Audio By Carbonatix
Maybe you’re like me (God help you). Maybe you heard some of PlayRadioPlay‘s stuff in the past and thought, “Hey, this is interesting stuff, especially condsidering it’s coming from some kid from Aledo. If only he turned down some of that vocoder…”
Well, over on his Myspace page, a couple new tracks seem to indicate that Dan Hunter, the man behind the moniker, is poised to do just that. It’s some pretty promising stuff, too; check out “Mindy’s Secret Song” on his Myspace page to see what I’m getting at. It’s a good deal more sophisticated than the Texas disc he released last year, just before his somewhat ugly split with Island Records.
So what’s the progenitor of this new sound? In an interview posted to absolutepunk.net late last month, Hunter tries to get to the bottom of it–and offers up some interesting tidbits about his next disc…
Here’s just snippet from Hunter’s Q&A, in which he talks about his expanding instrumentations and influences:
“First of all, I’m using a much different batch of instruments and
sounds than I have in the past. Almost every track has a Mellotron. A
lot of the drums are sort of simpler, yet more complicated at the same
time. A lot of it is Lo Fi. I’ve sort of developed a sound that I call ‘The Dying Drum Machine’ where I make a beat sound like it was sampled
from a crappy, broken drum machine, thrown to tape a shit load of
times, pressed onto vinyl, and then abused until it sounds like the
little guy is just dying and struggling to keep time. Nothing is as
clean or shiny as my older stuff. It’s more raw, but in a calculated
way. We’re running a lot of stuff through my Echoplex EP-1 tube tape
echo that hasn’t been maintenanced or cleaned ever. So it just sounds
dirty and old. We’re re-amping a lot of drum beats through some of my
many fuzz pedals, and then through a Sherman Filterbank, which is an
amazing filter tool that’s used by people like Trent Reznor and Johnny
Greenwood.There’s a lot more guitar, and it’s much different than any of the
riffs on my older stuff. I’ve gotten much better at guitar over the
last few years. There’s actually some Smashing Pumpkin-esque guitar
solos on a few songs.We’re going to mix a lot of the record on tape. Oh, and Joe and I are
mixing it ourselves. After being in the room for the mixing of most of
Texas, I decided I wanted to mix the next record. It’ll be fun.Also, I’ve been listening to much different music. The Flaming Lips,
The Rolling Stones, Plants and Animals, Grandaddy, Arcade Fire, Beck,
Pavement, Neutral Milk Hotel. Mark Pirro (Polyphonic Spree) told me
that one of my songs reminded him of ‘a more playful Secret Machines’.
That about made my day/week/year/life.Overall, the album is very diverse. Each song is very different. You’ll
probably think some songs are played by different bands. Some people
would say that means the album lacks focus, but that’s the type of
thing that keeps me interested. I get bored with every song having the
same 4 instruments. Some of the songs and lyrics are more aggressive.”
It makes for a good read. Hunter’s clearly an intelligent guy, and his musical exploration is just off the starting blocks, really. And, considering the promise Texas showcased, our interest in Hunter’s next disc just spiked way the hell upward.
