Ryan Hunter Talks Quiett Dog’s Live Sound, Preparation for Upcoming Shows.

A while back, we were one of the first to introduce you to Quiett Dog, the new project from Envy On The Coast vocalist, Ryan Hunter.

The project differs pretty drastically to any of the musician’s former projects, such as North Korea. The demos revealed something a little rugged, a little dance, completely awesome.

The live sound however, is not what Hunter expected it to be. That much he explains in this new blog post, entitled “Popping Cherries.” We have that down below, along with some late September show dates. One of which being incredibly stacked with talent, featuring Bad Rabbits and NGHBRS.

Yesterday was the first rehearsal, which would also mark the first time things songs were touched by hands other than my own.  Which also means it’s the first time I’m hearing these songs on something other than my headphones.

In short, I prepped as much as I could before headin’ in there since it’s been a while since I took on the musical director role.  But I knew that regardless of my preparation, once you have live instrumentation interpreting things that were done predominantly on an MPC, synths, software, etc., it’s impossible to make decisions until you hear how it all sounds.  

With that, at the first moment when my ears went into shock at how different it sounded from what I had imagined, instead of having that crazed panic attack with that internal voice that screams, “oh NO!  It doesn’t sound the way I thought it would!! fucccccck!”  I took that deep breathe and rolled my sleeves up.  Fortunately, I’m playing with guys who can hang.  So, they killed it, and they followed me wherever my mind took me.  But I wasn’t in charge. 

The songs were in charge.  The songs did what they wanted to do once they guys were playing/interpreting them their way.  So, when I steered the ship or opened my mouth, it was only to compliment what the song already wanted to do.  I was tempted to try to chase whatever I thought I wanted in my head.  Or whatever I thought I had felt…but sometimes you have to understand that the shit is just going to do what it wants anyway, and you’re only gonna disrespect it by trying to shove a square peg in a round hole.

From the moment I started writing this stuff, I knew the live show was going to be a different entity than the records.  I knew that from square one.  I wanted that.  I need that because I get bored way too damn quickly.  I usually grow bored with a record before it even gets mastered.  So, I need to change the shit up before it hits the stage.  All my favorite artists do it that way.  I’ve been taking notes for years.

What I didn’t anticipate was that the song was going to do whatever it wanted without asking my permission.  But I’m kinda into that.

Jacob Tender
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