From one extreme to the other

A few months ago, Will Hawley stumbled upon a notebook from his freshman year at Vestavia Hills High School. 

He flipped through the pages and read all about his 13-year-old self’s dreams for his future — he wanted to play baseball at the University of Alabama and then go on to be a baseball coach. Looking back now, he laughs at how inaccurate that prediction was.

Hawley, who currently lives in Manhattan, works as a music director and writer, and also plays gigs with the band he founded, JEFF.

He graduated from VHHS in 2012 and on a whim decided to apply to the Juilliard School for performing arts in New York. Despite the acceptance rate being just around 8%, he got in and started school in August.

It wasn’t all he’d hoped it would be, though, as Hawley started to feel overwhelmed by the change in pace. He returned home to Vestavia Hills to take a year off and catch his breath. Once he realized this was not the best plan for his life, he went back to New York and “never looked back.”

After graduating in 2017, he started furthering the career as a music director that he had been working on while attending school. This led him to various pop and hip hop artists, including his now wife Helena Hallberg. The couple’s life currently revolves around their music. 

But this wasn’t always the life he pictured for himself. Hawley grew up in a family full of sports-lovers, with a dad who played baseball for Alabama and two brothers who wrestled and played baseball for VHHS.

“I definitely bought into the boy culture down there where you play baseball from six until 16,” he said. “So it took me a long time to address that music could be a career option.”

The singular moment in his life where he realized he wanted to pursue music, he said, was when a baseball coach in high school told him he had to choose between band and baseball. “He made that choice for me.”

The drastic shift from Vestavia to New York ended up being the clear choice for Hawley, who now hops around the city playing with his band. 

JEFF began in spring 2018, when Hawley put together a band for a former client. He already knew all the members of the band from the jazz school community. The client didn’t work out, so Hawley stepped in and realized they all got along.

Fast forward a few months to the fall, and Hawley decided one day to put together a random gig. He put out a call to the band, saying if anyone wanted to come play, they could. That was the first night it really “became a thing,” he said.

“For the gig we had to choose a name, and one of my friends was like ‘Hey it would be funny if you just called it Jeff,’” Hawley said. 

As they were leaving, he said, people were chanting “Jeff,” and that’s how the name came about. “A bunch of drunk people started chanting it and we liked it.”

Right now, the band sits right at seven members but has plans to expand with a few more vocalists. 

Hawley, who plays trombone, piano and is on vocals, said they have been compared to Snarky Puppy because of their horn-rock sounds. “We play good music, but we’re kind of trying to be ridiculous about it,” he said. “Our first goal is to have fun.”

On June 15, JEFF will play their first Birmingham gig at Workplay, bringing things full circle for Hawley. Hallberg will also be touring with the band.

He said Birmingham has become “paradise” for him and his wife, and he’s excited to play for people who have been involved in his life from beginning.

To get tickets to JEFF’s Birmingham show, visit workplay.com.