Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Chris Hutton

Singer-songwriter Chris Hutton is a talent to keep on your radar. He grew up surrounded by creatives who nourished his passion for music, and by fourteen he began penning his own original songs. He connected with music’s ability to heal and reconcile our past experiences. This year, he dropped his new EP, Oxygen, Pt. I, and we caught up with Chris to chat all about it.

PC: How did you discover your passion for music?
Chris: I’m the son of a music teacher and my older sister does musical theatre professionally, so I was always around creative and musical people. My mom put me in violin lessons when I was five and I was singing in her choirs when I was eight. At fourteen, I started writing music and taking voice lessons—it became my thing. I’ve never wanted to do anything else.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Chris: I would say my mom. She really encouraged me to try everything without forcing me to do anything. She wasn’t a helicopter parent or stage mom. [laughs] She and my dad both really saw that I loved music and being creative, and they fostered that. I honestly didn’t know what a blessing that was until I got to college. I started hearing stories from other musicians who had families that weren’t supportive and felt like they had to fight hard to do what they love. I never had that; my parents were always encouraging. I would say that they’ve had the biggest impact on my journey musically.

PC: When you look back at your journey, what’s one thing you know now that you wish you knew back then?
Chris: Oh, that’s a good one. I would say that if you want to write good music and be a good artist, you can’t be doing it for anyone except yourself. When I was between fourteen and sixteen, I would see people go viral on YouTube, and I wanted that. I wanted the attention. I wanted the spotlight. Now, I’m so glad that didn’t happen.

I shudder just thinking what would have happened if I actually blew up at sixteen. I’ve seen fame ruin art because people start doing it for the approval of others—that’s when art loses its authenticity. Music is a way for us to process our own experiences. If people connect with it, that’s awesome. That’s what makes music powerful and such a cultural force. But, if it’s not something that we use for ourselves as a tool to heal and reconcile our experiences, then it becomes nothing. That’s what I would tell my younger self.

PC: Tell us about your new single, “Oxygen”. What inspired the track?
Chris: “Oxygen” was a fun one. That was actually a song that took several months to fully come to fruition. It wasn’t a song about an experience that I had and needed to process. There wasn’t a real immediate story behind it; I was just messing around on my keyboard. I found the loop that you hear throughout and just recorded it, then kind of forgot about it.

Eventually, I came back to it and recorded it in my bedroom. I don’t have a ton of instruments in there, so I was like, “What can I do to fill this out?” Then, I was like, “I can add different vocal layers, harmonies, and effects. I’ll make instruments out of my voice.” I messed around with it and then forgot about it again—I was in my last semester of college and I didn’t have the bandwidth to think about it.

I came back to it after I graduated and stumbled upon it during a session. When I re-listened to it, it was better than I remembered. So, I finally finished it up. As I was writing lyrics, it was more about living in the atmosphere of the song. It has a very atmospheric, ambient feel. I wrote what felt right and that’s what it is today.

PC: If you had to pick a song off Oxygen, Pt. I that best encompasses you as an artist, what would it be and why?
Chris: Whoa! That’s like asking me to pick a favorite child. I think I would probably pick, “Burn”. “Burn” is a song that I wrote earlier this year while the Cathedral of Notre Dame was on fire. It’s the polar opposite of “Oxygen” in that it came out so fast. I went into a practice room at school and I saw the news and videos of the Cathedral on fire, and it just happened. I wrote it in less than two hours and recorded it the next day. The song itself ended up being less about Notre Dame and more about grief and loss. It was really hard to watch. I’m a Christian and I’ve been to Notre Dame. It’s an icon of hope, especially for people of faith, so it hit me hard.

It’s one of those things where you don’t appreciate it until it’s not there anymore. I think everyone thought of it as a landmark that would be there forever. Then one day, it wasn’t. I took that experience of pain and loss and ended it with a glimmer of hope. That’s a theme and story arc that speaks very, very deeply to who I am as a person.

Production-wise, it was the first song I’ve ever done where I did 100% of the production myself. When I started doing music, I was very much a singer-songwriter. I’d go in the studio and sing, then let somebody else do everything else that I didn’t want to do. Over the years, partially because I’m a control freak, and partially because I want to get stuff out there, I started producing more and more. That song was like a breakthrough for me. I tracked and mixed it myself. It’s definitely a benchmark for me as a songwriter and producer.

PC: What does the rest of the year hold for you as we look ahead to the end of 2019 into 2020? What do the next couple of years look like for you?
Chris: I have no idea. [laughs] I’ve learned very quickly that any plan I try to make myself, the opposite happens. A lot of the time, it’s better than anything I could have envisioned for myself. I’ve given up trying to make plans or imagine the future.

What I do know is that I’m going to be releasing new music. This EP is Oxygen, Pt. I, so part two will be coming out before the end of the year. It’s different in a lot of ways. There’s more soul stuff, there’s more groovy R&B-ish type stuff that has a very modern production. I’m excited about that and I’m even working on some stuff that I’m planning to release after that. So, we’ll see.

To keep up with Chris, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Pick up or stream Oxygen, Pt. I on iTunes or Spotify.