BIOS
Hay! core JB Reilly (guitar, vocals) and Matthew Probst (7-string electric cello)
collaborates with several other artists regularly, some of whom appear below . . .
JB Reilly
Grade school violin, the oft cranked vinyl Elvis and Don McLean melodies, Beach Boys and Simon & Garfunkel harmonies…. you do the math. “Sing out!” vocals were inevitable, JBs home soundtrack mantra growing up was loud and clear.
High school rock bands sparked the first poems and original lyrics kicked around and jotted down. After the upstate NY, soon-to-be Phish drummer turned JB on to the kindness of higher volume, the hook was set.
80s in-concert live Rush, Grateful Dead, Stevie Ray Vaughn, The Who, The Band, Kinks, Journey, Little Feat, Allman Bros. proved irresistible. Moving to Santa Cruz in 1987 for college, work, and to follow the Dead, was the happyfeet first, next leap in the gotta jam direction.
JB’s first guitar purchase at 19, a 6-string tank score in the Dead campgrounds outside of Red Rocks, instrumentalized and catalyzed what would be a decades long and winding song stream. Early 90’s groovy acid fusion in LA, with a jazz cat guitarist from the Philippines named Garcia, and a writer bass player named Young was a too fun teaser, developing only in good time.
Fast forward, 4 grown kids, and a rehab engineering healthcare career later, the expansive jam / life collection of impressions, hippie dance championships, many hundreds of gigs, polished originals, and growing combo collaborations coalesced. JB throws sets at you combining complex and easy, adding and subtracting tension filled release, low slow to hard fast. The heavy genre bending, deeply familiar tone, tempo strides, lyrics and vibes surprise, with clear vocal melodies and rich, tasty rhythms.
Matthew Probst
“MC Mello Cello” — or simply “Cello” — sums up the persona and definition of one of Minneapolis’ most prolific electric string players. He corrupted a perfectly serviceable education at University of Wisconsin—Eau Claire music school by honing his improvisational skills at hundreds of dark, smoky bar jams. Starting out as a Minneapolis blues scene regular, he has since played and recorded with bands ranging from jam-band (Enchanted Ape) to avant-garde (Yam Cannon) to Flamenco Americana (Gypsy Lumberjacks) to blues driven rock (Bob Pat Band), and has been a guest artist with many others on festival and club stages in the Midwest.
Shortly after arriving in Minneapolis in 1999, Matthew began his pioneering work with the electric cello. First using a Steinberger 6-string instrument, he eventually found it limiting and helped co-design the 7-string cello, of which two were built by Ergo Instruments. This involved custom string manufacturing, self-designed pickups, carefully chosen modular electronics, to create a custom instrument that is easily serviced in the field when problems arise. Matthew extensively uses analog and digital amp modeling to create sounds ranging from acoustic to all-out electric guitar onslaught. Matthew can fill the roles of bass, rhythm chords, and lead in a band, sometimes all within the same song.
Marc Ouellette
Marco started playing drums at the age of 10, and drums have been his passion ever since. Having studied drums at McNally, Marco’s musical projects have included Hyentyte, Muscle Fork, and others. Marco’s extra fun poz ‘tude and jamparty enthusiasm for blazing highly original, precise & nuanced rhythmic approaches that embrace distinctly varied dynamics across multiple, new hybrid genres adds unmistakable dancerock firepower, elevating Hay! combos way higher.
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