EITM interviews Eric Hutchinson

EITM interviews Eric Hutchinson

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Our buddy, Eric Hutchinson is comingto town October fourth at the Birch Mirror.
Please welcome our friend, mister EricHutchinson. Eric. Hello, how's
everybody doing. Everybody's doing pretty good? Man? How are you doing?
I'm good. I'm coming in hotthis morning. The oh tell me?
Why are we coming in hot thismorning? I'm just kind of sweaty.

(00:23):
Oh dude, you know what,I can't believe. I can't believe that.
So you're coming to the Birch Mirrorand it's all part of your Sounds
like this fifteen it's the fifteenth yearof sounds like this. I can't believe
that record is fifteen years old.Tell me about it, Tell me about

(00:45):
it. Yeah, it's my firstalbum and I'm playing fifteenth anniversary and I've
been celebrating it all year and doingdifferent shows and playing the whole album and
doing all kinds of other fun things. But yeah, I was trying to
think just before I got on thiscall. I mean that means I've been
talking to you for probably fifteen years. Fourteen years. Maybe they don't say
sixteen that way. It doesn't looklike we glommed on after the record took

(01:07):
off. Oh, yeah, you'reright, we've been. We've been on
but man, I can't I can'tbelieve it's been when you think back,
I can't believe it's been fifteen It'sfun. Hey, how is the how
is the like? When you've doneshows? Like you said, you've been
celebrating it kind of for for forthe year, and the record was so

(01:30):
big and the record was so successful. But has it been Has it been
kind of a fun memory lane?Not just for you but for people while
you're while you're torn around playing it. Yeah? I think so. I
got people that they'll come out tothe show and say, you know,
oh, I haven't seen you infifteen years, and then they'll even be
like seeing another fifteen years you couldcome back sooner and half to wait that

(01:53):
long. But uh, yeah,you know, it's been. It's been
cool. It's been. There's beensome like some folks that I haven't seen
in a while that came out,and it's been just kind of a fun,
fun thing to do. I wasn'tsure about how I'd feel doing it
all, but you know, Imean to me, it was a very
important album to most of the world. It doesn't mean anything, right,
but I enjoy. I enjoy gettingto play the songs. And there's a

(02:15):
lot of people that, you knowwhat, the really the coolest thing is
when people bring their kids who arelike seventeen or something, and the kids
like, I grew up, I'vebeen listening to music my whole life.
Oh that's pretty cool, though,I mean in a weird way where it's
like that's very complimentary that you know, like that was such a part of
their entire life, and then yougo like, oh, awesome, thanks,

(02:36):
that's all right, very good.Yeah, no, but it is
cool. It's it's cool to like, you know, I just know about
all the music that I love sharingwith my family and my parents and everything.
So it is cool to be apart of a family, you know,
tradition or something, so that thatpart's cool. And then there's also
people that are just like, man, I, where have you been for
fifteen? On the way Eric?Some quick research out of the statisticians booth.

(03:05):
Your first visit was May two thousandand eight, the same month the
record came out. Wow, that'samazing. So you guys were right there
absolutely absolutely absolutely true or false,And like you said, this was a
very important record for you. Thiswas a big record for you. But
did I did. I read kindof like like you said, kind of

(03:27):
like looking back at that time,that you almost didn't even do this record,
that it was right before this recordyou thought about just bailing on music.
Yeah, yeah, I've been I'vebeen through the ringer a bit already.
I've been doing it for a coupleof years. And I got signed
to a label and I was veryexcited, and then I got unceremoniously dropped,

(03:49):
and I just spent some time beinglike, maybe that was it,
Maybe that was a chance. Igot paid a little bit of money from
the label saying you know, itwas like they had to pay me to
terminate my contract, and I waslike, maybe I just take this and
put a down payment on a houseor something. I was moved back in
with my parents and my mom maybelistening right now, Hi Mom, and
they were always very nice to letme do that. But I just kept

(04:12):
coming back to this feeling of likeI really, I don't think I can
move on to another chapter in mylife unless I've made one album, and
I never got to do it.And so I decided to use the money
I got to self finance and makemake the album I kept hearing in my
head and I finished sounds like this, and I had no idea what to
do with it. And then Igot cut some lucky breaks and it changed

(04:36):
my life. Hey do you doyou ever And maybe you don't, Maybe
the answer is no, But doyou ever go? All right, very
good, all right, well Eric, thanks for calling. No. Do
you ever do you ever try togo back and go like during that during
that time where you were like,maybe I just take the money from Maverick
and I'll just move on and I'lldo whatever, you know, whatever it's

(04:56):
gonna be. I'll go back homeand live with my parents. Do you
ever in your head do you rememberthinking back like what would your what were
you gonna do? Do you knowthat was part of the problem, I
think Elliott. I didn't. Ididn't have anything else that I felt like
I would wanted to do. Imean, I've been wanted to be a
singer and a songwriter since I waslike eight years old. And I don't

(05:18):
know, Like I said, II felt like I hadn't gotten a fair
share shake at it, and andif I just kind of went on with
my life without ever actually putting outan official album that I'd always kind of
just wonder. So I was like, you know, I gotta just try
this, and if it still doesn'twork, then maybe I can go on
to the next thing. But I'vethought about a lot over the years.

(05:42):
I have no idea what else I'mgood at besides this. No, but
that's good. No, No,you know what I mean, Like,
there's nothing wrong with that. Ithink that you're doing exactly what you were
dreaming about and wanting to do.There's no there's nothing listen. I have
no idea what I would do ifI wasn't a disc jockey. Think of
what a pathetic statement that is.You'd be able to do all kinds of

(06:03):
things. You got the gift ofgab man. Okay, you'd make a
great car salesman. Stop about myhead, tell the marketing, tell the
marketing. Hey, Eric, letme ask you this. So if you
if you, if you go backand listen to the record or well,
you know, the record, Butthose are based on real experiences for you,

(06:26):
and real stories for you, andand real real people for you.
Have you have you reconnected with anybodyfrom fifteen years ago that the music may
have been about. That's a goodquestion. Actually, yes, because I

(06:46):
hadn't listened to the album in awhile. You know. I played the
songs and everything, but I hadn'thadn't really like sat down and listened to
the whole thing. So I didthat, and yeah, I was really
struck by it was it was asound of me becoming a young adult and
kind of you know, going tosome of the growing pain. And most
of the songs are all about lovefalling apart, and there was a lot
of the songs that were particularly aboutone young woman that I was very much

(07:10):
in love with, and we werein love and we were really good at
just making each other miserable. Andwe broke up, you know, six
or seven times, and we getback together and back and forth, and
finally I wrote this song called itHasn't been long Enough that was supposed to
remind me, like, stop gettingback together with this person, like you
guys are maybe not great for eachother. And then I debuted the song

(07:34):
in La and she was there,and she was not a fan song.
And so anyway, we lost touchover the years, and then I was
getting ready to go out and dothese shows and I hadn't played that song
in a long time. So Iwas actually like rehearsing the song, just
practicing it over and over again,trying to get it back into my into

(07:56):
my hands and my bones, andand I swear to God, I was
practicing the song all day. AndI took a break and I went to
I picked up my phone, andthis woman that the song is about had
just followed me on Instagram. Shutup, are you serious? Like through
the ether like she had heard meplaying the song and and somehow been like,

(08:18):
no, what it's It's been longenough to bury the hatchet here.
And she followed me on Instagram,and uh, and long story short,
we're back together. That part's nottrue, but the rest is true.
So she was saying, maybe I'llcome to a show or something. So
is she a eric? If Ican ask? Is she? Is she

(08:39):
a DC girl? Or is thislike after you had already left DC?
Uh? It was it was aftershe's I think she's up in Massachusetts.
I got a very lovely person.She's you know, got a husband and
a family and stuff. I justwe were we were young and stupid.
You know, at least I wasstupid. She was just young. Right.
No, No, I get that. I get that. Hey,

(09:01):
let me ask you this. Inconjunction with it being the fifteenth anniversary of
Sounds Like This, you have alsoput the put the record out on vinyl
for the very first time. Idon't know why. I don't know why.
In my head, I feel likethat would have already. I'm not
a big vinyl guy, just soyou know, but I would have felt
like because you are, aren't you? Aren't you a big vinyl guy?

(09:24):
You know. I've never let myselfbecome one because I think it would just
take over my life and more importantlyin my apartment in New York. So
I've never I've never allowed myself togo down the road. Really. But
I love them. I love lookingat him, I really love designing them.
But I just I do not havea collection. I don't know why,
but in my head, I justfeel like, as a musician,

(09:45):
and as as somebody that's as goodof a musician as you are, that
this would have been out on vinylearly on to begin with. Yeah,
I guess so. At the timewhen it came out, vinyl was very
not cool and it was all aboutCDs and even uh you know, I
got I did a lot of downloadsa lot of iTunes downloads, and I

(10:07):
even iTunes video downloads. I foundout recently I have a the song rock
and Roll is platinum video download.Whatever that means? What'd you get for
that? What it was like,what what what award comes with that?
I think I just you know,I just feel proud and ud But that

(10:31):
was the time where like there werelike we can sell people. People will
download and buy your song and downloadit as opposed to just watching it on
YouTube. But so I don't know, it didn't come out of vinyl,
and I've always wanted to do thatand all that music I was really inspired
by, like Stevie Wonder and theBeatles and Paul Simon. They were all
final artists, and so I definitelythought about how the album should be sequenced

(10:54):
so it could eventually be you know, flipped over like a record. And
so it feels cool too if onlydone it. And and the response has
been overwhelming. I mean i've beenreally they're almost you know, almost halfway
sold out already and it's only beentwo or three weeks of the of their
initial press we did, and Iwasn't sure what to expect. So it's
been it's been cool to see peoplewant to have a part of it.

(11:18):
Hey, Eric, let me askyou this. So like like now,
like you said, like you canyou can stream music, you can download
it, or you know, whateverit's gonna be. Does the does it
feel like a completely different record toyou when you can hold it in your
hands? You know? That's whyI find interesting some people will buy vinyl
and not even have a record player. There just there is a thing though,

(11:41):
of like I want a tangible evidenceof the things, the albums that
I love the most, you know, in the way that you'd have like
a book collection at home or something. But like I find that interesting where
some people are just like I justwant my greatest hits. I want everyone.
I want my favorite albums on vinylso I can display them. And
I do think there's there's a thingto that of like having something tangible.

(12:03):
I mean I always just loved it, you know, I I'm sure you
were the same way. I justused to love listening to music and going
through the liner notes and looking atthe pictures, reading about it and studying
it. So like in that way, I really love that thing, and
it's a very it makes it avery present experience That's the other thing I
hear from a lot of vinyl lovers. They like that you have to kind

(12:24):
of pay attention and staying near therecord player and you got to flip it
over, and you know, it'slike you can't just kind of put it
on it and zone out. Yeahright, yeah, no, that makes
sense to me. Hey, thewe played a song when when when?
When you were coming on Sad Songs. It's a new song, But isn't
it also an old song? Yeah? It is, it's I it's a

(12:48):
song. I was touring playing alot in two thousand and eight, and
mostly the I didn't have any othersongs to play. You know, I'd
play my entire album and then peoplebe like, okay, that was thirty
eight, and it's what else canyou do now? I can play a
cover song, I guess, andthen they'd be like, can you do
any other Do you have any newsongs? I was like, yeah,

(13:09):
I got a new song. SoI played this song Sad Songs, which
happens to be my wife's favorite song, and she's been bugging me for fifteen
years to record it. And sowhen I was going to release the album,
I was like, you know itwould be a cool it's kind of
like a B side from Sounds likethis, but I'd never actually got to
record it. So I called upmy old bass player and drummer that we're
touring with me back in two thousandand eight, and I had them come

(13:31):
in the studio and we had anice day of reminiscing, and I tried
to just make the song the wayI would have fifteen years ago. So
it was a lot of fun.And so it's out in the world.
It's called Sad Songs, and we'vebeen playing it at the show and the
old school fans may remember it.I'll tell you this. The horns are
so good. Yeah, they're awesome. It's it's a really cool group called

(13:56):
hunter Tones and and they're they're awesome. They're from Columbus, Ohio, but
they're all based in New York nowand one of the guys, John Lampley,
is a trumpet player who tours withoar and and does a bunch of
stuff. So they're yeah, they'rereally awesome. Hey, Eric, I
saw I saw an interview that youdid with Miam Bowick, who I had

(14:20):
no idea that I feel like shewould marry you. Tomorrow. She loves
her man, oh my god,like she loves you like it made me
feel bad. It made me feellike I hate you compared to how much
she loves you. I do oftenfeel like you hate me. But no,

(14:41):
she was super nice and it's it'sjust been a really she posted something
like ten years ago on Facebook orsomething that was like this really glowing review
of sounds like this actually and justhow she really loved it and really like
paying attention to songwriting. And Ialways just thought about it. I never
talked to her or anything or her, And so when I was getting ready
to do this tour, I justreposted the like a picture of that Facebook

(15:05):
post, and I said, thisis an open invitation, miam, if
you want to come to my showin LA And she actually took me up
on it, and we ended uphaving a mutual friend that connected us,
and she came out to the showwith her very nice boyfriend and we just
chatted. She's just like a verydown to earth person. You know,

(15:26):
she has no business being a normalperson. You know, she was Blossom,
she was a child star. Sure, And there's a massive show,
The Big Bang Theory. You know, she's the host of Jeopardy. It's
like, she could really be ajerky if she wanted to, but she's
she's just been very nice to me. So it was it was cool to
it's cool to get to know ornow we're kind of just pen pals,
you know, we'll text pictures ofour kids and just kind of chat.

(15:48):
So but you told her, youtold her a story. And I mean
knowing that you grew up here andI'm assuming that when you were eight years
old you were still here, butyou told a very cool story about like,
like being very early. I thinkthe two of you were talking about
like was music always a part ofyour life or when did you know that
music was a part of your life? And you told a story about how

(16:11):
when you were eight years old,there was a teacher that kind of helped
you write your thoughts down in theworld of like what could be a song
or parts of a song. Doesthat sound familiar to you, Yeah,
yeah, I've got the I've gotthe lyrics right here framed in my office
actually, but yeah, it was. It was a teacher named Missus Burnett.
And I don't know, I wasalways just singing and making up songs.

(16:34):
And she said to me, Hey, you know, it was my
music teacher, and and she said, hey, I know you're always humming
a song. Why don't you comein and I'll I'll show you what we
do with the song when we haveit in our head. And she kind
of notated it and wrote out thelyrics and the notes and the chords of
the song to show me. Imean, I didn't really think about it

(16:56):
till sort of more recently. Ofhow you know, First of all,
I was somebody just noticing that Iwas interested in the app, but two
was something showing me how to writedown a song, you know. So
it was it was very important andamazing, and but I didn't really think
I was that music. Like,I didn't really think about how musical my
childhood or my family was until Igot to be in like two thousand and

(17:19):
eight and I started doing interviews withfolks like you guys, and people were
always asking, now, like,how long have you been doing music?
And I'm like, just like everybody, you know, my whole life,
and right, we like music inthe house, and so it was it
was just very natural for me.But I've been very lucky to get to
do it. And then what isthat what is the high school project thing

(17:40):
that you're doing with like talking topeople from high school. I just hang
out at different high schools outside toleave. Hey, y'all want to hang
out. Yeah, it's not reallyit's not really a project hobby. And

(18:03):
I'm not sure exactly, but I'veI've been, you know, I've gone
to some high schools and I wentto Montgomery Blair and as a as a
as a student, and I've goneback a couple of times to chat.
If anyone's from listening to Montgomery Blair, I'd be happy to come back and
chat today and tell the young kidswhat what it's like to be old.
And but yeah, I've just youknow, I try to keep in touch

(18:26):
with the youth and pass along mydeep deep wisdom and advice. Are we
Are we writing any new music orno? Yeah, maybe you know I'm
always working on songs or actually I'mworking on this is my I'm announcing this.
You're you're getting my official and nowhold on, hold on, hold

(18:48):
on, i gotta get a pan. Go ahead, Okay, I'm going
to be releasing a meditation holiday songthis uh, this holiday season. It's
a ten minute instrumental ambient track thatyou can listen to during the holidays to
clear your mind and meditate. It'sjust what all the kids are listening to

(19:11):
these days. Wait, so Idon't even know. I don't I don't
even know what I don't even knowwhat it is. Wait, so,
like, are you singing? No, I'm not singing. I'm not even
Yeah, I'm not singing on it. It's just instruments and in a you
know a little bit of like asMr kind of stuff. Oh is that
like where you you talk really closeto the mic, like when she wants

(19:32):
to rock she rocks. Yeah,that's actually a good idea for a whole
album. There you going? Butyeah, it's kind I'm not even sure.
I might do a version that alsohas me talking. But it's kind
of if I've been getting into thismusic of like Brian Eno is like the
biggest person who does it. Ambientmusic that you just sort of put on.
It creates an atmosphere and you're ableto just like relax and or meditate

(19:55):
or something. So are you,I don't know, are you big meditation
guy? Now? I try todo it. I don't do as much
as I probably would like to,but I have found it really helpful,
and and it was you know,my manager was like, what do you
think about doing a holiday song?And I was like, what do you
think about me doing ambient instrumental holidaysong that's ten minutes long? And he

(20:18):
was like, I think I wantto quit? So that's that's coming.
So I've been working on that.It's been a cool it's been a cool
thing to do because it's it's verydifferent. The whole point is to like
kind of be bored while listening toit as a which is the total opposite
of what I always want from mysongs. Yeah. Right, So is
this because you're all like, misterpilates guy now too? You know,

(20:42):
I'm getting older, Elliott, andyou're not old. Oh stop it,
he said, feeling good though?What pilate? Yeah? Oh yeah,
I mean I love Pilates. Ido pilates with Yeah, a bunch of
I'd do a class. I'm goingto it after this. It's it's me
and several people in their seventies andeighties and we just stretch and talk about

(21:03):
the restaurants in the neighborhood. It'sgreat. It's great. So, I
know, you know, I'm notold, but I'm old ish, and
I like to do things to helprelax. No, good for you,
good for you. Hey, lastthing, last thing? Or did I
see you post You're down to onlythree baseball stadiums left to visit and then

(21:26):
you will have been to all ofthem. Yes, that's true. I
checked off Toronto earlier this year.Dude, that's awesome. Ye know when
I'm surprised, how have you notbeen to Atlanta? I know it's there's
all the places I haven't been tothe stadiums I've been. It's Atlanta,
Phoenix, and Tampa Bay, allthree places that I've been to plenty,

(21:48):
But I just it never worked out. Toronto. I made a trip and
I actually booked a show around it. I was like, okay, I
gotta check off at least one ortwo this season, so who knows,
maybe I'll get to one more duringthe postseason. But Trump, it was
really nice. I was excited togo see it be like nineteen eighty nine
in there, right, But theyhad actually just redid it over the over

(22:10):
the summers or over the winter.So it was nice and new and Orioles
won, so all good. AndI'll tell you this, the You'll love
the Battery down in Atlanta. Like, I've been to that stadium. That
stadium is great. They'll love thatit's brand new, right, yeah,
like that, but that whole areais so awesome though, Like, that
whole area is great. And thenI've also been to I've seen the Diamondbacks

(22:33):
play, but I've not been toTampa. I can't help you there.
I mean, I've heard Tampa isis not the nicest stadium. Plenty of
seats available, no, no,but they don't draw that well. You
know that even though they're good,you know, not as good as the
Orioles. But it's killing me.It's killing me. Eric. Yeah,

(22:56):
all right, dude, Well listen. Eric Hutchinson will be at the Birchmure
on October fourth. Birchmure dot comfor tickets. You can also get sounds
like this that is out on vinyland available. Eric. I appreciate the
time. It's always good to talkto you, my friend. Thank you,
Thanks for fifteen years of a lotof fun chats. May two thousand

(23:18):
and eight. We were there beforemyambiolic. That's true, you were you
planted the flag. Thank you.All right, my friend, We'll see
you in we'll see you in acouple of weeks. All right, sounds
good. Thanks a lot,