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For one Hilton, it?s all about the music
-Washington Square News
Tyler Hilton is already feeling the effects of his impending fame. And it's not because the 20-year-old California native shares any relation to that other Hilton. No sex tape. At least not yet.
The acoustic-guitar-wielding troubadour already finds his name in the press, but it has more to do with his music than anything else, even his failed romance with actress Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Hitting the shelves on June 15, Hilton's debut album, The Tracks of..., is sweet. The melodies make you want to hum along, and the lyrics are the kind that would make any 15-year-old girl sob. Watch out John Mayer, your little brother's all grown up and plans to make a move on your honey. (And, as we've seen, he already has.)
The comparisons may seem like an exaggeration, but Hilton seems ready. And in a way, they are inevitable because of the kind of pop Hilton and Mayer produce: easy on the ears, completely non-threatening and very melodic.
"It's weird now, because when people describe music they want to latch onto something," Hilton said of the comparison. "And if it wasn't John Mayer, then it'd be I'm Jason Mrazy. But John and I do have a lot in common: We are both tall and play acoustic guitar."
Right now, though, Hilton is more focused on touring than with whom he is being compared. His past tours include the Virgin College Mega Tour with Michelle Branch, Gavin DeGraw and Rooney. Now he's back on the road by himself, but when asked for any juicy gossip about his past tour-mates he only had good things to say.
"These [new] kids are hilarious and a blast," he said. "Everyone is so nice. And it's fun to be working, but at nighttime I'm just like, 'Where are we gonna party?'"
Many times, it seems, the party is right on the bus, where the vices flow like the River Thames.
"In my tour bus alone we ship in heroine and cocaine and these green and black pills that are somewhere between uppers and downers," Hilton said. "They make me do some crazy stuff. In the end, I just want to be a hero for rehab. Is that too mush to ask?"
Yet when it comes down to it, Hilton is not just about the partying, but also about making people really feel something. He described The Tracks Of... as "on the most part very optimistic. I can't seem to find that fun, cool, optimistic record out there, so that's the mood. It's gonna be released in the summer, so it's kind of like that 'Remember when we made out to that song?' album."
He writes about these kinds of growing experiences on songs like "Rolling Home," one of Hilton's favorite on the album. It was written about a European trip he took with a friend.
"It best shows my memory of Europe," he said. "We were trying to live that blues life and that song is every color of the picture of that trip."
But, like most 20-year-olds, Hilton takes some time to think about what he really wants to do with the rest of his life. After some deliberation and a dab of lunch he has a pretty good idea of where he wants his career to go.
"I want to finish my potato salad and then after this do more tours," he said. "And the album comes out in June, so I don't know... Tour the rest of my life since it is what I've always wanted to do? I'm pretty sure I want to do this forever." ?
