A Conversation with Van Hunt – HuffPost 10.31.11

Mike Ragogna: Hi, Van.

Van Hunt: Hey, what’s happening?

MR: What’s happening with you?

VH: A little bit of everything, it’s a little bit helter skelter right now, but we’re having a ball.

MR: The picture on the cover of your new album What Were You Hoping For? is littered with trash bags, and I have my theory about what that means.

VH: Well, obviously you can look at the lady standing next to the trash bags, and she’s looking down at them. You could say she’s looking at her bags, you could say she’s looking at my name, she could be wondering where her life has taken her, she could be wondering why my name is on the trash bags. (laughs) It could be a number of things. I just like the picture.

MR: It looks like she’s looking down at them thinking, “Well, what were you hoping for?”

VH: Originally, she was standing next to another woman and they both seemed to be wondering the same thing, about how they wound up where they are. Really, I just like the aesthetic of the shot.

MR: The album starts out with the song “North Hollywood,” a little jaunt around your neighborhood, and in that context, the world is just a skate park. Can you get into that a little bit?

VH: Well, I’m spending a lot of time in North Hollywood, and walk around and look at all of these abandoned couches as people were downsizing during the recession. These couches were up and down the street–a pretty obvious thing for me to take a picture of–and my flying imagination was wondering what stories have been told on these couches. I was driving around the neighborhood, and taking pictures of the kids at the skate park; there was a story there. North Hollywood is not one of the more popular areas in Los Angeles, but I figured I would be its champion.

MR: You also bring into it a social edge, like you just said, the discarded couches from the recession.

VH: Yeah, discarded items, discarded people; I was just trying to document it more than making a personal statement.

MR: In “Eyes Like Pearls,” why is she crying on your shoulder with eyes like pearls?

VH: It’s a very passionate love, one that’s rarely known in one’s life. They’re obviously tears of joy, but it’s a passion beyond anything I’ve ever known. It’s a relationship where somebody understands me and who I understand. I don’t know if you’ve felt that kind of relationship with another, but it’s extremely wonderful.

MR: I appreciate the alternative and aggressive production you have on your songs, but “Moving Targets” is pure R&B, it’s so smooth.

VH: Thank you, man. Whether I was looking for smooth or edgy tones, I was just going with what I was feeling at the time. There’s always an image that comes to mind before the song comes to mind. I’m trying to capture those images; it’s like writing music for a movie.

MR: For “Moving Targets,” what was your movie?

VH: To be honest, I was watching our president in yet another one of his speeches. He seemed to be running away from the questions and it seemed like a moving target at the time and that’s how the song started. Without any real political ambition, it was just funny to hear him running from the questions. (laughs)

MR: Do you have a story behind “A Time Machine Is My New Girlfriend?”

VH: Yeah, again this is the same woman in “Eyes Like Pearls,” the same passionate love, the part where she is my protector and comes and lifts me off of my knees and back to my feet. She makes me feel young again, and therefore she is my time machine.

MR: Another song is “Watching You Go Crazy.” “We ain’t got a dollar bill to pay our water bill…we’re all much less attractive when the money is subtracted.” What’s the story on that one?

VH: That’s the same couple man. Now they’re broke, she’s miserable, and he’s just trying to do whatever he can to make her smile. He’s desperate and he loves this woman, and she loves him too and he knows that, and he doesn’t want to lose the relationship and how wonderful it is. He’s trying to hold it above the rising water, if you will.

MR: Are all of these stories revealing very personal elements of your relationship?

VH: Absolutely. Obviously, I’m going to add my imagination to the tidbits of reality. Even a scientist will tell you he can’t finish a theory until he adds some kind of imagination to it.

MR: We have to get into the song “Designer Jeans” that has one of my favorite lines of the album: “We all feel more comfortable in our status symbols.”

VH: I just wanted to try and map the legacy of the Facebook era. I may mention how the bathroom walls were my first encounter with a social network. I talk about that in the song, and I talk about how tattoos, hairdos, and heirlooms have become our status symbols and we wear them like designer jeans–our sexuality, our racial identity, everything. I was just making reference to how everything now has to be sold on a big billboard and nobody can just be who they are.

MR: It’s all about marketing.

VH: Yeah, and I think things get lost in that, even with the advent of new technology. As there always will be in a developing society, I think a little civility and humility gets lost.

MR: Speaking of marketing, or at least a partial backlash, look at the Occupy Wall Street movement. This is a very different kind of protest because people are coming together and expressing frustration in all areas. There’s no single message. It seems like it’s railing against a society that doesn’t have much that it’s focused on besides marketing and sales.

VH: I was just watching a show last night and this guy was talking about what’s going on behind the scenes of professional sports associations and how they’re battling for pay. He was saying this is all about money and if you guys don’t begin to understand that, then you’re going to get left behind. He was almost applauding the fact that there is no more desire to be on a good team or be a team player, to find a home for yourself and your family where you are a part of a franchise and you’re loyal to that town and franchise and you build something. I think that’s a mistake to adapt to the idea that the culture is all about money.

MR: You brought up professional sports. How do you turn back from the current paradigm? How do you suddenly stop using huge incentives?

VH: Yeah, you just stop. (laughs) That’s how you do, it if you ask me. If you see yourself running into the wall and you don’t want to run into the wall, then stop running into the wall. I don’t think the idea that our measurement of our society is how much money we have; I think that idea is a little outdated and it’s gotten us into a lot of trouble. We need to come up with something else. I think art, common courtesy, respect…things that you can not measure monetarily would be the answer.

MR: But those are commodities too, in a sense, just not marketable.

VH: Of course not, but it certainly makes you feel better.

MR: Okay, let’s get to your influences, like Thelonious Monk, Prince, Sly Stone…and Iggy Pop?

VH: Yeah, I love Iggy Pop.

MR: And Neil Young.

VH: Yeah, but to be honest, they are not that far from Muddy Waters. In Iggy Pop’s case or Rick James or in Neil Young’s case, they are closely associated. If you ask Iggy Pop what he wanted to be when he was eighteen years old, he wanted to play drums for on old Mississippi blues artist. Neil Young used to be in a band with Rick James. The soulfulness in what they do and the soulful ambition that Iggy Pop and Neil Young have are pretty obvious in their music. The first thing I heard when I listened to The Stooges’ Raw Power, was that it sounded like James Brown with really loud guitars.

MR: How do you define your own music?

VH: It’s difficult for me to use references to other artists because the sound is something that I see, way before I hear it. When people ask me to describe it, it’s a cloud with a metal space ship sticking out of certain parts of the cloud–that’s what I see when I think about my music. If I had to describe it referencing other artists, I try to say David Bowie and Iggy Pop being mugged by James Brown and his band in the alley. (laughs)

MR: (laughs) Okay, there’s “Falls (Violet).” That’s mighty nice of you providing moral support to a woman you want as she’s dating somebody else.

VH: It was pretty hurtful, particularly for a guy who can’t really stand up for himself. He doesn’t have the heart to risk losing any little relationship he has with her by telling her how he really feels.

MR: Another good line from this one is, “Give them what they want and all they want is more.”

VH: (laughs) Yeah, he’s just kind of complaining to himself when he says that, but he’s exploding on the inside with love for this woman and she has no idea.

MR: Do you see a progression with your albums, one maybe linking to the next?

VH: Yeah, I see both. Some people think they are disparate elements, with the albums; I think there are bridges between all of them. Mostly for me, I’m just fortunate that I can express myself for a living. It’s really my only goal when I sit down to make music.

MR: What advice do you have for new artists?

VH: First of all, to understand the fundamentals you’re saying you want to do, whether it’s music or astrophysics. You have to understand that there has been work that has already been laid down and there are people that understand the foundation you want to do. Once you understand those basic principles, you can break all of the rules.

MR: This has been great, I’ve been following your albums for quite a while. My friend Mathieu Bitton turned me onto you years ago, you may know him. He’s in the Prince cabal.

VH: Well, I have him to thank for this moment right here. I really appreciate you taking the time to let people know about me, I appreciate it.

MR: Any time. By the way, do you have any stories about the production? It seems more adventurous then the previous albums, you really went for it.

VH: (laughs) I didn’t really have any other choice. I’m not compromising and trying to be something I’m not, I’m scared of that. It’s much more comfortable for me to try to say exactly what it is I want to say.

MR: Do you have any last words or words of wisdom you want to throw out there?

VH: (laughs) No words of wisdom, but I just appreciate the opportunity to have my music out there in front of as many people as possible. I look forward to gaining some new supporters somewhere out on the road.

MR: Thank you so much for your time, Van. All the best with the new album and everything.

VH: Thanks so much, Mike. I appreciate it.

Transcribed by Theo Shier