Today, James spent a few minutes on the phone with Micah from Hawthorne Heights and the contents of that conversation can be found below. Be sure to check out the band’s new album, Fragile Future [our review will be up soon]!

J: Hey Micah, how’s your day been going?

HH: Pretty good. We’re in Denver and we had a great show.

J: You guys have been on Projekt Revolution for awhile now, how’s that been going?

HH: It’s been a great tour thus far. There are 2 weeks left, but the shows have been fantastic. Lots of great fans and Linkin Park is amazing live.

J: How have the fans be reacting to the new songs? I know the sound is a bit different so I was curious to see if they are as accepting.

HH: It seems very receptive. We’re doing 2 new songs [only 30min. set]. People have been getting really into them and we’re already seeing people sing along.

J: It’s weird because you just released your first album in a long time, but you guys never really went away. How did you manage to stay in the “scene” so well without putting out really anything new?

HH: It does feel like a long time. We weren’t sure what to expect after such a long break, but our fans have been devoted. They’ve been wanting more material and they were patient. You grow out of some bands, but our fans haven’t yet.

J: Okay, enough on where you’ve been, let’s talk about where you are. The new album just came out. Why did you choose Fragile Future as the title?

HH: JT came up with the title. it’s a good description of where we’ve been and are as a band. We didn’t know if there would be another record or if we’d be a band still after Casey. On a larger scale, with everything going on in our nation and world, it just felt like the right title.

J: How many of these songs did you have written before entering the studio? I know there’s been a lot going on, so I wondered like what you kept and tossed when you hit the studio.

HH: A good way to say it is that we are always writing. Not full songs always, but at least lyric or riff chunks. Prior to entering the studio, we had a large bank of unfinished material. Like 20 or 30 songs that weren’t complete, but rather in these small chunk forms. Since we are always write, we worked on those, but we also kept adding new material to the pile. However, at some point you got to make a cut and we did that. We used a good chunk of newer material because I think it was better based on what happened. There’s probably no songs that made the record as they were written if they were over a year old.

J: Given all you’ve gone through with Casey and Victory and all the press surrounding you, you guys have kept your cool pretty much no matter what was thrown you way. How do you manage to keep yourselves out of all the drama and gossip and do you address all this on the record?

HH: Luckily, a lot of people were understanding of all we’ve been. Regardless of being a fan or not, they had kind words to say to us. To be honest, going through this all, we didn’t really care what was being said because we were going through it first hand. We dealt with it ourselves and then moved on.

J: It seems that this album finds you trying out some softer styles as well as a more rock driven sound. Was this an intentional transition or just how things came out?

HH: Our goal was to have a bit more diversity. So I think we hit our mark there as there is a lot of diversity. We kept a lot of the elements that make us Hawthorne Heights, but we also experimented a bit. Different layering and instruments.

J: What does the fall hold for Hawthorne Heights?

HH: Right now, we’re in the process of lining up a fall tour. After Revolution we’ll take a few weeks off. Then we’ll do some spot dates. After that, we will be on a headlining run. Should be about 6 or 7 weeks.

J: Now if you had to sell people on the new album in one sentence, how would you do it? you’re not selling to a prior fan, but rather someone whose never heard you or liked you before.

HH: It’s a catchy rock record that keeps you on your toes. It has a lot of elements you might not expect and that makes it engaging.

J: Instead of a final question, we prefer to let you make a closing statement. The podium i yours, any last remarks?

HH: I never use to have a high opinion of Hannah Montana. However, after meeting Miley Cyrus in person, she is a very sweet girl and I may have judged her too soon. We did F’n MTV and she was on as well, so we got to hang out and she’s actually kinda cool.

J: On behalf of Under The Gun Review I just want to thank you and Annamarie at Victory for taking the time to work with us and I can’t wait to see what you guys do next.

HH: Yea dude, no problem.

J: Sounds awesome, thank you so much.

HH: Thank you.

*Written By: James Shotwell*

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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