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Q&A // TYLER HILTON — ACTOR, MUSCIAN
because we have questions. celebrities have answers.
// MARY HENDERSON
Although you might not recognize his name, Tyler Hilton has accomplished a lot in his career. He's acted alongside Robert Downey, Jr. in Charlie Bartlett and Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line, written songs with Lady Antebellum, and played One Tree Hill's bad boy, Chris Keller. Now, he's set to go on tour with Spill Canvas, supporting his new EP, Ladies and Gentlemen, coming out next Tuesday, April 20.
Why did you decide to put out a five-song EP instead of a whole album?
five-song EP instead of a whole album?
Tyler Hilton I'm going to put out the whole album, The Storms We Share, sometime in the late summer. But instead of putting all the songs out together, I want to give each song its day. I've been working on this record for so long that it feels weird to just to put them all out at once. I put out the first song, "Keep On," and I'll probably put another one out in the next couple of months.
JP You played in Lawrence in 2005 on the One Tree Hill tour with The Wreckers. Do you remember your time in Lawrence?
TH: Lawrence is like Vegas to me. Every time I'm in Lawrence, I party so hard ... [laughs] I just can't remember. I'm sure if I drive through there again, I'll be like "oh yeah."
A man of many talents Tver Hilton not only writes his own songs, but performs them on guitar, and has collaborated with Lady Antebellum. He even delivered a bit into the world of acting, starring as Chris Keller on "One Tree Hill." Hilton has played a show in Lawrence before, and enjoys interacting with the college crowd
JP How do you plan to market your music to the college crowd?
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TH. I have people who help me at the label and have different things they think would be really cool, like certain blogs that would be great to post my music on or certain interviews at different colleges like this. But my main thing is that I love touring. I think the reason my music connects with college kids is because live music seems to be really important. I think college kids would rather I play a show than come do a signing or come do an interview. For some reason, college kids are the most interesting musical audience to me. They're the most questioning, the most ambitious and the biggest risk takers music-wise. I feel honored to have them come to my show.
Who has been your favorite collaborator so far?
TH: It has to be Lady Antebellum. We were all friends and we lived together in Nashville a few years ago. They were just kind of hanging out and writing songs. They were cool enough to let me record a song I wrote with them called "Ain't A Thing," and they came in and sang on it. It's so funny that my friends are doing so well.
JP You write a lot of songs about girls. Has anyone written a song about you?
TH: I had some girls write some songs about me, which is pretty cool because I'm always writing songs about other people. It's super flattering. It's like you're immortalized. I wouldn't mind having a song written about me in a bad way either, like "you're an
asshole." That's cool. I guess I was such an important asshole in their life that they wrote a song about me. I think girls should feel the same way when I've written songs about them.
JP If you hit random on your iPod, what comes up first?
TH. I'll do it right now. I hope it's not something embarrassing, but if it is, whatever, we're just going to go with it. We'll let everyone in Kansas know who I really am. It's Vampire Weekend's "Horchata." Killer song.
JP What's your favorite Robert Downey, Jr.
movie?
TH: I need to refresh my brain on Robert Downey, Jr. movies, because I'm going to make the answer a little more interesting than his best movie he's ever done, Charlie Bartlett. That's so far ahead of every movie he's ever done that we won't count that as an actual movie. It's more of a piece of art. You know what my favorite movie he's ever done is? Bar None.
JP Anything else you would like to add?
TH: I have a very special message for the kids at the University of Kansas. Let's be Twitter friends. It's *atyrbellion*. Let's put all the differences aside and be Twitter friends.
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