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| (Charlie Hunter - Credit: CharlieHunter.com) |
SFBAC: I've got to ask first about your custom guitar. What's the origin behind the guitar? How did you get introduced to it?
Charlie Hunter: I
don’t know if… I didn't get introduced to it... I was just good at playing guitar...
for many years... When I was in my early
twenties I was like, it'd be nice to have a guitar that had more capacity...
Guitar is just anyone's instrument. You
can do whatever you want with it, generally.
So, my attitude was man, I could do something different with this. So, I just felt like I'll put some different
stuff on this instrument and I had one made for me, and it's been like, who knows, 24-25 years
ago now. Something in those… maybe a
little less, 22-23 years, and I've been evolving the concept ever since.
SFBAC: You
started with an eight-string, didn't you?
Charlie Hunter: Well,
I started, obviously, playing six-string and I played 7-string, different
versions of the seven-string for a little while before I played eight-string
and I played eight-string for a number of years and I switched to the current
guitar that I play now... this iteration... seven
to eight years ago, something like that.
I sure like it a lot more. It's
definitely a lot of fun.
SFBAC: How about
your live rig? Did I see two amps? A Mesa and a...
Charlie Hunter: Uhuh!
SFBAC: Okay. So, how does that work?
Charlie Hunter: You
need a bass amp and a guitar amp 'cause it's just too much range for one
amplifier so I've got two sets of pick-ups and… that's how I get that to
work.
SFBAC: Interesting. So, each pick-up goes to a
different amp.
Charlie Hunter: Uhuh!
SFBAC: Okay, so you're a Bay Area native, you've been playing for a number of years --
Charlie Hunter: Well,
I'm not a Bay Area native. I grew up in
the Bay Area. I don't live there
anymore. I haven't lived in the Bay Area
in, boy, 16-17 years, something like that.
I live in Jersey. I've been on
the East Coast for quite some time. My
family is originally from the East Coast and... So it just was natural to come out here at one point. Also, because the whole music thing back then, it actually mattered. The music scene out here, so that's why I
relocated.
SFBAC: So of all the places you
played, do you have any interesting stories? What stands out?
Charlie Hunter: I
wish I could say that I have that but I've played at so many different places
and I really can't say... it's always different all the time and it
depends on the crowd that comes and some places are really more
consistent. But I love going back to
every place that I play. I'm not just
saying that to be diplomatic. Most of
the places I play are probably smaller than The Independent too. Coming in the Bay Area is always really great
for me because I came up there and I play there so often and the people come
out to see the music while I'm there. So
it's always fun. But it's always
different and it depends on what kind of music you're playing, what group
you're playing with. So it's just really
hard to be all to specific about that.
SFBAC: Any
favorite venues in the Bay Area?
Charlie Hunter: Yeah, I like to play... Dana
Street Roasting Company in Mountain View; The Independent has turned into our
new fun place to play. There's a new
place in Oakland called Duende that we played that was really fun. That's gonna
be fantastic.
SFBAC: Who would you say your influences are?
Charlie Hunter: Oh, too many to name. I'm just a music listener so there's just so
many great players that spent so much time with me to... It's too hard to say.
SFBAC: So, how about this. If you have a chance to play with anybody who
you haven't already, who would that be?
Charlie Hunter: Well,
they've all passed away.
SFBAC: So nobody
still alive?
Charlie Hunter: No,
I'm lucky, man. All my peers that I love
playing with, I get to play with. I've
had the chance to play with a few of the older ones, and when I was a kid I
played with people who were a lot older than me and a lot better than me. Yeah, I'm really lucky in that. But hey, you never know what can happen and
if someone wants to play and it ends up in a really cool connection then you
just go there.
SFBAC: How about studio wise. Do you prefer commercial studios? Do you have a home
studio? How's your studio?
Charlie Hunter: Oh no, I don't have a home studio. I just have a garage with some sheet rock in
it. I practice in there everyday but I don’t
record at home or anything like that. ‘Cause
what we do is so immediate. Our last
track that we made in two days, just recording direct to tape. I'm not one of those people that put up a
recording studio in his house. I have
two guitars, a couple amps, and a drum set and that's about the extent of it. I know a lot of people, that’s how they do
their thing, but I'm just not one of them.
SFBAC: Back to
when you started playing. Did you start
on the bass and moved to guitar or the other way around?
Charlie Hunter: Well,
I started on the drums, actually, and then I moved to the guitar and I played a
lot of bass as well. So, I played
acoustic bass on the streets for a while in Europe. So that was a big thing for me, and then I
just slowly put the things together.
SFBAC: Looking at the audience when you tour.
Do you notice any differences at a macro-level for example, the US versus
Europe versus Asia or even within the States - West Coast, East Coast?
Charlie Hunter: Definitely
you would notice stuff when you're travelling to different cultures for
sure. It’s not in the States; it's not
that different. It's definitely... there's small differences in the States, but
we've become such a homogeneous society that the differences are pretty
negligible. When you go to Europe, it's different in different parts of
Europe. Northern European, Scandinavian people have a different way of dealing
with music than the Southern Europeans do versus Eastern Europeans. Then Japanese, they have a very... their
whole idea... decorum... and people being at the concert is very different than
ours. They're very, very respectful and you'd think that they're not being...
they're just ignoring you or something and being incredibly quiet. Then you realize, no, they're really into
it. They're just being really
respectful. Then you go to South America
and people are super buoyant and really flippin' out at the music. Those things are definitely different.
SFBAC: So looking
back over your career, do you feel like you had... what was the point where you
think you feel you finally made it or you hit the, maybe, an inflection point
where you reached that level?
Charlie Hunter: I
don't think about it like that because when you get in there and you get in the
whole mix of everything, it's always been about the music and trying to always
better myself in that respect, and that's the most important aspect of it. The concept of kind of making it is really...
it's just not... whatever I've been able to do in this music thing, it's just
more than a function of following the music.
Then there were times where there have been, kind of, economic success
which is great. And there were times
when it's been a total bust. The music success and the economic success don't always
coincide with one another; nor do the busts and the music successes. So, I just
don't think about it that way. I think
there are definitely people in the more kind of pop world. And then you're not really dealing in that. Music
is just a very small part of what they do. Their thing is more about physical,
visual performance, and the music plays a small part in it. What people like myself do, it's just all
about the music. Some years I'll do well and other years I won’t. But hopefully, the
music is always evolving and if the opportunity to present themselves and it
makes sense, you take them.
SFBAC: As far as the shift of distribution over the
years from vinyl and tape to CDs and now digital, do you have any thoughts about where the
industry is going, or the impact of what's happened?
Charlie Hunter: I don't even think about it.
SFBAC: No?
Charlie Hunter: Yeah, because I am such a small business that
I did that thing with the major record labels and I did that whole thing when
it was still kind of a viable option.
And what I found out was really... there's two ways to go. You can try to be enormously successful in
that world, economically. But then you
really don't... then you make the music when you can, and you have lots and lots of
people who were helping you and getting paid and you have the stress of having
an organization and you're paying all these people. Or you can go the other way which is you
follow the music and then the economic successes, hopefully, will present
itself enough that you can make a living.
And that just means you have to be really, really good and really practice
all the time. There's ups and downs and you just… when you're a guy like
me, you just try to keep it as small as possible and to keep the music, that's
the most important thing that you're doing.
And let everything else take a back seat. And that means you do everything
yourself. You drive to all the gigs yourself. You set up everything except for the
booking, you do yourself. I have a
booking agent. But everything else you
do yourself. And I gotta say, I'm much
happier now doing everything myself than I was when I had a manager and a road
manager and a record company and all of these external functions that were
complications that on a daily basis were infinitely more frustrating than the
one or two mistakes I make everyday myself.
And also, they used up all the money.
There were years when I generated a lot of money and I saw none of it.
SFBAC: Well, that's it from here and thanks again for your time Charlie. We're looking forward to catching your next show in the Bay Area!
