Sure, “it was a really, really messed up week” for Hot Chelle Rae as per the opening of “Tonight Tonight.” But since that single climbed the top of the charts, it’s also been a really, really great year for the Nashville-based quartet.
“Dude, I’m absolutely loving it, every minute,” guitarist Nash Overstreet told me via Skype on “The Ralphie Radio Show.” Overstreet checked in from Charlotte, NC where HCR was supporting The Script on tour. “We’re really, really busy, busier than we’ve ever been. But I would definitely not have it any other way.”
In addition to touring and making the media rounds, the guys have been busy finalizing Whatever, Hot Chelle Rae’s sophomore LP. The album hits stores November 29.
“They show up knowing all the words to everything,” Overstreet said of the crowds that the band has experienced on tour thus far. Apparently, HCR’s fans even know the lyrics to unreleased tracks. “It’s just really amazing to us to see people being so up-to-date on what we do.”
As of this moment, there may be no better example to support that notion than the number of views HCR’s “I Like It Like That” video has. The single eclipsed the million views mark weeks quicker than it took “Tonight Tonight” to surpass it. Nash revealed the band shot the video themselves while touring with a bus, as opposed to a van, for the first time.
The song and video feature the rap duo New Boyz, whom HCR linked up with in Syracuse, NY after a radio event.
“We went out in Syracuse one night and threw down, spent a few hours making trouble,” Overstreet recalled. “They’re really cool guys, great artists, and great writers, and they killed it.”
