Nashville – firekid, the brainchild of bluegrass artist Dillon Hodges, is a novel idea. Combining his love of Americana music with an electro-indie influence, Hodges has created something surprising and unique in this latest venture. And Nashville, his home of nearly three years, has provided the perfect backdrop for the band.
I talked with Hodges about his project over a basket of cheese fries and, not surprisingly, our conversation outlasted the snacks. He’s comfortable here in Music City, and there’s still so much to be done with firekid—the band is still in its very early stages. firekid’s debut album will drop this summer via Atlantic Records, but over the past few months, they have released a few singles and played a sprinkling of shows. “Magic Mountain” is just one of the few singles that has been released thus far, but it really captures what firekid is all about—playing with dichotomies, mixing things that others might be too afraid to combine.
The story behind firekid is as interesting as the concept itself. Hodges, a native of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, distinguished himself as a talented musician from an early age—by seventeen, he had already taken first place in a national flat-picking guitar competition. His college career, however, followed a different calling, and Hodges went on to graduate with degrees in both entertainment management and accounting.
“I finished my entertainment management degree in two years, and I had two years left, so I decided to add accounting,” he adds nonchalantly. It makes sense that Hodges is both a musician and a scholar, considering the level of ingenuity that’s gone into the firekid project.
Both a deviation and a legitimate interest, taking the time to dive into accounting is not something Hodges regrets doing with his life post-adolescence. Though he chose to focus on something different from music for a moment, he’s since thrown himself into songwriting, performing, and shaping the future of his sound. For now, that means living and working in Nashville.
“I’m inspired by all of the Nashville talent there is, whether it’s the bluegrass community, rock community, everything that’s out there,” he says. And just as firekid has found its way into Nashville, the city has found itself in Hodges’ music. He elaborated on his time here—where he lives now, the people he’s meeting—all the nuts and bolts of furnishing life in a new city and navigating its extensive network. But it was an earlier living arrangement in Nashville that inspired the song “Boomerang” on the forthcoming album.
“One night, my guitar got stolen and all of my equipment, too—my speakers, everything.” Hodges goes on to tell a seemingly impossible story of getting his stolen possessions back again, using every avenue from the police, to eBay, to reddit. This particular saga has all the trappings of the quintessential bluegrass song—it blends heartbreak, loss, and ultimately, hope.
As a child, Hodges was a self-described “bluegrass kid,” and his father would often drive him up to Nashville to see shows at the Station Inn. “For me, I grew up making bluegrass music. That’s all I knew.” But being an adolescent bluegrass fan wasn’t exactly something that his peers understood or accepted. “Everyone was listening to different stuff,” he remembers. “I would play the talent shows and play bluegrass songs, and they didn’t know what to think of it.”
But Hodges acknowledges how the tide has turned recently, and it seems that those who used to eschew the genre have since warmed up to its plucky sound—especially here in Nashville, where Americana has never really been a novelty. “Everyone’s doing the Americana thing. Everyone’s got a mandolin,” he observed. “I’m excited that people are taking it up.”
Bluegrass, however, is just one of the many pieces that makes up firekid. “I’m making pop music now,” Hodges tells me, and to him, it feels good. But he still finds a way to fold that customary deep, sometimes-dark confrontation so tied to bluegrass into his songs. “Die for Alabama” is an intense cut, and the chorus is somehow both upbeat and foreboding—an illustration of firekid itself.
Hodges’ newest venture is a fresh, exciting one in that it brings together two genres residing at opposite ends of the spectrum. It’s earthy bluegrass rooted in tradition, but it’s also punchy electro-indie that’s entirely contemporary. It seems that Nashville and firekid go hand-in-hand for Hodges—both new, both tentative, both with big developments brewing.
“I’ve had tunnel vision since I moved here,” he admits when I press him about what’s next. But there’s a certain authenticity about working in the moment, sans expectations, that gives firekid’s sound an apparent depth in the midst of its uniqueness. In the near future, however, the band will make an appearance at Hangout Fest in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
“I’ve never played a big festival before,” Hodges further divulges. “This will be the first, and it’s a big one.” The excitement is palpable, and he’s ready to build the fan base and generate that well-deserved buzz. And there’s good news for firekid’s current fans—“We’ll be touring like crazy,” Hodges promises (see below).
Stay tuned in to Firekid and learn more about their album release this summer, as well as their future tour dates, via Facebook.
Upcoming firekid Tour Dates:
5-13 / ZANZABAR / LOUISVILLE, KY
5-14 / HIGH WATT / NASHVILLE, TN
5-15 / SATURN / BIRMINGHAM, AL
5-17 / HANGOUT MUSIC FEST / GULF SHORES, AL
6-6 / NEW MOUNTAIN AVL AMPHITHEATER / ASHEVILLE, NC
Amaryllis Lyle
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