// INTERVIEW
Every once in a while, in Hollywood, we get to meet and interact with the ?next big thing?. Cute brunette, 20-year-old singer/actor Tyler Hilton just may fit that bill. His album ?The Tracks Of Tyler Hilton? came out this week and is full of clever lyrics and singable tunes that mix enthusiastic pop with folk, travellin? songs and a twinge of country. AGW attended Tyler?s CD launch party at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood. Here?s the scene. At least a hundred teens and young adults who?ve already caught the Hilton (no relation to Paris) bug packed in to see their boy in the flesh. Well, make that classic western shirt with snap buttons, jeans and very old worn black Converse All Star tennies.
This boy has guts. Although his album includes plenty of accompaniment, Tyler just hit the stage with his acoustic guitar alone?no doctored, engineered show here, just a guy and his tunes. The audience, which included a few 80 somethings who must have been Tyler?s grandparents, and fellow Maverick recording artist Michelle Branch, was appreciative.
While patting his tennie-clad foot in time to his music, Hilton opened with a tune about California and followed with ?Glad? and ?The Letter Song? from his album. He stopped to tell us a story about getting up at 5:30 on release day morning to get to the music store to buy his new CD and the clerk telling him ?Dude, we haven?t even stocked the shelves yet?. He followed up with his road song ?Rollin? Home?, changed guitars and played the girls? fave ?Kiss on Me?. At one point he got feedback but very professionally just turned to the side, preventing it and sang on. Tyler finished his set with his newly-learned rendition of Jo Jo?s ?Leave (Get Out)? and ended with the most catchy song on his CD ?When it Comes?. Then, it was off to catch a plane back to Wilmington, Delaware where he is shooting six guest episodes of the popular TV series ?One Tree Hill?.
While Tyler was still on the ?One Tree Hill? set last week, we spoke with him by phone.
AGW: I hear you?re playing young Elvis in the Johnny Cash movie Walk the Line?
Tyler: Yup. I just finished filming that this summer.
AGW: Was that a dream of yours? What?s your history with Elvis?
Tyler: He?s always been my musical idol, as a kid especially. I really loved everything about Elvis ? his hair, the way he talked, his eyes, the magic of the young Elvis. I just thought ?what a cool guy?. At one point I thought my dream would be to play the young Elvis up until he goes to war and I just thought that would be the coolest thing ever. So when this movie came along and they were casting and I heard there was the part of Elvis I was like ?oh that might be cool?. Then when they offered me the part I was like ?I don?t know if I can have this pressure on me? playing young Elvis or just being one of the guys to play Elvis at all.
AGW: So actually ?being? your idol kind of freaked you out?
Tyler: Well, I was especially nervous because I was a fan and I would have gone to the theatre to watch someone play Elvis and been like ?nope not right, nope not right? and I?m thinking ?how am I going to do this? I?m going to be so critical?. So I took the part and I studied. If I studied in school the way I studied for this Elvis [part] I would have been President of the United States.
AGW: Are you going up for a guest gig on ?One Tree Hill??
Tyler: Yeah. I?m here now. I think it might be like 5 or 6 [episodes].
AGW: Are you singing in it?
Tyler: Yeah. I?m singing in it too. I just finished my first episode yesterday ? I was so nervous. I wouldn?t have been if I wasn?t a fan of the show. What happened was I got on the set Friday and I didn?t know anybody on the set and I didn?t even watch the show before and I thought I should get some back episodes so I can get caught up. So they gave me episodes 1-6 to watch and I was so hooked, I love the show. Then I got on set Monday and instead of strangers that happen to be really good-looking they were the characters. I was thinking ?I can?t go do a scene with Payton and Hayley? and I was just freaking out.
AGW: Have you gotten any acting training yet?
Tyler: I had a really good acting teacher and I had really good acting training when I was in high school. But it?s been two years and I haven?t focused much on it and my head?s been in such a musical space for so long. TV is worse than movies in the sense that there is no rehearsal time. In movies there was very, very little but in TV there?s none. In theatre there was so much rehearsal time and thinking about the character. I think I?ll be better in the next episode.
AGW: Some of your songs have been called Road Trip music. What songs would you burn for your own Road trip CD?
Tyler: My favourite thing when I?m driving is albums that are good. The FULL album. I listen to some albums. The other night we were driving to Wilmington to film the show and my dad and his girlfriend Sue and my friend Curtis were all sleeping ? it was my turn to drive ? so from 11:30 at night until 3:00 in the morning I was driving and I got to listen to four albums in a row and that was the best driving music. It was a CD called ?Poetry and Airplanes?, the new Hanson CD, and this guy named Dan Dyer who I was on tour with and his album just came out in stores. There was another one but I can?t remember. I try to limit myself to buying one album a week. I just bought the old Oasis album. After that road trip I just thought I gotta go out an buy a bunch of great albums.
AGW: You grew up in Palm Springs - which is a getaway destination for some people. So where did you go to get away?
Tyler: We used to go a lot up to Big Bear and we went up to LA a lot. I really like the Desert . I have a lot of good memories from high school but just to live there, especially as a musician or somebody who wants to work in Entertainment, there?s just not a lot of opportunity. You go there to relax. LA just seemed like ? I gotta go there.?
AGW: How old were you when you wrote your first song? What was it about?
Tyler: My first real song I wrote in 8th grade and my friend was just going on about this girl that was breaking his heart and for some reason I thought I had done it a hundred times and I said you should write a song and play it for her. He was a really great musician. So we wrote this song for her and she loved it and he won her back.
AGW: So you played Cupid. You?re only 20 but you sure do have an insight into what happens between couples. Where does that come from?
Tyler: Well I?m trying to cut back because I probably fall in love about once a day.(laughs) I shouldn?t and I try not to but it happens and I?m trying not to because I?ll be obsessed for like a second or maybe sometimes it?s a relationship that lasts months. Whatever they are I always manage to get myself into something like that and then a song comes out of it.
AGW: What weird object have you written down lyrics on?
Tyler: I think it was like the Sunday New York paper and I wrote the lyrics down on the front page but I carried the whole thing with me. I also wrote it down on the side of a box one time and carried the side of the box with me.
AGW: What?s your weirdest or most touching fan encounter?
Tyler: I had this girlfriend once that was on TV (could this be Jennifer Love Hewitt whom he dated?) and I met this fan once that happened to be a big fan of hers and she was telling me that she was a big fan and asked me where I got this watch I was wearing and I said that my girlfriend had given it to me as a Christmas present ? the fan freaked out in a way I had never seen anybody freak out before and she told everybody in line where this watch came from. She said ?I know I?m annoying you and I?m such a scary fan right now but you have to understand this will only happen once in my lifetime and I have to do it?. What do you say to that? So I just let her stand there and do it but I was like ?Oh, geez.?
AGW: What do you think you do really well? And what do you think you do pretty badly?
Tyler: I know what I do well- I juggle. I don?t play sports well. Okay, I?m great at ping-pong but other than that, I?m really bad at sports in general. The bummer is that I really love to play them.
AGW: Are you hooked on travelling to inspire your songs?
Tyler: I was backpacking through Europe to live the blues experience. I really like to travel, my mom would travel with us a lot when we were kids.
AGW: Where would you like to go that you haven?t been yet?
Tyler: Ireland. I would love to do the same thing I did in Europe but spend some more time in Ireland.
AGW: Okay, we have to ask. Have you ever met Paris or Nicky?to whom you are not related?
Tyler: (laughs) I?ve never met Nicky but I have met Paris a couple of times. We met at the Teen Choice Awards. I didn?t know she knew who I was but she was telling me that she and Nicky saw me in magazines and I just thought that was so flattering. We?ve hung out a couple of times since and I just get such a kick of her introducing me.
AGW: Did you call the Mark and Brian radio show and just start singing? What happened there?
Tyler: They were giving away tickets to a Jonny Lang show and I wanted to get tickets and I called them up and I sang one of my songs. They said ?call in tomorrow? and I played one of my songs until eventually they said ?you should just come on the show?.
AGW: What were you listening to when you were younger? Just Elvis?
Tyler: Yeah, there was a lot of Elvis. I really liked old music, I really liked old folk and I really liked blues. We listened to a lot of like Jackson Brown kind of country. We just sang a lot in my family and played a lot of guitar so anything we could cover we would do. I really liked Jazz too, the old stuff like Dixieland and swing. I got into that because I needed music for my juggling routine in middle school.
AGW: Who are you dying to sing a duet with?
Tyler: Jack White. I don?t think I?m going to meet him. I don?t think I?m cool enough to meet him. I just think he?s the coolest guy out there. I would also really dig singing with Patti Griffin because I think she?s an amazing folk artist.
AGW: What qualities should a girl have for you to date her and where would you take her on a first date?
Tyler: I think she should have a sense of humor. I do think intelligence is really sexy. I really like to read and I like girls who like to read and know things. A girl that is not too shy and has class. If I find this girl that I just described to you, I would really want to go pick her up and take her to dinner and then take her to see a movie. I just missed that whole classic thing.
AGW: What is your song writing process? Do you think of the lyrics first or the music first?
Tyler: Usually music first but sometimes it just all comes. I usually write lyrics down on paper. I?ve tried carrying around recorders but I usually lose them.
AGW: What is your favourite track on your album?
Tyler: It changes, right now my favourite song is ?Kiss On Me?. Every single song is my favourite on a different day. I really like them all and I?m really proud of the album. I can say that because it wasn?t just me working on the album.
AGW: Have your songs been on movie soundtracks?
Tyler: I know I?m singing some songs for Walk the Line. On ?One Tree Hill? there?s a lot of my songs. This new show ? ?Desperate Housewives?- I think it?ll be on that show somewhere.
AGW: What is your favourite movie of all time?
Tyler: My favourite movie, like my favourite artist or book, changes all the time too. Right now I?m really digging Rebel Without A Cause. My favourite movie for the year is Buffalo Soldiers. I saw it on HBO and I was like ?I love this movie.?
AGW: What is the theme song of your life?
Tyler: It?s by this guy named Andreas Johnson. I think the song actually ended up on a car commercial. The first song on his album is called ?Glorious? and your blood is pumping just listening to it. It?s so exciting and so traumatic and emotional at the same time. It?s such a fast song. Every time I listen to that I think about driving really fast down an open road at night.
AGW: And what do you drive down that road?
Tyler: I?m driving the same thing I was in high school. It?s my favourite thing of all time. It?s a 1982 Oldsmobile. It?s huge. I?m a big advocate of saving the environment and saving gas so if I can afford it, my next car will be a hybrid. When I bought this car I wasn?t as conscious and it was the only thing I could afford but I just grew to love it. I just wanted a blues man?s car and I?ve spent many nights in it.
AGW: What comes next for you?
Tyler: I?m just basing myself out of Wilmington for the next couple of months (for One Tree Hill). AGW: Do you have a message for your fans? Tyler: The Rock the Vote tour is the big thing I?m working on this Fall. So I want to say [if you are old enough] register to vote! Even if you just register, politicians will see younger people registering and will speak more to us.
