Hawthorne Heights hailing from OHIO USA are a band who over ten years ago gave the world two iconic emo albums. The Silence In Black And White and also If Only You Were Lonely. The band are headed to Australia to play both albums in full. Joining them for the tour will be Silverstein’s Shane Told, Spitalfield’s Mark Rose and Australia’s own Sienna Skies. We caught up with Hawthorne Heights vocalist JT Woodruff and guitarist Mark McMillon to chat about the nostalgia filled Australian tour .

SCENEzine
Firstly how did you enjoy playing Warped this year, any favourite dates?

JT Woodruff
Warped is always incredible. We are such believers in the staff, and the entire ethos of what Warped Tour is. No egos. Great bands. Great fans. Affordable tickets. How can you not love that? We had a lot of memorable dates on
the tour this year. I will remember the last day of the tour for the rest of my life. Closing out the Pomona/Los Angeles show, and ending the summer with the sun going down, and the palm trees glowing. It was really special.

Mark McMillon
Warped Tour was really good. It was a long summer because we did about two weeks of head lining shows through Canada then we started Warped tour after that. So we had already been on tour a bit before we started Warped Tour then Warped Tour was seven and a half weeks long. It was a long summer but I wouldn’t trade it for the world the shows were awesome. Kevin Lyman and everybody involved with Warped Tour always does such a great job putting it on every year, it was a super fun tour. I remember Phoenix was insanely hot it was 119 degrees here which is record high for Phoenix. So playing in the desert outdoors in a parking lot in a record high day was pretty insane. The Ohio show was pretty awesome that was the closest to a home town show for us. It was in the middle if the tour and was nice to see a lot of friends and family at that show. All the California dates were also super memorable because they were some of the biggest shows of the tour. Vegas was really fun too because they did it at the Hard Rock Casino. There were stages set up next to pools. I saw The Ataris set and their singer Kris Roe at the end of the set jumped straight into the pool.

SCENEzine
Are you looking forward to playing Warped at Sea later in the year?

JT Woodruff
So PUMPED. We were a late edition to the cruise, and were very excited to get the offer. I’ve never been on a cruise, and the fact that I get to play on a boat with my band is incredible. So many great bands on the ship, it’s going to be a blast. I hope we don’t get seasick and barf on the fans. Other than that, we will have the time of our lives.

Mark McMillon
Yeah we heard they announced that earlier this year and were like that’s pretty amazing it sounded like a cool idea. None of us had ever been on a cruise so we tried really hard to get on it and couldn’t make it happen. Then like the fourth or fifth day into Warped Tour when we got the email for the offer to get added to the cruise. It felt good cause essentially the staff at Warped Tour had seen how big our crowds were on the actual Warped Tour and I think they realized it was a good move to put us on the cruise. It felt like we had to work for and earn it. It’s a dream lineup I grew up listening to Face to Face and that’s not a band we’ve ever got to tour with.

SCENEzine
How was the experience of playing dates with Blink 182 last year?

JT Woodruff
Truly a dream come true. One of my favorite bands of all time. California, to me, was a banger all the way through. So to be a part of that was breathtaking. I still kinda don’t believe that we were on those shows. I watched from side stage like the biggest fan. So awesome.

Mark McMillon
That was a situation where we got the call from our agent saying hey we’ve got some Blink 182 dates and I thought maybe he was punking us or playing a joke on us(laughs). We didn’t think we were the type of band that would be in contention for that as far as getting a support slot. It was awesome we did a couple of shows with them and a festival show as well. They were super nice. The two headlining shows we did with them we were the only support band. From my understanding they had played some shows with Matt Skiba before but the shows we got to do were the first shows supporting the new record which is cool. It was a once in a lifetime thing for us, we all grew up on their band and I’m a huge Alkaline Trio fan too as well.

SCENEzine
JT before your Australian tour kicks off you’ll be down here for a bit of vacation how’s that been going?

JT Woodruff
Australia has been one of my favorite locations for over a decade. I always tell my family how much I love it, and am glad to finally bring them on the trip this time. I wish we had more time, but we are visiting Sydney, Brisbane, and Cairns. So far, they love it just like I do. A little bit of jet lag, because they aren’t used to changing time so drastically, but they are being troopers. It’s been a blast.

SCENEzine
In Australia you’ll be touring with Sienna Skies, Shane Told & Mark Rose. It’s quite an impressive lineup. How did the tour come about?

JT Woodruff
We’ve known all of these artists for years. So basically, we just tried to put a bunch of friends on the stage together. I’m very excited about all the memories that we will share on these stages, and I hope the fans can relive their past, and add a little life to their future. Get ready for a wonderful night.

Mark McMillon
I’m really excited about the lineup. We’ve had Sienna Skies on tour with us before and they are awesome dudes. I really like their new record I think they are doing a great job. Shane from Silverstein is an old friend we are really excited to have him and then Mark Rose from Spitalfield is an old friend as well. We wanted these shows to have a little bit more nostalgia to the package. It’s kind of a throw back vibe.

SCENEzine
While in Australia you’ll be playing the Silence in black and white and if only you were lonely in full. Are there any particular tracks that your looking forward to playing live?

JT Woodruff
We enjoy playing in general, so we are always down to play whatever the fans want to hear. We will throw in some surprises here and there to try to keep everyone happy. I wish we could play forever, because we always have to leave stuff out. Happy to be team players, because our fans keep us here. We know that.

Mark McMillon
It’s been so much fun rehearsing for the tour, some of the songs we haven’t played in a couple of years. It was a neat feeling to knock the dust off them but also to see how quickly they came back to us with muscle memory. The song “Dissolve and Decay” that we haven’t played in a quite a while that was a lot of fun to play at rehearsal.

SCENEzine
A huge crowd favourite is “ohio is for lovers” what do you think it is about that song that connected to so many people?

JT Woodruff
I honestly have no idea. It’s funny to hear people sing along to words written about missing our home state. You hear a lot of songs about California, New York, Las Vegas…but not a lot about Ohio haha. I’m glad that people love it. And we are always happy to play it. But we are still trying to figure out why they like it.

SCENEzine
“Niki FM” is another iconic song. The video shows JT you’ve got some acting skills. Any chance you’d ever get into acting?

JT Woodruff
I’ve always been told that I’m a natural comedian, and that I have a great sense of timing, but I’m not sure if I could pull it off. I had fun filming NIKI FM, but it was a little nerve wracking. I thought I was going to have to kiss the lead actress in front of the real NIKI FM, but that scene got cut. That was a close one haha.

SCENEzine
Do you have any favourite memories from your last Australian tour with Mest?

JT Woodruff
That tour was a blast. Those dudes party a little more than we do, so it was a fun experience with them. We did the full USA, Japan, and then Australia…and by the end we were friends better than ever. That’s one thing that I love about the road. It typically can bond people together. Australia always does that for me.

Mark McMillon
That was a lot of fun in general because we’ve got a lot of memories with those guys from touring over the years but we had nothing done anything international. We came over and did back to back Japan and Australia with them and the vibe overall was just really goofy. Those guys have the same sense of humour as us. They are a little more up tempo with some of the songs so that was inspiring with the energy. We had a proper day off in Sydney where we all walked around together and spent a lot of time down by the Opera House that was really cool.

SCENEzine
Mark how did it come about you joining Hawthorne Heights?

Mark McMillon
I’ve known the band since almost the conception of the band we are all from the same home town. There’s not a huge scene where we are from. The city we are from is called Dayton Ohio it’s a smaller city that’s surrounded by bigger cities. So we are kind of a smaller scene here and there wasn’t a ton of bands and not a ton of places to play. I had bands that always played with Matt’s bands and JT’s bands and Chris our drummer was in various bands. Eventually our drummer Chris and I started doing this band called The Story Changes that we still do today on our off time for fun. We started playing shows with A Day In The Life which was JT’s band right before Hawthorne. When they became Hawthorne and had some early success they were super cool to us and took us on tour. We actually played the album release party for The Silence In Black And White in our home town. We always stayed in touch over the years. They went on to do some great things and a little bit down the line when they were recording Skeletons I came in with some friends and did some guest vocals. That kind of rekindled our friendship and when they did the touring for Skeletons I came on and started touring with them and eventually joined the band. It’s been really cool I’ve known these guys for most of the years that I’ve been playing music so we’ve all become pretty good friends.

SCENEzine
Hawthorne Heights have long been associated with the emo genre. What do you think it is about the genre that has created so many loyal and passionate fans?

JT Woodruff
I think we try to sing about real issues that people go through inside their own mind. Stress. Anxiety. Love. Death. We all go through that. My lyrics will forever be entangled in those topics. I find sorrow so much more interesting and relatable than happiness. I just can’t write a song about going shopping, or drinking frapps. I try to dig a little deeper, and find a sad story in everything.

Mark McMillon
I think with the style of music there’s a lot of honesty in it. When you break it down to what all the bands were doing there’s a certain amount of rawness to it. Having a lot of honest emotion in the music and singing and screaming I think that resonated with people. In particular the first two Hawthorne Heights records hit people at a certain age and a certain point in their life where it influenced them. It influenced in a way that was honest and real and catchy I think that stays with people. There’s a certain amount of emotion and realness that we and a lot of bands were trying to do at that time.

SCENEzine
Can you tell us a little bit about the new song “push me away”?

JT Woodruff
The lyrics to PUSH ME AWAY are about trying bring people together. I want people to understand that our differences are beautiful. We should respect one another for who we are, and who we want to be. We can’t continue to drive each other apart, because that isn’t healthy. All we need is love and understanding.

SCENEzine
Lastly can you give us a message for all your Aussie fans excited for the tour?

JT Woodruff
Australia is one of our favorite places to tour, and we never want to leave. We are playing the most songs we have ever played on this tour, in any country, ever…let’s win this marathon together. Sing along. Dance. Be young again. We love you.

Mark McMillon
Yeah we are super looking forward to coming back. We are excited to play both of these records. Come along and forget about what you’ve got going on in your daily life, forget about your work for one night just relax and have a good night with us.

(Interview by Christian Ross)