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Interview Podcast Audio Van Hunt - Popular sampler

Plenty of ink has been spilled over the years about the "neo-soul" movement, its subsequent decline, and the cynicism the moniker provoked.

Ringtone rap and R&B is the flavor of the day in urban music, and most of the artists once included under the neo-soul umbrella, either fairly or not, don't spend much time on the Billboard charts.

But for every D'Angelo chasing former glory, there's a Van Hunt, plying his trade, crafting new material, and trying to push the envelope, much like the artists of soul music's golden era who inspired the so-called neo-soul scene to do the same.

Hunt released two well-regarded but not terribly popular albums on Capitol, landed himself a Grammy with John Legend and Joss Stone for their cover of Sly Stone's "Family Affair," and developed a rep for putting on a top-shelf live show.

Now the Dayton, Ohio, native is back with a new album on Blue Note Records, Popular. The record is chock-full of the kind of soul music that invokes plenty of influences, from David Bowie and Prince to Curtis Mayfield and Stone, but is also uniquely Hunt. He spoke with MP3.com about the album, his live performances, and his disregard for popular trends.

Hey, Van, how're you doing, man? Hey, great. Thank you. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. We appreciate it. Oh, man, I appreciate it much more, believe me. No worries. So the last time we heard from you was On The Jungle Floor in April of last year. And then you, obviously, toured quite a bit in support of that album. Did your new album Popular come together pretty quickly, or have you been working on it for the duration of this year? Well, we only toured for On The Jungle Floor probably about six to eight months. We didn't tour as much as I would have liked to. You would have liked to go out further into the year, OK, yeah. Yeah, well, we toured about 14, 15 months on the first album. It really gave us a chance to become a dynamic live show, I thought. I thought we had a pretty good show with On the Jungle Floor, but, just as it was beginning to gel, I think we ended the tour. Well, we caught you here in San Francisco at The Independent, and I have to say, it was a damned good performance. Well, thank you, you know, but those kinds of shows where it's a crowd full of people who already know your music and say that they like it and they like you, it's a little easier. Yeah, not a lot of winning a new batch of fans over. It's more of a preaching to the converted kind of a thing. Well, not only that but even the rhythm of the show is like you almost want to slow down and talk between songs, because these are your friends--these are your friends. Right. Exactly. But I like the challenge of working a crowd, half and half like where we're opening up for a bigger act, and you got to go out there and really put on a show. Like it's got to be 45 minutes of the most amazing thing that anybody's ever seen in a show. It's got to click. But don't get me wrong. The Independent was probably one of the highlights of that tour. OK, cool. But to get to that again, yeah Popular definitely came together quickly. I really wanted to produce this record all by myself with no interference at all. And Blue Note allowed me that room. So, I was able to go to a small studio with just me and my engineer and record probably 90, 95 percent of it. Now, how did this process work compared to the other two albums? I mean are you the type of person that holes himself up and have at it for as long as you want or need to, or do you work in like stops and starts and let the inspiration come, and when it's not there, you take a little break for a while? Well, I was just telling somebody the other day that I'm jealous of some artists who have like these concept albums. OK, right. Because I've never been able to do that yet. But in terms of how I work, and my process is very conceptual, and I do sit down, and I know exactly what it is I want to do before I walk into a studio. Alright. And even once I get there, I have a gazillion ideas that pop up, and they say that your ideas come out of your subconscious; well, me and my subconscious get along really well. I can really translate those ideas and thoughts pretty fast. I don't really like to be in the studio all day. I know some artists like to work into the wee hours of the morning. I love writing like that, but I don't like recording like that, go in, and get it done. I got you. It doesn't sound like you spend a whole of time staring at a blank piece of paper. Well, yeah, I'll do that in the writing process certainly. You got to get in the car and ride and you're orchestrating and arranging all of these parts so that they work together. But recording, that's when I become the producer. And it's totally different. Everything has been laid out, and the only thing you have to do is make sure that it's done on time. Right, of course. I've gotten great training in that from like people like my manager, Randy Jackson. Sure. Other people who have tutored me, essentially. Now I read that in this process, you shut off every source of external media--TV, radio, books, computers--and didn't let anything else bleed into it. Have you always done that, or is that a new thing this time? No. That was a new thing. I've probably made too much of it, and made it seem like it was integral to the recording of this record. But it is something that I made a conscious decision to do. But it was mainly because the music has just been so terrible and uninspiring, what they call music, which really should be called just entertainment. I'd think it'd be fair to the music. Probably. To the product, and to what we do. Probably. That's a good point. Now, in speaking about that, I don't know if this is a conscious decision, or you just kind of go where the wind takes you kind of a thing, but clearly artists have a choice. You could go down that route of popularity, sales, and the vacuum that comes with it, or you can go down the artistic road and work your ass off and hope that the sales come with it. How much of that has been a real conscious decision on your part? Is it that clear? Absolutely it is. I mean I think it stands out in all your work, in the way you write songs. I mean I've been through Popular a few times now, and I don't hear anything on there that I'm going to hear on Hot 97 tomorrow. [Laughs] Well now, you just disappointed that entire record label. Hopefully they weren't depending on you getting on Hot 97 to sell this record. Yeah. No. I have to boil this down to the truth, and the truth really is that I make music for me. And I have tried to make it for other people. I have even tried to make the "hits." Those things, they come out and they sound just like it does on the radio now. To me, it's uninspiring and it lacks any real honesty or any kind of complement to the culture. I just decided that I wanted to satisfy myself, and pull out these creative ideas that I had in my head. And I've done that. The minute I do, I'm completely satisfied in terms of that. Now, as far as it selling, and me making some money, I would love for that to happen; if it doesn't, and particularly with this record, I have nobody to blame, especially if they just don't like the music. Right. Let's talk about the change in labels. I mean you did two records for Capitol. And this is your first for Blue Note. We don't need to get into label talk here, but it sounds like you feel like Blue Note has been very supportive of you in this process, and giving you the space to work, and also the resources to do it with. Oh, definitely. You would expect Blue Note to do that. And I don't know if they were sure as to what they were getting when they asked me to come on board. And I like that. I respected their decision to just take a chance on a creative artist, and that's what they did. And I feel like I delivered. I'm happy with what I have. Absolutely. So Popular won't be coming out until January, and I know that there is the EP out in the meantime, but it's kind of a long time before fans get to hear the whole album. What do you guys have in store to build momentum and maintain it over a few months' period of time? Yeah, well you know, you'd have to ask Randy [Jackson] and the label, but I'm sure, knowing Randy, he probably wants me to get on somebody's tour, and try and smoke somebody off the stage. That's kind of what he likes. Right. Yeah, that's fine with me. I mean not to talk about poor Michael Vick, but if you're going to put me in there with another dog, I mean we'll fight it out. We'll fight it out. That's fine, but I also love doing my own shows, my own tours. I also love doing my own tours, and I would prefer to go to those opening slots off of my own tour, you know? Right. I got you. Do your own tour, and then leave enough room maybe a day or two in between a few dates, so that you can cut out and do some opening slots here and there where it might be a good fit? Yeah, or vice versa. Obviously, if Dave Matthews would ask me to come up for three months, I'm going to go do that tour. Right, of course. But at night, after that show, I'd like to go and do my own shows. It's true. Those opening slots leave you plenty of time to do a club spot on your own, the same night or whatever. So, you've just got to find the right artist that is big and popular and has a big audience that would love to hear your music, and also that is ripe to being completely blown off the stage by you. Well, I guess it's just fun to try. When we went out with like Seal and Anthony Hamilton, and even the night we opened up for Coldplay, you could just tell, we amped our show up and they amped theirs up, you know? Sure. I think it made for a great night. Yeah, everybody wins. Yeah, exactly. Hey, you mentioned Anthony Hamilton, and I think I read somewhere that you wrote a few more tracks for him--I think three songs. Talk about working with him, and I assume that we'll be able to hear those songs on whatever project he's cooking up next. Yeah, I'm producing three of his songs. He writes his lyrics and his melodies. And he does it very economically and quickly. So, we're ready to roll with those songs, and I think that he just has to finish the rest of his album. Oh, cool. OK. But those songs are in the can. Got you. Well, Van, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us, and we look forward to seeing you out on the road again, maybe in the fall sometime, either at a smaller club, or blowing somebody off the stage early in the night at a bigger venue. Go, man. But, hopefully, between now and then, we wish you a lot of luck and get the momentum building for this record because it's definitely worth people checking out. We've been giving it some spins here and it's a great record. Thank you man, I do appreciate that because I know it's different. Nah, it's cool though. It's refreshing to hear something that doesn't sound like everything else. Good. Cool, man. Well, Van, thanks again for the time, and we'll talk to you again some other time. OK, man. Have a good one.