Memphis, TN--

When I arrived in Memphis, Tenn., for a Hawthorne Heights concert, I found a little more than I could have ever expected in the sleepy little river town. Filled to the brim with rock and roll history mixed in with a little bit of the blues is where I came upon Hawthorne Heights, a little known indie band with more heart than many of the great rock bands of today.

I knew the second I was welcomed on Beale Street by one of B.B. King’s own clubs that the Hawthorne Heights show would be unlike any other and I found my heart beat getting faster and faster as I walked the two blocks to the New Daisy Theatre where they would be playing.

With each step taken in those two blocks time, I could feel the energy radiating from the show. I had arrived a couple hours early and a crowd has already formed outside the venue to see this rock band. People were waiting outside in the freezing weather, huddled up, chatting and waiting for this rock show. And by Damn, it was going to be one helluva show.

Before the show began, Hawthorne’s drummer Eron Bucciarelli, 26, took a moment to speak with Pointed and I have to admit, this is one drummer who is as intelligent and courteous as he is talented.

PM: How did Hawthorne Heights form?

HH: We were a previous band called A Day in The Life. A guitar player quit. J.T. (Woodruff, provider of the amazing vocals of Hawthorne) knew Micah, so Micah joined the band then their drummer quit. I had known those guys for a little bit because the Dayton scene is pretty small so I joined. Another guitar player quit and our bass player at the time knew Casey (Calvert). Casey joined and then that bass player quit and Casey knew Matt so we got Matt to join. Once Matt joined, we were like. alright you know we have all these second and third generation members in the band and it did not make sense to keep going as A Day in The Life so we changed it to Hawthorne Heights.

PM: What does the name mean?

HH: There is no significant meaning. It is something that Matt came up with and we thought it sounded cool. It was sort of a different name that we did not think it pigeonholed us into a certain genre of music or anything so we liked it.

PM: What genre would you consider yourself?

HH: We normally get classified as emo or screamo or post hard core. I prefer to call ourselves a rock group and we definitely have pop-punk and emo and post hard core and hard core influences in our music

PM: Yeah, you can really hear a little bit of everything in your songs, from rock to emo and everything in between…

HH: Yeah we but I think it is really just rock music. I do not think we are a pure emo band because to me emo is like a band like Sunny Day Real Estate or early Get Up Kids or Mineral and to me we do not sound anything like those bands. But we definitely have influences from those bands in our music. We are not a straight hard core band but you know there are breakdowns in our music and stuff like that.

PM: What do you like most about touring?

HH: The best thing about touring is playing in front of new people every night and performing your songs in front of an audience of people that appreciate what you are doing--who know all the words and are singing along. That is just really cool and traveling seeing the whole world is very, very exciting.

PM: What would you consider to be your favorite venue?

HH: I really, really like Starland Bar in New Jersey. Every time we go there it’s an amazing show. We have been there like two or three times and I think they have all been sold out.

PM: What kind of other jobs have you had?

HH: Let’s see…before this I was in college and I graduated with a degree in communications and marketing. I was working at Time Warner Cable in Dayton as a marketing coordinator so I was doing that for a couple of years and also doing the band thing but pretty much on the weekends and whenever I had some vacation time. The other guys like J.T. worked at a convenience store and delivered pizzas while going to school. Micah delivered pizzas, Matt worked at a music store and Casey worked at a CD store-- you know all kinds of different things.

PM: Where did you go to school?

HH: University of Dayton

PM: Y’all have a lot of stuff that content related to Ohio like the big hit, “Ohio is for Lovers” so how do you feel about Ohio?

HH: Ohio is cool for being like a Midwest state. I think Dayton is a neat little city. It is totally different from where I grew up in New Jersey. It is a lot slower pace but it is fun.

PM: Where’d you grow up at in New Jersey?

HH: Princeton. It’s like right in the middle

PM: Y’all have 3 guitars in the group. Why so many?

HH: Well it actually started off because J.T. used to just sing in A Day in The Life and he felt really awkward just singing so he wanted to be comfortable with a guitar. And then you know we use it to our advantage in that we can duplicate a lot of the sounds that we have on the CD. Quite often when a band records, they do overdubs and they layer different guitars and a band that only has 1 or 2 guitar players can not really pull a lot of those parts off live where as our group we can do that because we have the 3 guitars.

PM: Do you ever have a hard time keeping up with being the drummer with the guitars and that many of them?

HH: No, not really um we’re doing completely different things really. I’m laying the foundation and their all sort of being like the vein I guess.

PM: What is your favorite song off the new album?

HH: Off the new album I really like “This is Who We Are” and “Pins and Needles.” Those are my two favorites. “Decembers” which is our last song on the record, I like it a lot. It is a little different for us. It is a more slow pace acoustic type song. Kind of similar an acoustic version of silver bullet that we put on the re-release of our first record

Shortly after the interview, Hawthorne Heights took center stage in the New Daisy and they rocked the joint harder in a truly one of a kind show. Go see Hawthorne Heights, they are going to be the band of the year and soon they will be the band that all others look at to see how they should be performing. And for Pete’s sake, if you have not already, go out and buy their new album, “If Only You Were Lonely,” it is incredible.