Collegiate Times

Tyler Hilton, formerly of the film Charlie Bartlett and television series One Tree Hill, sings in Haymarket Theatre Monday evening.

Tyler Hilton, singer/songwriter and actor, played a show in Squires' Haymarket Theatre for a crowd of a few hundred on Tuesday. Opening the show for Hilton was Curtis Peoples, an artist who recently put out his first album. This concert was part of a short East Coast tour the two are doing, which ends before Christmas.

Q: How was your experience at Virginia Tech?

A: It was good; everyone was really nice. The campus is beautiful and the theater was beautiful and the crowd was fun. I've never been here before, but I would definitely come back -- for sure.

Q: How did you think the concert went?

A: The audience was fun, people were standing up; it was cool. I had a great time. And I love being on tour with Curtis.

Q: How did you end up coming to Virginia Tech?

A: Well I had planned an event here earlier this year. I have these two fans that have seen a whole bunch of my shows and I have grown to know them. They're twins that go to Virginia Tech -- Amy and Emily. So they helped organize this event at their college. I was really excited, but I had a whole bunch of problems with my flight getting out here and had to cancel the show. Anyway, so I wanted to come back here to do a make-up show.

Q: How is your second album coming?

A: It's good, but it's taken a long time to get there. Now the album is done and turned into my label. As I've been finishing it up I've written a few more songs that I would like to put on it. Right now I'm hoping I can record a couple more songs for it. That might take another month or so and (the album) will probably come out early spring.

Q: You're having an upcoming concert for your charity, Tyler Hilton Books for Kids. Why did you decide to become involved in this type of charity work?

A: I have this theory that if people can be given the tools for decision-making and intelligence through literacy hopefully they can solve other problems. Education at a young age can stimulate their ability to problem-solve in the community that they are in as they get older. There are a lot of different problems and it's overwhelming, but I've gotten so many ideas about life through books -- you can find everything in books. I wanted to make this charity where we can raise money to give people books.