We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dylan Flaherty. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dylan below.

Alright, Dylan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Dylan: I have always had a very creative side, since I was a child. I used to draw, play piano and I started acting from age 10-18. But my true love was always music, even before I ever thought to pursue it, I loved it. I was always into songs, how they are written, what they mean. I started to pick up the guitar when I was 16. I was instantly hooked and knew I wanted to be singer/songwriter/guitar player.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

The band Reservoir Hill was founded by friends Dylan Flaherty and Brad Kramer in 2018. We had the idea that we wanted to create original music and be an independent band. We looked for musicians in the area who shared that vision. Charles Kicska was a local drummer that Dylan knew who loved the idea and joined right away. In our area called “The Lehigh Valley”, there aren’t a lot of original acts that play out. It’s mostly cover bands. So we thought there was a void that could be filled. At first, were more of a rock band, but we quickly realized that our instincts, influences and natural tendencies all came from country music. So we decided that was going to be our path. We wanted to follow in the footsteps of artists like The Zac Brown Band, Chris Stapleton, Luke Combs and others. We felt most comfortable playing country and the crowds really took to it.

We started recording music with producer Brian J Anthony, who really shaped our sound. Within a couple of years we had an EP and Album out and began to make a name for ourselves as one of the better country acts in the area. The most exciting part being that audiences really cheered after hearing our original music. We had a reputation for being high energy and fun, which really helped us overcome our deficiencies early on.

In 2021 we made our Musikfest Debut, which is one of the biggest music festivals in the country. In front of roughly a thousand people we killed it! After that first showing everything skyrocketed. We started getting bigger gigs, local TV spots and some more festivals. It was at that point that we made a lineup change to pursue those opportunities further. We added bassist Brendan Kiefer, Daniel Stevens on Violin and Brian J Anthony came on to play keys and banjo. We started implementing more harmonies, new covers and originals. 2022-2023 was a wild run for us. We finished our album “Leave It All Behind’ and capped off the year with a packed out show at Levitt Pavilion in Bethlehem PA. That stage mainly has regional and national acts. Over a thousand people came to see us play 90 minutes of mostly original music. We ended we a standing ovation. That was our proudest moment to date.

In 2024, long time bassist Brendan Kiefer stepped down to spend time with his family and Brian J Anthony became the full time bassist.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Many people don’t see the hours that are spent perfecting our craft. We would practice twice a week sometimes as a band while working full time and having families. Individually, we practice every day and some of us get lessons. We spend a lot of time shaping our original songs. So when we go out and play and see the crowd cheer louder for the originals than they do the covers it’s such a gratifying experience. They don’t owe us anything so it means we must have earned it.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

After our first Musikfest show we realized we didn’t want to be a band that plays occasionally for fun. We wanted to be professional. We wanted to grow as an independent band. It forced us to make some tough moves including parting ways with former members who didn’t want to or have the time to do that. It wasn’t easy but sometimes you take a step back to reassess and that can help you to take a big leap forward which is what we did.

Contact Info:

• Website: Reservoirhill.band
• Instagram: @Reservoir_Hill
• Facebook: Facebook.com/Reservoirhillband
• Twitter: @Reservoir_Hill

Image Credits
The first photo is from Alexphotoz.com The credit for the other photos are fan submitted