Coming out of Paso Robles, California, alt-rocker Hunter Oliveri is getting ready to drop his debut record, “Teen Slug,” via Spinefarm Records. At just 20 years old, Oliveri has been putting out music since his teenage years about just that, him living in a small town and going through the growth of being a teenager. Contributor Ethan Herx sat down with Oliveri to talk about his latest single “Lunatics” and the new album, which will release on September 19 on all platforms. Oliveri also has just unveiled a brand new single "Make U Cry". You can stream the new visualizer below.
INTERVIEW
Ethan:
Hi, my names Ethan. I'll be the one interviewing you today. How are you? Good
Hunter:
Good. Thank you for asking.
Ethan:
Can you introduce yourself a little bit and share with us a fun fact about yourself? It can be anything!
Hunter:
Yeah! My name is Hunter. A fun fact about myself would be that I like to cook.
Ethan:
Okay that's awesome. Let's dive right into the questions. To start off, how did you get into music? How did you start up with writing, playing music, etc?
Hunter:
Yeah, probably when I was around four or five, I would just be playing guitar with my dad, just hanging out in the garage or whatever. And I always had interest in it. And then when I was maybe 12 or 13, I got a setup, like a little cheap mic and a laptop and just started making music, I guess. I've always been really into it.
Ethan:
Who are like some of the artists that really Influenced you at the time to pick up music ?
Hunter:
Definitely Linkin Park, a lot of older like early 2000 stuff at first like Stain, Linkin Park, Silverchair, Nirvana. More like 90s bands, Green River, that's like an old one kind of. Incubus, I like just a bunch of like oldest early 2000s and like 90 stuff I would say and a lot of pop too; 2000s pop like I fuck with Lady Gaga stuff.
Ethan:
I'm kind of going back on something you said a little bit earlier when you introduced yourself. You mentioned you started getting into writing music at the age of 13. How old are you now?
Hunter:
I'm 20 years old now.
Ethan:
I did a little bit of digging. You grew up in Paso Robles, California. How did growing up in such a small town play a part in your music career?
Hunter:
It's kind of like a smaller city. So there's not much going on here, to be honest. Like there's not a lot, there's not a big scene, like there's some music venues and stuff in San Luis, it's like 30 minutes from here, there's like some venues and stuff like that. But it's a big wine county where I live in. Like older people come here to retire. So it's kind of hard as like a young person and trying to like make it out in this city, cause it's not LA, it's not like New York, like big ass cities. It's just like a small little like country town kind of vibe. It's kind of hard honestly.
Ethan:
So, kind of going a little bit more to the music. You got the upcoming record, Teen Slug, congratulations on that.
Hunter:
Thank you so much,
Ethan:
"Lunatics" was your latest single that was just released in mid June. Can you maybe share with us a little bit about the album title 'Teen Slug' and what the overall vibe of the album is going to be? How everything came to be?
Hunter:
Yeah, I would say the whole vibe about the album 'Teen Slug' is kind of just about growing up. Just being a kid, growing up. A lot of these songs were written over a two year period, maybe even longer than that. I would say that every song off this upcoming album is completely different sound wise. This is because I guess I was still also trying to figure out my sound on this record. It was kind of weird because I did a set period where I worked on a few songs from the album For like three weeks or something and then a lot of the other songs were like drawn out. I can kind of tell like I was growing up still and that's kind of what I would say the album is really about just growing up, experiencing new things and just learning how life is,
Ethan:
Can you go over your process of writing music and how you approach song writing?
Hunter:
Usually I just kind of like find and mess around honestly, just mess around on guitar, find a riff, hum, hum it out, hum a melody, decide whether that's a verse, bridge, chorus, whatever, whatever I'm hearing, and then just kind of piece it together like that, like if I make a sick verse. It kind of depends, sometimes I'll start with chorus or accidentally write a sick verse. I think a lot of it's kind of just like random, like on accident, I'm like, "Oh, that sounds cool." I don't know any chords or theory or anything. I can play guitar, I've been playing for a long time, but I can't tell you the names of any chords or anything. So it's mostly just like messing around. But I can play chords. I mess around and after like doing it for a while it's kind of like second nature. You realize like all that that's that's a verse or that's a prechorus Or that's a chorus. That's or like that's not a strong enough chorus. Let me try this and swap this for the bridge or whatever you're like just kind of like piecing it together, I guess but yeah, usually I just start with a melody on the guitar and then just kind of home recording on my voice memos.
Ethan:
What did the recording for that look like? Like, was it mostly like, studio time? Was it, you know, kind of DIY, that sort of thing?
Hunter:
Um, kind of 50 /50, Well, actually, a lot of the demos were like, half the songs were demos that I had. and then I went to the studio and record them. I redid it basically and then got a new mix on it and then the other half was kind of just in the studio whether it was just like something I had in my head that I made and then I just tracked it out there or just like making it from scratch in the studio. I would say like half the songs I already had recorded. They're just like shitty demos just that I've recorded here in my garage and then the producers were like, "Yo, these are sick. Let's do these." So, and then we just redid it basically and then yeah there was like a few weeks where I was just in the studio just working on a bunch of stuff and then like when I got home maybe like a few months later we added song that we thought were cool and like some older ones that we dug up and we're like these are sick.
Ethan:
Who were some of the people you worked with to kind of make this album happen?
Hunter:
Lucky West, he's like a big one for me. Johnny What I did a few with him, and then Elijah Noll. He's also an artist. He goes by American Teeth. He writes with John Bellion. I did like half the songs with Johnny What and then half with Lucky. It was kind of like a weird blend of like couple different producers. We kind of like swap the stems back and forth between them
Ethan:
You are currently signed to Spinefarm Records. When did you first discover them and how long have you been under their roster?
Hunter:
For a few years now actually. I've always been a fan of the label. They've been really helpful and getting me a bunch of cool like videographers and like playlist a bunch of cool stuff like that. So press like interviews and stuff. I like it and I like everyone that's on the label and everyone I work with.
Ethan:
Jumping into my last question for you today. What advice would you give to someone just starting out fresh in music?
Hunter:
Write as much as you can and just record as much as you can. That's how you're going to be the best artist is just by keep writing and keep doing it every day whether like you're trying to learn an instrument just consistency is key for sure.
Ethan:
Thank you so much for sitting down and chatting with me today Hunter. It was an absolute pleasure getting to know you and congratulations on your upcoming album. We are excited to hear what you have planned.
Hunter:
Thank you so much for having me! It was fun. Have a great day!
