In the electronic music world, having your music signed to a famous DJ’s record label is basically equivalent to an NBA player getting drafted by their favorite team. This kind of support verifies that an artist has truly made it, and all of the hard work and long days were worth it. Hunter Siegel, aka HNTR, is one such person.
HNTR’s latest single, “Searching for Self” feat. Tribe Alexander is his second single signed to mau5trap, the label of electronic legend, deadmau5. Respect My Region had the opportunity to chat with HNTR about his achievement, his new single, business ventures, and much more in this exclusive interview.
Check out the video interview below or continue reading for the highlights
HNTR is a Toronto based techno and house producer who has been making music for well over a decade, touring under different names for the past 10 years. HNTR is his latest artist project where he blends dark techno with progressive house. His music tends to be extensive and emotional, yet it draws you in and keeps you fully engaged.
“It’s dark, it’s driving. It’s pretty at points but still pretty hard.”
Hunter Siegel aka HNTR
Hunter Siegel is well known in Toronto well beyond just his music, running an event company for more than five years called No Neon. Through No Neon, the Canadian producer threw many sold-out shows and put on various artists before they blew up, including Rezz and JOYRYDE. In 2019, No Neon expanded into a record label as well, putting on emerging and established artists alike, as well as HNTR’s own music.
Stream “Searching for Self” by HNTR
RMR: Something I’ve learned since writing a lot about music is that where an artist comes from or lives really influences their sound. How do you feel that Toronto has influenced yours?
HNTR: Yeah, totally. There is a lot of truth to that. How it’s influenced my sound, it’s very hard to say. It’s hard to be reflective of what I do because I don’t necessarily feel like I sound like or do things like a lot of other people that come from here do. But there is something to be said about how cold it is here and how dreary half the year is. I feel like there’s a reason that Canadian artists have this sort of like colder sound or something. There’s a lot of sad music.
It’s weird. I could say more how it affects our events and that kind of thing than I can about my sound specifically. Cause I don’t know that I really have a lot of what’s considered traditionally popular sounds from here. Definitely guys like deadmau5 influence what I’m doing.
There’s a pretty big melting pot of different artists. It’s very similar to somewhere like LA where anything you like is here. If I had to say what it’s done to my sound, since I’ve been into music and going to events and stuff, I’ve had the possibility to see every different kind of music I could want to.
“I guess the melting pot is what I would say is the biggest contribution to my sound specifically.” -HNTR
RMR: How did you and the vocalist Tribe Alexander come together for this track?
HNTR: We’ve been friends forever, we’ve been friends for like 10 years. He used to DJ one of my old parties too. He’s actually a piano teacher and we started just talking randomly at the beginning of the pandemic. He had started teaching piano to try to get by because he couldn’t DJ. I was like, “Oh yeah, I actually would love to take piano lessons,” so we started talking. He was sort of like “Man, I haven’t been writing any music.” I was like, “Oh, we should try something together.’ And we just started messing around. He sent me a big folder of ideas.
Tribe sent me, I want to say like 10 songs at one point, and this was one of them. It was near the top of the list. I don’t even know if I made it through the list. When I got to that one, I was like, year that’s the one out of all of these. We have a bunch of songs together from working together over the whole pandemic. But that was the one, the first one where I was like, this is worth exploring to be something.
Stream “Searching for Self” by HNTR feat. Tribe Alexander
RMR: So like you mentioned earlier, “Searching for Self” is your second single on mau5trap. How does it feel to be supported by literally one of the biggest DJs in the world?
HNTR: Yeah. It actually goes even deeper than that, because some of these songs were literally made from like being inspired by his older stuff. I don’t like to listen to new music for inspiration. I think that’s how you sort of, very easily accidentally copy something or have a too similar sound to everyone else. So I strive to try to go back. I listen to a lot of music from the early 2000’s in the 2010’s.
The inspiration for some of these songs was me just saying, “Hey, look, I’ve never explored trying to get into doing stuff that is reminiscent of like old Eric Prydz and old deadmau5.” And so to be recognized by one of those, for trying to push the sound they started forward. That’s like, it’s immense. Like I don’t even know, I can’t even really give you a better word. I don’t know. It feels crazy.
“You know what it feels like, like it’s harmonious. It’s like, I know I’m doing the right thing because I’m being recognized by the people that I’m taking inspiration from. You couldn’t ask for more when you’re trying to develop something.”
HNTR
Stream HNTR’s first mau5trap single, “Shadows in the Dark”
RMR: Right before the pandemic you launched your own record label, how did that kind of come about?
HNTR: Honestly, it felt like a natural progression of the party we’ve been doing, like sold out events for seven years now. The brand was really popular, it felt like it had never been more popular than it was. I was sort of on the brink of changing up what I do and developing my sound into what I really wanted it to be. It just felt like a natural move. It was like, this is the time to try to expand more. For me it was a natural progression, to try and take this thing to a larger audience, it’s definitely going to be by starting a label.
The party has always been about finding people before they’re huge. We’re always about being the pulse of what’s like new and awesome in whatever sort of genre. So I definitely wanted to try and replicated that from the label side.
Connect with No Neon
RMR: When signing a new song or artists to your label, what are some key things that you’re looking for?
HNTR: The first thing that’s overarching the whole thing is like, “Is this something I would play in a set?” But, I do sign stuff that I wouldn’t necessarily play on every set, [music] that’s more diverse sounding. And then I ask, “Does this fit the vibe I’m trying to curate with the label?” which is just like dark. I really like stuff that has a progressive edge to it. So if it has that style where it blends progressive and techno together, which isn’t a ton of people, I’m always going to reach for that stuff.
Then, do I see something in the artist? I especially love when people have sorta trouble fitting in somewhere else. That’s a big reason I started the party because I couldn’t play at certain venues and clubs. I just didn’t have the commercial sound they wanted.
“I feel like people often try to fit things into boxes too much. And it has to be one way, this or that. It’s like, nah man. Music is interesting. It’s one of those art forms that, all art is subjective, but music especially.”
HNTR
What’s next for HNTR and No Neon
HNTR let us know that he has a lot more music on the way, but he isn’t able to give us too much detail. He tells he’s going to continue to work with mau5trap and his own label, No Neon. Aside from new music, HNTR and No Neon have a ton of events planned. He just announced a couple boat parties in Toronto, and let us know there’s more events coming in the fall. He also let us know that he may be performing at a big music festival in town, and to stay tuned for that announcement.
“It seems like the formula is working. So we’re gonna keep the foot on the gas for awhile with it.”
HNTR
Check out the full interview on YouTube
Connect with HNTR
Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud
Connect with No Neon
Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
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