Aerie is a pseudo/eclectic/folk-rockish orginal band from Grand Rapids Michigan. Aerie was founded by Randy Hill, Bob Phillips and Steve Berkemeier. Their long friendship and history and musical backgrounds has collaborated to showcase some of the best orginal "Folk-Rockish" music around. With great harmonies, a "Retro" sound, thought provoking orginal music and an energetic live show makes Aerie one of the top-rated bands in the area to see live !
Randy Hill is the founder/songwriter/producer for Aerie. He has well over 20 years of experience in the industry, as well as numerous recording and performance credits. Tiring of the "solo" venture, he started Aerie. Aerie's drummer/percussionist Bob Phillips has been performing and recording for 20+years. Steve Berkemeier is a seasond performer with a solo CD to his credit. They formed Aerie, with a goal of sharing orginal music and common interest's in performing. Randy Hill won a nomination for "Best folk-Rock" CD from WYCE 88.1 Radio in Grand Rapids for his solo 2001 CD Release: "Reflections"
Randy Hill's "Reflections" CD can be purchased at: www.songramp.com
We play live as much as we can. We're gearing up for live performances for the end of winter and beginning of warm weather. We'll be at the Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts, and a to-be-announced CD release party for our upcoming CD "Pseudo/Retro/Modern"
Aerie's influences are: Bruce Springsteen, America, The Byrds, James Taylor, and numerous other well known artist's along the same genre.
Rickenbacker 6 & 12-string electric guitars. Washburn & Taylor 6 & 12-string acoustic guitars, and Yamaha sound systems, shur mic's & Wireless systems. Quote from Bob Phillips (Drums): most of my hardware/stands are by Pearl, the basic drum kit (primary snare, bass, mounted tom and floor tom are 1949 Radio King Slingerland with Zildjian cymbols. If I weren't a classic Slingerland man, I would be a Drum Workshop (DW) player. They are currently the best of the best for drum shells.
Bob plays only the best!
Aerie plans on staying true to it's orginal conception of an orginal music concert / performance band. With the vast amounts of shallow, prefabricated, fast-food type music out there now with no real meaning, personally or otherwise to the artist performing it. The songs are from our own perceptions, experiences, life, beliefs and over all view of the world and ourselves. We plan to keep on writing, performing and producing CD's of all new music in the future.