Singer-Songwriter Erin Hunt Gets to the Heart of her Album Brave New World on Fourth Single “Won’t Give Up”
Brave New World is the uncommonly rich, joyous, and exhilarating second album from Toronto singer/songwriter Erin Hunt that defies categorization while freely exploring the deepest yearnings of the human condition. A profoundly musical record built for headphone listening – to sit back, fire up a fatty, and disappear into – but also perfect to blast over speakers, to groove to, until the music stops you in your tracks.
The album closer (and fourth single) “Won’t Give Up” is perhaps Erin and her band at its most dynamic and explosive – underpinning the lyric of resilience and faith – then perfectly matching the powerful, insistent refrain that typifies the spirit and drive and exuberance of the whole record: “We don’t give up, we don’t give up, we don’t give up.”
Erin shares,
“This was probably the most difficult song I’ve ever written. I was intent on writing it in a typical pop arrangement (which I usually don’t stray too far from) but the song just refused to go there. I kept trying to force it into being something it wasn’t and that’s why it took so long… Now I just shake my head at how stupid that would have been – it’s truly my favourite track on the album and my favourite song I’ve ever written.“
Watch the video for “Won’t Give Up” below and learn more about Erin Hunt via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
I’m Erin Hunt, a Toronto-based singer-songwriter. I make music for the sake of art, and I truly love the creative process of writing and recording. Some would describe my music as genre-less, although I do enjoy writing in different types of genres depending on where the song wants to go! My influences are vast and far, and I’d say my music is a hybrid of Soul, Folk & Jazz.
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
Brave New World is my second release and is a culmination of songs written over a several-years-long inner exploration. Produced with Thomas McKay (Exeter Sound Studios) and mixed by legendary Ron Saint Germain (Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin, Soundgarden, Kraftwerk), the album was actually finished in 2021, however, it just didn’t seem like the right time to put it out (for obvious reasons) so I waited until now. We went for a really sonically beautiful-sounding album, recording the beds at Subterranean Sound Studios on its famous Neve A4792 Air Montserrat board, and mastering it to tape with Philip Shaw Bova (Andy Shauf).
Where do you pull inspiration from when writing?
I always say the best thing to write about is whatever’s happening in your life at that moment. This creates a personal honesty and emotional closeness to the song, allowing others (and yourself) to connect with it more easily. For ‘Brave New World’, I was focussing on things like letting go of what’s no longer needed, my vision of the world as I wanted it to be, and the personal and purposeful manifestation of things in my life.
Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?
I don’t currently have any shows booked but I’ll most likely do an album release show in the Fall.
What’s your goal for 2023?
My goal is to support Brave New World by guiding it to its audience, while not pushing it to the point of feeling gross, as self-promotion tends to make one feel (haha). Generally speaking, I plan to be as kind to myself and others as I possibly can be.
Connect with Erin Hunt:
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