INTERVIEW... Huunter

An interview from Huunter.

What would you describe your music as?

This is something that I struggle with. I worry that people might mistake it for a center of the road dance or classical album when its neither. Ive kind of settled with Modernist Classical Electronic Dance music.

What would be your major influences?

The album idea came to me when I was at Lollapalooza 2008. I was watching Booka Shade perform and what blew me away by their performance was the crowd. Each person was dancing to every kick drum beat and synth hit, I stood there watching in awe. I had never really listened to dance music let alone gone to a dance concert so seeing people responding to music like that was completely new to me. Just watching everyone dancing made me excited and made me want to dance. I wanted to be drawn into this communal dancing experience! I knew right then that I wanted to write music that would well up similar feelings in a crowd but I wanted to use classical instruments instead of synths. I worked pretty much on that seed of an idea for about 5 or 6 months and in that time I finished and early version of the title track and started on The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Which is where I hit a wall and realized that I wasn't really getting to the heart of the music I wanted to create. I then started listening to cheesy dance music like Tiesto to understand what in the music makes crowds communally dance like they did at Booka Shade. This inspired me to write "The Antitelephone" and work more on the first two tracks but I still didn't feel great them. The breakthrough came when I wrote The Entanglement. The song was written in about a day or two and it made more sense than all of the other tracks. So I went back and rewrote the other three. Just to give you an idea about the length of the writing process: The Entanglement literally took a matter of hours to write, had only one version and no rewrites. The Ultraviolet Catastrophe and The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle took about 10 months to write and had over 100 versions and as many rewrites. The Antitelephone took about 6 months had about 50 versions and about 30 rewrites.

The biggest influence in my mixing came from U2's "No Line On The Horizon" album. One of the first things that you will notice is Bono's crackly imperfect voice. And I realized that if there is any band in the world that has enough money to afford to make an album sound perfect, its U2. But they didn't make it perfect and all the vocal mistakes are there and unpolished. I wanted to do the same thing with the sound of my record. But since I am constrained to the perfect 1's and 0's of a computer I tried to mix the album with vintage effects to create a crackly analogue sound. Also I got it mastered on vintage equipment to add more analogue warmth and crackle. I absolutely hate the boring digital perfection of other electronic artists so I wanted to avoid that.

How long have you you been making music for?

Off and on since 2002 grade but not seriously until about 2007

What instruments or software do you use to create your work?

I use Logic 8 to write just about everything. I started out as a guitarist and sometimes Ill write things and transcribe them for other instruments. I have grown pretty tired of guitar and I really don't have any interest in playing it on a record. Hopefully that will change down the road!

And what is the creation process like? Do you lay down a beat and work from there or start off with playing around with instruments?

Usually I will choose a tempo and start laying down ideas. I put down as many short phrases as I can with out editing them. Once I have a couple down I will add about five layers of complimentary instrumentation. Then I choose my favorite and start building a song off of it. The Antitelephone and The Entanglement's idea seeds were written in the same day in the same Logic project. The Entanglement was a combination of two ideas put together. For The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle I wanted to write a dance song with Gregorian chant. Somewhere in the 100 or so rewrites it be came an operatic duet. I got a vocal teacher at my college to sing a couple of lines in Latin for the song. The female vocal was a lady that I had heard sing a solo at my church. The Ultraviolet Catastrophe's various parts were put together fairly shortly after Lollapalooza, the only thing that really changed in the rewrites was the drums and bass.

Any plans for single releases?

I released a single version of The Entanglement which is being promoted in the UK and Europe. It is going to be played on BBC 3's Late Junction Show. I also animated a video for the single (which there is a link at the bottom of the page).

(if so), would there be any bsides or remixes surfacing with the new single release?
I don't really produce any b-sides. I either work on something until it gets on the album or I throw it away pretty quickly. I am planning on releasing a remix album of The Ultraviolet Catastrophe in the late fall.

What has been your favourite artist from It's All Indie?

Although not very indie, Bloc Party/Kele would be my favorite. They caught my attention with Silent Alarm and oddly enough kind of followed my shifting musical interest over they years as they changed into an electronic band. That being said I do hope that they get back together and get back to their punk/rock roots.

(and finally), what would be your 'Track of the day'?

Lemon by U2. That song is so far ahead of its time. Impressionistic lyrics set against a synthy/gated guitar line and groovy dancy bass and drum combo. There is also a cello interlude which I love. If there is one song from any artist's cannon of songs I wish I could steal its Lemon. Zooropa, from which Lemon is taken, as an album 15 years ahead of its time. Radiohead gets so much credit with Kid A being the first great electronic rock crossover album. When U2 did it 10 years earlier and much better than they did (in my opinion).



Huunter - The Entanglement - Via Vimeo
Huunter - The Entanglement - Via Youtube
Huunter - Ultraviolet Catastrophe Free download Via Bandcamp
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