Worn-Tin Interview at Treefort

KDUP’s Music Director, Nic Zumbo, caught up with Worn-Tin after their set at Treefort Music Festival, capturing this sweet photo and an interview with Worn-Tin’s lead man, Warner Hiatt.

A kick ass, in-your-face stage presence that will get you moving right off the bat, Worn-Tin knows how to put on a show. Warner Hiatt, otherwise known as Worn-Tin, is a down-to-earth guy with the drive to make the best happy-sad songs. With touching, heartfelt lyrics laid over an upbeat alternative rock sound, it makes for some of the most chaotic love songs you’ll ever hear. Warner was always a performer at heart, studying stand up comedy and different entertainment routes until he found his passion for music. He always knew that making people laugh and giving them a show that would get them on their feet was what he was meant to do, and he’s doing just that. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Worn-Tin to talk about his life as a musician, the pandemic, and piss. 

With Covid and quarantine being a reality in our lives, how did that affect your song writing process and life in general?  

At first it was amazing, having all that time to just work on music. But around June or July I hit every fear of mine. Just the anxieties blooming and having these heavy feelings. That’s when I decided I had to get out of LA and the second I got out of LA I felt like a million bucks. I was in Portland hiking everyday and honestly I felt so good having all those fears subsided. I finally came back to LA and started working on music again being in that refreshed mindset. 

How was playing Treefort just now?

It’s been absolutely insane. We were just on a two month tour through the whole US and this here at Treefort was totally last minute. Sugar Candy Mountain had to back out and we took their spot. Literally I found out about this two days ago. The booking agent called and said you’re gonna do this, it’s gonna be good. I was so burnt out. I have not slept normally in a couple of weeks. But we literally woke up at 4 AM today, hopped in the van, and booked it up here. Anybody that knows that drive from LA to Boise knows it’s not fun. Totally worth it to play here though. 

How long have you as a band been together?

My drummer has been with me for almost six years and the guitar player, me and him play together in a band called ‘BOYO’ and then I brought him on this tour with me. I think in LA everyone plays in everyone’s band. No matter who I’m playing with though we always do like a group huddle, get our minds right, maybe say a little prayer. 

How has touring been, especially with Covid being what it is? 

Yeah, I mean I will say that it’s a lot. Touring will really take it out of you. No one got Covid on our whole tour, a few scares but we were all good. I tell other bands that have been reaching out to me about how we did it. You gotta have the sanitizer, the KN95 masks, and like even when we pumped gas we wore gloves. We looked so silly, especially in somewhere like Montgomery, Alabama. But it’s worth it, we don’t want to get sick, we don’t want our fans to get sick, we don’t want the tour to end. But the tour itself was amazing. Before quarantine our shows used to be bat shit crazy. Im talkin we’d get naked (or well I’d get naked), there’d be piss, I got a tattoo on stage, I wore a dog shock collar, you name it we’ve probably done it. We really push it and do bits, but especially with covid and just getting older there’s just a lot of stuff I don’t do anymore. I used to break a bottle over my head and I just can’t do that anymore, it’s pretty taxing on the body. I mean even just these shows are a lot. No matter what though I give it my all, I really want the energy to be big. The audience feeds off me and I feed off them. It’s a group effort. 

Is this what you always saw yourself doing?

This is what I’ve always wanted, this is my dream. But you’ve gotta pace yourself. Six and a half weeks is a long time, and especially as you saw, these shows are high energy. Of course people are like, ‘oh let me buy you a shot’ and ask to go out to have a drink and party and I don’t do that. I don’t even do caffeine, so I gotta sleep and be a good boy you know? I do drink, but not in excess. It’s kind of funny, like I’m a bit of a bad drunk. Not in the sense of getting violent or anything like that, I just get sloppy. Every time I play drunk it never turns out well. I’ll allow myself like one to two beers and that’s perfect for me. 

So what’s next for Worn-Tin?

We kind of have just a bunch of one offs. Playing in Quiucas, Northern California and then Santa-Ana with Carwash and Fashion Jackson. But then I’m probably gonna take a little break to finish this record, then start touring again next year. 

Listen to Worn-Tins newest single ‘Looking for Someone’ here

November 14th, 2021