PlayRadioPlay! interview with Daniel Hunter
April 3rd, 2008
By Jonathan Andrews
Daniel Hunter just released his latest album titled Texas under the name PlayRadioPlay! on March 18th, 2008. At first I wasn’t sure if this interview was going to work out because of scheduling issues but I’m glad it finally came together and that Daniel had a chance to answer my questions.
Were you in any prior bands before starting PlayRadioPlay?
I played in a local band, punk bands and stuff in high school but prior to doing my own solo project which ended up turning into PlayRadioPlay! I hadn’t really done anything serious so yes but no.
Where did the name PlayRadioPlay! come from?
Its kind of a nod to a Smashing Pumpkins song Eye Of The Morning from Machina where the lyric is “radio play my favorite song” and I love Billy Corgan and Smashing Pumpkins.
I read that you said that basically they’re the biggest influence or one of the biggest influences in music in your career. Why is that, why did they effect you so much?
There are definitely bands that I like more artistically now but as far as a group that has really influenced me for a long period of time, you know very dramatically, Smashing Pumpkins have been around in my interest since I was a young kid. They have always been my all time favorite band.
Did you find it hard at first to transfer what you’d done in your room on computers and make it presentable to a larger audience live?
I pretty much just took the identical tracks that I recorded vocals on top of and played them from the headphone jack on my computer. Technically it wasn’t really hard because it was just karaoke I guess but I as far as becoming a performer that is alone on stage, I guess its kind of nerve racking to be alone. Not hiding behind anything, there’s no one else to take the attention away from you. Performing alone at first was definitely interesting but I guess I like being…I wouldn’t say I like the attention, but I liked that the focus was all on the music and not on the stage show.
Is it friends playing with you in the band or did you audition people to come play for you?
They were kind of acquaintances that I become friends with and met randomly. My drummer and my keyboardist I met while on tour while I was doing my own thing.
I’m sure at first, it all happened pretty fast getting all those hits on Myspace and stuff and with record labels approaching you. What was kind of your first reaction when you started? Did you get emails from record labels or did someone actually contact you over the phone or how did that start?
I got an email first…I mean six months before any label had come to the table. Back at a time when I definitely wasn’t ready to be an artist on a major record label, Virgin Records contacted me. He just kind of said can I get some more music and I sent him this long burned cd of like 25 songs that were all a minute and a half long. They were just crappy crappy demos which is the worst thing you can do if you’re trying to inspire interest in your project is send him all the crap that you’ve made. So that was the first thing that happened and obviously nothing came out of that. But I think several months later, I was putting out a song every week or two on Myspace. I was kind of jumping leaps and bounds as far as my abilities recording and song writing and stuff monthly. A short time later I think Island Records and a few other labels became interested and at first it was kind of surreal and then I kind of was of the mentality there is a 99 percent chance this wont work out or it will fall though or something like that but it ended up happening so it was exciting.
What tours are you going to be apart of in the near future?
I’m on tour with a band called Yellowcard and Spill Canvas, Secondhand Serenade and Treaty Of Paris
What would the list of bands be on your dream tour?
First of all this would never happen, this dream tour. And I know for a fact that this wouldn’t be a good tour for what the fans of these other bands would want to hear. I would love to tour with Muse or Arcade Fire or Sigor Ros. Some of those bands that on the surface I don’t have a lot in common with that have influenced me a lot.
I read that you recorded your record over in England. What was that like? Is it a lot different as far as the recording process?
I did 4 songs no five songs over in England and the other 7 and all the interludes over in Los Angeles. When I was in England, I mean I had never been over there before. Like I flew over once to meet the producer Garret Lee who I was potentially going to work with and the second time I flew over there I was recording the record so I had only spent a few days there prior to recording the record there and its obviously a different world for anyone who hadn’t been to Europe. It’s a different world view of Americans over there so I mean it was definitely a culture shock but I definitely liked it over there.
In recording the Texas album, were you able to pick the producers who you worked with or were they selected for you by Island Records?
Island records had a long list of people that they suggested and I kind of picked out of those. I met with a bunch of producers and tried to figure out who I would want to be in the studio with for several months late into the night with. Yeah they gave me a list and I kind of picked. I think Garrett Lee was one that from the beginning Island was hoping I would work with and I ended up picking him so they were pretty excited about that. But the other producer Lester Mendez who did most of Texas in Los Angeles was kind of out of left field. He does Latin and stuff but we just hit it off and the work we did together was great.
For fans of your previous work and for new fans, if they haven’t got their hands on Texas yet, what can we expect from it?
It’s bigger, it’s more epic and it’s easier to listen to. It’s very diverse, not just all dance pop stuff. It’s a very diverse listening experience.
What was the reasoning behind the half tracks on the Texas album?
I think Island got really nervous when I started to suggesting that I wanted to…..I mean when I first told them that I wanted to do a record that played straight through without stopping really I think they were worried that it would be super weird or concept or artsy or something. They were definitely scared at first I guess but it ended up working out. I tried to make it with segues so that when you’re listening through it’s never just a halt and then boring silence but at the same time its not something hard to listen its not something you want to skip through necessarily. I wanted it to be short and concise and not a pain.
Have you thought at all about how long it’ll be before you put out a follow-up album or are you just going to enjoy playing this one for a while?
I’ve written enough material for the next record already. I wrote probably an entire full length while I was in the studio recording Texas. So I mean the songs are definitely on my mind, I’m definitely writing, writing and programming all the time. But as far as plans to go into the studio to record, that’s probably pretty far off.
What’s the writing process like for you?
When I’m writing I pretty much have Reason open and I’m programming in the chord progression and beats and ideas and stuff. Sometimes I’m transferring stuff on the guitar that I wrote on the guitar into Reason. Sometimes I have a vocal melody worked out and I’m trying to fit lyrics to it but it always normally involves my laptop as far as laying out the ideas and really shaping it.
Do you have any other passions other then music?
I like movies a lot. I’m a big computer and technology person I guess but I don’t play any sports or anything.
(sXe=Straight Edge)
I’ve read that after you came out of your drug use and depression you started to embrace a totally different lifestyle. One part of that was you being sXe, the other you becoming a Christian. How did both of those come about?
I actually was a Christian my whole life prior to that. The sXe was more of a new thing after I got out of rehab. But I mean it was kind of an obvious decision after being in rehab and you know after missing 4 months of school and being in a treatment center over holidays was kind of… and seeing people that were in a lot worse spot then me whose lives had completely fallen apart. It was just a pretty obvious decision for me to cut it completely out of my life because I’m kind of a person of extremes. I’m really not able to drink moderately or smoke a small amount or anything. For me it was all or nothing and I chose nothing.
How do people react when they find out you’re sXe and has it been harder since you’ve been signed and toured to be and stay sXe then it was before?
I don’t think I’ve ever told anybody that I was straight edge and them react with anything other then respect I guess because I think a lot of people realize that that’s a very difficult thing to do to just say you’re not going to touch or think about any of that stuff. its always been a good reaction. People have always respected it. When I’m on tour with bands that do drink a lot…when I first got out of rehab it was hard to be clean and sober I guess but I’ve been clean and sober for 3 years now. Now it’s really just second nature to me, I don’t think of it at all.
How do you feel your Faith intertwines with your music? Are they one in the same in your opinion?
I guess as far as writing music and stuff and my beliefs they’ve always been the same thing because I’ve always written very honestly. I’ve never set boundaries for myself as far as what I will or wont write about. I’ve always just written straight from my head and never said this is off limits. All my music is extremely honest and extremely open. As far as my beliefs being in my music, my beliefs are apart of me and my music is apart of me so they’ve always kind of gone together.
Do you find being a Christian in the mainstream music industry that the Christian industry expects you to be a certain way, or like people in it do? Do you ever find that when people come up to you in concerts or just talking to people in Christian media at all?
I don’t know, I’m not sure
It’s not a rigged question, it’s just something I came up with off the cuff. I’m just interested because I know a lot of bands talk about how the Christian music industry seems to make them want to fit into a mold.
Yeah I guess there’s a difference between the praise and worship Christian music industry and the Christian hardcore label music industry. I guess like the whole Tooth & Nail, Solid State kind of Christian industry is obviously much more in touch with what music is today. I think they’ve definitely broken off from the stereotype of the normal Christian music scene.
For people who are struggling with the same things you did after your father died (depression, drug addiction or stuff like that), what would you suggest they try doing that would help them to deal with the hurt and pain instead of continuing to follow the path they’re on?
I don’t know, I mean for me I just had to find something that consumed me as much as drugs and alcohol and depression had consumed me and for me that was music. I guess for some people that’s skateboarding or painting or whatever expression it is that’s a positive influence in people’s lives I think its really important
What would you be doing right now if PlayRadioPlay! hadn’t worked out, playing music still?
Yeah I mean if the whole record deal hadn’t happened I would still be making music at my house. I would probably be going off to college and doing that thing. Music has always been something that I’ve done for fun and now I do it for fun and share it with thousands and thousands of people .
Have you been embarrassed about anything that has happened in your career so far?
I think the first music video that they did for the Frequency EP I really hated. I don’t know if I’d say I am embarrassed I just…I look back on it and I kind of cringe a little bit but that’s it I guess.
What are you top 5 albums of all time? What are your current top 5 that you can’t stop listening too?
I do lists like this a lot so they’re always different. Right now my top 5 albums of all time…I mean the top one is probably Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dreams. I’d say Secret Machines – Now Here Is Nowhere…Grandaddy - Sumday…I normally say Grandaddy – The Sophtware Slump but I’ve been listening to Someday more. What else…one that I liked in high school was Alexisonfire – Watch Out. You know they’re from Canada. It’s a really melodic album even though it’s a pretty gut wrenching screamo band.
Do you like Dallas Green’s solo stuff or do you prefer the Alexisonfire stuff?
I wish Alexisonfire would just get rid of the dude that screams. I forget his name because I really like Dallas’s voice over full band spacey stuff rather then just raw acoustic stuff. I think City & Colour is a little bit boring to me but its still you know obviously full of great melodies and stuff. I just kind of get bored of listening to acoustic guitar and voice for 12 songs but his new record apparently is going to be a little more full band and I haven’t heard it yet so I need to check that out.
Yeah apparently he has electric guitar and he really expanded on the new album I haven’t heard it either.
Yeah that’s exactly what I would love to hear him do so I need to listen to that!
Is that pretty much the same as your top 5 current albums, your top 5 of all time?
Yeah I mean its hard to say a top 5 of all time because I guess my music taste changes with my mood. I guess my top 5 of all time and current would be pretty similar.
What would it take for you to cut your hair?
I’m not super attached to my hair I guess except for the fact that I’m worried that if….I’m kind of scared to get a bad haircut but I guess I’m more scared of getting it cut short and then having to wait 2 years to grow it back out if I didn’t like it short. I don’t know what it would take; maybe I’ll do it one day.
Have you learned any new instruments lately?
I’ve been playing xylophone lately. Our drummer has one that he uses a lot so I’ve been playing that.
Any last words for our readers?
Check out the new record I guess.
