;04;04;01
Rob Lee
But a unit order and everything is going to be great. So let's see a rhythm to your music. Your musical background, right? Has influences from, like, iconic artists like Keith Jarrett, Robert Glasper, Chick Corea. That that shaped your sound like as as in style, as a pianist. Talk more about that.

00;04;04;20 - 00;04;35;21
Speaker 4
Yeah. So I got influenced and interested in playing the piano at about 17 after, you know, poetry and then hip hop, 14 to 16 at 17. I got interested in taking my music further because I was like, If I can do this, this well as far as chopping samples and making beats by ear, what will happen if I learn and I decided to pick the piano at 17, I taught myself how to read music and then I started getting into learning how to play the piano.

00;04;35;21 - 00;05;17;01
Speaker 4
From there, I was first influenced by classical musicians as well as well. I say classical musicians like Bach and Beethoven. Jazz musicians like McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, like you mentioned, hip hop producers and that kind of thing. But my top five were, you know, being influenced by Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, you know, and just those guys that were around and like the seventies, crossing over jazz, blazing new pathways and that kind of thing, you know?

00;05;17;16 - 00;05;27;27
Speaker 4
Yeah, that's where it all started. And I really got infatuated with jazz and jazz piano because of the level of expression, and I was like, was boundless.

00;05;28;22 - 00;05;48;14
Rob Lee
I mean, I started really like I didn't have that appreciation for it when I was younger. I just wasn't quite ready for it. And I find that I'm not a smooth jazz guy. I'll be honest about that. I like a little I like a little stank on it, you know, like it gave me a little something there. And, you know, it's got to have that bop, as it were.

00;05;48;14 - 00;06;08;04
Rob Lee
And, you know, I start looking at the vinyl, the burgeoning vinyl collection I have is more jazz records. It has a lot of Charles Mingus stuff in there. And I'm getting to a stage as I get older that I don't like lyrics anymore. I don't like words anymore. I just like the instrumentation. I like the musicality of things.

00;06;08;29 - 00;06;09;24
Speaker 4
I feel you in that.

00;06;10;23 - 00;06;28;18
Rob Lee
Finally, you know, you know, like I watch a lot of movies, I do a movie review podcast. So when you notice something that like is bad writing or like substandard writing, I'm like, Yeah, let's move that out. Let's just get you to do really well. It's like playing that thing. That's what I realized, you know.

00;06;28;27 - 00;06;50;12
Speaker 4
F a and then I feel like the other side of that coin that's the bonus is like, you know, sometimes when you take away words, then you get to have your own story. You get to put your own story into the music and kind of let it speak to you. The words that it'll speak to you and you know, for someone else, it speaks to them in that way, you know, the way it's best for them.

00;06;50;27 - 00;07;19;00
Speaker 4
So yeah, I look at it like a canvas, like instrumental music to me is like that canvas where you have everything there and then you can just paint whatever kind of picture you want. On top of that, you know, you can feel what you need and then sometimes it's just the best thing for it to be open like that because it doesn't allow your, you know, your mind, your left brain to just get so caught up in like even what you would say.

00;07;19;00 - 00;07;19;26
Aaron Hill
Like if you.

00;07;20;24 - 00;07;36;02
Speaker 4
You know, getting tripped up by certain ideas or the way things are phrased or, you know, language, you know, use of language or intention and these kind of things, you know, instrumental music is just this. This is a purity to it. So I feel, you know.

00;07;37;02 - 00;07;52;28
Rob Lee
So, you know, you kind of poke it out a little bit there. We talked about a little bit before we got started. How is your life, your background, your studies in like philosophy and theology influenced your approach to music? And I have some other bullet points there, but I at least want to start off with that standpoint.

00;07;53;16 - 00;07;53;29
Aaron Hill
Yeah.

00;07;54;16 - 00;08;32;24
Speaker 4
Well, I would say the first place where it influences me is I was brought up in the Christian church, the Holiness Pentecostal Church. So, you know, where I learned my first experiences of music at a young age were in this environment filled with a lot of emotion and a lot of, you know, things that happened as far as improvization, you know, in the way that everything worked together, so to speak, so that from the bottom of my heart, who I am, so to speak, that influence, that's what you hear when you hear me play piano.

00;08;33;12 - 00;08;54;13
Speaker 4
You hear me like listening to the room to see what's the right tempo or pace or the right mood or right song, you know, and that kind of thing. So that was the first place that it really influenced, influenced my improvizational nature, my playing by ear, you know, later on and just feeling music like embodying music as opposed to it just being like something that you're doing.

00;08;54;24 - 00;08;55;27
Aaron Hill
Like fruit.

00;08;56;15 - 00;08;59;01
Speaker 4
Fashion, you know, something kind of dry and lifeless.

00;08;59;29 - 00;09;27;26
Rob Lee
So there, there, there is a feeling thing that that goes along with it, kind of getting a sense of an appreciation for what is around you and just kind of taking from that. And I find that that in some ways in my minimal experience in this area, but I did therapy for about a year and the type of therapy I was in was when I was working within was mindful awareness.

00;09;28;05 - 00;09;50;08
Rob Lee
And it was just like being very aware of what you're feeling, what you're sensing, what are the thoughts that come with it. And I read that you have a mindfulness background, so a talk about that and maybe how that connects to this whole sort of background that you had that might even like that. It's appears to be outside of music and outside of sort of creativity, but plays a role within it.

00;09;50;08 - 00;10;17;23
Speaker 4
Yeah. So coming from that environment of the church, you know, that kind of thing where you're practicing mindfulness in different ways or trying to practice self awareness, you know, to then we fast forward to the pandemic, you know, it's, it's a CDC, you know, of these, you know, after COVID, before COVID. And so we get to the pandemic.

00;10;17;23 - 00;10;31;29
Speaker 4
And so I became I've always had a fascination with psychology, so I became interested in psychotherapy, and I decided to put myself in school for psychotherapy just to help my friends, family and community.

00;10;32;10 - 00;10;32;16
Aaron Hill
Yeah.

00;10;33;10 - 00;11;09;27
Speaker 4
Um, I'm three years in now and out of doing that and this year grabbing a certification and mindfulness meditation came this formula called five M And so five M is a total self-care formula where I teach people how to decrease their stress, anxiety, grief, depression, improve their sleep, and increase their peace through music movement, meditation, mindfulness, and mantras.

00;11;10;10 - 00;11;43;25
Speaker 4
Positive affirmations. And so out of that brainchild, you know, comes workshops, becomes daily content, becomes, you know, the self-care album that I'm about to release, you know, that is pretty much like a mixtape. That's a combination of like a hip hop mixtape and a course for how to manage stress better, you know, all in one. So yeah, that's, that's how it all came together.

00;11;43;25 - 00;11;59;06
Speaker 4
Music And my children's book, one of the things I mentioned was music calms us, puts us to sleep and entertains, is even made me fascinated with the human brain and now studying and practice and all kinds of things like how to use mindful music to make positive change.

00;11;59;06 - 00;11;59;15
Aaron Hill
Sure.

00;12;00;02 - 00;12;39;09
Speaker 4
I went all the way back to what music first meant to me has made me happy in life. It's my therapy, you know. I like to share with my friends and my family and make them smile, move and dance so freely. So it is like full circle for me. It goes back to what music was for me at 14, you know, on when I was with my friends after school doing it, not only staying out of trouble, but doing something that was productive and learning and growing and being creative and expressing ourselves to now adding the professional touch to it and wanting to do it my way as opposed to a traditional.

00;12;39;16 - 00;12;40;10
Aaron Hill
Type of approach.

00;12;40;28 - 00;12;58;26
Rob Lee
I think in in thank you for sharing that. And congratulations, by the way. And three years in, you know, shout out to you. I think you have your own lane in, you know, cause that's what it sounds like. It sounds very similar. It's like no one else is really doing this at this rate or this style or whatever.

00;12;58;26 - 00;13;11;21
Rob Lee
And when those comparisons come in, it's just like, this is what I do. Yeah, this is what I'm doing and this is why I'm doing it. But I love that you were able to tap back into why you loved it, why you love doing it, and.

00;13;12;16 - 00;13;12;21
Aaron Hill
I.

00;13;12;21 - 00;13;32;03
Rob Lee
Think that's something worth revisiting regularly. I usually ask this question of folks on, you know, kids, right? When you're young, you just create to create, you know, have these different things that get in the way, the sort of doubts, the sort of comparisons, all of those sort of things that crush and kill creativity.

00;13;32;10 - 00;13;33;02
Aaron Hill
You're like, you just.

00;13;34;18 - 00;13;59;08
Rob Lee
You're just creating to create, right? And I asked people occasionally, how do you tie back in to sort of that that feeling when you're younger? And like I was saying before, you know, cornrows out looking like meek Mill in a video. Just rap into the camera, you know, like how do you tie it back into it? And just hearing that, you know, you were able to revisit why you did it and apply that to what you're doing contemporarily that.

00;13;59;11 - 00;14;00;25
Rob Lee
That's just beautiful. That's beautiful.

00;14;01;10 - 00;14;42;11
Speaker 4
Thanks a lot, man. You know, for me, I have been very, very, very, very fortunate in my life not only to have, you know, some exposure and experience in a safe environment that allow me to learn it, you know, in my teens. But then also at 21, I got my first job at 21, you know, the go full time music making 100 more dollars a week and with 27 to 28 less hours, you know, you know, so from there, I've always my relationship with music from the very beginning to now has always been that consistent place.

00;14;42;11 - 00;15;02;09
Speaker 4
Where it's fun for me is therapy. For me, it doesn't feel like work and I've been able to curate my journey where I can steer away from things that wouldn't that would make me have a not so good relationship with music. I just been really, really fortunate. So and I try to stay on that path and share that, you know, to help others.

00;15;02;29 - 00;15;17;17
Rob Lee
Yeah. And, you know, not everybody is, is down, you know, to take that journey. I try to, to share it for people who are doing this. We're trying to do podcasting and storytelling and want to do something that isn't the easy thing of.

00;15;17;29 - 00;15;18;09
Aaron Hill
You know.

00;15;18;15 - 00;15;47;00
Rob Lee
Getting on the microphone and talking about relationships and drinking booze and having the whole, you know, the factory settings. Right. Is here is a sure mike. It's the same set up. No, nothing new. And you know, say like, you know, sometimes I, you know, like you mean I have the stamina for it, you know, that's why I just tell people, like you might not have the stamina for it at this point or but I'm always like down to help and contribute to the community as you would touch, you know, with, you know, some of the motivations behind what you're doing.

00;15;47;03 - 00;15;55;07
Rob Lee
And, you know, it's it can be a challenge sometimes. It's like, damn, you don't want to do this. This is what you want to do. You don't want it's easier.

00;15;55;23 - 00;15;58;14
Aaron Hill
You do what you do. You got it. Yeah.

00;15;58;19 - 00;16;23;26
Speaker 4
You know, it's interesting you say that. Well, it makes me think about is I realize and this is a coping mechanism. This is what I learned. One of the biggest things I learned from studying psychology. Sometimes we will choose familiar and uncomfortable over unfamiliar and comfortable just because the thing we're most afraid of is the unknown.

00;16;24;13 - 00;16;24;19
Aaron Hill
Yeah.

00;16;25;10 - 00;16;29;19
Speaker 4
You know what I mean? So it's just. Yeah, it is a tough thing, though, because.

00;16;29;19 - 00;16;30;22
Aaron Hill
It's like, man.

00;16;31;00 - 00;16;42;27
Speaker 4
You know, you don't want more out of this, but, you know, it's like sometimes you're just in that place where you just can't, you know, you just only thing you can deal with is just what you know and what's kept you safe.

00;16;43;15 - 00;17;01;27
Rob Lee
Yeah. I mean, even going back through in looking at the process because I find like it would be, I think, irresponsible of me, at least from how I approach it, to ask questions of creatives and ask certain things from them, then to share themselves to bare their souls or what have you.

00;17;01;27 - 00;17;02;21
Aaron Hill
Right, right.

00;17;02;21 - 00;17;26;23
Rob Lee
And not approach the questions from my point of view, in the same way that I'm asking them to approach them. So, you know, I might look at things like, Ah, what is my process? How am I going about this? And asking those sorts of questions and, you know, really going about it. And one of the things that I do is try to incorporate those sort of challenging things in there because I don't like that easy path.

00;17;26;23 - 00;17;44;09
Rob Lee
I rather have something that's always going to keep it interesting because the minute in which I feel like I kind of mailed that one and these are the same questions, there's nothing new I go to an old file is like, Huh? Erin Hill You do this, that, that, that. All right, I'm going to use this old interview as these same questions.

00;17;44;09 - 00;17;45;28
Rob Lee
I'm just going to change the name for it.

00;17;46;22 - 00;17;46;28
Aaron Hill
Is.

00;17;46;28 - 00;17;57;09
Rob Lee
Nothing interesting there. I rather or even when I feel like I like I said earlier, the questions are a framework and I feel like it's too stilted. It's like it's want.

00;17;57;09 - 00;17;57;24
Aaron Hill
Me.

00;17;58;17 - 00;18;12;07
Rob Lee
To improvise and judge on the fly based on the tonality of the conversation. This, you know, that's a thing, you know, and if you don't see the little nuances there. But that's how I keep it. Interesting. And, you know.

00;18;12;17 - 00;18;16;06
Speaker 4
They call it playing by the spirit.

00;18;16;06 - 00;18;37;29
Rob Lee
How how often are you doing something musical related, whether it is I need to listen to something for inspiration. I need to work on something. I'm always doing something podcast related, whether it's writing questions or what have you or editing or whatever. But how often are you doing something to kind of keep the the sharp saw sharp, if you will?

00;18;39;13 - 00;18;41;18
Speaker 4
Well, I'm living it. So like the.

00;18;42;28 - 00;18;43;08
Aaron Hill
Yeah.

00;18;43;08 - 00;18;47;25
Speaker 4
The real thing is me now trying to figure out when am I not doing it, you know, because.

00;18;49;07 - 00;18;49;16
Aaron Hill
I'm.

00;18;49;16 - 00;19;04;07
Speaker 4
Living it. And it's so interesting because I'm living in like a multiplicity of ways. Like if you were to listen to my, my notes, like my, my latest notes are stuff like this, you know, where it's literally mean.

00;19;05;12 - 00;19;25;28
Aaron Hill
Know that. But you see, time is not so proud of them, you know that. So I was not so proud of them. Focus is is not your problem. I want you to know that time is not your problem, right? Yeah. So, like, that's.

00;19;26;27 - 00;19;55;26
Speaker 4
You know, that's that's music for me right now and in the moment and the way I'm living and how I'm creating, you know. So whether it be that or whether it be me, like last night, you know, I, I play at a jam session around here in Baltimore. They call it Baltimore's best jam session. And I get the opportunity to play in every Monday like I'm living and breathing music, you know, and this new passion of mindfulness meditation and, you know, just trying to be a light in the world.

00;19;55;26 - 00;19;57;07
Speaker 4
I'm living and breathing it.

00;19;57;15 - 00;19;57;21
Aaron Hill
You know.

00;19;57;24 - 00;20;17;22
Speaker 4
I'm always doing something. And the funny thing is, what I've now invited myself into is the place of knowing that to be the truth and then just looking at my actions to find it or looking at like I might be, you know, washing clothes and you just noticed the dry or like.

00;20;17;22 - 00;20;18;02
Aaron Hill
Yeah.

00;20;18;06 - 00;20;32;11
Speaker 4
You just like you lack anything. So I'm yeah, I'm just living, you know, music and that kind of thing at this point. And now I'm trying to find and have space outside of that to be able to have balance.

00;20;33;05 - 00;20;50;12
Rob Lee
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's I think it's very similar because, you know, saying I, I do a movie review podcast, I was outside of this and you know, sometimes I had to look at like I'm, I'm looking at this movie to enjoy it or I'm looking at it critically to review it. And I'm like, I had to delineate what I'm doing.

00;20;50;16 - 00;21;15;07
Rob Lee
And, you know, sometimes like the different podcasts, if you will, require different things like this is, you know, you're on, you don't want to just kind of mail it in and you want to have like a good conversation where in something that's like, you know, fulfilling that feeling is, you know, beneficial for both of our times. Right? And on the other side of it is like that may not always be like you may have a guess.

00;21;15;07 - 00;21;35;00
Rob Lee
You're like, all right, we got it. And sometimes you might just connect with someone is like, you know, we could talk for another 30 minutes and that's how it goes. And yeah, but I was, I was looking at, I went to see a movie yesterday where we're recording this in almost January's December, but I was looking at the movie yesterday.

00;21;35;14 - 00;21;37;12
Rob Lee
I went to see the Whitney Houston movie.

00;21;37;16 - 00;21;38;17
Aaron Hill
Oh, nice.

00;21;39;00 - 00;21;51;13
Rob Lee
And, and me and my and my partner were doing the thing where we watch a movie, we usually watch movies together and we have this rule and we see more than three production companies like I don't know, guys go buy this one.

00;21;51;26 - 00;21;52;04
Aaron Hill
It was.

00;21;52;04 - 00;21;53;25
Rob Lee
Like six. And I was like.

00;21;54;08 - 00;21;54;24
Aaron Hill
Yeah.

00;21;55;09 - 00;21;57;26
Rob Lee
I was like, a lot of people went there big. So this is what guys.

00;21;59;09 - 00;22;01;20
Aaron Hill
So it's like it's limited.

00;22;01;20 - 00;22;05;23
Rob Lee
It's like I'm playing that sort of game, but it makes it fun. And I think.

00;22;05;23 - 00;22;06;18
Speaker 4
At the same time.

00;22;06;20 - 00;22;16;17
Rob Lee
Finding that sort of balance of How much of me am I putting into it, I think that's where I'm really in that spot now and I feel really good about that.

00;22;16;24 - 00;22;28;09
Speaker 4
Man. Let me tell you, I one of the things that, um, like one of the other quote unquote titles, if you will, that I have for myself with labels or ideas, is.

00;22;30;03 - 00;22;30;18
Aaron Hill
Being.

00;22;30;18 - 00;22;56;25
Speaker 4
A creative content strategist. And without going into anything ridiculous, it's really just helping people to understand how to capture and live their legacy in the same way that my folks were doing it in the eighties with the photo albums, with the with the lamination.

00;22;57;06 - 00;22;58;04
Aaron Hill
Right? Yeah.

00;22;58;19 - 00;23;19;26
Speaker 4
And just saying now we have also HD versions of that and you can capture it this way and all you got to do is captured 3 seconds of this and just, you know, and just keep it going. Because all of our ancestors wanted their recipes and their wisdom to go forward. And so now we can take our traditions to a new level.

00;23;20;20 - 00;23;20;26
Aaron Hill
And.

00;23;20;26 - 00;23;48;07
Speaker 4
We can take documenting our lives to a new level. I believe in cloning now, and it's because what I mean is when you make that, when you enjoy yourself, document your life, have fun and do these things, you actually making hundreds of versions of yourselves that gets to continue on for what you stand for in the most beautiful and the most real way, like just the most real and honest, you know, and transparent way.

00;23;48;19 - 00;24;11;01
Speaker 4
So yeah, man, every single day I'm talking to people and trying to explain one deep thing to them. We grew up in industries and labor based societies where they can only use you for one thing, and so they had to use you for one thing, like you were a one trick pony, but none of us ever were. So now we live in a place where you don't have to actually have that mindset.

00;24;11;24 - 00;24;33;07
Speaker 4
You don't have to split up who you are. You don't have to divide it into ten YouTube channels like you are your brand and everything that you're into. And so I just enjoy like trying to help show people that by example, but also just encourage them in that way because that is the reality that we live in. And you're not going to be happy unless you live that way.

00;24;33;23 - 00;24;35;11
Aaron Hill
Yeah. Like yeah.

00;24;35;26 - 00;24;50;24
Rob Lee
It's don't Horcrux yourself and make it a Harry Potter reference in Harry Potter reference. Yeah. I've never seen any of the movies. I just throw that out every now and again. But this is how I consume movies to know enough about it, to sound like I'm smart.

00;24;51;04 - 00;24;52;01
Aaron Hill
And I know just.

00;24;52;01 - 00;24;54;14
Speaker 4
Enough about Harry Potter to just stand.

00;24;54;14 - 00;24;54;24
Aaron Hill
There.

00;24;55;07 - 00;24;56;28
Rob Lee
So we're on the same page. We're here.

00;24;57;07 - 00;25;01;27
Aaron Hill
We're here. So now to talk about.

00;25;01;28 - 00;25;15;21
Rob Lee
It, talk about incorporating multiple genres into like, what's your like sort of musical footprint you're at your ear, how you approach music, talk about that, how you blend those, those influences.

00;25;17;02 - 00;25;44;21
Speaker 4
The one thing is this is definitely one of those like this is just me being myself, right? Where it started for me is to take you back to my childhood for 30 seconds or more. But where I started is at 15 when I'm making beats, I my family had a, a digital cable. When it first came out, we had two different music channels.

00;25;45;03 - 00;26;05;23
Speaker 4
So I had a four track and I used to hook it up to the digital cable box and take a maxwell 60 minute tape and pop it in. Before I went to school, I would set it on one music channel, hit record, and then I would go to school. So one day it might be rock, another day it might be gospel, another day it might be jazz, another day it might be soundscapes, you know, another day might be classical.

00;26;06;17 - 00;26;34;09
Speaker 4
When I would come home from school, I would take that tape and instead of, you know, chopping records or sampling from records, those were my records. It would be my tapes. So every day I'd be making music with a different genre of music. So I hear different genres of music, like a chef sees spices, you know, and they all just have their own flavors, but they're all one thing, you know.

00;26;34;09 - 00;26;58;05
Speaker 4
So the way that I incorporate them is literally just by letting what I hear just now just come out and just be if I beatbox something. But I'm singing a bass line that sounds like reggae, you know? And then the lyric sounds like Whitney Houston, you know, top of the range. Like, that's that's just what it is, you know.

00;26;58;05 - 00;26;58;16
Aaron Hill
I.

00;26;58;16 - 00;27;02;21
Speaker 4
Proudly call myself a musical mutt.

00;27;02;21 - 00;27;03;05
Aaron Hill
You know?

00;27;03;14 - 00;27;10;02
Speaker 4
So yeah, that's yeah, that's how that's how it all comes together for me as far as incorporating different genres.

00;27;10;14 - 00;27;34;24
Rob Lee
I love it, I love it. And I think a lot of times we, we are who our experiences are, what our references are. And you listen to a lot of stuff, you do a lot of stuff even if it's like you're a filmmaker for sake of argument, right? And it's like, I watch a lot of this different stuff that inevitably is going to pop up in what you're doing, which are going to make a conversation today with one of my painting friends.

00;27;35;03 - 00;27;50;20
Rob Lee
And, you know, he one of the things he was suggesting is he was like one of the best ways to learn how to paint is to basically try to make someone else's style, tweak it to make it your own. And, you know, and a lot of people try like, oh, it just comes from, you know, it's just me just learning and being great.

00;27;50;20 - 00;28;08;29
Rob Lee
No, you're you're influenced by someone. And, you know, that's just kind of how it goes. And it's very, very prevalent in podcasting. This is why you see so many people kind of doing the same thing. There's nothing really unique and I think people try to fall into this sort of formula.

00;28;09;12 - 00;28;09;25
Aaron Hill
Yeah.

00;28;10;04 - 00;28;12;14
Rob Lee
Like I like this. I like this quote, I like.

00;28;12;14 - 00;28;13;00
Aaron Hill
This quote, which.

00;28;13;27 - 00;28;24;28
Rob Lee
Is this quote from currency, I believe for a while, a while ago, years ago. And he was just like, I don't know when I'm an album, when I'm writing, I don't listen to anything current. He's like, I'm going back to the seventies and trying to set a mood.

00;28;24;28 - 00;28;25;09
Aaron Hill
Man.

00;28;26;14 - 00;28;28;01
Rob Lee
In his current stuff. It's just like.

00;28;29;01 - 00;28;31;00
Aaron Hill
Yeah, you know, let me.

00;28;31;07 - 00;28;53;07
Speaker 4
You know, it's funny, I two things I want to tell you, you know, one thing is that my group, when when my rap group was together, right, we would listen to me together and, you know, we would have the things that we enjoyed then we had the things that we didn't like. So when we were when we determined, like we didn't like it, you know, we had our discussions.

00;28;53;07 - 00;28;57;11
Speaker 4
That was it. We move on. Later on my friends would hear me still listening to that song and.

00;28;57;11 - 00;29;02;25
Aaron Hill
They'd be like, Why? I they were literally like.

00;29;02;25 - 00;29;26;28
Speaker 4
Why are you listening to that? Like, this is terrible. And this was me at 16. I said, Is interesting because I learned the same things from listening to good music and not so good music. If I'm listening to something that I think is as good and enjoyable, then it gives me a model of what I want to sound like, what I might want to do.

00;29;27;10 - 00;29;38;14
Speaker 4
If I'm listening to something that's not so good. It gives me a model of what I don't want to sound like and what I don't want to do. Or the other side of the coin, which I really love this when I listen to something that I don't like.

00;29;38;25 - 00;29;39;10
Aaron Hill
And.

00;29;39;10 - 00;29;51;22
Speaker 4
Then all of a sudden from just being in it and just sitting in it and being like, If this person likes it or these people like it, I literally want to know why they like it. And then all of a sudden I hear something and I'm like, Oh.

00;29;51;22 - 00;29;55;00
Aaron Hill
That was kind of cool. And then I'm like, Oh.

00;29;55;00 - 00;30;05;05
Speaker 4
And then all of a sudden my appreciation opens up, you know, in a, in a unique way. So yeah, is, is, is really interesting, man. Yeah, it's really interesting.

00;30;05;16 - 00;30;41;25
Rob Lee
And I think it's something to take from these things. It's just like you don't write it off. And even when there are some sort of these sort of non-ideal experiences, you learn something from it. You know, I've learned how to navigate and work with a lot of different people. And, you know, as I start looking at it more and more as like I'm essentially a professional in this field and I operate as such versus some people just show up, not ready, not prepared, mix it did the whole thing in, you know, being for the most part a one man show.

00;30;41;25 - 00;31;09;20
Rob Lee
I get a lot done with being kind of like a singular individual right know that sounds super redundant but yeah, it's a thing and I think it's, you know, worthy of like you may not have a interview that goes as well as you would like. You may not have an interaction. It goes as well as you like, but it's something that I learn something from, whether it's I may not like to go back and forth with people you know about scheduling an interview beforehand.

00;31;09;28 - 00;31;20;15
Rob Lee
I'll send over the email. If they get back to me, great. If they don't, also great. But I'll try to automate some of these things where I can. So it's almost like quality control. And I learned that through trial and error early.

00;31;20;15 - 00;31;21;25
Aaron Hill
On that you.

00;31;21;25 - 00;31;40;14
Rob Lee
Get too invested in it. Now sometimes you can't do that all the time, obviously, but for the most part, about 90% of the interactions are almost off of a script. You know, unless a person has an extra question or something, I got to add something more to it, but ensures that a, everyone is getting sort of this the similar treatment.

00;31;40;14 - 00;31;46;01
Rob Lee
So, you know, it accounts for all right maybe I misspelled that me make sure I got that updated in the template.

00;31;46;01 - 00;31;48;03
Aaron Hill
Or what have you.

00;31;48;03 - 00;31;53;08
Speaker 4
It's interesting. You know, I wanted to I wanted to say share one more thing with you.

00;31;53;23 - 00;31;54;04
Rob Lee
About.

00;31;54;04 - 00;32;14;24
Speaker 4
This this topic. I'm loving this conversation right away. I want there's something interesting we're talking about like, you know, people doing something and basically, like you mentioned, mentioning with podcasts or even like with music where you hear a lot of music where people it sounds the same. It's just like this redundant thing. We're doing nothing new. So here's something I think you might find funny.

00;32;15;24 - 00;32;26;27
Speaker 4
So in my very first rap, I had a gun and I've never owned a gun in my life. I And why did I have a good right?

00;32;26;27 - 00;32;32;24
Aaron Hill
Because the rapper. Right. Here's the thing.

00;32;32;24 - 00;32;41;16
Speaker 4
This is this is the funny part about it. Right. So, you know, my friends, when we have the greatest laughs off of that, you know, especially the older we get it, like I.

00;32;41;16 - 00;32;45;21
Aaron Hill
Remember that time. Yeah, they go like, All right, Tom, you bought it.

00;32;45;23 - 00;32;50;28
Rob Lee
The bling in the studio was like, Yeah, we'll talk about that.

00;32;51;11 - 00;32;52;29
Aaron Hill
Right? Like, man.

00;32;52;29 - 00;33;05;21
Speaker 4
In your rap, you had a gun. And I'm like, Yeah, now, man. And it's always a funny story because the beauty of it is this. I was certainly lying.

00;33;05;21 - 00;33;06;04
Aaron Hill
But.

00;33;06;15 - 00;33;30;19
Speaker 4
In an interesting way. I also was living life. My high is truth at that point because my highest truth and understanding was, I appreciate this art form. And outside of the gun piece, I like the rhythm and the metaphor that that the rapper actually used because I could get with that. That's actually some some high, you know, literary literary one, you know cool called the bass is like.

00;33;30;27 - 00;33;31;05
Aaron Hill
Yeah.

00;33;31;15 - 00;33;58;22
Speaker 4
And then but me looking at that and learning something from it but also realizing that the only way to get to who you actually truly are is to actually living your higher truth with the best you can understand about what it means to do whatever it is you're doing, you know, so that you can have that experience. You're going to have some experiences that a satisfying where you like.

00;33;58;22 - 00;34;10;29
Speaker 4
Yeah, I want to do that again. I actually like that. And that's regardless of whether it's the social norm or not or whether it's accepted or not, like whatever, you come in today and then it going to be other things where you're like, how you saying right now we just like and that's true. I don't want to do that anymore.

00;34;11;12 - 00;34;33;14
Speaker 4
But it helps you to learn what you want to do. I'm one of those people that doesn't believe you could actually ever make a wrong turn in life. All you can do is find new ways to get to the thing you were trying to get to or find something else where you realized you didn't even know that you were interested or like that pathway, that that scenic route, you know.

00;34;33;14 - 00;34;48;12
Speaker 4
And in the process of elimination, when you eliminate all the ways that, you know, not to do something or that you don't like to do something, what are you left with? You left with what you enjoy and how you like to do it, you know? So it's an interesting thing.

00;34;48;12 - 00;34;48;21
Aaron Hill
Like.

00;34;49;24 - 00;34;59;13
Speaker 4
You know, when the horn players all sound the same and he's like, okay, but you still realize that is actually the path that you have to walk.

00;34;59;22 - 00;34;59;29
Aaron Hill
Yeah.

00;35;00;17 - 00;35;10;24
Speaker 4
And then some people just eventually you get to that point and they have that, that experience from that and then it takes them another place and other people to stay there. And that's who they are. And that's what you know, it's interesting.

00;35;11;20 - 00;35;36;23
Rob Lee
I have had this conversation with my friend about, you know, in filmmaking, what have you. And he thought that his time as a filmmaker was kind of he didn't love it anymore and he wanted to go into photography. And, you know, as a, you know, the older person comparative to him, you know, was just like, just look at it, you know, just look at like maybe it's something you revisit, don't, you know, no pieces of yourself off.

00;35;36;23 - 00;35;55;15
Rob Lee
And, you know, that could be that that point for him where it's like, I'm going to go up here or I'm just going to go like go here or just go in a completely different like I'm crossing lanes. I'm going to a completely different place. I'm in a spaceship now versus an automobile and I think it's just also recognizing like the why always the why.

00;35;55;15 - 00;36;02;07
Rob Lee
Like I, you know, that's that's why I always look at, you know, the how we can figure that out. But the why is very important for me.

00;36;02;22 - 00;36;14;17
Speaker 4
Yeah. The way tells you the direction you're going and it keeps you the most aware, you know. And then there's acceptance after that of all things that happen on it, you know, it's.

00;36;14;17 - 00;36;15;17
Rob Lee
Like that's what.

00;36;17;10 - 00;36;17;13
Aaron Hill
I.

00;36;17;15 - 00;36;18;18
Rob Lee
Ordered as did not like.

00;36;20;13 - 00;36;38;01
Speaker 4
In in psychology, they have this term called structured amnesia. Right. And I put on Facebook not too long ago that my piano style when it comes to improvization is structural amnesia. It will be defined a cycle of destruction. I need it. So, of course, you know, that sparked the conversation. There's also the way I live my life. It mirrors in the music.

00;36;38;14 - 00;37;03;18
Speaker 4
What it is is like I'm I'm just accepting of all the choices that I make and all the outcomes. Yeah. So and structural amnesia is where you have just enough of a forgetting of what just happened, no matter whether you had a good experience or not, to make a decision that's not totally based on just what you experience, because sometimes that's helpful and then sometimes.

00;37;04;13 - 00;37;05;21
Aaron Hill
More or.

00;37;06;14 - 00;37;19;12
Rob Lee
They try to use that in, in, in sports and they use the whole power line. So if he has a short memory, which is I never get to up, never gets too down and yeah, it's like, oh yeah, we got blown out last. We can't think about that. This is a different game. Different game.

00;37;20;17 - 00;37;21;01
Aaron Hill
He does.

00;37;21;04 - 00;37;29;12
Speaker 4
So it's that balance. It's like to some degree you better think about that and be studying and teach. But then on the other side, you don't want to get too overwhelmed with you can't be free from it like.

00;37;29;12 - 00;37;29;18
Aaron Hill
This.

00;37;30;09 - 00;37;54;18
Speaker 4
Is that is that center man is a center. So I'm enjoying it. Whether it is music, whether it's in my personal life and relationships, whether it's in, you know, like looking at mindfulness and studying the mind and looking at us and myself, no matter where it is in life, that's the place that I'm that I'm always striving for is like just that, that balance in this place there.

00;37;55;05 - 00;38;17;12
Rob Lee
So I got I got two more questions for you. Real questions and those rapid fire questions. So let's see, I want you to take a sec and tell us about both the Urn Hill Trio and Street Serenades and, you know, tell us about those a bit and then I'll hit you with the last, last question after that.

00;38;17;12 - 00;38;44;07
Speaker 4
Okay, beautiful. So during the pandemic, I got into another one of my fun, creative moods. You know, I look at I look at, you know, adversity is really opportunity, you know, opportunity to be creative. And so for many of us musicians, we didn't have inside gigs anymore. So I'm like, Hmm, I'm thinking about it. And I say, Okay.

00;38;44;15 - 00;39;03;08
Speaker 4
A couple of years ago, I had this concept called spur of the moment. I would just take my piano outside. Fine, beautiful places in nature and I record and I just want to make nice videos in nature, and that was it. And so I thought about bringing that back in like 2019, 20, 20 hits, March of 2020, specifically hits.

00;39;03;26 - 00;39;30;01
Speaker 4
And then I'm like, okay, it's time for it, right? So I was thinking what it might be because I wanted to rename it so that we can when people are heard it, it could make more sense to like attach it right to something that they could see in their mind. So I was like, well, sidewalk serenades. And then the creative alliance here in Baltimore, my good friends, they called me and they were like, Hey, you know, we that's in our cities.

00;39;30;01 - 00;39;32;25
Speaker 4
We've been using the name here, like, we want you to use it, like continue.

00;39;33;04 - 00;39;34;06
Aaron Hill
But we just.

00;39;34;06 - 00;39;35;18
Speaker 4
Would you work with this in back, you know.

00;39;36;07 - 00;39;40;04
Aaron Hill
Like, yeah. So, so. Right.

00;39;40;15 - 00;40;03;26
Speaker 4
But I was like, you know, I was like, I thought about a different name friend of mine. And I brainstorm streets there and AIDS came about. And then May 29th of 2020, I'm driving to L.A. City to pick up an iPhone case from someone on Facebook Marketplace. I've never been in this place called Taylor Village, where a lot of the flooding happens here.

00;40;03;26 - 00;40;14;16
Speaker 4
And, you know, that's what it's known for. And so this quaint little village and I'm like, I have got to find a place to pull over. Just pull out my piano and just play. It's a beautiful place. I just want to play for these people.

00;40;14;25 - 00;40;15;02
Aaron Hill
Yeah.

00;40;16;01 - 00;40;27;10
Speaker 4
And so I pulled up in front of this this place, walked down the street and set up in front of this sushi place and just started playing. And Street Serenades was born.

00;40;27;23 - 00;40;28;15
Aaron Hill
And they came.

00;40;28;15 - 00;40;55;17
Speaker 4
Outside. They loved it all. The people loved it and everything. And so from that time until now, I've done over 160 street serenades all around the DMV, on street corners and driveways and parks and playgrounds like, you know, all that kind of good stuff. It's led to so many smiles, of course, and so many, you know, new relationships and new people that are just on my journey.

00;40;56;01 - 00;41;16;19
Speaker 4
It's led to that entire community where I started doing that, that whole business development and the shops that they all started supporting and that kind of thing. So it led to some business, you know, connections. It's led to a whole lot. And but most of all, it helped people through the toughest time that we've ever experienced in our history.

00;41;16;19 - 00;41;43;19
Speaker 4
Yeah. Yeah. And I got the bonus of my mom calling me in March of 2020 and saying and my mom's three years in as a retired schoolteacher. 30 is an inner city school, you know, and my mom calls me in March of 2020 and she's like, so and during this pandemic, I'm going to get some adult coloring books, too, you know, but to pass the time.

00;41;44;11 - 00;42;04;18
Speaker 4
And so she did that, started sharing her pictures on Facebook. And two months later, people started asking for them. She started sending them to my mom, turned into a pandemic artist. And today, so over 500 original pieces all around the city that I call the hustle woman. Right. My mom. And she's out there.

00;42;04;18 - 00;42;07;18
Aaron Hill
She's out. And at least.

00;42;08;05 - 00;42;29;25
Speaker 4
50 of my streets. Erin is my mom. We're right there together her with me, with the music. And she says, we have our own mini art skate. You know, it's been amazing, man has been amazing. Needless to say, our relationship has, you know, just gone to the next level and we've gotten a chance to make legacy together. So that's what Street Serenades is.

00;42;30;04 - 00;42;53;27
Speaker 4
And Aaron Hill Trio was born during that time because Trio for me goes back to where I started as a rap trio. That conversation, a trio conversation for me is the most fun. And so I developed the trio that I had, you know, upright bass player and right back and drummer Eric Kennedy, they came out with me, you know, on a street corner.

00;42;53;27 - 00;43;07;05
Speaker 4
And we played every Sunday that entire summer know. And so, yeah, that led to some other things as well. But that's in essence what Aaron Hill Trio is in. Street Serenades.

00;43;07;19 - 00;43;25;10
Rob Lee
Thank you. So so here's his last one and this is almost a a a precursor to the rapid fire ones because the only required three words describe the Baltimore describe Baltimore through a jazz lens in three words.

00;43;26;19 - 00;43;31;02
Speaker 4
So I would say underrepresented world charm.

00;43;32;19 - 00;43;40;14
Rob Lee
Okay, I'll give you that. I'll give you that. That was that was some work right there. I'll give you that as you took a beat. You're like.

00;43;40;19 - 00;43;44;19
Speaker 4
On. Yeah, I wanted to take that in. And here's the funny part. If I could add.

00;43;44;19 - 00;43;45;11
Aaron Hill
This, please.

00;43;45;15 - 00;44;06;21
Speaker 4
I was going to say underrated, but I can't say underrated because you can only be underrated when you're more rappers where more people just know about you, period. And then they have, you know, a feeling about, you know, you know, rating. So I wonder what did I say?

00;44;06;21 - 00;44;08;12
Rob Lee
Under underrepresented.

00;44;08;12 - 00;44;10;11
Speaker 4
Write underrepresented.

00;44;11;19 - 00;44;13;13
Aaron Hill
Yeah.

00;44;13;13 - 00;44;20;24
Speaker 4
And maybe that's not even but yeah. And I was a world charm. Yeah. Underrepresented world. Is that a word.

00;44;20;24 - 00;44;24;10
Rob Lee
Underrepresented feel it is. It is. It's absolutely a word.

00;44;25;03 - 00;44;27;18
Aaron Hill
Yeah. Mm hmm.

00;44;28;19 - 00;44;34;26
Speaker 4
Is it? I guess it would be another way of saying world's best kept secret. You know, if you will.

00;44;35;08 - 00;44;36;06
Aaron Hill
A hidden gem.

00;44;36;18 - 00;44;40;02
Speaker 4
Hidden gem? Yeah. We're a world world. Hidden gem.

00;44;40;29 - 00;44;47;08
Rob Lee
Okay, so you know what time it is? Time for these rapid fire questions. I got three up for you. All right.

00;44;47;20 - 00;44;52;22
Speaker 4
So wait a minute. What do we mean by Rapid Fire so I can make sure I'm collaborating. Cause you see how I thought?

00;44;53;03 - 00;44;53;21
Aaron Hill
No, no, no, no, no.

00;44;53;25 - 00;45;02;22
Rob Lee
So rapid fire brevity is key here. Don't overthink. I'm. I'm going to eventually just record that and have a button that just presses it because I feel like I say it to every guest.

00;45;03;01 - 00;45;03;29
Aaron Hill
But okay.

00;45;04;17 - 00;45;09;25
Rob Lee
So here's the first one. Three favorite venues to perform at in Baltimore.

00;45;10;15 - 00;45;14;25
Speaker 4
Keystone Korner, our house Terror Cafe.

00;45;15;14 - 00;45;22;09
Rob Lee
Okay, one down. This is actually a funny one, I think. What would the name of your memoir be?

00;45;23;18 - 00;45;24;22
Speaker 4
What's a memoir again?

00;45;25;00 - 00;45;25;22
Aaron Hill
Like like a.

00;45;25;22 - 00;45;28;01
Rob Lee
Autobiography. Like this is my my story.

00;45;28;20 - 00;45;31;24
Speaker 4
Got it. This is my story.

00;45;31;24 - 00;45;40;18
Rob Lee
King of the Hill. I'm how would you say it was going to be?

00;45;40;26 - 00;45;42;08
Aaron Hill
So I see.

00;45;42;08 - 00;45;44;06
Speaker 4
It as it kind.

00;45;44;06 - 00;45;44;16
Aaron Hill
Okay.

00;45;45;18 - 00;45;52;19
Rob Lee
That's how I always go for it. I always go for the bit. I always go for like his opportunity to take a bullet for the person's.

00;45;52;19 - 00;45;57;02
Aaron Hill
Name that is busy. That would be me thinking about it more.

00;45;57;02 - 00;45;59;06
Rob Lee
So it's like, you know what.

00;46;01;29 - 00;46;05;23
Aaron Hill
It is that everybody processes like differently. Yeah.

00;46;06;02 - 00;46;07;28
Rob Lee
King of the Hill Tales from a Renaissance Man.

00;46;09;07 - 00;46;09;18
Aaron Hill
Done.

00;46;09;25 - 00;46;11;02
Rob Lee
Marketing Guy. Let's go.

00;46;11;10 - 00;46;12;24
Aaron Hill
Yes, yes. Hi.

00;46;14;11 - 00;46;36;11
Rob Lee
Okay. So here's the last one. And this is definitely putting back on that sort of mindfulness hat and it goes with your five M's for the listeners. Could you give them two mantras that, you know, could be just generally speaking, just super helpful and, you know, combating them and just kind of working, working through today, you know, working through life as we know it currently.

00;46;36;28 - 00;46;37;11
Aaron Hill
Yes.

00;46;38;01 - 00;46;54;19
Speaker 4
This is a picture that I have is on Instagram. I haven't even press next to put the caption to post. But this is literally the next thing that I'm putting up is a picture of me taking this. I'm looking actually in the mirror at a beach is behind me. I'm taking a picture of a mirror across the room from me.

00;46;54;29 - 00;47;04;11
Speaker 4
The quote is Being honest with yourself that you are lost is the first key to finding yourself.

00;47;04;11 - 00;47;04;18
Aaron Hill
Yeah.

00;47;05;20 - 00;47;06;13
Rob Lee
Acceptance, right?

00;47;07;14 - 00;47;10;04
Aaron Hill
Yes. Yes. But the key.

00;47;10;16 - 00;47;32;24
Speaker 4
The second mantra would be, okay, there's a rapid fire, so let me go. I got to stop. I So you see what I was going. All right, so I'll go with the 1/1 came to my feel feel good about do what you can, do what you can and don't feel guilty about what you can't do.

00;47;33;15 - 00;47;56;02
Rob Lee
I like that. I like that. And definitely it's definitely a timely thing, especially when we're just all so busy. We're all working on the things that we're working on and you know, you're asked to do different things, different obligations, what have you. And it's only so much time, resources, energy, bandwidth during the course of a day, week, whatever.

00;47;56;12 - 00;47;59;23
Rob Lee
So, you know, no need to feel bad about some of those things.

00;48;00;12 - 00;48;27;16
Speaker 4
And let me make it an hour. You're right on point with that. No need to. It doesn't serve you. This will serve mantras of best experience and taking in when they're made as personal statements. So I would say that the mantra that you want to say to yourself is, I will do what I can and not feel guilty about what I can't do.

00;48;28;15 - 00;48;28;27
Rob Lee
It's great.

00;48;28;27 - 00;48;30;26
Speaker 4
I'll do what I can and not feel guilty.

00;48;31;00 - 00;48;33;14
Aaron Hill
About what I can't. That's great.

00;48;34;03 - 00;48;53;14
Rob Lee
And I think that that there's some value there for the folks listening. So Aaron Hill helping out so in the last few moments here, a telephone folks where they can check you out. And once again thank you for coming on telephone folks podcast I mean website, social media tell them where they can check you out. And again, thank you.

00;48;54;06 - 00;49;28;13
Speaker 4
Yes, thank you. The most important thing to me in life is 5 a.m. self-care. That calm, 5 a.m. self-care that calm for us to all heal and grow and take care of each other together. You can't here if you can't be real. So go to five himself, care.com. And then other than that you can find me everywhere online social media, you know, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Google at Erin Hills World.

00;49;28;26 - 00;49;48;22
Rob Lee
And there you have it, folks. I want to again thank Erin Hill for coming on and sharing his story with me on the truth in his art. And I'm your host, Rob Lee, saying that there is art in and around Baltimore. You've just got to look for it.