Today we’d like to introduce you to Lonely Heights
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Hi! Dan Here with Lonely Heights. Forgive me as i’m not a professional writer haha
Our band is based out of Salt Lake City and has 5 members, Kaiden Patch (Lead Vocal) Dan Hickman (Back Up Vocal + Bass), Duke Smith (Drums), Clifton Davis (Guitar), and Preston Fairchild (Guitar). All of us have pretty different backgrounds that has made for a lot of different perspectives and tastes combined into one musical group. Kaiden, originally from Tooele, UT, attended “the School of Rock” for many years and has been our fearless frontman because he was born with “it” whatever “it” is! After winning some high-school battle of the bands competitions, performing small local venues, and years of writing music, Kaiden teamed up with guitarist Clifton Davis, a Provo boy, who had been locally known for his crazy guitar playing and even crazier stage presence. The two teamed up with other local artists to win an even bigger Battle of the bands for the state of Utah. Later, a friend and talented Drummer from south Jordan, Duke Smith, found himself jamming with the boys on drums, in an attempt to form something new and more serious than their previous endeavors in highschool, as the other previous members from Kaiden & Clifton’s band (Jimmy and Brett) moved on with other hobbies and real jobs. While Duke was exploring around, he met Dan Hickman, A North Carolina boy who had just moved to Utah to ski/work at Deer Valley full-time. Dan, myself haha, and duke, started jamming with some other friends (Ian and Mike) from Dan seeking new bandmates via Facebook. Eventually, Duke invited Dan to come jam one day with Kaiden and Duke, and on that first night, the band felt an incredible spark, and Lonely Heights was born (we just didn’t have a name yet).
The first goal was to create an online presence and brand. We found a super talented local photographer, Tristan Sadler, to shoot our first band photoshoot. The photos were absolutely amazing and helped propel us and make us look pro right at the start. After some failed name ideas like “Tents on Fire” and “The Helpless”, the band eventually came to the name “Lonely Heights” after Kaiden had read a sign saying “Lonely Hearts Club” in downtown salt lake on our first photoshoot, Dan heard him wrong, and asked “Lonely Heights” whats that? Thus sparking the idea for the name, and we stuck with it, as it has the feeling of to get to the top in the music industry, you have to be serious and dedicate a lot of time in which can make you loose relationships that don’t necessarily matter as much as the overall goal of self sustaining music, and unforgettable performances and adventures. We created all the social medias, (insta, facebook, tiktok, etc) and made sure every post looked professional and clean. (Dan had a knack for this, and today works full time as a photo/video social media guy for KLOS Guitars in provo UT).
After creating an online presence, we recorded and released our first song “Deeper” at rigby road studios here is salt lake with Jordan Clark, mixed mastered. It was a hit! With thousands of streams in the first week or so, we knew we were onto something, and continued to work with him releasing more and more songs, and also working with Flip Twogood from Aggressive Audio (he mastered our new EP, welcome to carnival)
After getting som emusic released, we dove into the world of performing. Our first show was at the boardwalk in orem UT, right as COVID 19 was hitting. Worst case scenario haha but we fought through and took that time to write all of our music and get really really tight at performing. After covid restrictions healed up, we came back to the scene and were on absolute fire. Super tight, lots of original songs, cool planned ideas and quickly grew an audience. The band soon realized that they could be more alive on stage with a new guitarist, so that kaiden could put down his guitar and run freely around the stage. So we went, and invited our friend (on his birthday), (the most talented guitarist we’ve ever seen) Preston Fairchild – to join Lonely Heights. We had played or 4th show ever with him opening for us in his old band COMP with Wesley Knight, but as that band fell apart, Preston found himself looking for new band, and fit in perfectly as a the cherry on top. His tone, skill and presence has added unmeasurable talented and lust to the band. Today, he is just as much of the band as everyone else, if not the star, and plays lead back and forth with Clifton rather than having a defined rhythm player and lead player.
Today, the band has played countless shows, including winning Battle of the Bands at our homecourt, The Boardwalk. We met tons of awesome bands, made connections and slowly made our dreams come true with hard work and dedication.
We are excited to play our biggest show yet, AUG 30th at landslide festival main stage (headliner: Sean Kingston)! The coolest part is we will have a whole campsite dedicated to our band where us and all our fans will stay overnight, and have acoustic shows late into the night- our favorite!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Some struggles have been COVID 19 right when we started, as well as finacially, we have put every penny weve made back into the band and it has helped a lot, but we are just all pretty broke all the time which makes things like buying new gear, instruments, promotion and marketing – or planning a tour, more challenging. But we have so much fun that we make it work, and keep it a float, regardless.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We all work different jobs. I, Dan, bass player, do photo video and social media full time for local Provo guitar company KLŌS Guitars.
(pronounced “close” as in near by)
My daily schedule is generally taking images of our carbon fiber guitars out in the wilderness, illustrating the guitar’s durability, our main selling point. I also went to the NAMM show in LA with the team, and it was awesome to attend. I spend the rest of my time doing graphic arts, photography and other side projects!
As for Preston, guitarist, he is a windows salesman, probably makes the most money out of all of us. He essentially goes around trying to upgrade windows to a fancier window that’s properly sealed and can withstand utahs crazy climate changes! Keeping it warm in the winter and cooler in the summer!
As for Duke, Drummer, he works full time at the bank. He spends most of his time chatting with customers, organizing money and papers.
Kaiden, the singer works at NOW CFO, here in Utah, he basically just uses his clever words/communication skills to sell things via phone calls, helping business upgrade and such.
Clifton, guitarist, he currently this summer is working as an ice man, delivering ice all over salt lake to places that need it. He’s a great driver, and enjoys rocking out all day while driving around.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Our sweethearts “The Lonlies” deserve all the credit! We each have a significant other that has helped us a long the way- For Kaiden, it’s Jesse Devenish. For Dan it’s Christine Fronzaglia, for Clifton it’s Mia Davis, for Duke it’s Jaysha Townsend, and for Preston it’s Geovanna Cruz
We also had a lot of help from our producer/sound engineers Jordan Clark with Rigby Road and Flip from Aggressive audio
Contact Info:
- Website: https://solo.to/lonelyheights
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lonelyheights/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/lonelyheights
- Twitter: https://x.com/lonely_heights
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@lonelyheights
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1lwCfb27bXYN5P9z4jjgzt
Image Credits
Tristan Sadler
Harper Stargirl
Connor Reid
Edward Harimoto
