Perez Hilton has been known to pluck artists from obscurity and place them directly in the public eye with just a few keystrokes and a blog post (his powerful promotional tools). Although he isn't necessarily the main force behind these artists' success, he has definitely helped singers like Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen and Mika by exposing them to the 5 million readers that visit his site on a daily basis. So when he found out about Eric Hutchinson's independent album Sounds Like This and took to the net to rave about it back in September 2007, the disc immediately shot up the iTunes top-10 album chart, showing that a little love from Perez goes a long way if you're an unsigned artist.
Ever since the internet was first abuzz about the soulful singer-songwriter, his career has taken off from all the cyber exposure, earning him the honor of being the highest-charting unsigned artist to ever hit the iTunes charts. Warner Bros Records caught wind of the clamor and signed him to a deal, leading to the re-release of Sounds Like This and giving him the monetary push to turn him into a big star. And the album, a grassy 10-track collection of tunes that whisk pop and soul into a mellow blend, has in turn produced the hit "Rock and Roll," a free-spirited track that's featured on the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 soundtrack and whose colorful video made him an "Artist to Watch" on VH1.
But like with many musical fairy tales that have happy endings, things weren't always so promising for the New York resident. Eric was first signed with Maverick Records, a label headed by Madonna that cultivated artists like Michelle Branch and Alanis Morissette, but the deal unfortunately crumbled after its parent label shut down the operation. With his studio time taken away and nothing to fall back on, Eric decided to go the independent route, using his depression as the inspiration for what eventually became Sounds Like This. He released the album on his own label Let's Break Records in August 2007, which, thanks to the help of one Perez Hilton, catapulted it to number one on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and got him to where he is today.
While in New York City on his tour with Missy Higgins, Eric was all smiles backstage at Webster Hall before he took the stage for that evening's performance. Rocking a Stevie Wonder t-shirt, he sat with VJ Kylie to talk about how life has been since Sounds Like This was blessed with major label backing. In the musty dressing room hidden in the upper corner of the venue, Eric chatted about how he got all those extras to stay still in the video for "Rock and Roll," how he keeps his songs fresh for himself after having played them every night for the past year and explains why the broken deal with Maverick wasn't such a bad thing after all.
If you can't see the embedded video, click here to watch it on YouTube.
