Pat Hull

Pat Hull has a voice that’s rare in today’s musical landscape, with a high-pitched androgyny that hearkens back to the days of classic pop stars like Wayne Newton for Frankie Valli, but he applies it so a warmer singer-songwriter sound in a way that’s absolutely captivating and frankly, unseen in contemporary music, or at least isn’t done this well. Hull should be dominating NPR and beyond, and since this album is a precursor to the 2017 LP Marrow, here’s to hoping this unrecognized talent gets his. - Nerdist

We'll be Perry-style un-pc for a second here and and tell you that Americana bores us in most cases. But not when we find in it the intensity Pat Hull is capable of injecting in his songs featured in his debut full length "Light". The Brooklyn based songwriter's alto and his intimate melodies are evocative of Luke Temple's solo records before he started Here We Go Magic, and although the instrumentation, cadence and atmosphere of this material scream "country", Pat's melodies and guitar parts go in the direction of gently reinventing the genre rather than obeying to its exhausted axioms. - Deli Magazine

Music Connection Magazine:
"The disarmingly high-pitched voices of Pat Hull and cohort Michael Chinworth achieve the most haunting, absorbing results...This Brooklyn-based artist is well worth checking out."
- Music Connection Magazine

With his androgynous tenor, Pat Hull meshes harmonies that come off like staring into the sun at 5:45pm: sometimes it pricks but you keep it up because you like the way it changes how the world looks. Peppered with full vocal harmonies and murky dissonances, Hull’s music is as gut-wrenching as it is galvanizing. The Connecticut-born singer has a young voice and an old soul, it seems, and he's bringing both to Littlefield. Expect an intimate performance — and a few icy chills up your spine.

- — Isabella Yeager for Unveiled Arts

With his androgynous tenor, Pat Hull meshes harmonies that come off like staring into the sun at 5:45pm: sometimes it pricks but you keep it up because you like the way it changes how the world looks. Peppered with full vocal harmonies and murky dissonances, Hull’s music is as gut-wrenching as it is galvanizing. The Connecticut-born singer has a young voice and an old soul, it seems, and he's bringing both to Littlefield. Expect an intimate performance — and a few icy chills up your spine. - Beacon Pass author Isabella Yeager

)http://www.synthesis.net/music/interview/item-7231/2009-02-02-pat_hull)

Sticking to a healthy diet of continuous creative progression and a "there's-no-spreading-yourself-too-thin" performance mentality, singer/songwriter Pat Hull has, over a relatively short period of time, found his own secure niche in the Chico music scene. The "progressive element," as Hull refers to it, has been with him since he started playing guitar and writing songs in his late teens, back in his home state of Connecticut. Perhaps a result of his parents being formally educated music instructors (in voice and piano, respectively), or just having the strong work ethic of a perfectionist (one that has him on the verge of completing a Master's Degree in Speech Communication), Hull also believes in the concept of reciprocity—getting in return equal share of what one puts in—and attributes much of his, and his music's, success to that mentality.

Back in Chico, after spending winter-break on the East Coast, Hull, and his supporting ensemble, took some time to chat with Synthesis, and break down the growing forces that have led to their most recent reason to cause a little commotion—the completion of their six-song EP, Forever's Night, and Feb. 7th's impending release show at the Chico Women's Club.


The Band: Having only been in the area since August of '07, the 23-year-old Hull initially began playing around Chico as a solo performer, but through his steady appearances at local venues such as The Crux, he quickly found people interested in collaborating. Of the members in the current line-up—which includes Hull on lead vocals and guitar, Mark Robertson on double bass (as well as banjo and guitar), Bob Reynolds on drums, percussionist Cody Caudill, Erin Lizardo on keyboards and Dan Masquelier on violin and mandolin (not to mention everyone sings back-ups)—Robertson was the first to approach Hull about playing together. As Hull remembers, "stuff just kind of added on top of each other from there."

As he began to play more shows and meet more people, the "band" quickly came into effect, and the classical arrangements that Hull was surrounded by as a child began to take life within his songs. With a thankful smile, he explained, "I didn't really expect anything to happen. I like solo stuff, but [the accompaniment] was just kind of experimental and fun. Then it solidified more into playing live at shows, and getting tighter with songs; and the next thing you know, we've got the whole crew here." Actually, the next thing you know, you've got a new recording here.


The CD: Recorded over a month at Scott Barwick's Origami Lounge (which Hull claims is "really, really, really amazing"), Forever's Night is the fruition of the time and work put in by the entire sextet, and they couldn't be more excited about it. As Reynolds put it, "It's kind of like the full realization of having a band to play with Pat. The first CD [Yes] was, ‘Okay, let's try out more instrumentation with Pat's music.' And this CD was more along the lines of, ‘Okay, now we know what we want to do with the instruments. So, let's keep going, and let's improve what we already have."
- The Synthesis (Author: Dustin Bennett)

(http://www.newsreview.com/chico/content?oid=893537)

Musical growth
Pat Hull
If you were to chart out Pat Hull’s career trajectory since coming to Chico from Connecticut in August 2007, you’d see he’s due for another high point on his ascending graph.

Within a month of arriving to pursue a master’s in communication studies (and to teach in that department), the singer-songwriter recorded his Live in Chico CD at Has Beans. He spent the next several months becoming one of the more regular players at nearly every café and club in town, and in May 2008 he received a Chico Area Music Award for best male vocalist. Following the CAMMIES breakthrough, he released his full-length debut album, Yes, and hit the road in support.

The next development—the one that will be playing out in 2009—is the addition of a full band, both for live performances and to record the recently completed CD Forever’s Night.

The new crew is mostly acoustic and extremely lively. The ensemble features stand-up bassist/multi-instrumentalist Mark Robertson, drummer Bob Reynolds, back-up singer/percussionist Cody Caudill, violinist/back-up vocalist Dan Masquelier and keyboardist/ vocalist Erin Lizardo (another singer-songwriter who’s received CAMMIES acclaim as best vocalist).

“When I started practicing with other friends, it was impulsive and non-directional,” Hull said about the genesis of his new musical setup. “It just started excelling and I didn’t feel like controlling it. It is a delight to play with these folks.”

Hull and band will debut the new CD (which was recorded locally by Candy Apple vocalist/organist Scott Barwick at his Origami Lounge studio) at a release party Feb. 7 at the Chico Women’s Club. Mark your calendar.

—Jason Cassidy - Chico News and Review (Author: Jason Cassidy)

(http://www.newsreview.com/chico/content?oid=662980)

Even before he sang a note, when Pat Hull rolled up on his bike to a recent gig, guitar slung over his shoulder, dirty blond hair framing a wide smile and perfect set of white teeth, it was apparent this was a young man with charisma.

Good news for him, the 22-year-old singer-songwriter who just moved to Chico last August has a lot of talent as well. Hull’s lilting, ultra-tenor voice grabs the listener first. Couple that with sunny strumming and insightful, catchy lyrics, and we’ve got a winner. In just nine months, Hull has quickly gone from Chico newbie to a regular performer at venues like Has Beans and Café Coda, and will release his first album, Yes, May 10.

Hull’s musical path began to take shape about five years ago in his small Connecticut hometown of Branford, when his older brother Cameron gave Pat some guitar lessons.

“It consumed my life,” Hull said. “Once I learned some basic chords it took off for me. I practiced four or five hours a day. I didn’t even consider it practice. It was a passion.”

Hull’s next step in life was majoring in communication studies at Marist College in upstate New York. His coursework has helped him develop song lyrics.

“I write about things in my life that at face value seem to have no meaning, but in the end [they do],” he said. “An idea will just hit me and it will branch out in phrases that represent that idea. Communication studies come in, and I think about tendencies of myself and other people and that idea will disburse into various musical phrasings.”

Some of those phrasings include “Things that I do are ways to waste the time without you” from “I Can’t Share"; “The sun went out and in and out again like a memory I tried to hold” from “Tractor"; and “I made love and lost it the same night” from “Young Minds.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree from Marist, Hull contacted his uncle, who lives in Chico. Soon, Hull arrived in town, entered graduate school and became a teaching assistant at Chico State. He quickly became immersed in the local music scene.

“I’m ambitious,” Hull said. “I love to play and didn’t waste any time. My cousin gave me a bike and I went out passing out my CDs to clubs—Café Coda was first—and telling them I’d like to book gigs. It snowballed into all these places to play.”

Just a month after coming to Chico, he recorded his first CD, Live in Chico, from one of his performances at Has Beans.

Eight months later Hull took home the CAMMIES Critics’ Choice Award for Best Male Vocalist, and is poised to celebrate the release of his new record, the first project from the newly formed ReCrux Records. Some are solo tracks. Others get the band treatment, with Mark Robertson on bass, mandolin and guitar, Bob Reynolds on percussion and Nathan Coy on trumpet and French horn. The project was largely engineered in Hull’s living room, with a MacBook Pro and audio rack unit interface providing the technical power.

Ty Gorton, co-director of Chico’s Crux Artist Collective (and CN&R editorial designer), said going with Hull for ReCrux’s debut effort was an easy choice.

“He was kind of the inspiration for it,” Gorton said. “If Pat Hull didn’t exist I don’t know if this would’ve come about. This is the one who I want to work with, who will get it done and make the sacrifices.”

Things have continued to fall into place for Hull, whose laid-back, sensitive and buoyant songs personify his character. And he seems to have found a home in Chico.

“I know it’s overstated when people say everyone’s so nice here, but it’s true,” he said. “There seems to be some element of the character of the people here that I love. I’m maintaining a nice circle of friends and it’s nice being around [this part of] my family and reconnecting.”
- Chico News and Review (Author: Alan Sheckter)

(http://endhits.portlandmercury.com/endhits/archives/2008/11/17/pat_hull_to_pull_in_to_portlan)

Chico troubadour Pat Hull, along with his band, was one of the many reasons I regretted moving away from my formerly tranquil college hovel. Along with an inherent talent for songwriting, Hull's unassuming agenda provided him audiences with literally every type of band and showgoer lurking in the pubs surrounding CSU, Chico (including my own abomination, the Ramones cover band, Pinhead). Immediate reactions were to Hull's Neil Young-huffing-helium vocal range, but after those early assessments, we all realized that he was a goddamn genius (Sample lyric: "I will not forget the days that we spent struggling for more/I will not forget the ways we ruffled this town's feathers with our thorns." from "Tractor").
Lucky for me, Portland seems to have a magnetism that draws some of my favorites right to my backdoor.
Hull, whose move to Chico from the East Coast helped usher in a new renaissance for Northern California grassroots singer/songwriters, operates within an approachable milieu, trading tenor vocals with plodding, melodic finger-picking to accent his obvious ambition to grow in both music and in life. To put it even more personally, Hull's tune "Paint Me A Picture" provided a shockingly effective emotional bridge between myself and my long-distance girlfriend earlier this year. "Whaaaaaaaaa!!!!" says you, but it isn't often a local singer commands my heartstrings so deftly.
His album, Yes is available on iTunes, as well as being available via Chico-based music management collective Recrux Records, and the band is snaking its way up the coast to share. Check out the video at the end of the post and go, go, go to these shows:
Nov 21 2008 8:00P
The Kenton Club w/Prick and the Burn Portland, Oregon
Nov 23 2008 9:30P
The Laurelthirst w.Tchotchkes,Portland, Oregon
Nov 25 2008 6:00P
Mississippi Pizza w/ Mcdougall Portland, Oregon
- Portland Mercury: Ryan Prado