Interview with Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (http://petesrocknewsandviews.com)
PD: What type of artist are you?
Emma: we create flamenco-inspired, dark sinister tracks. I use a looper and Tom is on drums. In terms of the kind of artists we are, we have learnt that if you sometimes limit what you have access to, can lead to musical magic. Limitation can sometimes be limitless.
PD: Tell us the brief history of yourself.
Emma: I have always been creating music, in fact I wrote my first Madonna inspired song when I was 8, but don’t hold that against me! I’ve been in bands, done session singing for other people and have been involved in music for a long time. Tom and I met and started working together in 2019 and released our first EP towards the end of the year. We did really well, played at the O2 Academy in Oxford and then COVID hit, so that somewhat got in the way of things! But we have since released a second EP, played the main stage of Truck Festival; played at Cornbury Festival and have another release set for this September. We also put a lot of hard work into our music videos as we are influenced by films and their soundtracks, so there’s that too!
PD: Who are your musical and non-musical influences?
Emma: David Bowie, PJ Harvey, Ennio Morricone and Kate Bush and non-musical influences are people like David Lynch and Wes Anderson and their films.
Tom: Radiohead, John Bonham, Gary Powell, and Buddy Rich to name a few. Any amazing drumming essentially!
PD: What are your dreams and goals?
Emma: To make a living through our music, to play at Glastonbury Festival, to write the soundtrack to a film (a good film that is!) and to still love the music that we create.
PD: Who writes your songs, what are they about?
Emma: I write the lyrics, melody and chords and we work together to create the structure and finesse the song together. I use a made up character as inspiration for the content of our songs. She is called Yolanda, is from Mexico at some point
in the 1950s and starts her story by falling in love with a mysterious cowboy called Danny, who appears to be the Sun God incarnate, but who turns out to be an alcoholic murderer! As the story goes on she falls in love with a woman and frees herself from the shackles of Danny. My life is rather removed from that, but I’m still really inspired by flamenco music and latin culture and I’m secretly full of darkness, so writing through the eyes of Yolanda really helps me to use my imagination and write about what inspires me.
PD: How do you promote your band and shows?
Emma: Mostly through our social media accounts but also through local music magazines and good old word of mouth.
PD: What do you think about downloading music online?
Emma: Hmmmm, I think that the best way to support bands is to go and see them and to buy their merch. I do find it difficult that the music bands and artists spend a lot of time, money and effort making, is not valued by the streaming platforms enough. So in essence, it’s great that people can access music so easily and to be able to listen to a huge wide range of music, but it’s not great that the artists don’t really earn anything from that whilst the streaming platforms do!
PD: What song do you wish you’d written and why?
Emma: Rock n Roll Suicide, it’s just so emotive, has an amazing melody and is incredibly dynamic. It’s also so brutally honest. There is a desperation in the song at trying to get through to someone who is struggling.
PD: What are some of your pet peeves?
Emma: Loud chewing, people being unkind and inconsiderate, grrrrr!
Tom: I think I have too many to mention!
PD: What is your proudest moment in music?
Emma: Main stage of Truck Festival for sure. Tom grew up going to that festival so to play there was a dream!
PD: So what are you working on at the moment?
Emma: Our new EP which is released in September, we hope!
PD: What music have you available online and where can we buy it from?
Emma: Our Bandcamp page is the best place to buy our music! We have an EP called Sun Blood, another called Here I Go and two singles out currently. Morire is our most recent single available at https://emmahunter.bandcamp.com/. We love a music video too and they’re all on our YouTube channel
Emma Hunter links:
Band/Artist location – Oxford UK
Website – Facebook – You Tube – Soundcloud – Bandcamp –
Twitter – Instagram – Apple – Spotify – Amazon – Deezer –
Check our page for Emma Hunter
