THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE: JOSHUA HUNTER of SOFT BAIT

Elsewhere has already nailed up its colours on Soft Bait: in our review of their second album Life Advice we said the single New Leaf would be our best of the year (if we reviewed singles) and the album will be in our end of the year best of list.

With the new album on Flying Nun debuting on the local charts at number nine and the band preparing for a tour, we thought it timely to ask singer/writer Joshua Hunter a few questions.

He's also behind the excellent cover painting which – on vinyl – is worth putting in a frame.

Over to you now Joshua . . .

Where did you grow up, and with who?

First part of my life on a small farmlet in a place called Hoopers Inlet which is at the end of the Otago peninsula in Dunedin.
Crazy wild landscape that when I go back I always take a trip out that way to walk around and visit old spots I remember from as a kid.

What are your earliest childhood memories of music which really affected you . . .

My mum would play albums and we would listen back together. It was stuff that was usually based around lyrics and she would explain what the story was about and what the person was singing about. It was stuff like getting played Country Death Song by Violent Femmes about how this dad murders his daughter because they had fallen on hard times.

I remember being amazed how someone could tell a story like that with dark subject matter but made to be pretty or even a fun sing along song.
As a kid I just really like the idea of sound and would try make up and hum little tunes. I had a toy Lion King microphone tape deck thing where you could sing into it and record on to the tape. I used to hold the mic up to the speaker part making it squeal from the feedback.

I had no idea what was going on at the time but found it interesting and entertaining.

Later I found out I could also use another tape player and record off both at the same time and I would splice together songs and would make these weird remixes from the radio and tapes we had around the house.

I also remember every night getting sung Summertime before I went to sleep. That song still just reminds me of my child on the Peninsula.

Was there a time when you felt it was going to be music and nothing else?

I think it was at a family friend's place for dinner I was still wee and their teenage son had an electric guitar. I remember asking how it worked and he plugged it in and let me play it.

Blasted right through me I was hooked straight away and knew I just wanted to play.

When you started on your music career were people around you supportive or did you have to find those people?

Yeah I felt like I was 100 percent in whether people around me were supportive or not, it didn’t really matter it was going to happen. It was finding like minded people that wanted to go all in and write was the thing. 

I never really wanted to cover other people's songs. The important thing was learning how to play other people’s stuff so I could write my own. I found that it always interested me more.

We would practice at my house and the amps turned all the way up. A group of 13 year olds with no idea and very very patient parents and just tried to figure out how this song writing stuff worked.

We sounded horrible but just kept going. I don’t know how we were allowed to practice for hours that loud but was very lucky with the support we had from our folks and I apologize to past neighbours.

I've been laughed at a few times in this journey by peers but I'm happy I didn’t listen and it just makes the whole thing even more special now.

The first song of yours which you really felt proud of was . . .? And why that one?

Me and Cameron [MacKintosh, Soft Bait drummer] had a band in high school called Ostrander Aardvark. There was this song we wrote together called Reading A Magazine and I remember that was a game changer.

It was the first song that actually had structure that made sense and everyone wasn’t just playing the same note as fast as possible. I remember performing that live and people actually really liking it. We would always save it until the end of the set and got a big kick out of that.

Any one person you'd call a mentor, angel on your shoulder or invaluable fellow traveller?

I would say the fellow travellers of Soft Bait. I think we all approach music in a different way but all come together with the same goal in mind. We all work together really well.

If one of us comes up with an idea the other might see something the other one didn’t and we go from there. It elevates the idea and the super open collaboration effort I find is very special.

They are the best mentor, angel, shoulder, invaluable, fellow travellers.

Where and when was the first time you went on stage as a paid performer?
It was at the Dunedin musos club, me and Cameron were opening for Runt, this band our guitar teacher/rock mentor Brad Martin was in.

Getting paid was pretty wild. I can't remember how much or what we even spent it on but I remember that was a fun night. Up until that point we had just played open mic nights there and would get the decibel meter pulled on us to shut the hell up. Guess it was fair enough

Ever had stage fright or just a serious failure of nerve before going on stage?

From time to time, usually the week of a gig, I’ll be lying in bed and just think of the whole concept of performing and have a “Oh god what the hell am I doing?” moment but that usually passes and it’s smooth sailing.

I’m more stressed out in what to say between songs, that's a fine art in itself.

As a songwriter, do you carry a notebook or have a phone right there constantly to grab ideas they come? Or is your method something different?

Just had to look at my phone but have 771 voice memos to myself which I’ll dive back into at some point and pick out the good ones from the nonsense ramblings.
I keep a book and just write a lot. Whether it’s going to be a song or not it doesn’t really matter. I’ll make notes from conversations, situations or things I see.

Sometimes I’ll just write and then go over it and see if there’s a theme that I keep coming back to subconsciously. Other times I’ll just write a title and brainstorm around that.

It’s a fun exercise and I love going back and reading over and maybe seeing something you wrote months ago and being like “holy shit let’s make a song around that".

Other times song lyrics will be just written in one go to a drum beat that I can take to the band and build a song that way.

What unfashionable album do you love as a guilty pleasure?

I’m just assuming they're unfashionable because they never really come up in conversation with musos, but they are fashion.
Would have to be Yello album Baby, there’s this song Ocean Club that always serves me well when I’m in my silly annoying guy energy.

It's after a performance/concert and you are in a hotel room or back at home, what happens then?

I’m pretty low key when not performing and after a show. I'm not a party guy. I’m always super happy and just be like “that was a bloody fun show” and then just wanna change into a t shirt that isn’t covered in sweat.

Always stoked when people come up and have a yarn, always cool seeing peoples reactions. I usually just wait for Keria [Paterson, bassist] to say the magic words “pretty keen to get some food and just chill at the hotel/home.” (Which I was thinking as well the whole time)

Then I’m there! If it’s a hotel it’s a bonus if they have SKY cause I just watch the discovery channel.

Is there any fellow artist you admire for professional and/or personal reasons? 

Always admire characters that just do their thing. Whether famous or not I think it’s very powerful and freeing when someone is just honest and doesn’t really care about trends or what you are meant to be doing and just creates for the sake of creating. 

And finally, where to from here for you do you think?

Befriend a wealthy oil tycoon who can let us do this full time.
Then Michael Bay said he wanted this to be the soundtrack for the new Transformers movie.
Before that happens we have got a NZ tour in Sep which I am very excited to share this album we have put so much love and care into.

Then hopefully get over to Aussie before the end of year and I would love to go and play in the UK also.

Then always more writing and another album.

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You can hear and buy Soft Bait's Life Advice at bandcamp here.

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