Alice Vol. 2 No. 2

ENTERTAINMENT
firekid
Q&A
By Ellen Johnson
Combining urban sounds with
traditional bluegrass music is no easy
feat, but one Alabama native is out
there doing it, and doing it well.
Dillon Hodges—or firekid as he is
known in the music world—originally
hails from Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
Hodges’ firekid achieves the marriage of
contemporary and bluegrass, synth and
urban, pop and acoustic. Hodges first
discovered music as a young boy as he
competed in guitar competitions around
the country. Now, he and his guitar are
all grown up and making music for
the masses. He’s played Bonnaroo, the
Hangout Fest and toured with Passion
Pit, and along the way firekid is picking
up speed and winning over audiences.
We chatted with Hodges about life,
music, guitar and, of course, Alabama.
Alice: When did you first become
interested in music and how did
you first begin making music?
Hodges: My first real experience with
music was listening to my parents’
southern gospel music in church and
whatnot. I fell in love with guitar, and
my next door neighbor offered to teach
me. He was a bluegrass musician. I
didn’t know anything about bluegrass
music but it was my only option to learn
[88] Alice Spring 2017
guitar. I would go over to his house
once a week and stay for four or five
hours and sort of obsess over guitar.
He started taking me to bluegrass
festivals around the state of Alabama. I
also felt like I was kind of nobody at my
elementary school and I felt like playing
guitar made me cooler, and I think it
did in some ways.
What genre would you describe
yourself as?
Hodges: We’ve gotten play on Alt Nation,
so that’s alt rock. I don’t know if I really
easily, cleanly fall into one category or
genre. I grew up making rural music,
but the production of the firekid music
is a lot more modern and urban … I feel
like it’s an evolving thing. I don’t think
I’ve cracked the code on the sounds yet.
I think really more than anything, it’s
my life goal to break the gap between
urban and rural music.
Where did “firekid” come from?
Hodges: I was going to these things
[bluegrass festivals] at 11 and 12 years
old. I was by far the youngest person
hanging out with these old codgers.
They all called me “kid.” That was
my nickname. Firekid was kind of a
nickname that I carried around for a
while. When I went out to [Los Angeles]
to start working on what became the
firekid project my producer called me
“kid” and it just sort of stuck as a
nickname. It didn’t feel necessarily
right to just say Dillon Hodges, but
firekid felt right.
Who are your biggest musical
inspirations?
Hodges: The thing I’m shooting for
hasn’t been done convincingly too many
times. But I listen to a lot of the bluegrass
traditional music. Ralph Stanley, Doc
Watson, Tony Rice – those are kind of
my favorite bluegrass musicians. Then
on the other end of the spectrum I love
like Broken Bells and Gorillaz and some
of these sorts of bands who mix acoustic
and electronic elements. So I try to pull
from both sides, from the urban side
of things and the more traditional side
of things.
Who inspired you growing up to
pursue your dreams in music?
Hodges: It’s kind of amazing. When I
was going to these festivals some of them
happened to be instrumental contests.
So you compete on guitar against other
guitarists of all ages. My parents really
took to it to take me all over the country
to these things. My parents were the
ones that really enabled me to take it as
far as it would go. I had mentors who