Interview with Hippydan

Where are you from?
I grew up in southern California.

What kind of music did you listen to?
I grew up on all the rock bands of the later 70's. Kiss, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Then in the 80's I was a total butt rocker, all into Def Leopard, Quiet Riot, Mötley Crüe and of course Ozzy. In the 90's I got into the Grateful Dead and became a total hippy. I was also listening to the Black Crows and old Dave Matthews Band to name a couple.

What got you into Celtic and Medieval music?
Back in like 1996, a friend of mine played me a CD called "Dancing at the Cross Roads" by a band called The Crossing. When I heard the very first song I was all like; Dude, this is what I have been looking for my whole life, this is it! From then on I became a total Crossing fan and looked for other CDs by them. In the summer of 2001 my wife and I got to play with three of the members of the Crossing at a ceili at One Fest in Memphis Tennessee and again at Cornerstone fest in Bushnell Illinois. As for Medieval music, I pretty much got into it because of the gift my wife gave me on our wedding day; a set of German Medieval Bagpipes! After learning how to play them I started listening to some other bands that played the same style of pipes. The first time I heard Medieval music I immediately imagined some old pub in Europe with drunk people all partying. It all made me feel really strange; it was so old and I almost felt as if the music itself was filled with magic. One of the first bands that influenced me was Corvus Corax. They are a medieval pipe and drum band that really know their stuff. They have five pipers and three drummers and they even sing in Latin!

What are some of your goals as a musician?
I have a very big and very personal goal as a musician. I really dig the Bible. It is a book that I take to be God's word. It is also a book that has radically changed my life. So because I love the Bible so much, my goal is to tell the story, of God in history, through song and poetry. Beginning with some of the major stories in Genesis and working my way through the books of Moses; then through the Prophets, the Writings, the Gospels, Epistles, and finally ending with Revelations so that when I am finished one could put all the CD booklets together and they would be holding a highly condensed, musical and poetic Bible. I have no idea how long it will take but I'm not too worried about that, it will come in its time.