Musician Eric Hutchinson | The Latest With Maya

A conversation with Eric Hutchinson.❤️ Stream Eric's music and listen to his podcast, "Songversations With Eric Hutchinson"!


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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Hi, Eric. Welcome to The Latest with Maya. Eric Hutchinson is a singer-songwriter whose songs include Okay, It's Alright With Me, Watching You Watch Him, Not There Yet, and many more. I am so excited to be talking with you. I love your music.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Oh, thank you. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Um, so you recently started a new podcast, Songversations with Eric Hutchinson. What was the inspiration to start this?

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Um Yeah, uh I would love to hear what you have to say about being a podcaster because obviously you've been doing it a lot longer than I have. But um I I started a game called Songversations that was a card game, and um it was available in stores. You could buy it at bookstores and record stores and things like that. And uh my wife kept telling me, you should turn this into an interview. This should be an interview show, a podcast. And I said, Oh, there's so many podcasts out there, I don't I don't think so. And she kept saying to do it, and so I decided to try it. And so I asked some of my friends, hey, would you come on this my podcast? And can I ask you questions about the music that matters in your life? And and I'm having a lot of fun, you know. We we listen to music, we talk about music that matters to people, and um I love doing that.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Oh, I love that. Yeah, I think it's such a um cool concept.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Thank you. Yeah, it's it's been a lot of fun, and and I find that talking to someone about music, and I'm a musician, I love music so much, I'm a songwriter, but I always find that ta hearing what kind of music someone likes is a really interesting window into who they are or where they came from, or so you know, I'm always interested. That the question I always start with is you know, what's the song when you were in sixth grade? What song made you feel like the coolest person in the world? And uh what's your do you have an answer for that, Maya?

SPEAKER_00 2:26

I love that. I I don't, I actually don't remember. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Well, yeah, I also find people have to sometimes think about it and and look around, but yeah, maybe there'd be a song maybe your parents would remember or something. But um yeah, it's uh you know, it tells you all all sorts of things about your life based on the music. What kind of music do you like to listen to?

SPEAKER_00 2:52

I love um I love a little bit of everything, but I mostly listen to um like pop. Um yeah, I well, okay, I'm thinking back to your question. I just I remember in sixth grade going to um my sister and I going to our first dance, and I like I remember um Heart Attack by Demi Lovato playing, and then also Shut Up and Dance by um oh why did I just forget their name?

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Uh what are they called? Uh Block the Moon.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Block the Moon. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

My daughter just discovered that one kind of recently, and so we were listening to that a bunch. It's very catchy, it's a fun song. Yeah. Shut up and dance with me. Yeah, that's cool.

unknown 3:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Is your sister older or younger than you?

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Um, we're twins.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Yeah, but she's three minutes older.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

So gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Yeah. So so yeah, she she's the she's the big sister. She always brings that up that she's three minutes older.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Yeah, I know some twins now they won't the parents won't tell the twins which one's older because they don't want them to be able to do that with each other, but you somehow always know. The oldest one always knows.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Yeah. Yeah. Um, so uh is there an artist or song that you consider to be the gold standard when it comes to songwriting and storytelling?

SPEAKER_01 4:43

That's a good question. I mean, yes, there's lots of amazing musicians, but kind of my Mount Rushmore, you know, like my favorite people, my favorite four acts kind of growing up were the Beatles, were really, really important to me and my family. My parents loved them. Uh Paul Simon, I think, is maybe my favorite lyricist. Stevie Wonder is probably my favorite singer and songwriter. And um I don't know who that fourth slot would be, but I mean certainly when I was a kid, Michael Jackson was very important, and and the way that he sang and the way that he the emotion and the intensity that he brought to his voice was unlike anything I've ever heard. So I think those are all important. But I I do love all sorts of stuff. Bob Marley, reggae music, and um there's also a lot of great new music that's out too.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Yeah. Oh, I love that. Yeah, I um love writing um song lyrics, so I always love hearing people's inspiration.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Oh, really? So do you have any uh who are your influences for song lyrics?

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Um Macy Peters and uh Taylor Swift.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Yeah, I think for a lot of people, Taylor Swift is the gold standard for sure.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

It's been pretty amazing to see how big her career has gotten and how many people she's been able to touch and and connect with.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Um, so uh is there a song of yours that is your favorite?

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Um, it kind of changes. There's some songs that I just you know, I love all the songs, but there's certain songs that when I'm playing them, they feel very they feel right in my hands and in my body. They just feel like me. So there's a song I have called All Over Now. There's a song called uh Okay, it's all right with me. And then you mentioned one that's a song called Not There Yet that I really like. Um But there's a bunch that I am proud of, or that sometimes, honestly, the opposite is true. There's certain songs that I don't like as much because they're harder for me to sing, and so like I just hear the song and I'm like, okay, I gotta sing this one, I gotta be ready, I gotta, I gotta get up, I gotta get my voice high, I gotta do all that stuff. So sometimes it has to do with like where my voice sits and and how much effort it takes.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Um, so what do you find to be the biggest challenge with creating music in the age of social media?

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Hmm, yeah. I think you have to be on social media now if you want to reach listeners. And that, you know, I talked to so many musicians that really they they take a good part of their day, and that's what they're doing. They're they're putting stuff online and and um I think if you're doing it right though, you're finding ways to play your music and to share your music on social media. Um so I think for me that the biggest challenge is balancing my time and feeling like I'm living my real life and not just on the internet all the time. Um but I am, you know, I'm I'm a little older. I didn't grow up with social media, so I'm trying to get better at it. I'm trying to learn the best ways to reach people and to understand what people want to see on social media. But I'm a big fan of real life too, you know. So like I like performing in in person and uh I like trying to concentrate on what's in front of me. So it all depends. But there's a there's a young singer-songwriter who I met recently. Her name is Jackie Evans. You can check her out online, everybody. It's I think her handle is at Jackie Evans or Jackie Evans Music. But she's very simple. She just posts videos of her playing her songs at the piano, and she's a great singer and a great songwriter and a great piano player. And sometimes it's as simple as that of oh, right, I just want to watch a clip of somebody who's really good at making music that feels good, you know? So uh she's been somebody who's been inspiring me lately.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Yeah, oh I love that. Yeah, I just wrote um down her name to go look her up after.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Yeah, check her out. She's really great.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Cool, I'm excited. Um, yeah. So, what are the songs that make you sing along whenever you hear them?

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Hmm, yeah. Um my daughter is seven and a half, and she says I sing along to too much music, so probably all of it kind of, but yeah, a lot of soul music. I like a lot of older RB and soul music from even before when I was born, so early stuff, the 1950s, 1960s, and 70s. But I love Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel and Bruno Mars writes a lot of catchy, uh catchy songs that are fun to sing along with. I listen to a lot of K-pop Demon Hunters with my daughter, and and uh that's very catchy and and singable. Um but that's the main thing I usually look for in music is is it hummable, is it singable, does it get does it get stuck in my head and make me feel good?

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Yeah. Oh, I love that. Yeah. Yeah, there's so many songs that just always make me sing along, too.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

So is there anything that comes to mind that uh Yeah, there's um oh I will there's a lot of um there's a singer named Asher Angel, who's uh one of my favorites, and yeah, his um music always I will sing along too. Cool.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

So yeah, it's I'm you know, usually if you can tell I'm not in a good mood or I'm having a hard day because I'm not singing something, but usually I'm just singing around the house or in the kitchen or in the shower or walking around. Either I'm working on my own songs and kind of singing them along. That's what I'm doing when I'm writing them, is just seeing if they get stuck in my head or not when when I'm writing them.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Oh, I love that. Yeah. Um so uh if you had a warning label, what would yours say?

SPEAKER_01 11:39

About my whole life?

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Uh yeah, about yeah, you as a person.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

I think mine would probably say warning can be very sarcastic. Um I I'm probably more sarcastic than I would like to be, but I I just am so used to it. And um it's just how I communicate. A lot of times I say the opposite of what I think, you know, like because I'm just being silly. But um if you don't know sarcasm or if you don't know how to read me, or if you just met me, a lot of times people can be confused by me.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

So yeah. I like that one. Yeah, I I can be very sarcastic too. And um I have a good friend of mine, a good friend of mine. Um, he's also very sarcastic, but I can't always tell when he's being sarcastic. Right. So then I have to ask him, and I like I'll say something sarcastically and he'll respond, and I don't know, I don't realize that he's being sarcastic too.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

So I like to be sarcastic and silly, but when I when I don't like it is when I make people feel silly or or dumb for believing me or something. I'm just so used to talking that way, but I don't like to do it to make other people feel um feel dumb.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Yeah. Yeah. Um so what is um the biggest obstacle, either personally or professionally, that you've overcome?

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Hmm. I mean, I think it's mainly just the obstacle is to keep going. It's um in the in the line of work that I do being an artist, I'm the one who gets up in the morning and decides if I want to keep doing it. You know, there's no there's no boss telling me I need to do it or not, and there's no paycheck that I have to go get every time. So I think it's really the hardest part for me over all these years is maintaining the passion. I'm really lucky that I get to do something that I enjoy and that I was doing long before I made money for doing it. But it also can be challenging because some days you don't feel as passionate, or some days I don't feel like being artistic, or and so it you know, and and there can be times where I feel like, oh, nobody cares about what I'm making or what I'm saying, and it can be hard to maintain my motivation, and I think that's the biggest thing that I see across all people that I know that have had some success is just that consistency, the persistency of just continuing to get up and say, you know what, I'm gonna go do this and I'm gonna keep doing it until somebody's interested in it. And honestly, starting my podcast has reminded me a lot of when I first started out in music, and I started with zero listeners, and I said, Well, I'm gonna start this thing and see if I can get anybody to listen to it, my music and now my podcast. And uh, you know, in the meantime, while you're trying to get people to listen to it, hopefully I keep getting better and better at it. So um I think that's it. It's just some days I wake up and I'm like, it's great to be a singer-songwriter. I can't believe how lucky I am. And other days I feel like, what am I doing with my life? You know.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Yeah. Yeah. Um, I actually I wanted to tell you, I saw that your first um podcast guest was Maeem Bialik.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

Um, and I actually I interviewed her a little bit ago. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Yeah, well, she's really nice, and I grew up watching her on TV, and then um we connected through my music. It turned out she had listened to the music and really liked it, and and I reached out and invited her to come to one of my concerts, and she came, and uh, we've just gotten to be friends, you know, a little bit and pen pals, and um I said, Hey, would you do me a favor and come on my podcast? She said, definitely, and she was so sweet about it, and um so that was really nice. It's it's cool to you know, I talk to my daughter a lot about this that not all famous people are nice, you know, and not all great musicians are great people. And uh it's really refreshing when you meet somebody like Mayam who is just a nice person, you know, and she's a normal person and and she's had all these incredible experiences, but she can talk and act and empathize like a human being, which is hard. You know, the fame more famous you get, the more distant you are from the real world.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Yeah, yeah. She um yeah, she's so sweet. I had uh so much fun interviewing her.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Who's like the most who's the most excited you were to interview somebody? Because I obviously you've interviewed so many people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

I mean, uh there's it's everybody I interview. I'm always so excited to talk with. Um, so yeah, I'd have to say everybody.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Okay, everybody, good.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

Yeah. Um so uh I am uh pop culture obsessed and I go in stages of shows that I cannot stop watching. Um is there a show that you are currently obsessed with?

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Yeah, I would say the one I've been obsessed with is I was watching this love story, the JFK Jr. show, which I have mixed feelings about because it's kind of exploitive. But uh I found it really interesting. I thought the performances were really good, and uh I like watching something that's about the 1990s when I was growing up, and the music's really fun and and the acting's really, really good, and and um I live in New York City and it takes place in New York City in the 90s, so it's fun to kind of imagine being there then. Um so that's the show I've been watching lately, and I just finished it last night actually, so I'm gonna have to find something something new to get obsessed with. But I'll tell you the show I'm most obsessed with is there's an older show called Mad Men. That's my favorite show of all time. That's that's about the 1960s and and these men and women that work in an advertising agency in New York. And I probably watched that whole show like four or five times, and and I kind of just get to the end and then I start over and I watch it again kind of just over time. But it's really uh it's my happy place when I'm when I'm watching it.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Yeah. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Have you watched anything good lately?

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Oh, yeah, I um now I'm trying to think. There I've been watching a ton. I um uh I'm sorry, now I'm completely.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Do you do like reality TV shows or you like scripted stuff more?

SPEAKER_00 18:59

Yeah, I like scripted stuff more because I don't know. I just I like getting lost in like a world that's not necessarily real life. Um and uh, but I'm obsessed with um there's a show called Will Trent. Um that I love that show. I love um there's another show called Best Medicine that I'm obsessed with. Um there's so much.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Cool, cool. So it sounds like you kind of like uh those are both kind of a little bit comedic shows, right? Like they've got some funny parts to it.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Yeah. Definitely, yeah. Um and I I'm trying to now think of um what else. But I also love um Paradise, the season finale of that just recently came out. Um it's very uh it's not like a relaxing show to watch. So always after watching an episode of that, I have to watch like uh Will and Grace or something.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Something to come down and feel feel okay with.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

But sometimes those shows or movies that are really stressful, I can actually feel better afterwards because I'm like, oh, thank goodness that's not my life, you know. Yeah, I kind of come out of it and I feel like oh, things aren't so bad for me, you know. I'm not dealing with being stuck in a bunker.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Um, yeah, I actually when you mentioned um Mad Men, I actually I interviewed John Hamm.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Really?

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Yeah, in uh 2020, and he's just he's so nice, he was so fun to talk with.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

That's awesome, yeah. Yeah, he's uh he's so good in in Mad Men and I'm I'm a really big fan of his.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Yeah. Yeah. Um so what uh genre of movie would your life story be told as?

SPEAKER_01 21:15

Interesting. Um I think my my movie would be kind of like what my songwriting is like. Some serious parts, but some funny parts. That's sort of how I see life is life is silly and absurd, and then it has moments of intensity, and kind of when you all put them all back to back, it's it's just a weird world to be living in. So yeah, I think mine would be something in between a comedy and a drama, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Oh, I love that. Yeah, I've um I've always wanted my life story to be both a musical and a rom. Um so my mom actually it was a few months ago we were uh talking with um I met a friend of hers and uh we I don't remember exactly what we were talking about, but my mom was like, you live in a rom-com and I'm like I do, I just am constantly like uh thinking in that way.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

That's a good place to live, you know. Living in a rom com sounds pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Yeah, definitely. Um so if you could give someone in your life a star on the walk of fame, who would it be?

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Someone in my life. Uh I mean I'd probably have to give it to my mom, you know. My mom uh gave me life and uh raised me and supported me with my dad and and uh so yeah, I think my I think my mom will get the star.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Yeah. Oh I love that. Yeah. Yeah. Um so if you had the opportunity to put a message on a billboard for everyone to see, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01 23:31

Um Yeah, I don't know, that's a tough one. I think I'd have two billboards. One billboard would say listen to Songversations with Eric Hutchinson just to be a self-promoter. Uh and I think the other one would be something about uh choose empathy or something like that. I I think that's really for me the key of kindness and peace and all these sort of I think all that stuff comes from uh being able to put yourself in somebody else's shoes, trying to understand how somebody else might feel. So I might need some time to work on the billboard, but it'd be something like you know, choose empathy or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

Oh, I love those. Yeah, yeah. I yeah, there's so many things that um come to mind for me. I have two things that um just come to mind immediately that my mom always said uh growing up. She uh when my sister and I were growing up, she always told us um let your freak flag fly. Um and so I always loved that. And then there's um one of my favorite sh favorite shows is called A Million Little Things. And there's in one episode there's one of the characters just says love each other, and that has always stuck with me too.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

Yeah, that's that's a that's a straight to the point. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

Yeah. Um, yeah, so what's an experience that significantly shaped who you are today?

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Um that's a good question. Um I think just when I was young, I I grew up in a very uh artist-friendly family that really cared about the the arts, and so when I was young I was getting exposed to museums, and I grew up uh outside of Washington, DC, so there was a lot of museums, and I was going to movies and plays and um I think I just grew up thinking the arts were a world that maybe I wanted to live in, you know. I didn't know a lot of professional artists, but there was a lot of appreciation for all those things, and I think when it came time for me to sort of decide what I wanted to do, I I was like, what else would I do but try to create something and and share that with other people.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

Yeah. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Yeah, I was very I was very lucky, you know. It it all it all depends, and I've been very lucky in my life. But yeah, you know, I think I I'm where I am and I'm interested in the things I am because my parents and my family showed them to me and and uh let me get involved.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

Yeah. Oh, I love that. Yeah. Um so what three words best describe you?

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Well, we already said sarcastic, so I think I gotta stick with sarcastic. Um funny and maybe thoughtful, I think would be my three words.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

I try to do things with some thought to them. I try to think about other people. I try to think about how things might play out. So um I think I get spend a lot of time thinking about things, and I think that mix of funny and thinking is what goes into my music mainly.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

Yeah. Oh, I love that. Yeah, I think though those are great words.

unknown 27:52

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

Yeah. Um, so I just have um one final question for you. Um so today, what are you most grateful for?

SPEAKER_01 28:09

Today I I'm grateful for my health and um my family. Like I said, I have a young daughter and and my wife, and um I'm grateful for health is everything, as as I'm sure you know, and um I'm uh just thankful I can get up and do it in the morning and keep going.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

Yeah. Oh, I love that. Yeah. Um, well, that was my final question for you. Um thank you so much for joining me today. I've had the best time talking with you. You've made my day, so thank you.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

Thank you, Maya. This has been a lot of fun. I appreciate you inviting me on and and uh good luck with uh the continued podcast. But like I said, you're you're the podcast expert here, so uh I'll have to get some more tips from you.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

Oh, thank you. Thank you. And um, yeah, I I can't wait to um keep streaming your music and listening to your podcast. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Thanks, Maya.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

Yeah, and I hope you um have a great rest of your day.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

Thank you, you too. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

Thank you. Um and that's a wrap on today's edition of The Latest with Maya.