Erik Hall grew up in the center of Chicago, among sky scrapers, traffic lights, pedestrians, parks, factories, and Lake Michigan. He studied classical piano from the age of 8, played guitar in rock bands and percussion in the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, and studied jazz and sound recording at the University of Michigan School of Music. He is a founding member of the band NOMO and has recorded and toured with Michigan bands His Name Is Alive and Saturday Looks Good to Me. In 2009 Erik completed work on his first batch of original songs and named the project In Tall Buildings. The self-recorded debut album was released in April of 2010 on Chicago's Whistler Records, and the Chicago Tribune immediately praised the music as being “dense, textured, [and] hypnotic.” American Songwriter magazine referred to In Tall Buildings as “the aural representation of a pleasantly scattered mind,” and the album began to spread over the college radio airwaves, charting on the CMJ Radio 200 at #158.

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This is rock music, informed by Erik's array of influences. Imagine a Thom Yorke remix of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, or if Gillian Welch were to sit in with Steve Reich & Musicians. Bubbling synth sequences, driving distorted drum beats, interwoven finger-picked guitars, and pulsing woodwind chorales all find their way into the mix. Erik's lyrics unveil a personal world through stark imagery: a monster's lair, a bed of soft linens, a spilled glass of wine, a shared whiskey bottle, a plummeting star, and a walking man. Erik spent 2010 bringing In Tall Buildings to stages throughout Chicago and beyond. The live band calls upon NOMO drummer and life-long collaborator, Quin Kirchner, and Chicago bassist/composer Matt Ulery (Eastern Blok, Matt Ulery's Loom). The trio delivers an apt distillation of Erik's songs' most defining elements, and they have shared stages with NOMO, The Hood Internet, Voxtrot, Born Ruffians, and Vieux Farka Toure.