EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS DRUMMER ERON BUCCIARELLI AND BASSIST MATT RIDENOUR
The split with Victory, their relationship with fans, and how YOU are the most important thing in their lives.
Hawthorne Heights is at a vital period in their career. Their debut album sold over a million copies, but mere days after the release of theirfollow-up If Only You Were Lonely the band left Victory Records on very bad terms. They have taken the unprecented step of making their fans the most vital part of the bands promotion and success, and have kept everyone up to date on what led to their current sitaution. Before you read further it may help to familiarize yourself with the situation, so go to their website and read the letter that they wrote for their fans HawthorneHeights.com . Anarchy Music was created as a way for fans to be involved in their favorite bands careers, and we applaud Hawthorne Heights for going farther than any other band that I have evr heard of in developing and strengthening their relationship with fans. Many of you have contacted me looking for information on the band, and what the future may hold, so I sat down with drummer Eron Bucciarelli and bassist Matt Ridenour so they could talk to their fans directly.
Anarchy Music: First of all, thanks for taking some time to talk with us.
Eron Bucciarelli: Awesome
Matt Ridenour: No problem
Anarchy: Regarding the split with Victory Records, I’m not sure how much you’re legally allowed to say…
Eron: We can’t say too much…
Anarchy: For those who don’t know about what happened try to give a summary of what led to you leaving the label so abruptly, and the posting of your manifesto about the incident on your website.
Eron: Basically we had ethical differences with the label and we didn’t really feel appreciated. They sent things out pretending to be us, told people to do things that kind of hurt our reputation in the industry. On top of that, their accounting practices are questionable, and that’s basically it. If anybody wants to read more about it the manifesto is still up on our website so they can go check it out.
Anarchy: In the music industry so many people are just out for themselves and I think it’s amazing, and says a lot about you as people to say “No, don’t buy our album at the expense of somebody else”. That’s one of the most stand-up thing’s I’ve ever seen a band do.
Eron: It’s not that we really don’t want people to buy our record because hopefully in the lawsuit all the monetary issues will get resolved and the label won’t be getting everything. We still want people to hear our music and we still want people to come out and see us.
Anarchy: A lot of the stuff like telling people to take the Ne-Yo cd and hide it in record stores so people won’t be able to find it. The two groups are probably selling to two totally different crowds so it didn’t make much sense to me.
Eron: It is, yeah
Anarchy: Have you talked to any other bands on the label since you left?
Eron: Yeah, we know most of the bands on the label, we've toured with a lot of the bands before and they experience the same type of stuff that we went through. The only difference is that they're not really in a position to stand up and say anything because if they did then they risk having their promotion pulled and their record sales just go to the gutter. Which, ours are kind of now, but we've built up such a big loyal fan base over the years that we can sort of weather the storm.
Anarchy: There are some great bands over there too, so even if fans don't like how the label may have handled things, they should still support the bands.
Eron: Oh absolutely, they should definitely support the bands.
Matt: Buy a shirt
Eron: Buy a shirt, go see them live,
Matt: Buy a cd from them
Eron: Yeah, because then they're actually going to get the money then they're actually going to realize the support.
Matt: But on this tour we're selling our cd for five dollars so nobody makes any money. It's kind of a statement I guess. This is what we pay for it, and we're not making any money from it anyway.
Anarchy: I've never seen a band that was in any kind of situation like you that was this up front and honest with your fans. Why was the decision made to keep fans so informed of the situation?
Eron: We have a really close relationship with our fans. We are always doing meet and greets and trying to make ourselves as accessible to them as possible. We're kind of like the anti-rock star rock stars. We felt we owed it to our fans to tell them what was going on, because they supported us this whole time.
Matt: And given the situation that we're in, where we're not getting any money from a label or anything, our shows are the only way we're allowed to tour and do this. When the kids come out to shows, that's what makes us be able to tour.
Eron: I think to a certain extent, when we were about ready to sign to Victory initially, Thursday had already gone through sort of the same situation with Victory as we're going through now, They were public about it, but they weren't as public and up front with everything, which is understandable and we totally respect that. I think had we known a little bit more about what was going on then we may have thought twice about actually signing with Victory, or would have held out a little longer. I don't know. We also heard that there were rumblings with Taking Back Sunday right when we signed as well, but nothing had progressed to a full blown lawsuit yet. I think if we had known more then we could have made a more educated decision so hopefully our lesson learned can benefit others.
Anarchy: You do have a new single out for "This Is Who We Are" which to me takes on a different meaning than it did when you wrote it. Can you tell me what that song is about and has recent events changed your perspective of it?
Eron: We titled it "This Is Who We Are" because we feel that musically it represents us and what we are. It sort of says if you don't like it, then too bad because we're going to play. We're going to play music that we enjoy. I guess there is that sort of double meaning now, but we don't really think about it like that.
Anarchy: You mentioned this tour earlier, and without backing you're financing this yourselves. Even though you're paying for this yourselves, you brought more lights than ever before and you're playing a longer set than you ever have before. To me its kind of like taking a stand and believing in yourselves as a live band and your fans. Is this your way of giving back to the people who are supporting you during this time?
Eron: Sort of. We've always been self-reliant. We've never taken tour support from Victory in the first place, but yeah. We ask a lot of our fans, and we did this tour we asked our fans to help promote the tour, to print up fliers and spread the word about this tour to sort of supplement the promotion that we would have had from a label but we didn't in this instance. So we felt we owed it to our fans to do something more than we've done in the past. That includes all the lights, the longer set and we're doing two or three meet and greets per day to give back to our fans as much as possible. I think our producer put it best when he came out to see us in New York. He said "you guys are the only unsigned band in the US with two buses and a semi". Every time we go out on tour we try to improve our performance and our stage show. This tour isn't any exception.
Anarchy: So are you looking at labels now? You've got to be in a great position as far as bargaining the freedom and the deal you want.
Eron: People are definitely inquiring about us, but unfortunately since we're still entangled in this lawsuit we can't really do anything and jump on any offer until a court rules in our favor and says that we actually are free to go. So, we have to wait.
Anarchy: The reviews of this cd have been great, and it's like you took the sound from the first record and really refined and perfected that. Do you feel like maybe it's going to be overlooked because of all the craziness?
Matt: I think right now, but once the storm settles and we have a new record come out then it might get rediscovered. We all really like it and everybody has said the same thing.
Anarchy: Maybe it'll be like Weezer's Pinkerton, where it just came and went, but years later everybody looks back on it as a the best one.
Matt: Yeah, that’s the record.
Eron: I think kids like this new record. There wasn't the promotion behind it to get it to where the last one was. It sold half of what the last one did and I think it's because the label just put money into the first week’s sales and then after that they didn't ship any.
Anarchy: I haven’t heard of anyone who likes the first one and doesn't like this one better.
Eron: It kind of sucks that not as many people will hear it.
Matt: I think it'll get its day sometime.
Anarchy: You're already working on a new record. Has this lit a creative fire under the band?
Matt: It's kind of like punk rock. There's this legal battle that we know nothing about. So we're just trusting people to do our work for us. We really don't know what clause like 496 even is. So we just want to do what we do best, just write songs. Once this is all over, we wont be like “now lets write an album”. So that'll take another 6 months. We’re just going to get on the horse now.
Anarchy: I thought that because I was like, it must suck to have the pressure of having to write a new album, but then you know what, stressful situations create some of the best albums.
Matt: It's kind of nice to close the door
Anarchy: Is there a certain direction that the new stuff is going in?
Matt: We've got a song and a half written, no vocals. We're just trying to write a bunch of songs that we're real happy with, that we really like and if they all turn out totally different from each other, cool, If they don't, whatever. For the first time ever we're having time to write a record. So, we're hopefully going to write 20 songs, record 16 and shelve 4 for various reasons. On our first two records, what you get on the cd, that's all the songs we had. We want to do is to have songs extra this time. To whittle it down to 12 songs that we're real happy with, as opposed to these are the 12 we have so these are the 12 for the record. We want to be a normal band for once.
Anarchy: You guys have the coolest contest ever. You're letting someone come in and actually sing on the next record.
Eron: We did that on the last record too. We ask our fans to print out fliers and get them out there to all their friends and the malls and stores all over the place. Take pictures of you doing this stuff and whoever we think does the best we'll let them do background vocals on the record.
Anarchy: This is totally off topic, but I get a lot of emails about your live show, and some people wanted to know what the craziest, most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened during a show has been.
Matt: JT two weeks ago had a good one. We played a radio show. We had a fly out date to Boise, Idaho. The first song was "This Is Who We Are" and somebody threw what seemed to be a barrel of beer on the stage. There was so much beer everywhere on the stage, somehow. JT was running across the stage and totally slipped. When you fall and you don't know it your legs fly out from under you and that’s what he did. We couldn't sing the rest of the song because we were all laughing.
Eron: Several times on previous tours Micah has tried to jump up on my drum riser and missed.
Matt: So, just the tips of his toe hit the drum riser, and that throws your face forward.
Eron: He's face-planted into my kick drum several times. It's pretty funny.
Anarchy: When this whole thing happened I got so many emails from people saying "I'm a Hawthorne Heights fan. I want to support the band. I don't know what to do. Should I buy this record, should I not? Should I tell my friends?" What can a fan do right now to help this band grow into the next phase of your career?
Eron: Definitely come out and support us live whenever we're coming through. We really appreciate that. If you don't feel comfortable buying the record, buy a t-shirt.
Matt: Download the record.
Eron: You could download the record, but you know what, it really isn't going to hurt us if you buy the record. We want our music heard. Just have faith that this whole label situation will get worked out. We're not too worried about it because we haven't seen money from the record sales yet so why worry about it now?
Matt: Anything you think will be beneficial. Whether it be calling a radio station...anything that's promotion that you can take into your own hands. It doesn't have to be a guy in a suit that's promoting a band.
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I want to send a MAJOR thank you out to Hawthorne Heights and their management for talking with us. And to the readers, I say this...Hawthorne Heights believes in you, and have placed their careers in your hands. We as music fans need to come together to support them right now as a sign that YES, music fans can make a difference! This band deserves our help!
HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS SIGNED CD CONTEST IS NOW OVER