Power Player #30: hunterquinn

Cincinnati-based chip musician hunterquinn has been shredding the gnar in the nasty ‘nati for quite some time now.  we thought it would be a good idea to interview him– so after an arduous trek and many sleepless nights, I finally pinned him down.  We both put on our internet hats, and drank some bourbon.

Okay for starters, tell us a little bit about yourself.

My actual name is Hunter Quinn, so it kind of a convenient name for starters.  Been writing music on and off for the last 10 years and now I’ve been making music with LSDJ for about a year.

How/why did you get into chipmusic?  What was the catalyst that started it all for you?

Well, probably about 2 years ago, my buddy Andrew Gould called me and said “Get the fuck over to my house! You have to see this!”. “this” was Reformat The Planet and I about shit my pants. From there it was a tireless effort by Andrew Gould (known now as AndaruGO) to find out how to make this kind of music that harnessed the power of our childhood.  So after a few months he found out about LSDJ. We are and were both pretty poor at the time so we saved up, lurked flea markets and got gameboys of our own and got our carts and that’s when we made it go.

I know you went to blip festival this year – how was that?  Are there any things that stick out in your mind specifically?

That’s kind of an interesting question because to be honest, blipfest was like a dream that I never wanted to wake up from. Everything about it was amazing except for the beer prices and the bouncers. But the thing that I think stuck out the most for me was running into Joshua Davis (bitshifter) on a subway back to the place I was staying. That stuck out the most because he was just a normal super nice guy. This man I had been looking up to for so long actually gave me the time of day and actually WANTED to talk to the friends I was with and myself. It was something that I was super surprised by but it ended up being very similar when I ended up meeting all the other chip guys I met there. So long story short I would have to say that the best thing about blipfest was how “real” people can be.

That’s really awesome, how did that make you feel about the chip scene as a whole?

It got me super stoked. I had kind of hit a rut at that point writing music. After blip I was on a roll, and I was just really excited to be a part of this “thing”

Do you have any influences in your musical style outside of chipmusic?  and what are the chipmusic influences that you DO have?

Alright, I would have to say my biggest musical influences outside of chip (in no order) would be: Cut Copy, Pedro the Lion, The Number 12 Looks Like You, Circle Takes the Square, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Godspeed You Black Emperor, OLD! Dillinger Escape plan, OLD! The Red Chord, and Whitehouse.  And when it comes chip influences! In no order: Nullsleep, Bitshifter, Covox, Random, Glomag, AndaruGO, Quantum Wave, Erdrick’s Armor, NNNNNNNNNNNNN, Knife city, Animal Style, ctrix, CCDM, and so many others. These are just the people who got me into chip, and kept me interested. The rest of the chip guys I know will probably surpass alot of these influences at some point and I can’t wait to see that happen!

…and of course SAILORBOAR

The music I make comes from a really dark place, and not like “omg I am so dark lolz”. More of I make the music that I do to make people to have an off feeling if you get what I mean. It winds in and out of super UNCE and really slow chord based progressions. A lot of the bands that I grew up with had that indescribable sound that just put me on edge. Saying that I like to have people dance to my music, so I end up making it all bumpse bummpse tsss tsss woub woub yeaaaarrrrarrrrb. But when it comes to the chip influences I have, they all have really FULL music. So put all of this together and one can see my attempt at having my gameboy scream at you like someone who is disappointed  in you because of something you can’t help. It’s yelling because it needs more attention, and wants chip to evolve forever.

Do you have any pro-tips, or advice for people just starting out making chip music?

SLOW DOWN! It gets better I promise. Also, use a lot of tables, always make new wav instruments, and never settle for anything less than your best. If you don’t then you are wasting everyone’s time. Lastly just because people around you don’t get what you are doing, don’t let it beat you up, just don’t give up. Strive to be the push your city needs for people to appreciate this amazing thing, and get your friends in on it too! It’s all about a supportive scene, without that you really don’t have a lot.

…and when I say slow down, I mean tempo dawgss

[You and I] were in a band together.  Talk about that.

trololololol

OK once upon a time, there were 2 highschool geeks in tight pants with angular haircuts. One of those kids was andaruGO, one of those kids was hunterquinn. We joined a band called ALTERBOY and had a great time playing shows, getting our feet wet in the whole music scene more than we had before that time. Met a lot of great people and I learned a lot of shitty things about being in a band. Eventually Andrew and I were the only ones holding this band together who almost got signed by 2 different labels, was planning a tour, the whole shebang. But there was only so much we could do after the band lost its vocalist in a super shitty way. So we gave up on music for a while. Sad story

On a scale of one to bad-ass, where do you think you stack up?

Honestly, it depends on the day. Sometimes I feel like I’m pretty fucking spectacular. Other days I’d say I’m feeling more of a stale fart smell.

When do you usually take your shirt off during a set?

Usually when ever I have a brk from shredding the gnar. or when I’m too wet to see, then I use it to wipe the liquid nerdgasm off my face. Or when I see AndaruGO, then it just comes off by itself.

So are you going to play any songs from your first release, Bourbon Back Attack at your next show?

Dude…. seriously fuck you hahaha

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You can listen to Hunter’s music on soundcloud here. He also came 6th out of 60 in the LSDJ Showdown 2012 with his track finaLLY.

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