Now im not sure if this article's been posted b4 or if any of you have read this already,but was new to me so i just thought you'd guys like to read this too.its a really good interview.xoxo*Kylie

Forget the hotel – there’s a new Hilton in town

By Jennifer Fong

With his piercing blue eyes and a last name shared with a certain ditzy hotel heiress, it’s easy to dismiss Tyler Hilton as just another pretty face. But give the singer-songwriter’s major label debut, The Tracks Of Tyler Hilton, a listen and it’s clear that this Hilton (who isn’t related to Paris) is the real deal.

Singing seems to come naturally to the 21-year-old from Palm Springs, California. It’s no surprise – Hilton grew up surrounded by music; his father was a songwriter while other relatives were seasoned performers. Before long, Hilton had taught himself both piano and guitar, and by 13, he was writing his own songs.

In addition to being a talented musician, Hilton is also a true double threat. If you’re a fan of the WB’s hit drama, One Tree Hill, you’ve probably seen Hilton in a notable seven-episode story arc playing aspiring singer Chris.

Despite a busy schedule on film sets and playing shows at the same time, Hilton was able to catch up with us over the phone to talk a little bit about where he’s heading, how he celebrated his 21st birthday, and what he likes about homemade T-shirts.



Tuned In: I know you’re an accomplished pianist, so what made you decide to pick up the guitar as your primary instrument?

Tyler Hilton: My family. They all played it. We used to go to a bluegrass festival (we still do every year), and you know, you can’t really bring the piano. And then if you bring the keyboard, then you’re that guy that came camping with your keyboard and your little amp and a generator. And I really got into that old acoustic blues of the ‘30s and they were all playing guitar. It just seemed like an easier thing to do. It’s just writing songs that I like to do, whether it’s on piano or guitar. Guitar just seemed easier to take around.

TI: But you do play piano on a few tracks. Do you plan on incorporating more piano into your music?

TH: I don’t plan on it, but it usually happens that way. If there’s a piano around and I’m playing and I end up writing something, then I’ll put that on the song. As I hear it, I’ll call it.

TI: Your music has a really distinct, mature quality about it, which I think makes it appealing to both younger people as well as older people. But you’re only 21, so where do you think this insight comes from?

TH: You said the same thing to Ryan Cabrera! [Laughs] Just kidding. You know, I couldn’t tell you. It’s hard to look at what it is that makes me, me, because I’m me and I’m busy being me so looking at what’s making me, me is a really odd, confusing room of mirrors. But I can guess it has to do with the fact that I really like a lot of old music. I like it better than most new music so I write music that I like, and a lot of time it sounds like older music.

However, I’m a big fan of the pop song – I love the Beatles and the Strokes and singers that have written really great, cool pop songs. John Mayer is a talented musician who’s written great pop songs. I think my love for music for the public and popular music, combined with just great old-timey music for the folks – like folk music and blues – somehow meet somewhere in the middle and make it in.

TI: By the way – how’d you celebrate your 21st birthday? Not too long ago, huh?

TH: I was told that I went to Vegas. [laughs] I’m sure I had a great time, but I do remember getting off the plane from Vegas and going straight to my second birthday party. When I went to Vegas, I just wanted to bring my grandfather, my dad, and two of my best friends that were over 21. It was a good thing cause I’ve been in bars playing since I was 14, so it was glaringly obvious to me that I was younger than I was supposed to be for a long time. And so the 21st birthday for me was really cool, cause it’s such a social thing that I do.

You know, playing bars, a lot of the time I had to leave right after I was done playing, or a lot of the time, the bands I was playing with couldn’t have beer until after I was done playing and I left. It was just kind of a burden. So turning 21 for me was a cool thing, business-wise as well. It was nice to have my grandfather out who knows all this stuff about scotch and to go through it with my dad and my friends. The next night I had a big party in L.A. with all my friends and family that didn’t come that were under 21.

TI: You have a song about being on the road, Rolling Home, and from what I’ve read, it sounds like your schedule is absolutely packed. Is it hard to deal with for you, moving so fast? Do you like that travel aspect of the rock star lifestyle or are you more of a homebody?

TH: I do travel a lot, but sometimes I get caught between gigs, like hours off…and now I’m walking around a strange city. [laughs] Not every artist tours this much – and I’m not saying that’s good or bad – it’s just what I like to do a lot. I gave up my apartment a while ago. So then I figure now I’m always on the road, so if my agent doesn’t have me working, then they feel bad cause I don’t have any home to go home to. I’m like, “Keep me working!” So I just keep travelling. And it’s not gruelling really. I fill the pockets of time off, like right now… talking to you…by this river. That almost sounded romantic. Wow. If I get anything more than a day off, I just get antsy. So it works out for me – it’s right in time with my inner clock. I should get all my interviews done by a lake. This is great!

TI: How do you feel about being a sex symbol? Are you used to it?

TH: I hear about it and it sounds great! But it doesn’t make me feel any better when I’m around ladies, because you can’t keep that in your back pocket. It’s like someone saying, “No, I won’t go out with you.” But, “listen, I’m a sex symbol!” That doesn’t work, you know what I mean? So it really doesn’t help me out at all. If there’s a girl I like that doesn’t like me back, there’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t play the sex symbol card. But, it’s really, really funny to hear that because I can always say to my kids, “Hey listen, your Dad was a sex symbol–shut your mouth and clean your room!” [laughs] So I’ve always got that.

TI: I’ve noticed you’re a really fan-friendly guy, which is rare in the business. What do you like about interacting with fans? Is there a particularly enjoyable or different fan-centered experience that sticks out in your mind?

TH: What I like about interacting with fans is that they’re into interacting with me. The thing about being an entertainer is that you’re looking for other people to approve of your art. If you get a good response from any kind of audience, whether you do art or dance or music, it’s really flattering. And it’s nice to talk to people that like what you do, because you like what you do, so you must have that in common. I guess that’s what it is. I think it’s cool that people like what I’ve been doing because I like it so much as well.

I can’t carry around a story right now about a fan moment that sticks out in my mind but in general, I love when fans home-make their own t-shirts – its so funny to see them come up with the coolest things. When they make their own t-shirts, it’s great. I think it’s so sweet when they go out of their way and give me presents and give me little mementos from the town I’m in. Just for them to be at my show is crazy and wonderful and flattering, but then for them to go out of their way and do something nice like that for me is just great. They’re really, really nice. It’s so fun to have fans.

TI: What’s your ultimate goal as a musician? What do you want people to come away with when they listen to your music?

TH: Goose bumps, for sure. That’s why I’m in the business – I want to give people goose bumps. I think entertainment definitely has its place in the world. It’s up there with religion, and science, and any kind of practical work, like machinery or gardening, farming. It gives people hope. If people didn’t have religion or entertainment, I think that eventually there would just be no real enthusiasm to go on with their lives cause it doesn’t seem like fun. Music, art, drama, comedy – all these things – they make people laugh, they make people happy, and they make people feel good about where they’re at or what they’re doing. And I think the songs in particular can make people feel like there’s someone out there that feels the same way I do, and that gives them confidence. It all just comes back to making people’s lives better.

Now, honestly, if I wasn’t in music – if no one happened to listen to my songs – I’d probably be in college or doing some kind of day job. But I’d still be writing songs because they make me happy. So the fact that I can take these and make other people happy at the same time and do it for a living and get paid for it and not have to do any other kind of work right now – it’s just an incredible thing.

TI: Lately, there seems to be a wave of singer-songwriters out there – you mentioned John Mayer, earlier. Are you afraid you’ll get lost in the mix?

TH: No, I’m not worried about not becoming famous or not making it, ‘cause like I said, I’ll be writing these songs either way. They’re just there; I’ve got to do something with them and I’ll just play them over and over again to myself, and make myself feel better if they don’t get out there in public. Of course, genre-wise, we’re very similar – John Mayer and I – but I don’t think musical-styling-wise, we’re very similar

It’s like the difference between listening to Jackson Browne and Bob Dylan – yeah, they’re both singer-songwriters, but it’s such a different vibe that I think there’s enough room in your CD collection for both of them. And I think that’s definitely true of John Mayer and I. If people have the John Mayer record or if they have the Jason Mraz record, and they’re like, “Yeah, I don’t need the Tyler Hilton record, I’ve already got this one,” I’ll still be out there performing.

TI: Now for the TV portion of my questionnaire… you did a story arc on One Tree Hill and you’ll be appearing as Elvis in Walk the Line soon. Is there more acting in your future? Is it something you want to focus on?

TH: Yeah, I would, but I’m just so into what’s going on musically right now that I can’t focus on much of anything else. But of course, there’s going to be acting in my future, ‘cause I had so much fun doing those other things. The great thing was that it was an opportunity for me to get to know Memphis and Wilmington, North Carolina, for Walk The Line and One Tree Hill, respectively, and to meet really, really great people. It’s fun to be in one spot longer than a day. To be in Memphis for a month or two and to be in Wilmington for a month of two – it’s pretty exciting. Some of the best friends that I have now, I met on those sets. It’s a really nice way to break up time on the road. But I do miss the road when I’m there. So I’m always getting scripts now and I’m always reading them, but I don’t see myself stopping touring or recording anytime soon. But you can be sure that if I do, it’s a damn good part and a damn good movie that I really, really like, ‘cause otherwise, there’s no reason to stop.

TI: Your character on One Tree Hill, Chris, is a pretty big jerk. Are you afraid that viewers will mistake you to be like Chris in real life?

TH: I think I have my moments where I go, “Huh, I wonder if they’ll think that?” But no, I try not to think about it too much. It sounded like a really fun part to do and every guy that read the script would be like, “I want to do this,” cause he’s such a jerk, you’re just like, “How funny is this?” I guess I can always hope that the audience sees the difference.

I’m not too worried, cause as much as I’m on TV once a week as a jerk, I’m out there on the road every other night that I’m not in Wilmington, in every part of the country, being myself. I hope it’s an equal balance. If not, we’ll see what happens then. It’s just so much fun, I didn’t give myself much time to think. I was like, “You know what? I’m going to North Carolina to play a jerk on a television show. How random is that? Who ever thought I would be doing that?” So I just kinda went for it.

TI: There seems to be a lot of cross-marketing between music and television these days with shows like One Tree Hill and The O.C. really bringing music to the forefront. Based on your own experiences with it, do you think being on television really helps the music-side of your career?

TH: Yes, it did, just because you can play a show – you could play the biggest stadium in the world – and you could not get as much exposure as you could on one episode of One Tree Hill. You could play the biggest radio station in the world and not get as much exposure as you do on One Tree Hill or any of those shows. I try not to think about it in terms of exposure so much, because then I might take the excitement out of it. It just so happens that this part that seemed like so much fun to do, was on a show that was like something crazy, like millions of viewers an episode.

And I don’t really see it, cause I go to a small town to film an episode. Then I go back out on the road and all of a sudden, once that episode airs, unbeknownst to me (usually cause I’m playing a show when it’s airing), at my next couple shows, [I see] all these people! And I’m thinking, “Where’d you all come from?” And it’s like, “Oh my god, I forgot! On Tuesday nights, I’m playing for ten million people!” I totally forgot that was going on also. It’s just been great exposure. They play the music and they show my CD at the end and they put me on the soundtrack and I’m just like, “Ok, I’ll take it!”

TI: So where do you see your music going in the future?

TH: Oh man, wherever my future’s going. I try not to focus my life too much around song-writing. Instead, I try to focus my song-writing around what’s going on in my life. So wherever my life will be going in the next ten years, my song-writing will be right there next to it. My song-writing’s like the co-pilot to fate for me. Song-writing’s like “Alright brother, I’m following you through your life, and anything you need me to do, I’m right here,” instead of my life going, “Alright song-writing, I’m right there next to you. Where do you need me to go?” So in ten years, maybe I’ll meet the girl. Maybe I’ll think about a family. Maybe I’ll get wrongly accused of murder, and end up in prison, or maybe I’ll become an actor on Broadway. Maybe I’ll become a writer because my voice mysteriously leaves me. Wherever I am, I’ll still be able to write songs somehow and my song-writing will just follow me there.

Tyler Hilton Completes the Sentence:

The movie that changed my life is… Crossroads. Not the Britney Spears one, the Ralph Macchio one.

One book I can’t put down is… A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle.

If I had 24 hours to live, I would… Skydive. And swim naked in the ocean or something and probably… kiss lots of girls.

And my last meal would consist of… mashed potatoes, steak, over-easy eggs…no, scratch the steak, I’ll get the meatloaf. Lots and lots of wine, and for dessert, German chocolate cake.

If I had my own island in the Caribbean, I would… Man, that’d be great! I’d get a big boat and I would have a big sunning deck and a swimming pool and I would have a bar with a bartender who specialized in really fruity, unmanly islanders. And I would drink them, and have an airport and fly all my friends in, and we would just gain lots of weight and get really tan.

The CD I currently have on repeat is… Johnny Cash, At Folsom Prison

One thing people don’t know about me is… This is pretty superficial, but everywhere I go, people are like, “Oh, I had no idea!” But I’m like 6’4-6’5, so nobody expects me to be as tall as I am. So maybe I’ll put that out there – that I’m a tall guy. A very, very tall guy.

www.tunedinmusic.com

Hey, thanks for that. I think i may have read it, but maybe when i read it i didn't read all of it, because there are parts i don't think i have read. Did you follow that? Well done if you did...

no i hadnt actually.... its a good interview aswell... i mean at the beginning its the same old stuff every single interview has but then it get good... thanx 4 posting