HUNTER (interview w/ the band!)
What do you get when you combine some dudes from Alexisonfire, moneen, BWC Stuidos and The Abandoned Hearts Club? Well by-God you get HUNTER! Hell yes.
Hunter
Kenny Bridges (moneen)
Billy Curtiss (The Abandoned Hearts Club)
Greg Dawson (BWC Studios)
Jordan Hastings (Alexisonfire)
Erik Hughes (moneen)
Hunter
“Hunter is a band that wants to destroy things. We all came from different places in music. Some lighter, some heavier. We make music we want to make. We hope it makes you want to break things.”
I am such a huge fan of conglomerate bands; as in bands that are made from people in a bunch of other bands. Ha ha, now a days, it’s hard to find a band that doesn’t have members in other groups as well. Hunter is just that, having members from bands such an Alexisonfire and Moneen, two (Vagrant Records).
Performing live
I had the chance to chat with Greg Dawson and Kenny Bridges, and they answered a few questions for me!! As always…. enjoy! 🙂
I’ve gotta start off with the obvious: You all came from other pretty successful bands, so how did you five come together to make Hunter?
KENNY: This was something we have always talked about wanting to do for years now.
Ever since we (moneen) have been recording with Greg, we have always talked about starting a punk rock side project with Erik singing. Erik has such a great scream. Pretty unique sounding. So we thought…why not start a punk rock band? Well easier said than done. We were all so busy. It was not until this past October at a Halloween party we threw (where I was dressed as a used condom…don’t ask) that we finally decided to actually just go ahead and do it. The next day I called up Greg to make sure we were going to actually make this happen. Greg had pretty much written 9 songs already.
One afternoon, 9 songs. He asked me to write on more and there you have it. The birth of Hunter. In the same fashion, everything has come together in this band the same way. We figure if we put too much thought into it, then we are thinking too much.
Erik wrote all the lyrics in an evening, we called up a couple more friends (Jordan ALEXIS, Billy ABONDONED HEARTS CLUB), had one rehearsal and recorded all ten songs. We plan on releasing a couple seven inches and then a discography. Simple.
Greg & Kenny at Halloween
Where did you come up with the band name?
KENNY: That was the only thing that was not simple. The name almost broke up the band. HAHA. It is true though. Names are tough. It was not until we were doing gang vocals that we finally decided. It was a constant argument. We had Greg’s son HUNTER singing with us. Which I might add, anyone who has the chance to do gang vocals with a 3 year old will know how much fun that is. We had to tell him that we were not angry, so he did not have to be scared of our gang vocals. As we were listening back to the gang vocals, it hit us. Let’s just call the band HUNTER. It stuck. Well, we did seem bad ass until I told you that we are named after a 3 year old.
Do you all plan to pursue a full US tour, or is this just a local side band?
KENNY: We would love to do a world tour…but that happening is unlikely.
Even though this is a side project. We feel the songs are really good and we want as many people to hear them as possible. We played our second show a couple weeks ago.
It felt like a real show. Well, I guess it was a real show. We had people singing along, bodies were flying around. Wow, it really was a real show. You should have seen Greg, he had a perma metal face / biggest smile ever the entire show. It was fantastic.
GREG: It was a super rad show and tough to keep my Metal face on when I just want to smile. I personally would love to play outside Toronto but I’ll take what I can get, just happy rocking with some friends.
Greg Dawson
How is the Canadian music scene different than the US, that you notice the most? I feel like harder music is more “mainstream†in Canada than here.
KENNY: That’s hard to say. The biggest difference would be that there are so many more bands in the States. Here in Canada I find that people are really proud of Canadian bands. Well some Canadian bands that is. As well, when moneen tours in the states I like that people always ask us about other Canadian bands. There is a strong scene and community here. I don’t know what is mainstream here, but I can say that less bands means more variety.
Who is one of your all time favorite bands? And who can you seriously not stand at all?
KENNY: QUICKSAND was a huge band for me when I was younger. Even now.
I remember seeing them play at the first warped tour with Orange 9mm and Seaweed.
I had never heard them before, and seeing them live was really powerful. Another show that hit me hard was seeing LIFETIME play one of their last shows in Philly. I know Greg has some very different influences, as well as Erik and the other guys. That is what makes this band so fun. We all come from such different places musically.
Quicksand
GREG: Hard to pick one. Bad Brains were a big influence when I was writing Hunter riffs. Never did get to see them live. I heard they banned Toronto for a while because back in the day they got booed for playing an all Reggae set. I can’t stand when music is not honest. Too many bands and songs are put together for the wrong reason, just to sell records. I still love searching and discovering new bands and CD trading with friends.
Are any of you all actual Hunters? I mean, I’m from Kentucky so I know a few hunters myself…
KENNY: Since I am a vegetarian, I don’t even like killing ants.
GREG: Not a Hunter but definitely an angler. Billy and I are obsessed with fishing. I’m a catch a release guy, Billy likes to eat them. I do find shooting guns really fun but could never shoot Bambi.
When I was in college, I was on the rowing team. There were a LOT of Canadians on there with me, and it seems to be pretty popular up there. Have any of you all ever rowed a boat in your day? Any other athletics?
KENNY: I never really played any organized sports until last year, I started playing Ultimate Frisbee. HAHA. So much obsession. I love Frisbee. Once again, definitely not helping us seem any more badass.
Kenny Bridges
GREG: I rock a pretty mean canoe. We have some epic Squash battles which sometimes end up with Kenny smashing his racquet. Can’t handle the old man’s serve.
What else are you boys good at, besides playing music?
KENNY: I am not really even that good at playing music. Haha. Come on Kenny, remember what Erik told you. Self pity is a waste of time!
GREG: I’m a much better Producer/Engineer than guitar player. Probably a better fisherman than guitar player.
Now that Kenny and I are home owners, I feel we’re getting pretty good at being handy.
If you could destroy anyone’s face in the world… who would it be?
KENNY: Anyone’s face who is ready to be destroyed.
GREG: HMMMM.
So… how do you like THEM apples?
KENNY: Pumpkin pie is way better! Apple pie can go rot.
GREG: Apples make my mouth itchy, so yeah…frig off apples.
***
You can find out MORE about Hunter here:
http://www.whoishunter.ca/
http://www.myspace.com/hunterisaband
http://dinealonerecords.com/artists/view/18
So, of course, I highly recommend checking them out. They seem like awesome dudes that just wanna play some music, so put down the Simple Plan album to listen to a real band. It’ll do you some good.
*****
About the Author
Denise Borders 39, Los Angeles. Denise founded PWV in 2008 and remains the primary manager and photographer/videographer. She is not secretly obsessed with Joey Cape.
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