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LA duo Hunter Hunted have achieved a lot since they began making music at the beginning of the year. Their music has been featured on TV, they’ve performed on Conan, at SXSW, and have played shows with Weezer, Fitz & The Tantrums, and fun. Their fantastic debut EP is out now. GroundSounds recently caught up with Michael Garner of HH to learn more about the fast-rising duo.
GS: How did you guys meet and form the band? How did you come up with the name Hunter Hunted?
MG: We met in a UCLA a cappella group several years ago, and beyond sharing a passion for singing, we quickly realized that we both had an incredible ability to eat vast amounts of food… real models of American over-consumption. So we would get together and write music and eat a bunch of food, and it wasn’t long before we started incorporating instruments into our song-writing (Dan playing guitar and me on keys). Since then we’ve created a few different projects together, cut back a little on the food, but always stayed true to the dual lead vocals as the forefront of our music.
Like all things Hunter Hunted, it was a very collaborative process. We had back to back sleepovers where we stayed up all night deliberating. A band name is important. It sets the tone. We didn’t want to eff this up. The entire process took about 3 weeks. The night before the final decision, we had a white board with a bunch of different ideas crossed out here and revived there. In the end, we came up with three options which we then surveyed (on survey monkey) our close friends to solicit initial feelings and overall reaction. It was not good. Turns out, all three options sucked. We almost got hate mail b/c of it. Just kidding, but no one liked any of our ideas. Imagine how dejected we felt after spending all night conjuring up these names. The problem was there wasn’t any emotional connection to the names. We were trying too hard. The meaning is a pretty significant one. We were in an interesting point in our lives feeling a wide range of emotions. There were a lot of positive things happening that made us feel on top of the world. Meanwhile, there were also things happening that really brought us down. We asked ourselves, how is it possible to feel like you can conquer the world one second only to be brought down and trampled upon the next? It’s like a hunter being hunted. Hunter Hunted.
Your debut EP is out now and it’s catchy indie-rock at its best. How did you arrive at this sound? What bands/musicians influence the way you make music?
We wrote our EP without specific production ideas in mind… At the end of the day, good production can really change the game, but without a good song, you just got a shiny piece of crap. When we went into the studio with our producer Wally Gagel (WAX), we had never performed as Hunter Hunted, so the sky was the limit in terms of sound. In other words, there wasn’t a mold that had been established, so we we were able to create that mold based on what was best for the songs. We were listening to bands that had that big “wall-of-sound” feel, but still emphasized vocals in the forefront… modern bands like Local Natives, Coldplay, Miike Snow, Band of Horses. It was either that or completely stripped down and raw, which was more of where we came from…. Paul Simon, First Aid Kit, Little Joy. The wall-of-sound ended up being the best feel for our EP (and ultimately our established band sound). We half-joked about re-recording all the songs in that stripped down feel and releasing both versions.
It’s extremely hard to pick a favorite on the EP, but I want to ask you about “Gentle Folks.” How did that song come about and what inspired the song lyrically?
We write a bunch of songs that don’t get used right away. Maybe because it just doesn’t work for what we were going for at the time, or we lost interest, or whatever. We put them on the shelf and then most of them sadly sit there forever gathering dust. Once in awhile we revisit a song from the past and breathe some fresh life into it. Gentle Folks is one of those songs. We wrote it awhile ago, and at the time we were in an acoustic project that didn’t have the balls to pull it off. But it seemed to fit perfectly for Hunter Hunted. The song was inspired by a conversation with a friend who had been stationed in Iraq, and at some point had lost his “don’t-ask-questions-eager-soldier” mentality. Literally fighting for something, but not knowing why you’re fighting or what you’re fighting for… pretty powerful. But the song doesn’t need to be taken literally. I feel like sometimes we go on autopilot in life, with relationships, with jobs. We don’t ask questions because it’s easier not to, and because we just get caught up in the ra-ra of “the battle.” Gentle Folks is a wake-up call… even when you’re in deep, sometimes you don’t believe what you’re fighting for.
I love your video for “End of the World.” Where did the idea for the video come from and where did you film it?
We thought this song would be a perfect homage to the Mayan myth of the end of days, so we decided to do a story set in a post-apocalyptic time (with a bit of a twist). We collaborated with the director, RJ Sanchez, and between us and the two girls got a wardrobe and made all the props and solidified the storyline. It was just the two of us, the two girls and the director. We got our faces painted at midnight in LA and then drove out to the Salton Sea to get our first shots at sunrise. It’s an incredibly eerie and inspiring place in the dessert south of Joshua Tree… Because of the salinity of the water in the sea (8 times that of the ocean), the fish die every year and the desert is completely covered in fish bones that crunch beneath your feet and let off a putrid odor as you walk. So we’re doing these chase scenes through the desert, crunching on fish bones, and it really put us in that post-apocalyptic world. The rest of it was shot in East Jesus, a small artist community in Slab City. The people there were incredibly welcoming and let us burn a huge mattress inside an old car-frame. Definitely helped for dramatic effect.
Let’s say you knew when the end of the world would be. What would you do on your last day? What would be your last meal? The last album you listen to?
Last day activities: BBQ at Griffith Park with our closest friends and family. Every instrumental possible for one last jam session. Every sports field/setup possible for one last day of activities.
Last day food: Bottomless ramen, sushi, super thin crust pizza and chipotle
Last day album: MJ – Thriller
You have achieved a lot of success for such a new band. Your music has been featured on TV, you’ve performed on Conan and at SXSW, you’ve played shows with Fitz & The Tantrums, Weezer, and now Fun. What has been your favorite moment so far?
It just so happened that the guy who books Conan O’Brien came to our very first Hunter Hunted show back in February at the Troubadour. After the show he said he really liked us and wanted us to play on Conan. Dan and I have played in other bands together for years…we’re not jaded, per se. But we’re not easily excited by big promises either. Much to our surprise, however, the very next week we got a call from the guy to play Conan…. so our second show as Hunter Hunted was broadcast on national television. It was a pretty crazy experience.
The other highlight just wrapped up last week…. we got the opportunity to go on tour with FUN. and the shows were insane. These were the biggest shows we’ve ever played in the most beautiful settings. We really didn’t know what to expect when we stood on stage in front of thousands of fun. fans each night who had never even heard of us before. But they were really good to us, and fresh off the tour, I’m still on a high and feeling incredibly grateful.
Speaking of your shows with fun., what do you take away or learn from opening for a band like that?
Fun. really knows how to put on a show and perform at 100%. You could watch any member on stage at any point in their set and you would be entertained and excited. It’s quite inspiring as a performer. Obviously they write songs that are undeniable hits, and even after watching them from the crowd every night (not to mention after hearing them on the radio for the past couple years), they’re still so powerful and so undeniably great. I couldn’t help but sing along. Every night on that tour we played with more passion and more excitement, and you could feel the crowd giving it back to us. Since we got home a few days ago, we have locked ourselves in our studio, inspired by fun. to write and record some big hits ourselves.
Do you have an ultimate goal for your music career? Or is it more of a mindset of “Do everything you can and have fun along the way?”
We want to write and release records every few years that get better and better, and all the while we want to write music that we feel good about… classic, timeless records that are still fresh and innovative and evolving. We used to answer questions like this by saying “We could play in front of 5 people and be happy, as long as we are still playing and writing and having fun and doing it for ourselves.” But I think that’s a bit of BS. I mean, we do love writing and playing, and without that we don’t have anything, but I know it’s bigger than that now. We’re not a band that was ever going to be an indie pitchfork darling. But that’s not important to us. We want to spread our music and inspire people. We want a long career of traveling to places we never thought we’d be able to, and performing in front of people all over the world.
What’s coming up next for you the rest of this year and into 2014?
We’re touring with the Mowgli’s and Blondfire coming up at the end of November, but until then, we are locking ourselves in the studio doing nothing but writing. The plan is to start recording our debut LP in January, release it in the spring of 2014, and spend all of that year on the road.
Hunter Hunted – “End Of The World”
