(gentle bluesy music) - It's a balancing act.

♪ If I ♪ ♪ Should take a notion ♪ My name is Stephen Hull.

I was born and raised in Racine, Wisconsin.

Thanks to my parents and their love for Motown and just good house music, I took an early interest in making a little bit of noise myself.

(mellow bluesy music) ♪ If I ♪ ♪ Should take a notion ♪ ♪ I wanna get up ♪ ♪ Down, go down to the ocean ♪ If I had to label my sound, I'd say it's semi-progressive blues.

I like being able to go back and do songs from the early 1900s as well as playing my own original music that is composed in the modern day.

What really stands out to me when it comes to my own music is that it involves so much of tradition as well as modern influence, so it's never gonna be something that is strictly rooted in one era.

(gentle jazzy music) I started playing piano when I was about six years old, and I would always walk up to pianos and I would, you know, play 'em real softly.

You know how the kids would just walk up and hit all the keys?

I just wanted to make pretty sounds, and so my mom decided, yeah, we should get him some piano lessons.

♪ When I'm sitting in my garage ♪ ♪ And I wonder what I'm doing ♪ Well, a couple years went by, and I was like, this isn't really what I'm feeling, so I took some years off and I decided, maybe I wanna play guitar.

And so I asked my mom to buy me a guitar, and she looked at me and she goes, "There's a piano in this house that you don't play."

And she was right, so I decided that I would babysit and cut grass all summer to make sure that I could buy one.

(gentle bluesy music) ♪ I really thought that life ♪ ♪ Was sweet as a piece of cake ♪ I had ordered all the right things, and everything came but the guitar (chuckles), so I was almost crying to my mom.

I was like, "Mom, why would you cancel the guitar?

That was the one thing I wanted."

And she looked at me, and she was like, "Calm down.

I didn't cancel anything."

And so the next day, she went up and got one of the guitars for me, and she brought it back, and I was all sulking and so upset, and she goes, "I got something in the trunk.

Go get it outta the trunk."

I open up the trunk, and I see the guitar sitting there, and I'm like, "Mom, thank you so much!

Thank you, thank you, thank you."

And that was the start of a lot of headaches for a lot of people (chuckles).

(gentle bluesy music) ♪ And you can't get mad ♪ ♪ When a snake starts being a snake ♪ Finding one sound is often a journey that we all take.

I personally started out trying to be the best Albert King I could, but I realized, he's already lived his life, and he's gone now, and I should probably start trying to sound like me.

And so you throw together a bunch of different influences and, you know, add in things you see and ideas you might have, and eventually, you'll sound just like you.

♪ Lord, if I do ♪ ♪ If I do ♪ ♪ Now, me and my baby ♪ I would simply like you to feel a little bit of joy, you know?

As much as you can, but, you know, at least a little bit, 'cause I have a lot of fun bringing the music to you.

I always smile, like, when I'm frowning, I'm frowning, when I'm smiling, I'm smiling, and that's a hundred percent genuine, so I hope it comes across that way.

Come on, Sam.

- Yeah.

♪ Said it ain't nobody's business ♪ ♪ It ain't nobody's business ♪ - I just find that I would play to a brick wall if I had to.

I just really enjoy making music, and if I had ever known it was gonna go this far, I probably would've told myself to practice more (chuckles), but I will always love just making music and being able to share it with people.

♪ He's longer than a snake ♪ ♪ In a wagon track ♪ (gentle bluesy music) - Cool.

Yeah.

- Not bad.

(Stephen chuckles)