Dylan Hicks

Hicks was born in Austin, Texas in 1970. He described his parents in an interview as "definitely members of the counterculture." His parents divorced, and his mother remarried. Hicks grew up in Austin, Minot, North Dakota, Idaho, and Illinois, before his family settled in Minneapolis in 1983. As a teenager, Hicks has said he was "almost single-mindedly interested in music", and wanted to become a pop-music critic.{{cite web |url=https://www.minnesotamonthly.com/archive/twitterview-with-dylan-hicks-dylandhicks/ |title=Twitterview with Dylan Hicks, @dylandhicks |last= Carlson |first= Joel E. |date= April 25, 2012 |website=Minnesota Monthly |publisher= |access-date= 2023-05-23}}

Hicks' first three albums were released on the No Alternative label.{{cite web | url=http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/music/150687195.html | title=Stranger than fiction: The return of Dylan Hicks | work=Minneapolis Star-Tribune | date=10 May 2012 | accessdate=18 December 2014 | author=Riemenschneider, Chris}} After releasing a self-produced cassette and two 45s, his first album, Won, was released in 1996 and recorded with backing band The Golf Ball-Sized Boogie.{{cite web |title=Music « Dylan Hicks (writer and musician) |url=https://www.dylanhicks.com/is-that-a-real-song-or-did-you-just-make-it-up/ |website=www.dylanhicks.com}} He released his second CD, Poughkeepsie, in 1998, which was described by Kristy Martin of the magazine CMJ New Music Report as "a sparkling demo of smart wordplay and pop sensibility."{{cite journal | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SuX-3uDb8PMC&pg=PA11 | title=Alive With Pleasure | author=Martin, Kristy | journal=CMJ New Music Report |date=December 2001 | volume=70 | issue=744 | pages=11}}

Hicks followed this up with the album Alive With Pleasure in 2001. The album featured drum and instrument programming on the songs "City Lights" and "My Best Friend" by Jason Heinrichs, also known as Anomaly.{{cite news |last=Elabaddy |first=Ali |date=2022-02-11 |title=RIP, foundational Twin Cities hip-hop producer Anomaly |url=https://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2022/02/11/rip-foundational-twin-cities-hiphop-producer-anomaly?fbclid=IwAR2kwhWIZhTDpVqsz8CodCDdXvwFx1TgbzBESA3BeL0BJ38bzRr_9DtoFJg |work=KCMP |location=St. Paul, Minnesota |access-date= 2023-05-26 }} Star Tribune music critic Chris Riemenschneider named the album No. 8 in his top 10 Minnesota records of 2001, calling it "full of self-deprecating, oddball characters and one telling, ironic tale after another".{{cite news |last= Riemenschneider |first=Chris |date= December 21, 2001 |title=An Iffy Year: Sales are no indicator of the top 10 local CDs of 2001 |url= |work=Star Tribune |location= Minneapolis–Saint Paul |page=5E }}

Hicks became frustrated when his musical career failed to achieve financial stability, and quit playing music entirely for several years.{{cite news |last=Weingarten |first=Marc |date=2016-06-17 |title=Interview - Dylan Hicks: 'Are millennials concerned about selling out any more?' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/17/dylan-hicks-interview-amateurs-novel |work=The Guardian |location= |access-date=2024-06-04 }}

File:Dylan Hicks and The Toughies, 2012.jpg in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 2012]]Hicks returned to music in 2012, when, as a companion to his novel Boarded Windows, he released the album Sings Bolling Greene, featuring songs he wrote in the persona of Bolling Greene, one of the characters in the book.{{cite web | url=http://www.minnpost.com/books/2012/06/7-burning-questions-musiciannovelist-dylan-hicks | title=7 burning questions for musician/novelist Dylan Hicks | work=MinnPost | date=7 June 2012 | accessdate=18 December 2014 | author=Goetzman, Amy}} In the book, Greene is a country musician. About half of the songs on Sings Bolling Greene are written from Greene's perspective, while the remaining ones are about Greene.{{cite web | url=http://www.avclub.com/article/dylan-hicks-73700 | title=Dylan Hicks | work=The A.V. Club | date=21 May 2012 | accessdate=2023-05-23 | author=Bahn, Christopher}} He told one interviewer that “when I no longer had to worry about making a living at it, I went back to making music for the fun of it.”

In 2017, Hicks released the solo album Ad Out. It was produced by Semisonic bassic John Munson. A reviewer for Paste called its lead single, "A-24", "dark yet colorful, wicked but playful."{{cite web|title=Premiere: Dylan Hicks new video A-24|url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/10/premiere-dylan-hicks-new-video-a-24.html|language=en|website=Paste|date=2017-10-09|author=kayteamac|accessdate=2023-05-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171030003004/https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/10/premiere-dylan-hicks-new-video-a-24.html |archive-date = 2017-10-30}}

In 2020, he teamed up again with Munson in the duo Munson-Hicks Party Supplies. Originally intending to write a musical together, their collaboration turned instead for inspiration to the 1970 album Nilsson Sings Newman by Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson. The duo's debut, the self-titled Munson-Hicks Party Supplies, was released in 2020. Star Tribune music critic Chris Riemenschneider called it "one of the most charming albums of the year".{{cite news |last=Riemenschneider |first=Chris |date=2020-10-02 |title=Minnesota music vets Dylan Hicks and John Munson have one of the most charming albums of the year |url=https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-music-vets-dylan-hicks-and-john-munson-have-one-of-the-most-charming-albums-of-the-year/572600682/ |work=Star Tribune |location=Minneapolis, Minnesota |access-date= 2023-05-23 }}

Hicks has also released three albums with backing band Small Screens: 2021's Accidental Birds, 2022's Airport Sparrows, and 2024's Modern Flora. Modern Flora was positively received by critics. Neil Duggan of the website All About Jazz gave the album four of five stars, calling it "a fascinating and engaging listen" and writing that "the album is all the better for being unconventional. Hicks' lyrics have a pleasing mix of the emotionally direct and obscure observational that pique your curiosity."{{cite web |url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/modern-flora-dylan-hicks-and-small-screens-soft-launch-records |title=Dylan Hicks & Small Screens: Modern Flora |last=Duggan |first=Neil |date=August 30, 2024 |website=All About Jazz |publisher= |access-date=2025-01-17}} Keith Harris of the website Racket placed Modern Flora at No. 4 on his list of the best 2024 albums by Minnesota artists, saying that although "the arrangements can be quite elaborate and the solos ingenious, the melodies are often straightforward, as largely improvisational musicians adapt their chops to a pop context without significantly simplifying their styles."{{cite news |last=Harris |first=Keith |date=December 18, 2024 |title=The 20 Best Local Albums of 2024 |url=https://racketmn.com/the-20-best-local-albums-of-2024 |work=Racket |location=Minneapolis, Minnesota |access-date=2025-01-17}} Reviewing the song "The Unicellular Spore", Mpls.St.Paul Magazine wrote that "Hicks is a genius at crafting astute lyrics that bend the mind and expand the reality in front of you."{{cite news |last= |first= |date=October 2, 2024 |title=Minnesota Playlist: October |url=https://mspmag.com/arts-and-culture/mn-playlist-october-2024/ |work=Mpls.St.Paul Magazine |location=Minneapolis, Minnesota |access-date=2025-01-17}}

In 2012, Hicks' debut novel, Boarded Windows, was published by Coffee House Press. It is narrated by a nameless narrator,{{cite web | url=http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/books/149114925.html | title=Review: Dylan Hicks' novel "Boarded Windows" | work=Minneapolis Star-Tribune | date=8 May 2012 | accessdate=18 December 2014 | author=Akins, Ellen}} and is set in Minneapolis in the 1990s. Courtney Algo and Lit Lyfe wrote in the Twin Cities Daily Planet that "fans of Hicks and rapier-sharp prose will find a great delight in Boarded Windows."{{cite web | url=http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/arts/books/column/courtney-algeo/dylan-hicks-boarded-windows | title=Dylan Hicks blends fact and fiction in impressive debut novel "Boarded Windows" | work=Twin Cities Daily Planet | date=11 January 2012 | accessdate=19 December 2014 | author=Algeo, Courtney}} A review in MinnPost described the book as "a vivid time capsule of those scruffier days of [1990s] Twin Cities music fandom."

A second novel, Amateurs, was published in May 2016 by Coffee House Press. The story revolves around a group of friends at the wedding of Archer Bondarenko, heir to a sex-toy company who is also a successful novelist (but whose friend Sara actually ghostwrites the books). New York Times reviewer Courtney Maum said that Hick was "winningly deft with language" but felt that the novel's themes were unclear.{{cite news |last=Maum |first=Courtney |date=May 27, 2016 |title=Review: 'Amateurs,' by Dylan Hicks |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/books/review/amateurs-by-dylan-hicks.html |work=New York Times |location= |access-date=2024-06-04 }} Los Angeles Times reviewer Michael Schaub called the book "meandering ... in the best possible way" and said that Hicks' attention to the evolution of his characters over time was "near-perfect."{{cite news |last=Schaub |first=Michael |date=May 6, 2016 |title=Review: Growing up is hard to do in ‘Amateurs’ |url=https://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-amateurs-20160508-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |location=Los Angeles |access-date=2024-06-04 }} Kenyon Review's Michael Magras called the book "witty and perceptive" and "a droll commentary about ambition among the would-be literati."{{cite news |last= Magras |first=Michael |date=November 2016 |title=On Amateurs by Dylan Hicks |url=https://kenyonreview.org/kr-online-issue/kr-reviews/selections/amateurs-by-dylan-hicks-738439/ |work=Kenyon Review |location= |access-date=2024-06-04 }}

Hicks is working on a third novel.

He has also written for City Pages.{{cite web | url=http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/2012/01/dylan_hicks_west_texas_winds_novel.php | title=Dylan Hicks unveils "West Texas Winds," talks upcoming novel | work=City Pages | date=25 January 2012 | accessdate=18 December 2014 | author=Sigelman, Danny | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141219022531/http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/2012/01/dylan_hicks_west_texas_winds_novel.php | archivedate=19 December 2014 }}

• Boarded Windows (Coffee House Press, 2012)
• Amateurs (Coffee House Press, 2016)

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• The New Dylan (self-released cassette, 1990)
• "Chump Remover" (7" EP, Prospective Records, 1992)
• "Time Capsule" (7" single, Prospective Records, 1994)
• Vision Web (as "Dylan Davis", self-released cassette, 1997)
• Won (with The Golf Ball-Sized Boogie, No Alternative Records, 1996)
• Poughkeepsie (No Alternative Records, 1998)
• Alive With Pleasure (No Alternative Records, 2001)
• Sings Bolling Greene (Two Deuces, 2012)
• Ad Out (Soft Launch Records, 2017)
• Munson-Hicks Party Supplies (with John Munson, Soft Launch Records, 2020)
• Accidental Birds (with Small Screens, Soft Launch Records, 2021)
• Airport Sparrows (with Small Screens, Soft Launch Records, 2022)
• Modern Flora (with Small Screens, Soft Launch Records, 2024)
• "The Weather on Your Side" (12" single, Soft Launch Records, 2023){{cite web |url=https://www.dylanhicks.com/is-that-a-real-song-or-did-you-just-make-it-up/ |title=Music |last=Hicks |first=Dylan |date= |website=Five Hits a Day: the Official Dylan Hicks Website |publisher= |access-date=2024-06-04}}

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• {{Bandcamp | dylan-hicks | Dylan Hicks }}

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Category:Writers from Minneapolis

Category:Musicians from Minneapolis

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:American male novelists

Category:American male singer-songwriters

Category:20th-century American singer-songwriters

Category:21st-century American singer-songwriters

Category:Singer-songwriters from Minnesota

Category:21st-century American male writers

Category:Novelists from Minnesota

Category:20th-century American male singers

Category:21st-century American male singers

Category:1970 births