Riot Act Media

Riot Act Media is a boutique publicity firm that expertly launches creative, communication-based campaigns for clients in the independent music, film and arts worlds—as well as for non-profit and corporate entities—through its office in Portland, OR.

Joan Hiller, Owner / Publicity Director

Joan got her start playing house shows and publishing a crappy fanzine called Out of Order in Houston, TX, where she booked and promoted shows for years while street-teaming for Grand Royal and Holiday Matinee. She then moved to Chicago to work at Hopper PR, play in other bands, and write for several publications, including Venus, RollingStone.com, Newcity, UR Chicago, Alternative Press, Punk Planet, Detroit Metro Times, The Stranger, Portland Mercury and others. After relocating to Seattle, she booked the Crocodile Cafe' for a short time before being hired by Sub Pop, where she worked for four years before joining and eventually acquiring Riot Act. She relocated to Portland in 2008, where she currently lives with her husband, cat and turtle.

To date, she has helmed campaigns and worked on projects for The 1900s, Aaron Ruell, A Frames, The Album Leaf, Alina Simone, Alkaline Trio, All Girl Summer Fun Band, All Night Radio, All Smiles, At the Spine, Atom and his Package, Band of Horses, The BellRays, Bird Names, Blechtum from Blechdom, The Brunettes, Burning Airlines, The Catheters, Cave In, Cex, Chad VanGaalen, Challenger, The Coast, Comedians of Comedy, Comets on Fire, Constantines, The Cops, CSS, Cub Country, David Cross, Dead Moon, Denali, Dismemberment Plan, DJ/Rupture, Dntel, Dwayne Sodahberk, The Elected, The Eternals, Erase Errata, Ester Drang, Eugene Mirman, Euphone, Flight of the Conchords, Fences, Frausdots, Fruit Bats, Girls Against Boys, Girls Rock! Chicago, Glorytellers, Gold Chains, The Gossip, Handsome Furs, Helio Sequence, Holopaw, The Interiors, Iron and Wine, Isis, J Church, Jennifer Gentle, Jets To Brazil, Joan Of Arc, Juno, Kaito, Kelley Stoltz, Kid 606, Kinski, Knifeandchop, Leonard Mynx, The Life and Times, Little Pieces, Loch Lomond, Loney, Dear, Low, Maritime, Miighty Flashlight, Milemarker, Misc., Moonrats, Mudhoney, Nedelle, Neurosis, Neva Dinova, Nick Jaina, Noise for the Needy, Numbers, Owls, Origami Ghosts, Oxford Collapse, Patton Oswalt, Pedro The Lion, Pissed Jeans, The Promise Ring, The Rhombus, Rogue Wave, Say Hi, Screaming Females, Sean Na Na, Shiner, Shoplifting, Sleater-Kinney, "Some Days Are Better Than Others" Movie, Songs: Ohia, Stars as Eyes, Statistics, stepsonday, Steve Von Till, Strike Anywhere, The Shins, Tera Melos, The Thermals, These Arms Are Snakes, Tiny Vipers, The Traditionist, Tribes of Neurot, Turing Machine, The Valley Arena, Valley of the Vapors Independent Music Festival, Weinland, Women, Wolf Eyes,Wolf Parade, Iannis Xenakis, Zeni Geva, Zero Zero, and others.

Nathan Walker, Publicist

Born in 1976 to one of the Midwest's finest folk musicians, Nathan spent most of his teens failing to piss his father off by playing Body Count, Public Enemy and Run DMC as loudly as possible. Realizing that it was okay to love all different types of music even if you were a 50 year-old folk singer, Nathan began his long career in the music industry starting as a freelance photographer before eventually working as music editor for Seattle's Tablet Magazine (R.I.P., Tablet). A stint as music editor at Resonance Magazine (also R.I.P.!) was followed by working for the esteemed 2:30 Publicity firm for a couple of years before moving to the woods with his lovely wife to open a small, organic cafe.

Even living in a small town of 16,000 couldn't keep Nathan from taking part in the music industry. He booked a weekly Friday night show at his cafe, often hosting touring bands like Ladyhawk, Tiny Vipers and the Immaculate Machine, thus helping to corrupt the musical minds of dozens of teenagers. Two months after opening his cafe in Anacortes, he, along with Beat Happening's Bret Lunsford, resurrected the 20 year-old Knw-Yr-Own record label, releasing six albums in the span of two years. In addition, he helped to book, promote and run sound for the world famous What The Heck festival.

After eating a perfect pizza in Portland, Nathan, his wife and their two cats relocated and joined the amazing team at Riot Act Media. To date, Nathan has well over a decade of experience in the music industry and has helped with PR campaigns for Mt. Eerie, Visqueen, Electric 6, Grizzly Bear, Women & Children, Karl Blau, D+, El Capitan, the Lights, the Drones, Whalebones, the Gift Machine, Stuart & Caan, Of Montreal, the Hold Steady and many more.

Dave Depper, Business Manager

Dave became a central figure in the Portland music community almost upon arrival. Through his extensive experience playing in and, often times, guiding the business dealings of his various bands (Dave was a key member of Spin Art artists The Village Green, and currently plays with Loch Lomond, Norfolk & Western and Jolie Holland; he's also appeared on countless records including White Hinterland's "Phylactory Factory", The Minus 5's "Sad Hasselhoff", Laura Gibson's "Beasts of Seasons" and others), he has booked and promoted shows, produced albums, guided marketing campaigns from the artist's position and knows, inside and out, the complexities of bringing a project to fruition. He has also performed consulting work for legendary Portland indie label Hush Records. A former music writer, Dave is also intimately familiar with what a publicist/journalist relationship should be. He currently lives in Portland with his wife, cat and turtle.

David Lewis, Founder Emeritus

Mr. Lewis founded Riot Act in the fall of 2004. He left the company in 2008 to pursue a career in higher education at Columbia College Chicago. He is now their Creative Industry Liaison and teaches part-time in the music business program. Here he is looking pensive while taking a group of students on a trip to the Onion AV Club offices.