Hawthorne Heights Paid Their Dues On The Road, Not MySpace

Looking at Hawthorne Heights' somewhat rapid rise to fame, you would think that they've come out of nowhere. But their success is due largely to their dedication to their fans. As drummer Eron Bucciarelli says, they've paid their dues.

"I don't really take offence to anybody saying we don't pay our dues or anything like that, and if they're saying that then they don't really know us. I've played in punk and hardcore bands since I was 13 years old. We've been around for three years, and before that was A Day In The Life, and we'd been around for two years before that.

"We've played our share of basement shows, and we've done the tours where we drive eight hours to show up and there's five people there. I don't really see those statements applying to us, and if someone does say that about us, they're misinformed."

Bucciarelli's agitation seems warranted, as most people who bash Hawthorne Heights claim that they're a "MySpace band" who only got popular via the internet.

"It might account for a fraction of our success," Bucciarelli reasons. "It seems that every interview we do we get people asking us about MySpace and it being the reason behind our success, and to do that is to completely ignore that we toured for three straight years.

"To focus on MySpace, then you're sort of neglecting the years of hard work that we've put in, all the miles we've racked up on our van and our bus, all the people we've gone and hung out with after shows and before shows."

Maintaining that connection between the band and their fans is their top priority.

"Every time we go out and play, whenever our schedule permits, we try to get out there after we're done and hang out with or meet them, or sign autographs, because we realize that they're the reason we're playing here," Bucciarelli says. "Whenever we can, we like to hang out with our fans.

"We like to do meet-and-greets and that sort of thing. Sometimes I'll just go out to our merch table and hang out. We have a very close relationship with our fans, and I think it's a huge part of our success.

"I come from the world of underground hardcore, and the bands you'd see were no better than you yourself. They weren't rock stars, they were just people like me playing music, and I never put those bands on a pedestal. So we don't see ourselves as rock stars or as better than anyone else, and we don't see the reason in having a gap between our fans. Any of our fans out there could just as easily start a band and become just as successful if not more successful than us."

The band's friendly relationship with their fans, coupled with their emotional and relatable lyrics, creates a bond that Bucciarelli hopes will last a lifetime.

"People will always listen to music that they grew up listening to. I think whatever is out there at the moment as people grow up, they attach on to, which is kind of weird when you think of someone who's 80 years old listening to punk rock or rap.

"You're always going to have a certain segment of the population, or at least a certain segment of our fanbase, who are going to listen to our music 20 years down the line."

Hawthorne Heights will make the following Canadian stops with Story Of The Year and Anberlin:

July 13 Quebec City, QC @ Festival D'Ete
July 14 Montreal, QC @ Metropolis
July 15 Ottawa, ON @ Cisco Systems Blues Fest
July 16 Toronto, ON @ Molson Amphitheatre (Edgefest 2)
July 19 Thunder Bay, ON @ Community Auditorium
July 20 Winnipeg, MB @ Burton Cummings Theatre
July 21 Saskatoon, SK @ Prairieland Park
July 22 Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall
July 23 Edmonton, AB @ Shaw Conference Centre
July 25 Vancouver, BC @ Croatian Cultural Centre