An article about our dear CHRIS!
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Tucked away in the back of a stage in front of a crowd of 200 screaming Beatles fans, all Chris Hillman can hear is the sound of his drums.
The stage is Hillman’s haven, a place where he can transform from the redheaded graduate student who works behind the information desk at UF’s Marston Science Library to Ringo Starr, who he imitates as the drummer of The Shoddy Beatles, a local Beatles cover band.
Hillman’s love for The Beatles began in 1995, when he was in the fifth grade.
“The Beatles Anthology” had made its way to music stores across the nation, bringing about a resurgence of Beatlemania.
“It was right at the age when you start becoming aware of music and developing a taste of music. For whatever reason, I latched onto The Beatles more so than radio music or anything like that,” he said.
Every time he earned $20 from mowing lawns, he’d ride his bicycle a short distance to CD Warehouse to pick up a new Beatles CD. Soon, he had them all.
“It’s weird because with the rest of the band and almost every other musician I know, their parents got them into it,” he explained. “And not really me. I don’t know what it was. I just kind of latched onto it.”
As a child, Hillman said he experimented with his mom’s old acoustic guitar. Having died when he was 5 years old, she wasn’t able to pass on her musical talent. “I really wish I could say I remember her playing music, but any memories I think I have are from people describing her playing music or from pictures of her playing with her friends in the living room,” he said, overcome with nostalgia. “But that’s got to be where my musical compulsion comes from.”
When he was in eighth grade, Hillman made his debut as a member of Narwhal.
“It was a bunch of seniors in high school and me in eighth grade, playing the bass guitar. They weren’t cool. They were a bunch of nerds in a metal band. They rode on my bus. If seniors are riding the bus, then they’re already not cool,” Hillman joked.
Barely moving one notch up in the “cool” department, Hillman joined a band in high school called Approach.
“I was in some terrible named bands,” he joked.
Approach played at Battle of the Bands two years in a row and took home first place one of the years.
During band practices, Hillman would use his breaks as an opportunity to sit down and mess around with the drums. After a couple of years, he bought a set.
Hillman, who has never taken a formal music lesson, said he occasionally resorts to YouTube when he needs to learn a new technique.
Just two or three months into college at UF, he responded to a bulletin post on Gainesvillebands.com that read, “Drummer needed for band.”
He played with the band for his undergraduate career until they split in early 2007 after two band members moved away for graduate school and work.
At the same time, another band, Morningbell, was looking for a new drummer after theirs had moved to Finland. The band had been involved in what began as a summer side project known as The Shitty Beatles, a band dedicated to strict interpretation of Beatles songs.
Hillman was a huge Shitty Beatles fan. He never missed a show. So when the opportunity to join their band came about, he jumped at it.
Before Hillman joined Morningbell, the group had already retired as The Shitty Beatles. But after much persuading, Hillman brought about the return of the band, which changed its name to avoid press problems.
“While we’re rehearsing, we refer to the 800-page songbook filled with the music scores of Beatles songs,” he said. “If there’s something we don’t remember, we will consult the book. But I mean, once you’re on stage and you mess something up, people are still screaming the words and that’s cool.”
According to Hillman, the band slightly messes up the lyrics almost every show. Although he doesn’t sing much as Ringo Starr, he’s made his fair share of mistakes.
“It’s ironic because when I forget the words, there are 300 to 400 people singing it for me, helping me out. I guess that’s why were called The Shitty Beatles,” he joked.
When not on stage, Hillman can be found five days a week at Marston Science Library, a job he’s held since 2006.
Every day, he rides his bicycle to work ready to help students with any information they might need. As he scans the books that are being checked out, he makes sure to greet all his patrons.
“I’m not a super-quiet, bookish, soft-spoken library person. I’m the outspoken one, I guess, but everyone here sort of has his or her own personality. It’s not your typical library filled with a bunch of shushy librarians,” he said. “I try to be professional and polite here and try to do my thing on stage.”
In between helping students and joking around at the library, the 24-year-old UF graduate is earning his master’s degree from Florida State University’s online graduate school program for information science.
Standing behind the circulation desk proudly dressed in his navy blue Alphabet City T-shirt and jeans, Hillman said he has no intention of kicking music to the curb once he becomes a librarian.
“A world without music couldn’t exist because people need outlets of some kind,” he said. “A world without music would just be terrible.”
