Eric Hutchinson: Back on Top
Hutchison was in Toronto this week performing at El Mocambo as part of a tour supporting his completed album Sounds Like This. The disc was released in September 2007 and debuted at #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. After an endorsement from Perez Hilton, complete with plug on his website, Hutchinson joined the ranks of Kanye West and Dave Matthews with a best-selling album on iTunes. All-in-all, not a bad job for the album and artist once caught in contractual limbo.
| “I went through a really frustrating, depressed period where I thought that this was going to be my big break, and I had been doing for a few years at that point,” Hutchinson explains. “Then to have everything collapse beneath me, when it really wasn’t my fault, was really difficult for me to sort out in my own head.” Not that it would have been easy in any case. This singer/songwriter from suburban Washington D.C. had spend nearly five years working towards his big break, only to see it fall apart. But Hutchinson quickly made the decision to persevere and not let that work go to waste. “I just kind of went out there and kept playing music and decided that I needed to prove it to myself and kept making this record,” he says, looking back. “I felt that if I tried it, and it didn’t really work out, then I could go out and get a desk job and not always look back and wonder if.” But Hutchinson no longer has to wonder “if,” and the world is able to sample his unique blend of pop/rock/folk for themselves. Listening to his music you can hear shades Golden Earring in “You Don't Have to Believe Me” and later chords reminiscent of Jack Johnson in “Rock & Roll.” Hutchinson says that he prides himself for crafting songs where in no two sound the same. “Every song’s different, but I definitely make an attempt to make them sound different and interesting. I like all kinds of music so I definitely try and make some of those influences come through.” |  |
 | As a young man, Hutchinson had the usual influences – the Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, the Motown catalogue – but he also found some less conventional influences as well. “My mom really loved musicals so I was introduced to Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Rogers and Hammerstein and stuff like that,” he says. He also found inspiration from the songwriters, realizing there’s more to be gained from musical performance than the actual singing. “What’s always been most exciting to me is the song-writing, to be the person with the ideas.” It seems that finding that excitement may be key to Hutchinson’s success as a songwriter, not that he doesn’t have to work at it. He explains that writing a great song is where execution meets inspiration, so he writes a lot of songs, but writes them with care because you never what’s going to become a killer track and what’s going to be abandoned before its even performed. “To me, it like an author writing a book or something like that,” he adds. “I’m at home, I get up and I just go and I write songs, and then I end up with a bad song and I’m in a bad mood for the rest of the day.” Part of his process in songwriting is to take a new tune out for a spin at one his live shows while out on the road. Hutchinson calls it “kicking the tires,” because it’s not just a matter of writing a good song, but knowing that you might end up playing it for the rest of you career if it catches on. “You ask, can I play this song everyday,” he says. “I look at it like picking out a roommate: you’ve got friends you like, but you wouldn’t want to live with them. It’s sort of like that with a song; I like this song enough, but do I like it enough to see it three times a day…?” |
Such concerns are easy to understand when you factor in Hutchinson’s hectic touring schedule for the next couple of months. Before Christmas he’ll be rounding out a string of shows in the northeastern United States before heading out to the West Coast in mid-January and circling around to Texas for the beginning of February. In other words, not much has changed on the day to day for the man that had to fight tooth and nail to get back to where he thought he was. Fortunately, Hutchinson is a musician that can keep things in perspective. “You can always bigger, but it’s [always] hard to find a personal level of success. The last year’s been an amazing turn of events; a lot of work, but a lot of great movements. I’m in a nice place, but I’m excited to keep going.”
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