Cliff Hillis bio
Cliff Hillis:
Taking the scenic route with The Square Route
Cliff Hillis has spent much of his musical life moving between roles, genres
and places, gathering something from each stop along the way.
He's a singer and songwriter, but also a guitarist and bassist. He's a
producer and engineer who understands what happens on both sides of
the studio glass. He's toured the world as a member of other artists' bands,
collaborated with songwriters whose styles differ from his own and built a
catalog of music that reflects all of it.
Through those different roles, one thing has remained constant: Hillis is
grounded in the song. He’s an artist with something to say.
That continues on The Square Route, his new six-song EP, available now
(Fall 2026).
The collection draws on the melodic power pop Hillis is known for while
reaching into rock, Americana, country and singer-songwriter territory.
There are bright guitars and flavorful choruses, but also off-center
moments, humor, introspection and the occasional urge to get into a little
trouble.
Hillis says the songs are all autobiographical to some degree, reflecting on
“life and how to live it,” as R.E.M. once put it. These days, he's been trying
to focus more on living in the present rather than dwelling on the past or
looking too far ahead.
For Hillis, this entails a state of reflection of the musician he's become.
Growing up in Delaware, including time in Rehoboth Beach, Hillis was
drawn early to music built around strong melodies and harmonies. His older
brother was a KISS fan. Hillis gravitated toward Cheap Trick. Also in view:
the Beatles, the Kinks, the Who and, later, a bond with the hyper-artful
Prefab Sprout and Wilco.
Guitar became his primary instrument, but Hillis never limited himself. He
learned bass, developed his skills as a harmony singer and moved into
producing and engineering. He occasionally plays drums as well.
That versatility has allowed Hillis to build a career that doesn't fit neatly into
the traditional distinction between front man and sideman.
Early in his career, he worked as a guitar technician, including touring with
The Innocence Mission during a period that brought him into the orbit of
artists including Natalie Merchant and Emmylou Harris.
Over time, Hillis moved from behind the scenes to the stage and studio,
working and performing with a wide range of musicians. His credits include
sharing stages with Eric Bazilian of The Hooters, David Uosikkinen's In The
Pocket, Patty Smyth and Scandal and the Bacon Brothers.
He's also a member of The Orchestra, featuring former members of Electric
Light Orchestra and ELO Part II.
That connection began after Hillis met drummer Gordon Townsend at a Pro
Tools event. He was initially asked to fill in on bass and vocals. Acoustic
guitar and harmony vocals followed, and Hillis eventually became part of
the group.
The Orchestra has taken him well beyond his Pennsylvania home base,
with touring that has included Europe, South America and New Zealand.
Hillis has also remained closely connected to the Philadelphia-area music
community. He lives in Phoenixville, where he is a member of the historic
Colonial Theatre, a location used in the filming of The Blob. More recently,
he recorded with Philadelphia power-pop band Wanderlust, singing
harmonies alongside original members Scot Sax, Mark Getten and Jim
Cavanaugh.
For Hillis, playing in someone else's band and making his own records
aren't competing pursuits. Each informs the other.
The same is true of songwriting.
Collaboration has become an important part of Hillis' creative process. He's
written with John Eddie and Sax and worked with musicians across pop,
rock, Americana and roots music. He values what happens when another
writer brings an idea, phrase or musical instinct into the room and sends a
song somewhere he might not have taken it alone.
“If you try to chase it, you'll never catch it,” Hillis says of songwriting.
It's a philosophy that favors being receptive over forcing the process.
That approach helped shape The Square Route, six songs that showcase
Hillis' melodic instincts while taking listeners on diverse stylistic roads.
The title track is Hillis on familiar ground: sunny, slightly off-center pop built
around guitars, keyboards, bass and drums. Its sound reflects a
deliberately old-school approach Hillis wanted for the recording. He was
aiming for something in the neighborhood of Nick Lowe.
Patrick Berkery played drums, recorded in Hillis' basement, while Hillis'
friend and co-producer Greg Maragos played bass and keyboards,
including piano and Wurlitzer electric piano. Hillis played acoustic guitar
and the baritone electric guitar solo, while Steve Butler of Smash Palace
contributed a slide guitar solo that Hillis describes as distinctly George
Harrison-esque.
“The Square Route” finds humor and freedom in taking the road that suits
you rather than worrying too much about where everyone else is going.
The song “Haunted” changes the atmosphere, bringing a spaciousness and
introspection to the collection. There are shades of the wordsmithy,
atmospheric songwriting associated with Aimee Mann, an influence Hillis
acknowledges as part of his creative style.
But Hillis points even more specifically to Mann's longtime collaborator and
producer Jon Brion, whom he considers a kind of Beatlesque savant,
someone with an unusually deep grasp of melody, song structure and sonic
potency.
Then comes “Let's Get In Some Trouble,” co-written with Wanderlust Scot
Sax of Nashville, formerly of Philadelphia. The guitars get louder and
the mood becomes mischievous. This is Hillis' power-pop inclination proposing
that good behavior can be overrated.
“My Way Of Drinking” grew out of a Nashville co-write with John Eddie. It
heads in another direction, a country and Americana feel. The song flows
like a conversation at a bar between people who know something about
heartbreak. Hillis measures out humor and melancholy but doesn’t push
either too hard or force anyone to slip off the barstool.
“I truly love the song,” says Hillis. “And a lot has to do with where John took
it. I’m not like ‘Cliff goes country.’ I love the band Wilco, so for me, it’s
filtered through my love of that kind of stuff.”
“Well On Your Way” is a warm, melodic pop song about finding direction.
Its central thought takes a familiar idea and alters it slightly: You may spend
a lot of time trying to find your way, but sometimes the way finds you.
The EP closes with “Always Wanting More,” built around an expressive
guitar line and observations about late nights, quiet hours and the
persistent desire for whatever might be next. Themes of restlessness and
possibility makes it a fitting ending for a collection that rarely stays in one
musical place for long. Talented musician friend Kevin Killen built the sonic
palate around Hillis’ baritone guitar and vocal performance.
Taken together, the songs demonstrate why power pop remains a useful
description of Hillis' music, but not a complete one.
His influences are part of the foundation. Cheap Trick helped point him
toward the possibilities of melodic rock. The Beatles demonstrated what
could happen when melody, harmony, arrangement and experimentation
existed within the same song. Roots music, Americana, country and
sophisticated pop have found their way into his vocabulary.
Collaboration has widened Hillis’s expressive nature even further, and he
doesn't draw a particularly hard line around ownership once the creative
work is finished.
“Once you put it in the world, it's anybody's song,” he says.
For a songwriter, it's an open way of looking at the relationship between
artist and listener. Hillis can know what prompted a song, but he doesn't
believe that gives him the final word on what it means to someone else.
That grounded approach extends to his career.
Hillis has toured internationally and shared stages and studios with notable
musicians, but he continues to work much as he always has: writing songs,
collaborating, recording, playing with other artists and remaining open to
the next project.
“Let yourself go to a place that allows you to grow,” he says.
Hillis says he’s trying to spend less time looking backward or anticipating
what's around the next corner and more time inhabiting where he is now.
And there doesn't appear to be much reason to choose between being a
solo artist, band member, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer or
collaborator.
He's all of them.
And whichever role he happens to be playing, the work begins in the same
place: he always listening for the song.
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Contact: Jennifer Lynn • 484-432-0911 • Jfur112@gmail.com
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