Rules.

My name is Parker Hall, and I feel weird writing my own bio in the third person.

Rules. is my Portland, OR-based solo project.

After four years studying jazz drums at Oberlin Conservatory with Billy Hart (Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock), I returned to my home town (Portland), where I took a day job at a bank and began slowly working my way back into the music scene, performing with locally acclaimed acts like Jackson Boone, Dan Dan, and Alexandra Savior. This was largely by virtue of being the only drummer anyone knew to call.

Eventually, I quit the bank and started writing about music, beer, and A/V technology for Willamette Week and Digital Trends, which allowed me to work remotely during tours. I was having a great time playing music with so many different bands, but in the back of my head it felt like there was something more personal missing.

The band I’d been touring with took a break, and I started writing full time in an office downtown. With the bit of extra money I was bringing in, I bought some recording gear and a couple guitars. I’d write and record my little ideas during breaks in life and work, eventually culminating in this set of five songs.

The Nights and Weekends EP was made in my basement studio in the fall and winter of 2018. I produced, engineered, and mixed the EP, playing the drums, rhythm guitars, and bass, as well as singing lead and some background vocals. Then I recruited friends Tyler James (Jackson Boone), Ben Turner (Curtis Salgado, Dirty Revival), Erik Clampitt (Hook & Anchor), and Alexandra Savior to contribute lead guitar, keyboards, pedal steel, and backing vocals. I had my friend Adam Gonsalves master it at Telegraph Audio in SE Portland.

With simple chord structures and harmonies, Nights and Weekends mostly draws on my favorite classic rock, alt-country, and indie influences (and my lack of guitar ability), with lyrics focusing on social and cultural grey areas, and the sudden loss of one of my closest personal friends.

If you’ve got a second, click through and see if anything sticks? That’s what I usually do.

Parker