Graham Reid | | 1 min read
Although many musicians often speak of their life and work as a journey, in truth most don’t stray too far from home base or an established style. Others however – like Tāmaki Makaurau-based singer-songwriter Kāren Hunter – frequently set off into different terrain, go down backroads and small corridors, usually picking up very different traveling companions along the way.
By the time of her 1998 album The Private Life of Clowns on her own Raw Fish Salad label, Hunter had already played the café scene around Auckland, worked on music projects with street kids in Mangere, been in bands, performed in Sydney as a solo artist and on the RSL circuit in a covers band, lived in London playing open-mic nights ... and much more.
Kāren Hunter, still only in her early 30s, already had quite some career when that album came out, distilling her interests and experiences into songs notable for their musical diversity.
The album won wide critical acclaim, however that diversity was too much for some in the music industry which, by then, she had worked in for decades.
Kāren Hunter was born into a musical family: one grandfather was . . .
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