You know, thinking about it, not often enough are the dangers of touring in the winter acknowledged. Unless you hear of an unfortunate accident or a van spinning out of control, how often do you think to yourself, “Geez, this band drove through some pretty shitty conditions to play this show tonight”?
Thankfully, to help some people realize how frightening and potentially life-threatening it is to play shows throughout the colder parts of the year, Hawthorne Heights have just shared their newest track “Starlighter (Echo, Utah).”
“I wrote the lyrics to ‘Starlighter’ after the worst drive of my life in the mountains of Utah,” says singer/guitarist J.T. Woodruff. “There was snow pouring everywhere, the van I was driving didn’t have heat or defrost and the passenger was wiping the window frantically with the sock he was wearing so I could see the road. It was 14 miles 'til the next exit and our lives kept flashing before our eyes. When we eventually made it safely to an exit, we left the van in the middle of the parking lot, checked into a room, and when I stopped trembling, I wrote lyrics about summer. I needed to get my head out of the snow and think about how this situation would be different if it was in June.”
“So while my mind was racing,” Woodruff added, “I crafted a story about a group of friends whose entire lives are ahead of them and they just want to have one last weekend blow out. There are laughs, arguments, adventure and everything that makes a summer weekend great. But the overlying theme is that I thought I was going to die that night with my friends just so I could sing and play guitar. Pretty crucial haha.”
To check out the eye-opening track, be sure to look below. Afterward, make sure to not only pre-order the band’s forthcoming album Bad Frequencies before it hits stores April 27th but also grab tickets to see Hawthorne Heights out on their upcoming 50-date headliner here.
[via Rocksound]
