Infectious Magazine interviews Eron Bucciarelli of Hawthorne Heights to pick his mind on MTV,  local shows,  tour dates and guilty pleasures! Check it out below.

Infectious Magazine: Years ago, you were stating your shock at being on MTV,  magazine covers, etc. Having been several years now and with your growing success-is it still a lot to take in?

Eron Bucciarelli: Well absolutely it’s a lot to take in. Now it’s almost like-it’s weird because now we’re established artists, we’re 5 albums into our career and it’s a much bigger deal now than it was before. Before we didn’t really know if we were going to be around and we are almost a ‘classic’ band I guess some people would say. I don’t know, it’s weird. It’s cool to still be here, I’ll tell you that.

IM: You’ve made note that when growing up, the music scene mainly consisted of hardcore shows, and to a degree it still does. How was the struggle of being an up and coming band at that time?

EB: I think you only have that local hardcore scene, or local underground community in certain places in this country. It’s not as pervasive as it once was. Now, most venues are Ticketmaster or Livenation run and they aree more or less concerts as opposed to a kid renting out a VFW hall, throwing a show for 5 bucks and having 5 local bands, maybe one national band, and there would be 500 people there. You don’t see that anymore.

IM: I wish you did!

EB: I wish you did too. Every once in a while we’ll be fortunate enough to actually play a show like that. We did in our video for “Four White Walls” there’s this little place in the middle of nowhere in Kentucky that still has a real good DIY scene and when you play there, as you can see in the video, it’s just utter chaos. Just tons of people packed into the smallest room ever, going absolutely apeshit and having the time of their life. And that’s how music really should be as opposed to putting on whatever kind of clothes or make up or doing your hair a certain way in order to be cool for that moment in time, whatever the ‘it’ thing is. Now, it seems like a lot of the newer bands are sort of getting back to that. The scene that I grew up in where music was more about the message and it was more about supporting the overall music community as opposed to just following a trend. It’s refreshing in my mind. So yeah, I guess I didn’t really answer your question, I apologize. I think it’s definitely, you’re seeing a huge kickback now because of how things have gotten and it’s almost like we went through another hair metal phase and this is the rebellion against that, is getting back to the real music and a message behind the music, which is refreshing.

IM: Similarly, you’ve been outspoken about your struggles with labels and getting to a point where you’ve “made it”. Do you have plans, other than offering advice, to help out local bands and give back in that way?

EB: Yeah. Well, when we started our new label, Cardboard Empire, the intention was to not only release our own music but other bands as well and we’re actually hopefully going to be announcing our first signing this week. So, we’re going to definitely try to take it to the next level, try to help out some bands and have some fun in the process. We’ll see what happens. I just-I don’t want to do any of the bad things that have happened to us to these bands. But I feel like we do have a lot of wisdom and music industry knowledge and connections that we can effectively help another band out.

IM: I think that’s why you will do it better. Because you don’t want to put other bands through [what you have been through], and you’ll put more heart into it.

EB: That’s the plan, ha ha.

IM: You’ve talked about creating shorter albums so that all the songs get recognition, as opposed to getting lost in the mix. What are some songs, both of yours and other artists that you think haven’t gotten the recognition you’d like them to?

EB: Let’s see. There is one example and it isn’t that I want people to specifically go out and check this song out, but there is instances where we’ll play a song that’s like, track 9 or 10 on the The Silence Of Black And White and people will stand there and look at us like it’s a brand new song and it’s on an album that’s sold almost a million copies and it’s like alright, if people don’t know this song and it’s obviously had way more exposure than any of our newer stuff since then really there is no hope for anybody to, or any reason for anybody to record over 8 songs and release them, because nobody is going to listen to it. So, from our standpoint it just made more sense to just say ‘alright, lets focus everyone’s attention on 5-8 songs’ and hopefully make people want to hear more as a result.

IM: What is your guilty pleasure?

EB: My guilty pleasure is chocolate. I love chocolate and we’re staying at a Double Tree tonight, so they have fresh cookies and they’re amazing. So, totally, I have a sweet tooth. Absolutely a guilty pleasure.

IM: What is one question you’d like to be asked but never have been and what is the answer?

EB: Let’s see, let me think. I think I would just prefer somebody that does a little more research other than a Wikipedia. Because, I feel like a lot of the main things that are on Wikipedia aren’t 100% factual to begin with, so, to base it in an interview or your own questions around that seems a little juvenile. So, I definitely prefer and respect that you’ve asked me questions pertaining to things, that obviously you’ve read some of our more recent interviews and done more research, so I appreciate that.

IM: Thank you! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

EB: Please please please go out and check out either on Spotify or iTunes or from our webstore, check out our new album called Hate. We love that people love our old music but without the support of our new music we can’t continue to play the old songs, so, please check them out. I think you’ll find that they’re every bit as emotional and every bit as powerful as any of our old stuff. So don’t let nostalgia and love for the past blind you to possibly liking something new. After that, we have a couple other big announcements. We’re going to be starting to record our next EP in a few days, as soon as we get home from this tour, we’re going to be starting the second annual “Strip Down To The Bone” acoustic tour, that will start April 1^st until about the 21^st.and then we’re going to come back this summer on a full US headlining tour, and we’re going to have some really good bands with us and it should be a lot of fun.

IM: Thank you very much!

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