Roman Ruins
Biography
Roman Ruins (aka Graham Hill; born September 11, 1980) is an American composer and musician based out of New Orleans, Louisiana. Hill was born and raised on an intentional community in rural West Virginia, founded mostly by artists and musicians from the southern US. Hill's father was member of the Putnam County Pickers, and eventually became the house bassist on NPR's Mountain Stage, a job he still holds today. Hill graduated from Hurricane High School in 1998 where he was Valedictorian and drummer for several local bands. Hill attended Architecture school at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville where he continued his work as a drummer, playing shows and traveling to nearby colleges to perform.
After moving to Northern California in 2001, Hill completed his graduate studies in Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of California at Berkeley in 2004. In 2005, Hill joined the Parish, a Berkeley-based folk-rock band that played extensively in the Bay Area and developed a cult following. Shortly before breaking up, the Parish released a 4-song EP on Gold Robot Records where Hill played drums and contributed backing vocals. In 2007, Hill was introduced to Jason Quever of Papercuts through their mutual friend Alex Scally of Beach House, whom Hill had met through his sister who was living in Baltimore at the time. Hill began playing shows and touring with both Papercuts and Beach house in 2008, drumming and singing backing vocals for both bands. After extensive touring in the US and Europe, Hill was asked to contribute to the recording of several Beach House and Papercuts albums including You Can Have What You Want, Teen Dream, Fading Parade and Life Among the Savages.
Hill has released two albums and two 7" singles under the Roman Ruins moniker on the Oakland-based Gold Robot Records label. After the birth of their first child, Hill began touring less in order to focus more time and effort on his family and the Roman Ruins project, which eventually led to the release of a full-length debut, Homebuilding, in 2012.
