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Hawthorne Heights – If Only You Were Lonely

January 23, 2006 By Joe Kominowski Leave a Comment

Hawthorne Heights

Artist: Hawthorne Heights
Album: If Only You Were Lonely
Label: Victory
Purchase: Smart Punk
Release Date: February 28, 2006

Overall: 9.3
Music: 9.4
Lyrics: 9.4
Production: 9.2

Hawthorne Heights burst onto the music scene two years ago with their release of “The Silence in Black and White”. With a similar sound to such bands as Taking Back Sunday, Senses Fail, and My Chemical Romance the guys cashed in on the screamcore scene that was forming. With the huge success of their single, “Ohio is For Lovers” not to mention all the nonstop touring with everyone from Spitalfield to Fall Out Boy and appearances on Warped Tour everyone now knows the melodic band from Ohio. This sophomore album is the product of all the hardwork and aspiration the guys put into playing music they are passionate about.

The new album opens with the track, “This is Who We Are”. It opens with a pounding guitar solo before giving way to the soft vocals of JT Woodruff. I have always enjoyed Hawthorne Heights because of the balance between the higher pitched soft vocals of JT and the background screams and this track highlights that superb balance. The next track, “We Are So Last Year” is by far my favorite. The verse is upbeat and the chorus has the most unforgettable lyrics on the album. Woodruff sings, “I just wanted you to know/ I think about you every night/ when I fall asleep/ you were in my dreams/ just like in a movie/ the one you want to see/ with the happy ending.” I also loved the softer sung chorus in the bridge of this one because it drives the lyrical aspects of the song home. The next track, “Language Lessons (5 words or less)” demonstrates Hawthorne Height’s ability to layer its music. With the dual guitar work you can hear the delicate stability between the two. They also work with the background vocals having JT sing the main as well as softer background instead of using the screams. They also have that typical HH sound in the real soft slower bridges. The track “Saying Sorry” was selected as the first single and the video can already be seen on various webpages (AOL music). In the video the guys are wearing white and playing in the clouds as a version of heaven. It’s a pretty trippy rocking video and an excellent pick as the first single. Once again the way the guys turn it from hardrock to soft vocals and the vocal delivery in the chorus makes this song a standout. Woodruff sings, “Saying goodbye/ this time/ the same old story/ seeing you cry/ makes me feel like saying sorry”. They also have the background screams accent the perfect lines to drive home the message. In “Breathing Sequence” the song opens with that all too familiar dark intro before giving way to the dual guitar action and Woodruff’s soothing vocals accenting the verses. The vocal deliver changes so much from the soft first verse to the driving chorus to the fast paced delivery seen in the second verse it constantly kept me on the edge. There is also a very sinister undertone to the whole song that keeps it interesting. Another musical highlight of this record is the song, “Light Sleeper” which opens with that slow moving guitar riff and Woodruff’s comforting vocals before cranking it up and rocking it out. The chorus grabbed my attention and hooked itself in with a great melody and a sensational beat. The song then closes the same way it started very gentle and relaxing. The album closes with the song, “Decembers” which features, believe it or not, a piano and some acoustic guitars. This closing song demonstrates once again how far HH have come since “Silence in Black and White”. Woodruff sings, “You don’t have to speak because/ I can hear your heartbeat/ fluttering like a butterfly/ searching for a drink”. Unquestionably a song like this didn’t appear on the last album and it shows how the guys have made that attempt to grow musically and lyrically.

As I compare “If Only You Were Lonely” to “Silence in Black and White” the immediate thought that comes to mind is that they’ve definitely stuck to their hard rocking roots. In my opinion, however, this album is above and beyond the last album. I found “Silence in Black and White” a little too rough on the ear drums at times. It seemed as if they were just using the throaty screams to add that dimension to their music. On “IOYWL” the screams were only used to accent the message and bring in that added dimension of emotion and angst. Midway through the last album it also seemed like all the songs sort of started to blend into each other while on this album each song stands alone. Hawthorne Heights have definitely progressed musically and lyrically and this album is going to be one of the hardest rocking emotionally driven albums of the year.

Track Listing
1. This is Who We Are
2. We Are So Last Year
3. Language Lessons (5 words or less)
4. Pens and Needles
5. Saying Sorry
6. Dead in the Water
7. I Am on Your Side
8. Breathing in Sequence
9. Light Sleeper
10. Cross Me Off Your List
11. Where Can I Stab Myself in the Ears
12. Decembers

Standout Tracks
“Light Sleeper”, “We Are So Last Year”, “Saying Sorry”

Filed Under: Album, Reviews Tagged With: Hawthorne Heights, Victory Records

theAudition Interview December 15th, 2005

December 26, 2005 By Trevor Bivens Leave a Comment

The Audition

I sat down with Ryan, the drummer for theAudition, at the Masquerade in Atlanta, Georgia.
I can’t urge you enough to listen to this band. Their album is amazing, and they sound even better live.

Trevor: Alright. First off, why are you guys so damn catchy?

(Laughter)

Ryan: I have no idea. I don’t know. We put a lot of work into our vocals. Danny and I write the lyrics. Then we write the song with all the instruments and we work really hard on vocals until we’re happy with them. We like catchy songs. We write what we like. We like all kinds of different types of music. We like pop music. We like writing things you could sing along to, basically. That’s probably the best answer for that.

Trevor: What was the recording process like for “Controversy Loves Company?

Ryan: We started writing about November of last year, after we got signed to Victory. We wrote for about three months, then we went into the studio in April for a month. We tracked drums, then guitar, bass, and vocals. It was a long process but we recorded with John Naclerio who was our producer and he made us feel really comfortable. He did other bands like My Chemical Romance, Brand New, and Just Surrender. There’s a lot of pressure when you go to write your first CD, but John just made it really easy for us. We hung out and it was a lot of fun. A lot went into it, but it was easier than we thought it would be.

Trevor: Shance C. Drake did your video for “You’ve Made Us Concious.” Were you guys attracted to him? What made you want to work with him?

Ryan: Basically, we’d seen the videos he’d done: Hawthorne Heights, Fall Out Boy, Paramore. Seeing the work he’d done before, we thought he was great. He wanted to shoot our video and agreed with the concept of it. He helped us out a lot. He’s a cool dude. He’s really chill and a lot of fun.

Trevor: Were you guys pleased with the outcome of the video?

Ryan: Yeah, you know. You look at it and you say, “You could’ve done this.” or “You could’ve done that,” but at the time it’s a music video and you’re pleased with it.

Trevor: I’ve probably watched that video a million times.

Ryan: You like it?

Trevor: Yeah, it’s very well done. I think I first went to that website for the Paramore video.

Ryan: That video is awesome.

Trevor: Yeah, they’re good kids. I saw your video on there, though and was like, “Oh, I didn’t know they had a video for this song. That’s awesome.”

Ryan: Thank you man, we appreciate it.

Trevor: You guys have been on the road with Spitalfield for a couple of months now. How are the kids responding at shows? How often did you play out of Chicago before you got signed?

Ryan: Before we got signed, we did a lot of mid-west stuff. We never really went to the West Coast at all and we never went to the East Coast at all. We did Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, but we never went into Minnesota much. Getting out..we’ve been on a few tours now, and a bunch with Spitalfield. It’s really cool, because those guys are awesome. We’re sort of the same style of music, so it fits well, and the kids are getting into it, so that’s cool.

Trevor: Are you a Bob Nanna fan?

Ryan: I listen to Hey Mercedes. I liked Hey Mercedes back in the day when I was a little bit younger, but Bob’s a cool guy.

Trevor: You toured with City on Film, right?

Ryan: Yeah, yeah. It was us, them, Down to Earth Approach, Somerset, and Spitalfield. It was a good tour.

Trevor: For me that would be overwhelming. I don’t know. I’m a huge Braid fan.

Ryan: Yeah.

Trevor: He’s been doing it for a while now. Just the fact you guys were touring with him. I don’t know. I’d get like, starstruck or something.

Ryan: Yeah. It’s not like that because he’s such a normal dude to me.

Trevor: He’s from Chicago, so I’m sure that has something to do with it.

Ryan: Yeah, definitely. He’s from like, two towns away from me. He’s a really cool dude to tour with.

Trevor: Any weird tour stories? I read one about some kid breaking into a house..?

Ryan: Oh yeah. We were staying..where were we? We were on tour with Aiden, The Hurt Process, and the Junior Varsity back in July. We were in North Carolina, I think, and this kid invited us to his house afterwards. We walk into this house, this big mansion. This nice, huge house. For this eighteen year old kid to have, we’re all like, “This is kind of weird.” So we’re just hanging out, partying kind of, and we look at the pictures on the wall. His face wasn’t in any of the pictures.

(Laughter)

Ryan: So we figured he was squatting on the house, and like, broke in or something. Any other weird stories, though? I was just thinking about this today and now I can’t remember. A lot of weird stuff happens, though. I don’t know. I can’t think of any right now.

Trevor: What are you planning for the holidays?

Ryan: We play in St. Louis the 20th. Then we’ll be home the 21st in the morning and we have to practice all day the 21st. We have a show with our friends theAcademyIs…, The Hush Sound, and The Junior Varsity at “The Metro” in Chicago on the 22nd. Then we have a week or so off. We’re playing a show in Detroit then ending the year in Chicago on the 30th. So we have like two weeks off, then we start a tour off with June, Small Towns Burn a Little Slower, and Forgive Durden January 6th.

Trevor: Anything planned after that tour? Anything for the new year?

Ryan: Yeah, we’re going on tour with Mae, right after that. It’s more of a West Coast thing. We’re kind of booked up until March.

Trevor: Are you going to do Warped Tour any this year?

Ryan: I’m sure we’ll do some Warped Tour. It’d be awesome.

Trevor: Warped Tour is another one of those things where you’re probably going to get starstuck at some point.

Ryan: Oh for sure. All of those bands..some from ten years ago. Bands that are huge now. There’s going to be a ton of people. We’re looking forward to it and spreading our music through more kids.

theAudition
Victory Records

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: The-Audition, Victory Records

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