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Eric Hutchinson embraces industry breakthrough, songwriting


If you go

What: Kelly Clarkson, Eric Hutchinson, Pentatonix

When: 7 p.m. Saturday July 11

Where: Hersheypark Stadium, Hershey

Cost: $25-$95 plus processing fees

For more information: www.hersheyentertainment.com or 717-534-3911

Listen: Listen to Eric Hutchinson on SoundCloud

Every artist has a story for how they broke into the music industry. For Eric Hutchinson, his had to do with Perez Hilton.

Yes, that Perez Hilton.

When Hutchinson released his album "Sounds Like This" independently in 2007, the album got the attention of Hilton. Due to the attention given to it by the blogger, the album moved into the top 10 on iTunes and would be picked up by Warner Brothers Records.

Just like he envisioned it, right?

"One thing I have learned is to stop envisioning how things will go. They never go that way," Hutchinson said. "I've been lucky and it was an exciting time with the Perez stuff. It's all blended, but now I can think back and see how exciting of a time that was. His support meant a lot."

Now, two albums later, Hutchinson is on the road with Kelly Clarkson — an artist he's touring with for the second time.

"Kelly is a friend of mine. She recorded a song of mine on her album. I'm excited to go on tour with her," Hutchinson said of the tour that also includes Pentatonix. "In the early days, I did a ton of opening act stuff, and made a lot of fans. I headlined a lot. When this opportunity came along, I thought it would be a good tour and a chance to make news fans. It's a tour that gets to show what music is all about."

The trio of acts will bring their tour to Hersheypark Stadium on July 11.

For Hutchinson, a Washington D.C. native, he's never had the chance to visit Hershey before, but he's hoping that time will permit him to explore it a bit.

"I had friends that came to Hersheypark, but I never made a trip. It's special to check this one off the bucket list," Hutchinson said. "It would be fun to explore Hersheypark. It's the first day of the tour, so there's a lot going on. If I can sneak away, I will hit it up."

Hutchinson released his latest single called "Good Rhythm," which is on his SoundCloud. He describes it being "different," with people not realizing it is him. Hutchinson wouldn't give the details of his new album yet, but he will be writing his own songs for it again, as he describes himself as a songwriter, not a musician.

"All of my heroes were songwriters. Some were only songwriters like Cole Porter. To me, I'm always interested when people have something to say and can perform it, too. I tell people I'm a songwriter, not a musician because hearing songwriter will make people think I must be fancy," Hutchinson said with a laugh."

Hutchinson, who said his dream collaboration would be with Kanye West and Teagan and Sarah, has also collaborated with a large brand outside of music. He performs the theme music for the award winning ESPN Fantasy Football Focus Podcast featuring Matthew Berry.

"I'm a massive fantasy sports fans — football, baseball and basketball. They were looking for a theme song, so we worked something out. In exchange for the song, I text them and get free fantasy advice," Hutchinson said with a laugh. "I feel like there's no right way to reach new listeners. It used to be MTV or the radio. I find out about music in the mall, friends or commercials. If you're not trying to get into everything, you're missing out."

But spoiler alert to those in Hershey hoping to hear Hutchinson sing the theme song — he won't.

"I don't sing it, but almost every night someone asks for it. It's a cult hit, I guess," Hutchinson said. "That one guy that asks for it doesn't want the wrath of the other fans."

Hutchinson is ready to begin the tour, and despite the hard work that is involved with preparing for it, the end result makes it worth it.

"The hardest part of what I do is maintaining the inspiration from writing the song, to recording it, to singing it every night," Hutchinson said. "The payoff is to have the people sing the song back to me. That's the part that makes it the most fun."