Hunting Dog is an experimental musician and member of the Grimalkin collective, who, when not organising benefit shows and recruiting for the collective, makes what the press release calls “shoegaze experimental trip dance music.” They are about to release Body, a brand new album on Grimalkin Records, and we have the pleasure of unveiling it in full to the world.
As the “shoegaze experimental trio dance music” tag suggests, Hunting Dog makes music that is totally unique, fusing trippy dance electronics with drum machines and droning textures, all swaddled in a gauzy blanket of fuzz. This is complemented with visceral poetry that’s fed through a text-to-speech machine, creating cyborg spoken word sections that are obviously machinated but with an unsettling aura of humanity.
But Body isn’t a case of meaningless experimental pyrotechnics. Like every Grimalkin release, the album has a burning sense of purpose, deeply personal, almost spiritual feelings kindled and nurtured into a message that feels timely and important. Head of Grimalkin Nancy Kells (of Spartan Jet-Plex) spoke to Hunting Dog about the album and their creative process. Click play below and then read on for a fascinating insight into the work of this singular artist.
I was into your music and sound from the first time I saw you perform live. It’s so special and unique. I get mesmerized during your live sets. And then when I was mastering your tracks for your release, I got even more deep into it. When I am listening to your music, it feels like you’ve created something completely fresh- a new genre. I was thinking trip shoegaze or shoegaze trance haha?
Ha, I’m still not sure exactly what genre I’d call it but thank you so much lol I love both.
I am of course being a bit silly. but I am also dead serious.
Hmmmm, I guess I always just called It Experimental Electronic, or Musick (as in Magick)
Yeah, I like that, especially calling it a kind of magic. It really is mesmerizing like casting a musical spell. It has this trance aspect to it that sucks you in and then the computerized voice that’s so clear and crisp over the droney sounds is what I think does it. The two together. The words really bring me into this thoughtful place and brings up all sorts of things for me. I’m not good at expressing what I mean about music in words, but your songs have this sci fi AI and alternate universe thing about them and they also feel personal and on an individual level, but as if you’re battling between the physical vs other worldly and it also feels really political. I believe art is always (when it’s good) subversive and political. It’s powerful. I feel like this whole set of songs represents the personal and individual as well as the political and the spiritual.Your song My Body at its halfway mark makes me think of My Bloody Valentine, but just tangibly. It goes to this shoegazy noise space within a dancey beat that’s all muffled and quiet in the background. It’s really cool.
With this release i wanted to be a lot more influenced by the techniques used to make dance music and see If I could put that into ambient. Also I love My Bloody Valentine lol.
I also saw on your Facebook page that you list Coil, Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, and Current 93 as bands you like. This makes a lot of sense to me and can hear that in your music in terms of spirit. It’s probably one reason I am drawn to your music.. I listened to all of those bands growing up through junior and high school and beyond. I especially like Coil and Psychic TV.
Oh yeah those are like my bread and butter. Like honestly they introduced me to the magical disciplines that saved my life.
So how is your music put together?. Do you have separate tracks? That’s how I do it for most part. I usually record main music and vocals at once and then build the rest of the song around that with separate extra tracks.
Well I usually make a track from scratch, then take it into a dj mixer or something and make a crap ton of remixes until the song becomes unrecognizable, usually done in FL Studio, then taken into Serato or Virtual DJ. I also have no way to do vocals at the moment.
Oh that is interesting about the mixing and remixing. It does have this weird dance thing in background but muffled out and ambient like. How are the vocals made? What is the voice sample? I’d love to hear your thoughts behind that.
Cool and the voices on everything are stuff I wrote or old things I like all run through a text to speech machine. Like Idumea is a religious hymn I used to like about Death and a place called Edom. My Body is a poem I wrote about the bodies in relation to the selves, and the one on Dead Nettle is another poem I wrote about entropy and feminism.
Oh wow, that is really interesting to me and I love the way you are using technology in your music. It really gives the words another level of meaning to them, especially in relation to humans and the human body.
When did you start writing music and playing live? Also, I’ve seen you perform probably 6 or 7 times now and every time is a little different, which I love. It’s also seamless- meaning one song runs into the next when you do them live. It’s like you’re DJing yourself which I love. How to you view your songs as tracks versus playing them out live? And how does that work?
I started writing music for myself about four years ago, but recently thought myself able to actually perform. And all of my tracks are just big mashups of all kind of techniques, sometimes I need a track to have embedded vocal but always like to have something to play with as I don’t think any aspect of a song should be “stuck” in that song.
I love the idea of using all these different sounds and tracks manipulated in real time when you’re performing live. I also hear a lot of different sounds, ideas and kinds of music in your songs. The Sade experimental remix type technique in Kind of Sorrow- it’s different from the other tracks but yet fits perfectly. I love that about your music. You are blending a lot of different techniques and kinds of music together.
We’ve talked previously about music being like a kind of therapy for us. It’s a way to exorcise our demons and process the world and everything we’re going through, are experiencing in the present, as well as processing our pasts. It’s also a kind of spell casting. Can you speak about that again?
Well, I may have understated in using the word therapy, I feel like therapy is some western thing that undermines a lot of spiritual work. To me everything just works by magick. Music is a much earlier form of magick than therapy and that’s why I do this.
Yeah, absolutely. Our true selves can exist in music. Our music is quite different on the surface probably, but I really relate to what you’re doing. I also think there are some parallels between how we make music and put songs together. I usually write on guitar or keys and then record base song on guitar or keys and vocals. From there I build levels and textures on top of that. When I play live, I just do that pared down version on guitar or keys with vocals, but when I record, I expand and experiment on the base song. After getting that down and then layers and textures, I often expand on that and take the song another path and build upon it. In some ways we are similar in that. You’re building a lot of layers and textures and you’re also taking the songs in different directions. How would you describe your songwriting? And what role does performing live and improvisation affect your songwriting?
Most of my songs are just made from bits and pieces of everything I think about. All the music I’ve heard, I’m constantly just putting together different melodies to see what can fit and develop into something that gives of what I think is vital or at least pleasing. While performing live it’s often the same way but instead of using motifs or styles or melodies, I use production and mixing techniques to create original soundscape that might not be able to be repeated.
Thank you for taking the time to talk with me again and I am excited to see what you do next.
You can purchase the Body now on limited edition cassette and lathe cut via Grimalkin Records. FYI the cassette has an exclusive secret track on both sides, while the digital download comes complete with a bonus track of a live Hunting Dog set from a recent ICE Out of RVA benefit show.
