Hunter Frost – Interview – Thanks for Asking!

Hunter Frost – Interview – Thanks for Asking! – by Liam Sweeny.

RRX: Every artist’s first song is a milestone. But so is the latest song. Describe the first song/album you recorded, and also the latest song/album you recorded; what are the differences?

HF: This is an interesting one, because my first release and my upcoming release are not that far apart!

The first song I released is called “Dreaming of Starfall” – it’s a one-take acoustic guitar instrumental that I released in January 2024. I wrote it sometime in 2022, recorded it in a voice memo, and completely forgot about it until I was scrolling back through past work and it caught my ear. I had completely forgotten what I played, and had to re-learn my own song by ear… and I decided to record it before I forgot it again! The song name speaks to what I see when I hear it: laying on the roof of my house, drifting in and out of sleep watching shooting stars fly across
the night sky. It’s a very important piece to me – guitar was my first instrument, before I started singing and long before I started songwriting, and I’m proud to be able to
showcase that on it’s own. My latest release (officially) is an EP of instrumental songs called “Reflections”, though my upcoming full-length album is my true recent project. It’s an 11 song
project called “Love, Always”, and tells the story of moving through past pain and traumas, learning to open up and be vulnerable, and falling deeply in love again. There are songs about loss, forgiveness, and love, and it is wholly dedicated to the love of my life: Shannon Tehya. She’s an indescribably talented songwriter, musician, and performer (which I’m sure some of you readers know very well), and she has inspired me more than I can put into words. She’s the reason this album exists. I’m excited to say that the production is complete, and it will release this summer!

RRX: Part of learning to be a musician is to fall in love with a song, an album, and hammer away at your instrument until you can play that whole thing. What was that song for you? Was there a hardest part?

HF: Absolutely! Like I mentioned earlier, guitar is my first instrument, and the hardest song I’ve ever learned is “I Wonder What Is Keeping My True Love Tonight”, arranged and performed by Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker. It’s a tragic, traditional UK folk tune, which tells the story of a woman who is betrayed by her lover, and Ben’s guitar work is some of the best I had ever heard (like so many modern renditions of incredible UK and Irish folk tunes). I spent months practicing and performing it in the mirror. It may not be the hardest song I can play, but it was a pretty early addition to my catalogue, and directly led to my growth as an instrumentalist.

RRX: Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Or so they say. Whether you’re off the wagon, on it, or never been, there’s something you got a thirst for. What are some of your basically harmless vices?

HF: Basically harmless vices… more than anything, I’m a hard-core coffee addict. Outside of music, I’m a full-time process engineer at the Albany Nanotechnology Complex, and am in the final stages of a PhD, so caffeine is the only way I’m able to function each morning. I have nearly a dozen ways to make coffee, always have some specialty light-roast beans in the house, and will unabashedly judge mediocre coffee when out in the area… luckily there are some great venues to grab quality coffee in the Capital Region: shoutout to Kru Coffee in Saratoga, MochaLisa’s Cafe in Clifton Park, and Kickstart Cafe in Schuylerville!

RRX: What instrument would you add to the band if you could? Is there anything you are trying to do musically that would be helped with one or more additional players?

HF: Well, as the bassist and harmony vocalist for Shannon Tehya & The Troupe, I am privileged to know quite a few talented musicians: drummers, guitarists, pianists, vocalists, and nearly every other instrument you can imagine (thanks, Soahn, on EWI). That said, I’ve always loved the sound of classical string quartet instruments: cello, violin, and viola. I would love nothing more than to hear some versions of my songs with string arrangements, and maybe someday that will happen. If there are any string players reading… reach out!

RRX: Love is a big part of music. We’re talking first loves here. Lots of cool stories about first loves and the things we do for those loves. Can you (or, in the case of a band, one member) talk about your first love, especially if you did something cool to express that love? (No names needed.)

HF: Love is such a tricky thing to describe, and I’m not sure I could call any love a first love. I think that each time we fall in love with something or someone, it’s a new love of its own, and it’s always the first of its kind, and there’s a sort of beauty in that. The first time I ever fell in love with someone ended quite tragically, and that experience inspired many of my original songs, including one of the tracks on my upcoming album: “Unfair”. It’s a song about love and loss, and it was the first song I ever finished. My first long-term love was a year-and-a-half-long relationship in high school, which ended my senior year. That inspired the opening track on the album: “California”. It’s a song about learning forgiveness and understanding, and is a song I’m quite proud of. And, of course, my lifelong love and soulmate is Shannon, who has inspired so many of my songs, including the last track on the album: “Always”. It’s a confession of everything that love means to me, and it’s the closest I can get to describing how much she means to me. Each of these is important to me, and they each help tell the story of the album in their own way.

RRX: I know when pitching it helps to tell someone it’s “this meets that.” So let’s try that with you. If you had to give me two bands that meet each other in your sound, what are those bands? More than two bands?

HF: I would have to say that my music would be: John Smith meets Glen Hansard. I admire John Smith’s guitar work more than anyone, and have been so inspired for my own music, and I love Glen Hansard’s lyricism and reverence for traditional Irish folk music, both of which feature prominently in my own music. If there were other musicians to add to that list… a bit of Novo Amor, Ben Howard, and Gregory Alan Isakov rounds it out! Thanks for asking!

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