13 QUESTION METHOD: CHARLIE HUNTER

At any given Charlie Hunter show, newcomers are easily spotted. They are the ones looking around the room for the bass player, or maybe the keyboard player, or both! What they soon realize is that all of these sounds are coming from one man and his eight-string guitar.

1. Which was the first record you bought with your own money?
My record buying realities began with 45's. My sister and I had paper routes, and would spend the small amount we made on 45s of our favorite songs. I think we bought “Fire,” by the Pointer Sisters, and maybe “Flashlight,” by Parliament. We played them over and over and....

2. Which was the last record you bought with your own money?
The last record I bought was American Hips, by Jim Campilongo.

3. What was the first solo you learned from a record — and can you still play it?
The first solo I remember learning from a record was probably the intro to “I Feel Fine," by the Beatles. I can play it, but I can't remember what key it's in.

4. Which recording of your own (or as a sideman) are you most proud of, and why?
I'd have to say I'm usually most proud of whatever I've just finished. And that's a new trio record that should be out on Ropeadope in February 2006.

5. What's the difference between playing live and playing in a studio?
It depends on the kind of music you're making. For a group like mine, that makes its statement as a live experience, it can be stifling. 364 days out of the year you play in a situation that's all about the interplay of the instruments sounds, feeling the percussion of the bass with the drums, how the horn sounds in an open room. The 365th day you take that same thing and separate everyone into different rooms with a sterile headphone mix and try to be organic. It's a challenge. On our last record, we tried to make it live as possible — just two mics on the drums, and as little headphone use as possible. It helped, but you’re married to the lessened mix capabilities.

When I go in to put a bunch of bass lines or guitar parts on something that already has drum tracks it's a blast. Super fun and super easy.

6. What's the difference between a good gig and a bad gig?
The difference between a good gig and a bad gig is a hard question to answer directly. It's such a subjective thing — sometimes what you thought was the worst gig of your life actually turns out to be great when you hear the recording of it, and great for reasons you never would have suspected. The opposite is also true. The most direct answer I could give would be that the definition changes from night to night.

7. What's the difference between a good guitar and a bad guitar?
Everyone wants something different from a guitar, and every guitar has it's own vibe. When I was 14, I saw Ry Cooder playing a Teisco Del Rey guitar — or some other kind of thrift-store thing. He would have sounded like Ry Cooder on anything, but that had the vibe he wanted and it came through in the music.

8. You play electric and acoustic. Do you approach the two differently?
I play almost no acoustic at the moment, but I have a real affinity for it. When I was growing up, my mother had all the old Robert Johnson and Leadbelly records. I checked a lot of that out on acoustic.

9. Do you sound more like yourself on acoustic or electric?
I guess since I play a real particular guitar I must sound like myself on it.

10. Do you sound like yourself on other people's guitars?
See my previous answer.

11. Which living artist (music, or other arts) would you like to collaborate with?
I feel lucky in that I'm playing with the people I’m into playing with.

12. What dead artist (music, or other arts) would you like to have collaborated with?
I would have loved to have played with Roland Kirk. So much of what I do comes from him, and I really would have loved to get it first hand.

13. What's your latest project about?
My latest thing is a trio record. It's really rockin’ and I hope people dig it.

Web site: http://www.charliehunter.com/