Hi Eric! Thanks for taking some time to chat with Hutcheads everywhere. Your concert was great. First off tell me about the new band.

Great seeing you in Texas! The concerts were so fun! Loving the new band. This is our first tour together and I’m loving the energy they bring to the stage. Every night is different and we’re always coming up with new ideas and suprises.
Everybody also sings backup… does that help with the energy for the show?

Totally! The new album has even MORE vocals on it than before, so wanted a way to get all those voices into the show. I want my show to be a huge singalong with me and the crowd, and that starts with everyone on stage singing along.
Having Elliott Blaufuss being able to switch back and forth from keyboards to guitar sure adds a lot of “fullness” to the live sound. Has that changed the way you approach some of your songs?

Elliott is great. He can play and cover lots of parts, which gives me the freedom to sing and dance around like a fool!

I heard you even had a horn section for a show?

Yeah! Had some horn players play with us for a few shows in California. It was really fun and the energy was electric. Hoping to do it again soon.
It seems the venues for this tour are all a bit smaller than your last tour with Kelly Clarkson. Was is hard to connect with the audience in arenas that large?

I bring the same energy to a crowd of 500 as I do to 20,000! The Kelly tour was awesome and I made a bunch of new fans. It’s nice to connect those dots with people on my headlining tour.
In both shows I attended you made up songs on the spot. Where do you come up with that stuff?

Haha. That stuffs fun for me and the band. I was in a comedy troupe in college so I like to exercise that comedy muscle when I can. The Austin show in particular was fun since we had a couple get engaged on stage. Then I made up a song after which pretty much just wrote itself. It’s a fun way for me to make each show special with the crowd.
Has any of those songs transitioned into something more?

There were a couple of especially good ones on this tour that I made note of. Who knows, maybe one will end up on the next record!
You covered Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” from The Beatles while you were in Texas. What are some of the other covers you have been doing and how to do you choose them?
We’ve been doing all kinds of covers, but you’ll have to come out to the shows to see which ones they are! I love all kinds of music from hip hop to classic rock to soul so I try to get all that stuff in there.
“The Basement” came after 90 minutes of playing. That tune is rockin! How do you keep up the energy for that long?

Steroids!! Just kidding. The crowd gives me the most energy. Having a rockin audience really picks me up, even after a long travel day. This tour’s been really fun and the crowds have been great, singing along and dancing to everything!
What has the reaction been to “Breakdown More” both from new fans and from long time fans?

Super positive! People tell me they’re really glad to finally have an official version of the song. I’m thankful the fans kept asking for it and reminded me to take a second look at it. It’s one of my favorites on “Moving Up Living Down”
Do you have any plans to take the tour overseas?

Yes! Working on a second trip to Norway right now. Hopefully back to Australia and New Zealand. Would love to hit Japan and Europe on this trip too.