Eric Hutchinson Interview & ‘Rock & Roll’ Performance
Kia’s Who’s Next features an interview and performance with Eric Hutchinson. The singer songwriter talked about how he got his start, describing his music as acoustic soul, being resigned by Warner Bros. after they had dropped him six months ago, and advice for those aspiring to be in the business to make sure they really want to do it.
Talking about his early days as a musician, Eric said, I always kind of did (music) as a hobby, and I went back and forth. I was a film major in college and I always went back and forth between doing music and doing movies. When I was playing music, it was always just in my room and I went and took some guitar lessons. He said the whole point of making music is to share it with people. We went out and did some open mics in my hometown of Maryland. That’s kind of when I first got in front of people, which was kind of late. When I graduated college, I decided to give this a try, not really knowing what I was getting myself into.”
“I call my music acoustic soul,” Eric explained in regards to his sound. “I try and combine the singer songwriter world and the people I loved like Paul Simon and Billy Joel and The Beatles, but also I really love Motown and Prince and Stevie Wonder. My favorite artist these days is Kanye West. As much as he cares about making people happy, he’s also just following his own creative vision, which is something I think is the through-line of all the people that I really love.”
On his DIY path to success, Eric said, “I made this album myself, and ended up getting signed to Warner Brothers, who had actually dropped me earlier. They actually didn’t even know they had dropped me. We had to tell them you actually dropped me six months ago. So I was very hesitant. When they came around, I felt like someone who had been left at the altar and suddenly here was the bride coming back saying I totally didn’t mean that.”
Video of the interview and performance of ‘Rock & Roll’ has since been removed.
