Ivy Hill

By Erica Febre

With a six-piece band, it’s easy to figure why Ivy Hill doesn’t quite fit into a single genre. Each member brings a different sound to the game.

Together for almost a year now, Ivy Hill is Lori Kirk on lead vocals, beat box and visuals; Brendan Murphy on bass; Tung Pham on trumpet; Kevin Wallack on Wurlitzer, keys and saxophone; Gavin Paddock on drums, and percussion; and Mike Lacourse on guitar.

“Originally we wanted to do a pop thing. We followed the pop vein with simple stuff and catchy things over the songs,” Lacourse said.

“But, after we started practicing together and bringing the music together as a collective, that was when we branched out into a more jazz sound. It really just spawned something that was completely new for us too but really unique,” he said.

The members of Ivy Hill define themselves as an eclectic funky, jazz, and R&B collaboration. If they had one main goal, it would to get people grooving and dancing. Lacourse, who began playing with Kirk years before Ivy Hill was formed, had a foresight of where the music would take them.

“Lori has a really distinct voice and style that’s different from anything out there. I wanted to complement that, so I kind of had the instrumentation in mind already. The sound that we could accomplish would be possible through the key-boards and horns along with the classic band lineup of bass, guitar, and drums,” Lacourse said. Kirk, the leading lady, describes Ivy Hill as drawing from all those jazz, R&B and fun influences, but she also mentions Latin and Reggae influences helping to form a hearty groove.

“We have a couple slower ballads, we have funk and reggae songs, every kind of music, we have something for everyone. We really don’t fit into one genre but there are a lot different genres that fit into our music,” Kirk said.

Last October, Ivy Hill competed in a battle of the bands at Milly’s Tavern in Manchester. They won the competition, earning a chance to return and compete against another six bands.

Lacourse claims that Ivy Hill likes to play with rock bands because it catches the audience off guard. In the midst of all the hardcore screaming rock and metal, Ivy Hill takes the stage and presents a different jazz-like, funky groove.

-January 11, 2007

- Hippo Press

By Kevin Hakansson

A college campus is the perfect breeding for lots of up and coming groups playing certain styles of music. While rock bands, hip-hop acts, and even pop singers easily identify with the college age bracket as their target audience, some other more underground styles may not be as easy to bring to the attention of the youthful undergrad. This is a fact known, and just as quickly ignored, by Ivy Hill.

Many Groups have humble beginnings, and Ivy Hill is no exception. The band formed just this past March, with one simple goal in mind.
"We started with a goal of the Battle of the Bands in mind." keyboardist Kevin Wallack remembers. Wallack, a junior Music Business major, says that while the band knew from the beginning that they would continue playing out, producing a demo for Umass Lowell's annual Battle of the Bands was the first priority. The hard work paid off, as the band placed second.
The initial purpose of starting Ivy Hill was to create a band for vocalist Lori Kirk. "Originally it was a project for Lori Kirk to have her own songs played by a band," says trumpeter Tung Pham, a 2006 UML graduate.
"It kind of spawned into something different. We all started contributing musically and creatively."

The band continued practicing through the end of last semester into the summer, with a very collective approach to their songwriting.

"Every song we do is spawned from one person's idea, and the we add to it," Wallack says.

Ivy Hill's sound is firmly rooted in funk and R&B. Pham, who last year earned his degree in music performance, brings a well trained, experienced horn to the group. Bassist Brendan Murphy, a senior Sound Recording Technology major, provides a rumbling low end, classmate Mike Lacourse brings a wide variety of musical experience to his guitar, and recent addition Gavin paddock is known to be one of the most musical drummers in the area.

"Everyone in the group has different musical tastes, so it's hard to pinpoint exactly where our influences come from." Pham says, illustrating the eclectic minds that comprise Ivy Hill.

Kirk, the only non-music major in the group, draws a lot of influence from pop singers such as Mariah Carey, while Pham and Wallack are both jazzheads.

Having played all sorts of venues and stages at UML, Ivy Hill is hoping to branch out.

"In general, our goal is to play as much as possible, like any band," Wallack says, adding that the band is still working to identify its core audience.

However, Ivy Hill is not like any band. Their eclectic style and set of members make them one of the most unique engaging acts you'll find on campus.

-September 2006 - Umass Lowell Connector

August 11, 2007

There’s a moment in The Simpsons where the overachieving Lisa is upset that she has become the second best student in her class. When coming to terms with her new status, she daydreams of a group called “The Second Best Band.” Her fellow band mates are Art Garfunkel, John Oates and Jim Messina. I only bring this up because some bands would feel discouraged after coming in second for so long, but not Boston’s Ivy Hill.

The group says that they’ve played a lot of Battle of the Bands competitions and have gotten very good at coming in second place, but they don’t seem any worse for wear due to their “born to runner-up” status.

With a nice blend of funk, rock, jazz, Latin and pop Ivy Hill have enough to go on until they make it to the summit of that loneliest number. On the track “Donde Estabas,” the group’s already funktastic song borrows the same horn section from The Chi-Lites’ “Are You My Woman (Tell Me So)” that Beyonce used for her hit 2003 "Crazy in Love." Ooh, funky! Lookout, Paul Simon, Kenny Loggins and Daryl Hall.

http://www.ivyhillmusic.net/

-Nick Stefanovich - 88.9FM WERS Boston