The C2C Sit Down with The Redhill Valleys
With powerful, earthy harmonies, rootsy guitar licks and timeless lyrics, The Redhill Valleys emerged with a force onto the Canadian music scene in 2016. The Hamilton, Ontario quartet of Chelsea McWilliams (Bass/Vocals), Tim Allard (Lead Guitar/Vocals), Danielle Beaudin (Guitar/Vocals) and Matt Soliveri (Drums) don’t shy away from nostalgia and pulls influence from artists such as Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Neil Young, The Band and Fleetwood Mac.
Following a successful trip across the pond in January to perform during The AMA-UK’s UK Americana Music Week in Hackney, the band returned to London in March to appear at C2C: Country to Country just before the release of their brand new single “Rhinestoned” (out now via MDM Recordings and available HERE) both of which came up in conversation when they spoke to Jamie during the festival.
Following a successful trip across the pond in January to perform during The AMA-UK’s UK Americana Music Week in Hackney, the band returned to London in March to appear at C2C: Country to Country just before the release of their brand new single “Rhinestoned” (out now via MDM Recordings and available HERE) both of which came up in conversation when they spoke to Jamie during the festival.
It’s great to have you all back here in the UK and see you here at C2C, how has it been so far? That first set was rocking and great energy for a first morning of the festival.
“Yeah, we were just happy that the sun was shining and people felt like they wanted to be outside to hang out with us so the set went well.” (C)
This isn’t your first rodeo in London because you guys have been over a couple of times now.
“Yeah we were just here in January in fact for Americana.” (T)
Representing Team Canada once again over here this weekend because I think it’s just you guys and Teigan Gayse amongst all of the Americans, Brits and Australians. I saw your set in Hackney when you were last here so, it’s great to have you back and was awesome for people to arrive here where the first thing that they see is a band that are actually playing real country music. You guys are playing as a full band and you’ve been together for a while now so have developed that tight sound, was it 2016 if I read right when you first started putting stuff out together?
“That was when we released our first album but we had been playing for a couple of years before that. Since 2014 Tim, Chelsea and I started as a three piece and a couple of years later, Matt joined around 2017.” (D)
“This iteration which is hopefully the permanent one has been what it has been since 2016 or so.” (T)
Cool, let’s go into the repetitive question which I’m sure everyone asks you, The Redhill Valleys, where does the name come from? We have a town not too far from here called Redhill where I actually used to live and work. When I first saw the name, I wasn’t sure if I was to expect some really posh people from Surrey.
“Ha-ha we spell it that way but back home it’s a parkway in a region and it’s Red Hill so, we decided, not knowing that anyone else had ever done that to switch it together. We just thought it looked better so that was reaffirming that your Redhill is how we do it.” (C)
I imagine your Red Hill is very different to our Redhill.
“It’s a region of our home town of Hamilton in Ontario, which is kind of a steel mill town and it’s still that but also an arts community as well, even though it’s getting too expensive to be in the arts community but The Red Hill Valleys is sort of on the outskirts of Hamilton.” (T)
We tend to forget how big your country is, it’s so vast and what goes on musically in Calgary and Alberta is very different to where you are in Ontario, then you throw Quebec into the mix which is a complete mystery to itself before you even consider what goes on everywhere else. When you are pushing and marketing things at home, do you have a universal approach across Canada or do you target things differently in different places?
“Well geographically it’s a huge country but not so much in the amount of people and the industry is not that big, even though it is spread out over a large distance so we’ve found that you just sort of have a national approach and you work locally. Yeah, it’s a massive area to traverse and we haven’t even been to Alberta but we’re going to play the Calgary Stampede for the first time this year.” (T)
“Yeah, we were just happy that the sun was shining and people felt like they wanted to be outside to hang out with us so the set went well.” (C)
This isn’t your first rodeo in London because you guys have been over a couple of times now.
“Yeah we were just here in January in fact for Americana.” (T)
Representing Team Canada once again over here this weekend because I think it’s just you guys and Teigan Gayse amongst all of the Americans, Brits and Australians. I saw your set in Hackney when you were last here so, it’s great to have you back and was awesome for people to arrive here where the first thing that they see is a band that are actually playing real country music. You guys are playing as a full band and you’ve been together for a while now so have developed that tight sound, was it 2016 if I read right when you first started putting stuff out together?
“That was when we released our first album but we had been playing for a couple of years before that. Since 2014 Tim, Chelsea and I started as a three piece and a couple of years later, Matt joined around 2017.” (D)
“This iteration which is hopefully the permanent one has been what it has been since 2016 or so.” (T)
Cool, let’s go into the repetitive question which I’m sure everyone asks you, The Redhill Valleys, where does the name come from? We have a town not too far from here called Redhill where I actually used to live and work. When I first saw the name, I wasn’t sure if I was to expect some really posh people from Surrey.
“Ha-ha we spell it that way but back home it’s a parkway in a region and it’s Red Hill so, we decided, not knowing that anyone else had ever done that to switch it together. We just thought it looked better so that was reaffirming that your Redhill is how we do it.” (C)
I imagine your Red Hill is very different to our Redhill.
“It’s a region of our home town of Hamilton in Ontario, which is kind of a steel mill town and it’s still that but also an arts community as well, even though it’s getting too expensive to be in the arts community but The Red Hill Valleys is sort of on the outskirts of Hamilton.” (T)
We tend to forget how big your country is, it’s so vast and what goes on musically in Calgary and Alberta is very different to where you are in Ontario, then you throw Quebec into the mix which is a complete mystery to itself before you even consider what goes on everywhere else. When you are pushing and marketing things at home, do you have a universal approach across Canada or do you target things differently in different places?
“Well geographically it’s a huge country but not so much in the amount of people and the industry is not that big, even though it is spread out over a large distance so we’ve found that you just sort of have a national approach and you work locally. Yeah, it’s a massive area to traverse and we haven’t even been to Alberta but we’re going to play the Calgary Stampede for the first time this year.” (T)
That’s amazing, I’ve got family living out there. I went to the Stampede in 2015 maybe. I went to a night at the actual rodeo but had no idea what was going on although I don’t think many people do as it seemed to be a lot of people getting drunk and having a good time which is totally on brand for me. It’s great how they bring the music element into the whole event and you’ll love it as an excuse to get over to the west coast.
“That’s where we sometimes forget because we’re country in Ontario but there are full on cowboys and farmers riding horses and living that ranching lifestyle out that way which is really popular over there.” (C)
It ends up almost being more like Texas out there. What you guys do musically, coming back to over here, you’re a really good fit for things over here as both country and Americana are rapidly growing, then you are able to just perfectly able to walk along the line down the middle as you just do what you do.
“I think it’s a part of the influences that we all have which are so different and we kind of pull them together.” (C)
“We all love bands like CCR, Neil Young, Tom Petty and when you listen to albums like that it’s an amalgamation of rock and country which were defined as rock but if they came out today, I don’t know?” (D)
Now that you have been over here a couple of times, seen how it works and keep coming back so, something is going right. Is it now becoming a part of your planning as you look ahead to find a window to make time to come to Europe?
“I think a lot of it is around the strategy behind releasing music, we’re working our first year with MDM Recordings which has been awesome and I think a big goal for us is to release as much as we can to show all of the different sides of it and yeah hopefully be able to tour it afterwards and get back over when we can.” (D)
Talking about strategy around releases, are you looking more down the route of constant singles to work the DSP’s or are you thinking more down the hold back for an extended project and just waiting for the right time to bring something out?
“I think the releasing singles is a great way to show a lot of material in a short amount of time like we have a new single just coming out and it’s only being released to radio in the UK and Australia, digitally worldwide but we’re holding off to radio in Canada for the moment.” (C)
Their scene in Australia is also quickly growing and evolving, a couple of guys have come this weekend from down under and I would say the “country” sound there is more similar to back at home where they do what just feels right compared to what British country is, where people here are looking to replicate what they do in Nashville.
“Yeah it changes every song, it’s different. MDM and everyone has embraced the fact that we’re kind of crazy, we kind of can’t stay on one path where we do a little bit of this and a little bit of that, which seems to be working and especially where we are playing a set and people’s ears seem to perk up a bit when we do a little bit more of a rock thing.” (D)
“That’s where we sometimes forget because we’re country in Ontario but there are full on cowboys and farmers riding horses and living that ranching lifestyle out that way which is really popular over there.” (C)
It ends up almost being more like Texas out there. What you guys do musically, coming back to over here, you’re a really good fit for things over here as both country and Americana are rapidly growing, then you are able to just perfectly able to walk along the line down the middle as you just do what you do.
“I think it’s a part of the influences that we all have which are so different and we kind of pull them together.” (C)
“We all love bands like CCR, Neil Young, Tom Petty and when you listen to albums like that it’s an amalgamation of rock and country which were defined as rock but if they came out today, I don’t know?” (D)
Now that you have been over here a couple of times, seen how it works and keep coming back so, something is going right. Is it now becoming a part of your planning as you look ahead to find a window to make time to come to Europe?
“I think a lot of it is around the strategy behind releasing music, we’re working our first year with MDM Recordings which has been awesome and I think a big goal for us is to release as much as we can to show all of the different sides of it and yeah hopefully be able to tour it afterwards and get back over when we can.” (D)
Talking about strategy around releases, are you looking more down the route of constant singles to work the DSP’s or are you thinking more down the hold back for an extended project and just waiting for the right time to bring something out?
“I think the releasing singles is a great way to show a lot of material in a short amount of time like we have a new single just coming out and it’s only being released to radio in the UK and Australia, digitally worldwide but we’re holding off to radio in Canada for the moment.” (C)
Their scene in Australia is also quickly growing and evolving, a couple of guys have come this weekend from down under and I would say the “country” sound there is more similar to back at home where they do what just feels right compared to what British country is, where people here are looking to replicate what they do in Nashville.
“Yeah it changes every song, it’s different. MDM and everyone has embraced the fact that we’re kind of crazy, we kind of can’t stay on one path where we do a little bit of this and a little bit of that, which seems to be working and especially where we are playing a set and people’s ears seem to perk up a bit when we do a little bit more of a rock thing.” (D)
You mentioned that “Rhinestoned” is the new single so let’s round off with you telling us a little bit about that one.
“We love the song, it was inspired by the seventies era of disco country rock and we had a lot of fun writing it, recording it and it’s different. There’s definitely a visual element, like Chelsea is the main songwriter on this song and she’s a fashionista and loves all the glittery kind of things, then drawing the inspiration and making a song out of it which turned out really cool and we love playing it live.” (D)
Thank you all for taking the time, It was awesome to see you play again as I really enjoyed your set at Americana so it’s great to be able to say hi. I know Carmen (Choney) on your team and she really is THE BEST, we know her through Jess (Moskaluke) and I got so excited when she was copied into the email chain setting this up thinking yay she’s going to be here but she will be back and hopefully you guys keep coming over too.
The new single “Rhinestoned” from The Redhill Valleys is out now via MDM Recordings and is available HERE. You can find details for all of the band’s upcoming Canadian shows by checking out their WEBSITE or you can be the first to be in the know about any news of further forthcoming new releases along with what they are up to by following along on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK TWITTER & FACEBOOK.
C2C: Country to Country will return in 2025 for three days of festivities in Berlin over the weekend of March 7th to 9th which you will be able to find further detail on their WEBSITE and on INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK where you will also be able to relive highlights from this year’s event.
The event will then roll back into London, Glasgow and Belfast the following weekend between March 14th and 16th which you can keep a look out for all forthcoming details at the event WEBSITE or socials (INSTAGRAM TWITTER FACEBOOK) with line-up details expected to be announced later in the year.
“We love the song, it was inspired by the seventies era of disco country rock and we had a lot of fun writing it, recording it and it’s different. There’s definitely a visual element, like Chelsea is the main songwriter on this song and she’s a fashionista and loves all the glittery kind of things, then drawing the inspiration and making a song out of it which turned out really cool and we love playing it live.” (D)
Thank you all for taking the time, It was awesome to see you play again as I really enjoyed your set at Americana so it’s great to be able to say hi. I know Carmen (Choney) on your team and she really is THE BEST, we know her through Jess (Moskaluke) and I got so excited when she was copied into the email chain setting this up thinking yay she’s going to be here but she will be back and hopefully you guys keep coming over too.
The new single “Rhinestoned” from The Redhill Valleys is out now via MDM Recordings and is available HERE. You can find details for all of the band’s upcoming Canadian shows by checking out their WEBSITE or you can be the first to be in the know about any news of further forthcoming new releases along with what they are up to by following along on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK TWITTER & FACEBOOK.
C2C: Country to Country will return in 2025 for three days of festivities in Berlin over the weekend of March 7th to 9th which you will be able to find further detail on their WEBSITE and on INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK where you will also be able to relive highlights from this year’s event.
The event will then roll back into London, Glasgow and Belfast the following weekend between March 14th and 16th which you can keep a look out for all forthcoming details at the event WEBSITE or socials (INSTAGRAM TWITTER FACEBOOK) with line-up details expected to be announced later in the year.
