Hunter “I’ve Been Looking”
Hard-hitting and vulnerable, Hunter approaches chaos with pop instinct and punk aesthetic. “I’ve Been Looking,” written during a turbulent time of Hunter’s life, reflects the complex experiences and feelings in a time of instability. As if tearing through the old skin, growing anew, the track is stretched and pushed to all directions sonically: unapologetic hip hop and heart-wrenching pop meets the angst of emo and punk. His brutal honesty bleeds through the entire track, being something that can’t be duplicated, captured and preserved through music.
Hunter draws his inspirations from artists of diverse genres, and that makes him inventive, hip, and unpredictable. Standing on the shoulders of the past and current most exciting music, Hunter is not afraid to look into the future. Genre-fluid, independent, unique and high aesthetic, his music is always a mixture of things, just as it reflects the changing world. Sometimes, he puts you in an urban club, wrapped up in a sensory-evoking journey at the beating heart of fashion and art. But at time, he is revealing to you something that deeply touches you, whether to be something you wish to hear or say, he’s the kind of artist who gets you, in the most naked form. Hunter is a versatile artist with unlimited potential.
In our chat with Hunter, we discuss his creative process and his inspirations. Stay tuned!
Punk Head: I love the chaos and vulnerability of “I've Been Looking." I read that this is a very personal song for you. Now looking back, how do you think this single reflects the state of mind you were in sonically?
Hunter: I think you may have said it best with “chaos” because that’s exactly the type of thing I was feeling when I started working on the song. I’d been generally struggling with school and typical life shit, and that was right before COVID came, so most of the writing process served as a release from a lot of bottled up emotions mixed with the overwhelming dread of the pandemic as it began and continued to unfold. I started getting these ideas to have the song work almost in movements, in a way that kind of not only reflected some of the music I was enjoying at the time, but also the general disorder of everything and the fact that I wrote the lyrics in short spurts of inspiration typically all many, many months apart throughout the lockdown. I wanted certain elements of the song to feel kind of jarring or unexpected for people in an attempt to capture that sense of chaos, which is why I chose to use some of the sounds I did and why certain techniques were employed within the mix.
What are some things that you learned through writing this song?
Hunter: I definitely learned a lot about my process as a songwriter and producer, and I think it’s partially due to the fact that we had so much newfound time to ourselves that we didn’t know what to do with it. Barely anyone was ever in the room with me when recording; so between being alone and having a lot of time, I think I felt safe to experiment sonically and try anything I wanted without any sort of idea that I might ever feel self-conscious of what I was doing. The process itself taught me to be a bit more patient with myself.
Can you tell us more about you as an artist?
Hunter: I will always try and keep folks on their toes when it comes to what kind of music they expect me to put out. I never really want to be put into one box, especially because there are so many places from which I draw inspiration. When I’m not working on my personal stuff, I play in a noisy punk band called Tuff Sudz and frequently collaborate with friends on other music. I really do love working with other artists across all genres!
Who are your biggest influences?
Hunter: I’m always adding new artists to this list, but off the top of my head I’d probably have to go with M83, The Cure, David Bowie, Vampire Weekend, LCD Soundsystem and Frank Ocean.
What is the one thing that you’d like your fans to know about you?
Hunter: 22, A Million by Bon Iver is the record that really pushed me to start writing my own music. It still inspires nearly everything I make in some fashion or another.
