Age: 33
For the record: Clayton and Jeb Colwell, frontmen for the rock group Hector on Stilts, have no problem pointing out they are cousins.
Family bands run in... well... the family.
Their fathers helped found the Super Bowl halftime regulars Up With People way back in 1965.
And while the Colwell cousins are currently making waves in the New England music scene, they earned their chops right here in the Old Pueblo.
Hector on Stilts returns to Tucson for a one-night performance Saturday. The group is currently touring off its sophomore release, "Same Height Relation."
Why make the move from Tucson? "We wanted to move to the East Coast to be nearer to New York, and we wanted to go to a new area of the country. It is easier to tour out here because the people are concentrated in smaller areas. There are a lot of colleges in short distances from one another. We are able to tour easily and reach a lot of new listeners without the six-hour drives from Tucson to L.A. We specifically came to the Berkshires because the cost of living is low. It is right in the middle of New England. We can get to New York in two hours and up to Boston in two hours, and Buffalo and Toronto are not too far off."
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How did the group get started? "We played together as Hector on Stilts in high school in Tucson. Then we both went to college, and there was about a five- to six-year interim where we weren't playing together. But it has always been a dream of ours to make a go of it and to take it as far as we could. We also just enjoy writing music together so that works, too. We always knew we would be writing music together, but in what capacity I don't think we were quite sure."
"Same Height Relation" is your second album. How does it differ from your previous release, "Pretty Please"? "This record is more fully produced. We met a producer in New York City named Andres Levin who was the frontman for the Afro-Cuban band Yerba Buena. We always had a bit of a Latin leaning in our rhythms. Working with him was a really cool way to draw out that Latin influence. He brought it to the surface.
"One of our concerns when we finished tracking the record was how we were going to make these songs fit. They are very different. A few songs hang together well, but if you listen through there are a lot of different sounds, a couple of different writing styles even. The thread we try to keep through the album are the vocal harmonies. We like singing in duet, and we try to feature that as much as possible."
How did you come up with the band name Hector on Stilts? "There are a lot of stories about that name. I've forgotten now exactly how we came up with it. For a while, I was sure it was this weird guy in my neighborhood in Tucson named Hector. He used to throw rocks at my dog. Then I thought Jeb's brother made it up. Then for a while, I was sure that it was because to hector someone is to bully. If a bully is on stilts, he is very vulnerable. Sometimes I think it comes down to we pulled it out of a hat.
What is the No. 1 thing you miss about Tucson? "The pace out there in Tucson. I miss the music community, Fourth Avenue and Congress Street — the camaraderie we had with some of the bands out there. Being involved in a scene that is local and right around you all the time. We don't have that so much in the Berks because there is really not a scene. We do most of our shows out of town. We haven't been able to immerse ourselves in one scene, like going to Boston and really getting into it. We are in and we are out. We've made some great connections, but unless you are really there, it is hard to nurture those connections."
