Covering every little thing...
Muirsical Conversation with Jeremey Frederick Hunsicker
"I became a prince and a pauper within a matter of hours. Welcome to the music business."
That quote comes from singer Jeremey Frederick Hunsicker, reflecting upon his near-miss with melodic rock giants Journey.
Jeremey spent a week with the band in the summer of 2007 and was subsequently offered the position of lead vocalist – but within a few short hours of working out the details he received a phone call that explained things had changed.
A few months later it was a singer called Arnel Pineda whose life changed forever.
Jeremey returned to Frontiers, the acclaimed Journey tribute with whom his vocal talents had got him noticed by Journey in the first place.
Jeremey Frederick Hunsicker isn’t just one of the best and noted tribute singers, however.
Jeremey Frederick Hunsicker is also a songwriter and spent a large part of 2011 writing and recording his first solo album.
Every Little Thing, released in March 2012, is an accomplished and fresh slice of melodic rock complete with a few musical twists.
But unforeseen problems and sheer bad luck plagued both singer and album during the musical gestation period, which made for a very difficult birth.
Jeremey talked to FabricationsHQ shortly after the album’s release to discuss vocals, songwriting, Frontiers, the recent misfortunes that no-one could have predicted or scripted and that summer of 2007.
In fact we pretty much covered Every Little Thing…
Ross Muir: Jeremey, first off thanks for stopping by at FabricationsHQ.
We've spoken many times but this is the first chance we've had to get together formally for a chat about your career and, of course, to discuss the new album.
Jeremey Frederick Hunsicker: Thanks Ross, it's great to finally sit down and talk.
RM: We have to start with how you are doing vocally. You have been off the road and in a lengthy period of vocal downtime as you give your voice and cords time to fully recover after necessary surgery.
What's the latest update?
JFH: I've been improving every day. Everyone heals differently and I only had the typical guidelines to go by when I had the surgery – which was eight to ten weeks or so of recovery.
But I'm about five weeks from my last surgery, my speaking voice is getting stronger and I'm at the point now when I'm not worried about if it will come back. I'm just allowing my body to heal, and we're getting by however we can until I'm back on the road again.
RM: Clearly this is a singer's worst nightmare – vocal wear and tear, possible damage and the danger of losing a gift that is also a livelihood.
Can you recall when you first knew there were problems beyond vocal attrition?
JFH: Absolutely. I had been struggling with allergies, really bad allergies, since March of last year.
hat season was the worst, and we were on the road four to five days a week, and I was performing through sickness, and no sleep, and to top it off, my in ear monitor system died in early March.
So pretty much through April 2011 I was singing every night by what I could hear through the main speakers. While sick. Not a good combination.
I really should have cancelled several weeks of shows and healed, but my expenses were so high I had to stay on the road – by summer time I was only home for a day or two at a time.
The last week of June I got home at maybe 2am on a Wednesday, then picked up the band at 3pm that afternoon and went back on the road; I was just completely overwhelmed trying to be road manager, mechanic, roadie, driver, monitor engineer and lead singer as well! It was just a recipe for disaster.
And then on July 1st it happened. In my weakened condition I got hazed by a fog machine pointed right at my face while I was singing and my voice automatically changed, right at that moment.
Yep, I can pinpoint the exact moment, during the exact song.
RM: Nasty. And that whole issue of vocal struggles brings me to the very thing you are best known for – fronting a Journey tribute band and singing what I have in the past described as the most challenging melodic rock and pop catalogue to take on, courtesy of the range and quality of vocal Steve Perry put on the originals and his definitive live performances.
That's a set of songs that will take, and has taken, its toll on vocalists singing those songs night after night, tour after tour, year after year...
JFH: Sure, any kind of wear if your voice is not suited for it, it's going to take its toll. I do think that my natural voice is suited for singing Journey... and of course Steve Perry's natural voice was suited to sing those songs.
But let's face it, those guys in the 70s and 80s just went in and recorded these ridiculous vocal takes without any concern about having to sing them four nights a week on tour.
Where you run into problems even if you are a capable singer, is when you aren't able to take care of yourself and your voice and you're already at that high level of performance. It's musical athleticism at its highest level.
You even take these classically trained tenors like Caruso and Pavarotti and they were plagued by the same issues.
RM: Indeed. And I don’t think the majority of fans or audiences truly appreciate what a singer, who is giving one hundred percent night after night, is giving of themselves.
On a happier musical note you have just released your debut solo album, Every Little Thing, under the name Jeremey Frederick…
JFH: That's right, I had actually been using my middle name to release original music all the way back to 1998. Back then I released an EP called Glossalaria on the old mp3.com site, which actually burned CDs on demand for people – pretty cool stuff back then.
Since then, I've become best known as the singer for Frontiers, and been associated with Journey for so many years, so I knew there'd be a lot of that expectation that Jeremey Hunsicker is going to release a Journey-sounding record.
But I knew that I'd be making a Jeremey-sounding record, so I just had this vision that people would expect a record full of Ask the Lonely knock-offs and be pissed when they wound up with tunes like Lotus and Hoping For You [laughs].
Using my middle name was a continuation of the path I had been taking all the way back in 1998 and in hindsight I know it may be confusing for people, or at least harder to find my music.
But I didn't want people to have any misconception about the kind of record I'd be releasing.
RM: I’m glad you mentioned those tracks because although the album will be labelled melodic rock some songs, including Lotus and Hoping For You, are a musical twist on the standard melodic rock template in their arrangements or influences…
JFH: Absolutely...
RM: …and what I also find interesting is some of those influences are very British; that’s unusual for someone so immersed in the American rock and pop world.
JFH: This is true. There's definitely something that, I don't know what element it is that I identify with, but when you run down my "go to" list of influences, everyone from Tears For Fears, Elton John, The Outfield, Peter Gabriel, George Michael, Sting, The Police… even some of my American influences were much more welcomed in the UK at certain points in their career.
RM: Before talking about the musical Frontiers of the day job, I'd like to feature a song from Every Little Thing and would invite you to choose it.
JFH: This track is This Is Your Life and it's a song I wrote for my son Quinn, about being a parent and trying to resolve that bittersweet conflict between protective nurturing and allowing our kids to grow and be their own little person.
Speaking of influences, this song was written, and is intended to be, a great big tune with a bit of that gospel, Hot AC (a specific Adult Contemporary Billboard chart) ballad thing going on, but I originally wrote the song with this big orchestral break in the middle where the guitar solo is now.
Really, this whole Brian Wilson God Only Knows type change up, with tubas and bassoons and great, fat textures – that was how the song was on most of the original demos.
But I figured I'd just lose great swathes of listeners with that break down [laughs] so there's a big melodic guitar solo in there now, but over the top of my tubas and bassoons, which remain!
That quote comes from singer Jeremey Frederick Hunsicker, reflecting upon his near-miss with melodic rock giants Journey.
Jeremey spent a week with the band in the summer of 2007 and was subsequently offered the position of lead vocalist – but within a few short hours of working out the details he received a phone call that explained things had changed.
A few months later it was a singer called Arnel Pineda whose life changed forever.
Jeremey returned to Frontiers, the acclaimed Journey tribute with whom his vocal talents had got him noticed by Journey in the first place.
Jeremey Frederick Hunsicker isn’t just one of the best and noted tribute singers, however.
Jeremey Frederick Hunsicker is also a songwriter and spent a large part of 2011 writing and recording his first solo album.
Every Little Thing, released in March 2012, is an accomplished and fresh slice of melodic rock complete with a few musical twists.
But unforeseen problems and sheer bad luck plagued both singer and album during the musical gestation period, which made for a very difficult birth.
Jeremey talked to FabricationsHQ shortly after the album’s release to discuss vocals, songwriting, Frontiers, the recent misfortunes that no-one could have predicted or scripted and that summer of 2007.
In fact we pretty much covered Every Little Thing…
Ross Muir: Jeremey, first off thanks for stopping by at FabricationsHQ.
We've spoken many times but this is the first chance we've had to get together formally for a chat about your career and, of course, to discuss the new album.
Jeremey Frederick Hunsicker: Thanks Ross, it's great to finally sit down and talk.
RM: We have to start with how you are doing vocally. You have been off the road and in a lengthy period of vocal downtime as you give your voice and cords time to fully recover after necessary surgery.
What's the latest update?
JFH: I've been improving every day. Everyone heals differently and I only had the typical guidelines to go by when I had the surgery – which was eight to ten weeks or so of recovery.
But I'm about five weeks from my last surgery, my speaking voice is getting stronger and I'm at the point now when I'm not worried about if it will come back. I'm just allowing my body to heal, and we're getting by however we can until I'm back on the road again.
RM: Clearly this is a singer's worst nightmare – vocal wear and tear, possible damage and the danger of losing a gift that is also a livelihood.
Can you recall when you first knew there were problems beyond vocal attrition?
JFH: Absolutely. I had been struggling with allergies, really bad allergies, since March of last year.
hat season was the worst, and we were on the road four to five days a week, and I was performing through sickness, and no sleep, and to top it off, my in ear monitor system died in early March.
So pretty much through April 2011 I was singing every night by what I could hear through the main speakers. While sick. Not a good combination.
I really should have cancelled several weeks of shows and healed, but my expenses were so high I had to stay on the road – by summer time I was only home for a day or two at a time.
The last week of June I got home at maybe 2am on a Wednesday, then picked up the band at 3pm that afternoon and went back on the road; I was just completely overwhelmed trying to be road manager, mechanic, roadie, driver, monitor engineer and lead singer as well! It was just a recipe for disaster.
And then on July 1st it happened. In my weakened condition I got hazed by a fog machine pointed right at my face while I was singing and my voice automatically changed, right at that moment.
Yep, I can pinpoint the exact moment, during the exact song.
RM: Nasty. And that whole issue of vocal struggles brings me to the very thing you are best known for – fronting a Journey tribute band and singing what I have in the past described as the most challenging melodic rock and pop catalogue to take on, courtesy of the range and quality of vocal Steve Perry put on the originals and his definitive live performances.
That's a set of songs that will take, and has taken, its toll on vocalists singing those songs night after night, tour after tour, year after year...
JFH: Sure, any kind of wear if your voice is not suited for it, it's going to take its toll. I do think that my natural voice is suited for singing Journey... and of course Steve Perry's natural voice was suited to sing those songs.
But let's face it, those guys in the 70s and 80s just went in and recorded these ridiculous vocal takes without any concern about having to sing them four nights a week on tour.
Where you run into problems even if you are a capable singer, is when you aren't able to take care of yourself and your voice and you're already at that high level of performance. It's musical athleticism at its highest level.
You even take these classically trained tenors like Caruso and Pavarotti and they were plagued by the same issues.
RM: Indeed. And I don’t think the majority of fans or audiences truly appreciate what a singer, who is giving one hundred percent night after night, is giving of themselves.
On a happier musical note you have just released your debut solo album, Every Little Thing, under the name Jeremey Frederick…
JFH: That's right, I had actually been using my middle name to release original music all the way back to 1998. Back then I released an EP called Glossalaria on the old mp3.com site, which actually burned CDs on demand for people – pretty cool stuff back then.
Since then, I've become best known as the singer for Frontiers, and been associated with Journey for so many years, so I knew there'd be a lot of that expectation that Jeremey Hunsicker is going to release a Journey-sounding record.
But I knew that I'd be making a Jeremey-sounding record, so I just had this vision that people would expect a record full of Ask the Lonely knock-offs and be pissed when they wound up with tunes like Lotus and Hoping For You [laughs].
Using my middle name was a continuation of the path I had been taking all the way back in 1998 and in hindsight I know it may be confusing for people, or at least harder to find my music.
But I didn't want people to have any misconception about the kind of record I'd be releasing.
RM: I’m glad you mentioned those tracks because although the album will be labelled melodic rock some songs, including Lotus and Hoping For You, are a musical twist on the standard melodic rock template in their arrangements or influences…
JFH: Absolutely...
RM: …and what I also find interesting is some of those influences are very British; that’s unusual for someone so immersed in the American rock and pop world.
JFH: This is true. There's definitely something that, I don't know what element it is that I identify with, but when you run down my "go to" list of influences, everyone from Tears For Fears, Elton John, The Outfield, Peter Gabriel, George Michael, Sting, The Police… even some of my American influences were much more welcomed in the UK at certain points in their career.
RM: Before talking about the musical Frontiers of the day job, I'd like to feature a song from Every Little Thing and would invite you to choose it.
JFH: This track is This Is Your Life and it's a song I wrote for my son Quinn, about being a parent and trying to resolve that bittersweet conflict between protective nurturing and allowing our kids to grow and be their own little person.
Speaking of influences, this song was written, and is intended to be, a great big tune with a bit of that gospel, Hot AC (a specific Adult Contemporary Billboard chart) ballad thing going on, but I originally wrote the song with this big orchestral break in the middle where the guitar solo is now.
Really, this whole Brian Wilson God Only Knows type change up, with tubas and bassoons and great, fat textures – that was how the song was on most of the original demos.
But I figured I'd just lose great swathes of listeners with that break down [laughs] so there's a big melodic guitar solo in there now, but over the top of my tubas and bassoons, which remain!
RM: Frontiers have become the only nationally touring full-time Journey tribute band, playing to large concert halls and theatres.
Tribute bands usually get an unfair short-shift, seen as a poor-man's version of the name band they play tribute to, but Frontiers have built up a solid reputation and fan-base and for many are the best Journey tribute band out there.
What separates you from the pack and why do you think you have such a positive and strong reputation?
JFH: Thanks Ross, we have been the only nationally touring, full-time Journey tribute act in the US.
There are Journey tributes that play the occasional gig out of state and I've seen them advertised as nationally touring but, really, what I mean by that with respect to Frontiers is that we live on the road, we go from Michigan to Orlando to Dallas to Baltimore non-stop, and it's the only thing we do, all year long.
So that's a pretty big distinction in my eyes.
And I've been doing this for ten years now. Up until this break I've had to take back in December I've been doing it full-time since June of 2008 – and that's not touring from June to September or whatever.
I mean, I left home in June of 2008 and I've barely been back since! [laughs]
I think we built our reputation by being consistent on the road and I also think that being myself, rather than trying to portray Steve Perry, allows my own personality as a singer and entertainer to colour what we do as a tribute act.
Tribute bands usually get an unfair short-shift, seen as a poor-man's version of the name band they play tribute to, but Frontiers have built up a solid reputation and fan-base and for many are the best Journey tribute band out there.
What separates you from the pack and why do you think you have such a positive and strong reputation?
JFH: Thanks Ross, we have been the only nationally touring, full-time Journey tribute act in the US.
There are Journey tributes that play the occasional gig out of state and I've seen them advertised as nationally touring but, really, what I mean by that with respect to Frontiers is that we live on the road, we go from Michigan to Orlando to Dallas to Baltimore non-stop, and it's the only thing we do, all year long.
So that's a pretty big distinction in my eyes.
And I've been doing this for ten years now. Up until this break I've had to take back in December I've been doing it full-time since June of 2008 – and that's not touring from June to September or whatever.
I mean, I left home in June of 2008 and I've barely been back since! [laughs]
I think we built our reputation by being consistent on the road and I also think that being myself, rather than trying to portray Steve Perry, allows my own personality as a singer and entertainer to colour what we do as a tribute act.
Taking the tribute act to new Frontiers: "I try to make the songs my own in a lot of
cases, and I'm lucky because I do have a certain tonality and timbre that can take
ownership of a Journey song and still pull that off."
RM: I believe there is a legitimate place for tribute bands in the world of pop and rock and a number of them have become excellent alternatives to some of the name groups that are now more brand than band.
What's your own take on the whole tribute movement?
JFH: From a musician or singer's point of view, it's great because it allows you to build your chops onstage in front of a crowd and really develop as a performer in ways you just couldn't otherwise do, and there's just a great tradition in that.
Many purists – mostly musicians – turn their nose up at the idea, but really, was Pavarotti a tribute singer just because he sang Puccini? That's just elitism… and I don't get it.
As a fan? In these days of $125 ticket prices, you're lucky to get a nosebleed ticket to see U2.
But for $12 maybe you can go see a great band play U2's music, and hear some songs that haven't been played live in a decade. That's the niche that a successful tribute act should occupy.
RM: Singing in any tribute band will always put the vocalist in the spotlight, especially if having to emulate a true great, and Journey tribute singers are going to get analysed and scrutinised perhaps more than any other as ninety percent of the songs, sometimes the entire tribute set-list, were originally sung by Steve Perry, one of the all-time great pop and rock singers.
Does that sort of comparison help raise your game or put pressure on your shoulders – and vocal cords – every night?
JFH: You know Ross, I had to do a number of shows this past year when I just wasn't on my game.
I was suffering from this polyp and a haemorrhaged vocal cord, and because I do this for a living I had to go out and do shows I should not have done, and it prolonged the issue.
And there's nothing more horrifying as an entertainer than knowing that you're out there on stage in front of hundreds of people who are judging you and your ability to do your job, and you can't deliver.
That's incredible pressure and even when I am well, I'm still being compared to another singer, someone else who created those songs.
And that's why I try to make the songs my own in a lot of cases, and I'm lucky because I do have a certain tonality and timbre that can take ownership of a Journey song and still pull that off.
RM: That actually pre-empts my next question because I was going to ask if you naturally have a tonality and timbre similar to Steve’s or if you were so influenced by him in your youth, as you developed your vocal talents, you started to sound like him in phrasing, inflection and the like.
JFH: That's naturally my voice. I didn't set out to be a singer in a Journey tribute act and I didn't even listen to Journey when I was growing up! But people constantly put me in that box and it got to a point where I had to look at the positive side of that, and use it to my advantage.
So naturally my phrasing and inflections took on that role as I developed my act, but yeah, physiologically there's just something in my throat that reminds people of Steve Perry.
RM: I’ve been critical of you in the past but now rate you as one of the most versatile pop and rock singers out there, comfortably delivering not just melodic pop and rock but crooner classics and pop standards.
Not just vocally but in phrasing and vocal intelligence – by that I mean using the notes to best effect and having that inherent sense of melody the best musicians and singers have.
Steve Perry had all the vocal tools of the trade in absolute spades but [laughs], you still have nuances and vowel phrasings that are clearly influenced by Steve.
That said, if there was no Sam Cooke then Steve Perry doesn’t have some of those trademark vocal phrasings.
JFH: Thanks so much Ross for such a great compliment.
And yes, you know as a singer you pick up bits and pieces of things all along the way and you have to hope that the way you interpret the music is going to go a long way to putting your own stamp on things.
You've got Perry and Cooke, but there are legions of popular singers in rock music that owe their voice to their influences. And there are guys whose voices naturally sound like other singers.
What's really annoying is when you have these dismal stretches in pop and rock music where everyone is trying to sound like everyone else but right now, in American pop music, I think there's a lot of interesting stuff going on out there. That's kind of a refreshing change from the nineties and most of the last decade.
RM: In terms of interesting and refreshing I would certainly put Every Little Thing in those categories, but to finish my observations on your vocal improvement... most constantly performing rock singers, once they reach their mid-thirties, have a vocal transition, usually losing a top note or two, perhaps a change in tonality or vocally thinning out.
You seem to have turned that on its head and got better at your craft over the last half dozen years or so – roundness of note, vocal depth and strength...
JFH: I think a lot of that has to do with performing, night after night, just developing your chops and figuring out what works and what doesn't work.
Ten years ago, I really thought I just had to walk out onstage and copy Steve Perry note for note to be successful...
RM: No shit…
JFH: [laughs] ...and there are a lot of people that try to go that route, you know, with any artist they are trying to emulate. And when you can put songs in the context of your voice, and explore what you're capable of versus trying to emulate what came before you, that's when you can really start to develop as a singer.
RM: And develop you did, leading to a remarkable week for you in the summer of 2007.
But before we "journey" back to what culminated in an extraordinarily emotional high and low for you, I'd like to return to Every Little Thing for another song.
I've selected I Think I Know as it perfectly describes how the album doesn't conform to the melodic-rock-by-numbers template. I love the film-noire feel of this song...
JFH: Thank you man, this song was one of two throwback tunes I used on the album with an updated arrangement.
I originally wrote this many years ago as a simple jazz piano number, and it had a really underdeveloped arrangement and chorus. I wanted to include it on Every Little Thing, but I knew it needed work.
As I demo'd the song it began to build with these dark horns, into this almost cinematic and foreboding noir piece. I really was inspired by American film composer Bernard Herrmann, who scored most of Hitchcock's films, most notably Psycho and Vertigo, and the original Cape Fear.
Including it may have been the biggest risk I took when making what most would consider a melodic rock record, but if it grabs people then it was a risk worth taking.
cases, and I'm lucky because I do have a certain tonality and timbre that can take
ownership of a Journey song and still pull that off."
RM: I believe there is a legitimate place for tribute bands in the world of pop and rock and a number of them have become excellent alternatives to some of the name groups that are now more brand than band.
What's your own take on the whole tribute movement?
JFH: From a musician or singer's point of view, it's great because it allows you to build your chops onstage in front of a crowd and really develop as a performer in ways you just couldn't otherwise do, and there's just a great tradition in that.
Many purists – mostly musicians – turn their nose up at the idea, but really, was Pavarotti a tribute singer just because he sang Puccini? That's just elitism… and I don't get it.
As a fan? In these days of $125 ticket prices, you're lucky to get a nosebleed ticket to see U2.
But for $12 maybe you can go see a great band play U2's music, and hear some songs that haven't been played live in a decade. That's the niche that a successful tribute act should occupy.
RM: Singing in any tribute band will always put the vocalist in the spotlight, especially if having to emulate a true great, and Journey tribute singers are going to get analysed and scrutinised perhaps more than any other as ninety percent of the songs, sometimes the entire tribute set-list, were originally sung by Steve Perry, one of the all-time great pop and rock singers.
Does that sort of comparison help raise your game or put pressure on your shoulders – and vocal cords – every night?
JFH: You know Ross, I had to do a number of shows this past year when I just wasn't on my game.
I was suffering from this polyp and a haemorrhaged vocal cord, and because I do this for a living I had to go out and do shows I should not have done, and it prolonged the issue.
And there's nothing more horrifying as an entertainer than knowing that you're out there on stage in front of hundreds of people who are judging you and your ability to do your job, and you can't deliver.
That's incredible pressure and even when I am well, I'm still being compared to another singer, someone else who created those songs.
And that's why I try to make the songs my own in a lot of cases, and I'm lucky because I do have a certain tonality and timbre that can take ownership of a Journey song and still pull that off.
RM: That actually pre-empts my next question because I was going to ask if you naturally have a tonality and timbre similar to Steve’s or if you were so influenced by him in your youth, as you developed your vocal talents, you started to sound like him in phrasing, inflection and the like.
JFH: That's naturally my voice. I didn't set out to be a singer in a Journey tribute act and I didn't even listen to Journey when I was growing up! But people constantly put me in that box and it got to a point where I had to look at the positive side of that, and use it to my advantage.
So naturally my phrasing and inflections took on that role as I developed my act, but yeah, physiologically there's just something in my throat that reminds people of Steve Perry.
RM: I’ve been critical of you in the past but now rate you as one of the most versatile pop and rock singers out there, comfortably delivering not just melodic pop and rock but crooner classics and pop standards.
Not just vocally but in phrasing and vocal intelligence – by that I mean using the notes to best effect and having that inherent sense of melody the best musicians and singers have.
Steve Perry had all the vocal tools of the trade in absolute spades but [laughs], you still have nuances and vowel phrasings that are clearly influenced by Steve.
That said, if there was no Sam Cooke then Steve Perry doesn’t have some of those trademark vocal phrasings.
JFH: Thanks so much Ross for such a great compliment.
And yes, you know as a singer you pick up bits and pieces of things all along the way and you have to hope that the way you interpret the music is going to go a long way to putting your own stamp on things.
You've got Perry and Cooke, but there are legions of popular singers in rock music that owe their voice to their influences. And there are guys whose voices naturally sound like other singers.
What's really annoying is when you have these dismal stretches in pop and rock music where everyone is trying to sound like everyone else but right now, in American pop music, I think there's a lot of interesting stuff going on out there. That's kind of a refreshing change from the nineties and most of the last decade.
RM: In terms of interesting and refreshing I would certainly put Every Little Thing in those categories, but to finish my observations on your vocal improvement... most constantly performing rock singers, once they reach their mid-thirties, have a vocal transition, usually losing a top note or two, perhaps a change in tonality or vocally thinning out.
You seem to have turned that on its head and got better at your craft over the last half dozen years or so – roundness of note, vocal depth and strength...
JFH: I think a lot of that has to do with performing, night after night, just developing your chops and figuring out what works and what doesn't work.
Ten years ago, I really thought I just had to walk out onstage and copy Steve Perry note for note to be successful...
RM: No shit…
JFH: [laughs] ...and there are a lot of people that try to go that route, you know, with any artist they are trying to emulate. And when you can put songs in the context of your voice, and explore what you're capable of versus trying to emulate what came before you, that's when you can really start to develop as a singer.
RM: And develop you did, leading to a remarkable week for you in the summer of 2007.
But before we "journey" back to what culminated in an extraordinarily emotional high and low for you, I'd like to return to Every Little Thing for another song.
I've selected I Think I Know as it perfectly describes how the album doesn't conform to the melodic-rock-by-numbers template. I love the film-noire feel of this song...
JFH: Thank you man, this song was one of two throwback tunes I used on the album with an updated arrangement.
I originally wrote this many years ago as a simple jazz piano number, and it had a really underdeveloped arrangement and chorus. I wanted to include it on Every Little Thing, but I knew it needed work.
As I demo'd the song it began to build with these dark horns, into this almost cinematic and foreboding noir piece. I really was inspired by American film composer Bernard Herrmann, who scored most of Hitchcock's films, most notably Psycho and Vertigo, and the original Cape Fear.
Including it may have been the biggest risk I took when making what most would consider a melodic rock record, but if it grabs people then it was a risk worth taking.
RM: In 2007 you got the call to spend some time with, and audition for, Journey.
The band was looking to return to their "legacy sound," as Jonathan Cain described it, after Jeff Scott Soto's eleven month tenure as lead vocalist. How did the invitation and audition come about?
JFH: Jonathan Cain had seen my Frontiers videos on YouTube and contacted me through my agent.
I didn't get the message for a couple of days and when I did I assumed that Cain was contacting me directly about some legal issue with Frontiers.
I really was shocked, because it was just so surreal to begin with, but also because I never considered myself "out there" as a singer or entertainer. Meaning, a guy who was going to be looked at to be going places.
There are people who spend years cultivating their image, their persona, their "rock star" package, and I never played that game. I was always just, you know, Average Joe, playing music on the weekend and doing the whole career path thing. So it was a huge surprise.
RM: You would later confirm on your own site and blog posts the audition went well and you recorded a few demos, two of which were later re-recorded for the band's Revelation album...
JFH: We wrote Never Walk Away as a brand new song, from a demo that Neal Schon brought into rehearsal.
I honestly didn't expect it would be a song on the CD but it turned out to be one of the more popular tunes on Revelation; I kind of looked at it as a song writing exercise with the band, something just to get us all in Cain's studio and 'shed for a bit.
Where Did I Lose Your Love was initially a demo cut with Steve Augeri on vocals, and we reworked that song quite a bit and cut a new demo for that as well.
But Never Walk Away was written right there, over two days in the studio, it was finished.
RM: What wasn't well known at the time, and still not widely known, is you were offered the job at the mic. However a phone call you received just a few short hours after being back home and celebrating with your family opened the old stage trapdoor from right under your feet…
JFH: Yeah, Ross, and thanks for bringing this up, because I want to talk about it.
Over the years I've heard a lot of the "Jeremey turned down Journey" or "Jeremey was never offered Journey," so let's talk about that.
RM: Sure, absolutely.
JFH: The day after Don't Stop Believing was on the series finale of The Sopranos, I called Neal – this was during the five weeks or so between them coming to Charlotte and me going to California – I wanted to congratulate him on The Sopranos thing.
And he got on the phone and said, nonchalantly, "Yeah, we just let Jeff Scott Soto go," and I was floored.
Because this whole thing was still very unreal to me; no matter how far I played out this scenario I always assumed at some point it was going to fall apart. This kind of thing just didn't happen to guys like me.
So I asked Neal, "What are you doing, man? What if I get down there and something doesn't work out, what are you guys going to do about a singer?"
And Neal was just cool and calm, and said "Man, don't worry about it – this is going to happen!"
And that's when things kind of started going south.
I had a real job, a career to worry about, and the last thing I wanted was my employer to find out I was going to go sing for Journey, and have them fire me with my wife being pregnant, and the gig falls through, or I won't make money for months, or something.
But Journey's manager had dropped my name to Jeff, telling him I was the new singer, and that got out on the internet, and suddenly I was not a very popular guy at all [laughs].
And I really was trying to keep all of this very quiet to protect my job!
RM: Understandable. So you have a week out in California with the band and return home with an offer?
JFH: When I went back to Virginia, I had been offered the gig to sing for Journey; the question was not if I would be offered the job, but if I would accept it.
I had never planned for this. I had lived a quiet life in my own world and was prepared to put the whole weekend warrior thing on the shelf for a while since our baby was due.
I was also really bothered by some of the things Journey brought up during our business meeting.
Neal was really bothered by my wife and her pregnancy. She had gone through a really rough pregnancy with some serious issues that had only started getting better in the weeks leading up to our trip to California.
But they weren't one hundred percent better even at that point and she was really, genuinely concerned about how this huge change of life was going to affect our new family, as was I.
For a long time, I thought that Neal had this paranoia about me having to bring my wife on tour or something, or her having to approve my stage clothes or the like.
These were the types of things he brought up, and I couldn't have been more adamant that "hey, she's seven months pregnant and she just found out five weeks ago that her sales rep husband may leave to tour the world for the next four or five years, or whatever."
And I thought this was resolved, since we discussed it, and we moved on, and the job was offered to me.
So when Neal pulled this eleventh hour, "woah, let's just wait until later in the year and get back together and discuss things," I knew what it was.
And I just couldn't believe that after all of my doubts, after all of my fear that this thing would fall apart, and having made it through to being actually offered the job and discussed salary and tax forms and start dates and everything, this guy was going to pull this shit.
So I did it, I played my hand and I called Jonathan Cain and I said, "You reneged on the deal. You offered me everything, you made me jump through every hoop and I passed every test with flying colours, and then you pull this shit." And the funny thing is… nobody in the band knew that Neal had done this.
Come to find out – in the ultimate irony – it was pretty much Neal's girlfriend the whole time that was pulling the strings on this situation She didn't like how my wife and I got along, plain and simple.
Like I said, for a long time I really thought this was all Neal's doing, but about a year ago, I found out that yeah, this girl of Neal's at the time pretty much was getting him all worked up about things, and she was actually kind of proud of her role in the whole situation.
RM: And now, nearly five years removed from that highest and lowest of musical weeks for Jeremey Frederick Hunsicker?
JFH: Am I bitter about it? You know, it's hard to see Schon rolling around with his new girlfriend in the new Journey video, or see him making a guest appearance in her public service statements, or getting on TMZ and the Today show because of how he's pimped this relationship in the context of Journey, and not think about how my wife and I were treated, and have to deal with some of those feelings all over again.
But it is what it is, I guess.
And in the end I know that even though financially I would have been set for life, how much angst and heartache would there have been over the past four years, and could my family have survived?
RM: Of course the story became Arnel Pineda and how Neal found him on YouTube, while your own near-miss became a footnote, the forgotten or untold story. Until now.
Just to clarify, your own audition and subsequent offer was before Arnel was in the picture?
JFH: There was nobody else in the picture at all; all of the options, the "usual suspects," the band kind of laid out for me during our conversations as to why they wouldn't work.
They didn't want a cattle call audition and when this all fell apart, the band really didn't have a Plan B.
Luckily for Journey, a band called The Zoo had been posting video links to their performance of Faithfully as responses and comments on literally every Frontiers video all summer long.
And their singer, Arnel Pineda, was really, really good.
RM: Arnel has a great set of pipes and once hired his "discovery" and story was always going to be a major part of the PR machine and marketing of Revelation.
Curiously though, Neal's interview with All Access Magazine in May 2008 includes mention of Arnel's vocals on the Never Walk Away and Where Did I Lose Your Love demos. Neal commented that "the music was already there, the demo was already there, the voice was just not on it" going on to say that "we had to teach him the lines and the melody, but he got it so quickly."
Your own demos of those songs vocally contradict those comments...
JFH: Well, of course the voice was on it – I can pull up the exact demos from my hard drive right now and play them! [laughs].
I didn't really have the benefit of listening to someone else sing those songs and emulate what they were doing, because I helped write them, and I recorded my demo vocal literally hours after they were written.
It's not a great demo. I recorded them on a Saturday morning and I had been singing for hours every day since Monday that week.
And like I said, all I had to go on was my scat melodies and the little nuances that Jonathan wanted to put in the song.
In fact, I flubbed a line in Where Did I Lose Your Love and put the wrong accent on the word "emotion" and the same misplaced emphasis is on the studio version of the song from Revelation.
Maybe that's a coincidence, who knows…
RM: Well I’ve heard your demos and I’ve heard the Revelation album and I don’t believe in coincidence...
JFH: But that's just crazy to say that there were no vocals on the demo, and you know, it's part of the marketing story of Arnel's discovery and how the band got their second wind.
RM: Indeed. But that sort of spin doctoring is a fact of entertainment and political life and Journey certainly gained a new lease of musical life with Arnel Pineda.
The band was looking to return to their "legacy sound," as Jonathan Cain described it, after Jeff Scott Soto's eleven month tenure as lead vocalist. How did the invitation and audition come about?
JFH: Jonathan Cain had seen my Frontiers videos on YouTube and contacted me through my agent.
I didn't get the message for a couple of days and when I did I assumed that Cain was contacting me directly about some legal issue with Frontiers.
I really was shocked, because it was just so surreal to begin with, but also because I never considered myself "out there" as a singer or entertainer. Meaning, a guy who was going to be looked at to be going places.
There are people who spend years cultivating their image, their persona, their "rock star" package, and I never played that game. I was always just, you know, Average Joe, playing music on the weekend and doing the whole career path thing. So it was a huge surprise.
RM: You would later confirm on your own site and blog posts the audition went well and you recorded a few demos, two of which were later re-recorded for the band's Revelation album...
JFH: We wrote Never Walk Away as a brand new song, from a demo that Neal Schon brought into rehearsal.
I honestly didn't expect it would be a song on the CD but it turned out to be one of the more popular tunes on Revelation; I kind of looked at it as a song writing exercise with the band, something just to get us all in Cain's studio and 'shed for a bit.
Where Did I Lose Your Love was initially a demo cut with Steve Augeri on vocals, and we reworked that song quite a bit and cut a new demo for that as well.
But Never Walk Away was written right there, over two days in the studio, it was finished.
RM: What wasn't well known at the time, and still not widely known, is you were offered the job at the mic. However a phone call you received just a few short hours after being back home and celebrating with your family opened the old stage trapdoor from right under your feet…
JFH: Yeah, Ross, and thanks for bringing this up, because I want to talk about it.
Over the years I've heard a lot of the "Jeremey turned down Journey" or "Jeremey was never offered Journey," so let's talk about that.
RM: Sure, absolutely.
JFH: The day after Don't Stop Believing was on the series finale of The Sopranos, I called Neal – this was during the five weeks or so between them coming to Charlotte and me going to California – I wanted to congratulate him on The Sopranos thing.
And he got on the phone and said, nonchalantly, "Yeah, we just let Jeff Scott Soto go," and I was floored.
Because this whole thing was still very unreal to me; no matter how far I played out this scenario I always assumed at some point it was going to fall apart. This kind of thing just didn't happen to guys like me.
So I asked Neal, "What are you doing, man? What if I get down there and something doesn't work out, what are you guys going to do about a singer?"
And Neal was just cool and calm, and said "Man, don't worry about it – this is going to happen!"
And that's when things kind of started going south.
I had a real job, a career to worry about, and the last thing I wanted was my employer to find out I was going to go sing for Journey, and have them fire me with my wife being pregnant, and the gig falls through, or I won't make money for months, or something.
But Journey's manager had dropped my name to Jeff, telling him I was the new singer, and that got out on the internet, and suddenly I was not a very popular guy at all [laughs].
And I really was trying to keep all of this very quiet to protect my job!
RM: Understandable. So you have a week out in California with the band and return home with an offer?
JFH: When I went back to Virginia, I had been offered the gig to sing for Journey; the question was not if I would be offered the job, but if I would accept it.
I had never planned for this. I had lived a quiet life in my own world and was prepared to put the whole weekend warrior thing on the shelf for a while since our baby was due.
I was also really bothered by some of the things Journey brought up during our business meeting.
Neal was really bothered by my wife and her pregnancy. She had gone through a really rough pregnancy with some serious issues that had only started getting better in the weeks leading up to our trip to California.
But they weren't one hundred percent better even at that point and she was really, genuinely concerned about how this huge change of life was going to affect our new family, as was I.
For a long time, I thought that Neal had this paranoia about me having to bring my wife on tour or something, or her having to approve my stage clothes or the like.
These were the types of things he brought up, and I couldn't have been more adamant that "hey, she's seven months pregnant and she just found out five weeks ago that her sales rep husband may leave to tour the world for the next four or five years, or whatever."
And I thought this was resolved, since we discussed it, and we moved on, and the job was offered to me.
So when Neal pulled this eleventh hour, "woah, let's just wait until later in the year and get back together and discuss things," I knew what it was.
And I just couldn't believe that after all of my doubts, after all of my fear that this thing would fall apart, and having made it through to being actually offered the job and discussed salary and tax forms and start dates and everything, this guy was going to pull this shit.
So I did it, I played my hand and I called Jonathan Cain and I said, "You reneged on the deal. You offered me everything, you made me jump through every hoop and I passed every test with flying colours, and then you pull this shit." And the funny thing is… nobody in the band knew that Neal had done this.
Come to find out – in the ultimate irony – it was pretty much Neal's girlfriend the whole time that was pulling the strings on this situation She didn't like how my wife and I got along, plain and simple.
Like I said, for a long time I really thought this was all Neal's doing, but about a year ago, I found out that yeah, this girl of Neal's at the time pretty much was getting him all worked up about things, and she was actually kind of proud of her role in the whole situation.
RM: And now, nearly five years removed from that highest and lowest of musical weeks for Jeremey Frederick Hunsicker?
JFH: Am I bitter about it? You know, it's hard to see Schon rolling around with his new girlfriend in the new Journey video, or see him making a guest appearance in her public service statements, or getting on TMZ and the Today show because of how he's pimped this relationship in the context of Journey, and not think about how my wife and I were treated, and have to deal with some of those feelings all over again.
But it is what it is, I guess.
And in the end I know that even though financially I would have been set for life, how much angst and heartache would there have been over the past four years, and could my family have survived?
RM: Of course the story became Arnel Pineda and how Neal found him on YouTube, while your own near-miss became a footnote, the forgotten or untold story. Until now.
Just to clarify, your own audition and subsequent offer was before Arnel was in the picture?
JFH: There was nobody else in the picture at all; all of the options, the "usual suspects," the band kind of laid out for me during our conversations as to why they wouldn't work.
They didn't want a cattle call audition and when this all fell apart, the band really didn't have a Plan B.
Luckily for Journey, a band called The Zoo had been posting video links to their performance of Faithfully as responses and comments on literally every Frontiers video all summer long.
And their singer, Arnel Pineda, was really, really good.
RM: Arnel has a great set of pipes and once hired his "discovery" and story was always going to be a major part of the PR machine and marketing of Revelation.
Curiously though, Neal's interview with All Access Magazine in May 2008 includes mention of Arnel's vocals on the Never Walk Away and Where Did I Lose Your Love demos. Neal commented that "the music was already there, the demo was already there, the voice was just not on it" going on to say that "we had to teach him the lines and the melody, but he got it so quickly."
Your own demos of those songs vocally contradict those comments...
JFH: Well, of course the voice was on it – I can pull up the exact demos from my hard drive right now and play them! [laughs].
I didn't really have the benefit of listening to someone else sing those songs and emulate what they were doing, because I helped write them, and I recorded my demo vocal literally hours after they were written.
It's not a great demo. I recorded them on a Saturday morning and I had been singing for hours every day since Monday that week.
And like I said, all I had to go on was my scat melodies and the little nuances that Jonathan wanted to put in the song.
In fact, I flubbed a line in Where Did I Lose Your Love and put the wrong accent on the word "emotion" and the same misplaced emphasis is on the studio version of the song from Revelation.
Maybe that's a coincidence, who knows…
RM: Well I’ve heard your demos and I’ve heard the Revelation album and I don’t believe in coincidence...
JFH: But that's just crazy to say that there were no vocals on the demo, and you know, it's part of the marketing story of Arnel's discovery and how the band got their second wind.
RM: Indeed. But that sort of spin doctoring is a fact of entertainment and political life and Journey certainly gained a new lease of musical life with Arnel Pineda.
Take a seat and listen to some of Every Little Thing while Jeremey Frederick
Hunsicker takes you through the unforeseen problems and its difficult birth.
RM: After your Californian Journey you returned to Frontiers, who grew in stature and reputation to become the full-time touring band we talked about earlier.
However outside of Frontiers and with your song writing abilities and musicality, it was perhaps inevitable you would eventually record a solo album. When were the seeds of Every Little Thing first sown?
JFH: There was a time, during most of 2010, I thought I was going to record another CD with some other collaborators that would have a Journey sound, that we were going to tie in with Frontiers and have something to sell and promote at our shows – I waited and waited for something to happen with that, but it just never got off the ground.
So in January of 2011 I just decided I would make my own record that sounded the way I wanted it to sound, and I'd be true to my own muse and let it stand or fall on its own merits.
That's when I really started putting these songs together and I was really, really lucky that I had friends like Vic Rivera and Eric Ragno that could actually play the songs I was trying to demo in my studio.
Because believe me, nobody wants to hear a recording of me playing Every Little Thing on guitar or This Is Your Life on piano! [laughs].
RM: This is a good time to put a shout out to Vic's guitars and Eric's keyboards because they played a major part in the sound of the album, featuring on most of the tracks. Vic also laid down some of the drum work.
You have Vic, you have Eric, the recording and writing is all going smoothly and then at the eleventh hour you hit a problem with funding, only to be saved by a little thing called Kickstarter...
JFH: It was a no-brainer to me that I was going to finance the CD myself with ease – Frontiers was booked for months, we were on the road full-time and I knew I'd have the funding to make the record.
But when it became clear in July that I had a serious vocal injury, that changed overnight.
I had a five figure contract cancelled due to my injury and I didn't know if, or how, I was going to perform all of the shows I had booked. I said earlier that I should have stopped performing right then and there because you don't continue singing with a haemorrhaged vocal cord.
I tried all the home remedies and kept pressing forward to try to get through, but once I knew I'd have to cancel some shows I figured the album was dead in the water.
And that was so frustrating, especially after all the time I spent the previous year waiting for something to gel with the other project, but the Kickstarter programme was a godsend.
I had no idea if I'd be successful but there was no other way the record was going to be made, although I wasn't too hot on the idea of soliciting people for money to begin with.
But the reality is – once I read more about it and studied other people's projects – it's a legitimate business model that's really the essence of this whole "direct to fan" movement.
And I was really lucky that a few guys like you came along and gave it a little viral push, to help spread the word outside of my own little circle of friends.
RM: Here’s the thing about that – a number of Kickstarter backers came via FabricationsHQ and some were not overly-familiar with you, if at all.
But, the fact those people were pledging based not on who you were but on the music they were hearing via working demos and pre-final mix songs on Soundcloud? That must have been extremely gratifying...
JFH: It was extremely gratifying and you know, Ross, the more people supported the project the more I believed in the songs.
People prefer to keep musicians and entertainers in their own little boxes but, with this project, a few of those songs were really outside of my box [laughs]. But people liked what they heard and that really gave me hope.
RM: And just when the funding target is reached and you have the green-light, you realise you will have to have surgery on your vocal cords just as you are finishing off the vocals for the album.
Was there a point where you thought "this album is never going to happen."
JFH: Actually, the contrary. As bad as things have gotten over the past several months, the bright spot in all of this has been "at least this album is going to be made."
No one can ever know how much strength that has given me.
RM: That is a boon, absolutely, but there was one more "if it wasn't for bad luck" story to come...
As you are wrapping up the album and looking to get out on the road with Frontiers your doctor tells you that you are still not good to go and a procedure with a specific recovery time is going to take a lot longer.
You've already invested heavily in Every Little Thing and now you are on unpaid sick-leave from the job that pays the bills – that's a frustrating and very worrying scenario...
JFH: I have an excellent team at Duke Voice Center in North Carolina that's been working with me for months. And the surgery that I had in December, I actually had to have it done again in January because a bad case of bronchitis did some damage to my tissue.
And now, it's true, it looks like the recovery will be a little more open-ended than what we had planned for.
It's just a bad situation but my family and I have been really blessed with strength and support from a lot of different corners.
The plan was to have the CD released and sold at our shows to help with the expenses all this surgery and down time has created but for now, at least, that's changed to an internet only release, being sold from my personal site and on iTunes.
That's a huge hit in the potential of sales so what I'm doing right now is hoping that there's a strong word of mouth to this release, once it starts getting into people's hands – especially since some of my biggest supporters have already bought their CD’s! [laughs]
RM: Considering the adversity you had to overcome it's a credit to you that Every Little Thing is such a confident, fresh and quality-laden product.
But it's a short release of less than forty minutes and ten songs, one of which is a short instrumental.
Without your voice issues and the already established target deadlines, would the album have been longer?
JFH: The CD initially consisted of thirteen tracks, so there would have been another three tracks on the CD had I not gotten sidetracked.
The way it turned out though, I feel very strongly that it's better to have nine full-length songs that are each well crafted musical statements, every one of them, than to have any filler on the CD.
You can also listen to a full-length forty minute CD very easily without getting fatigued but that's not to say the other three tracks wouldn't have fit perfectly on the CD; they were all strong songs.
But when I realised I was really going to have some trouble finishing studio quality lead vocal tracks, I knew I would either have to delay the release or cut the album with the tracks I had already completed.
I recorded my last vocal on the album three days before my first surgery and, for all I knew, it could have been the last time I'd ever sing.
I asked myself "if I don't get to finish these other three songs, can I still make this work?" and I knew I could. Once I closed the book on the album I let go of those other three songs; and I was really at peace with that because I've got ten really great tracks on Every Little Thing that I hope are really going to connect with people.
RM: We’re going to feature another of those songs shortly but first I'd like to give honourable mention to a couple of others.
I know you were pretty jazzed to meet and work with John Spinks of The Outfield; you co-wrote a great piece of power-pop with John, What Can I Do.
JFH: Oh yeah, The Outfield is one of those rare bands that I just bought every release they've ever put out, over the history of the band.
Their music really means a lot to me and it was an incredible experience to be able to write with John.
We worked on three or four songs over the course of about six months and What Can I Do and another one were completely finished; but as demos, not releasable as a final master.
In 2010, John had an incredible opportunity to reunite the original Outfield line-up and started working on what became last year's Replay CD, which put our collaboration on hiatus.
We remained friends though and when it came time to release Every Little Thing John was extremely gracious with his time and talent and helped me finish What Can I Do as the final master track.
He also played the amazing guitar solo on Hoping For You, which still gives me chills when I hear it!
RM: The other track I want to mention is Goodnight Song by Tears For Fears.
We discussed this song when you were compiling and sequencing potential tracks for the album and I'm delighted you included it. Great song, great cover and a perfect fit for the album.
JFH: Thanks Ross, that track was a natural fit for the record, and, having been through a lot over the past year, it was a good catharsis for me to not only sing that song for the record but to perform the lead guitar on the track as well.
Eric and Vic weren't extremely familiar with Tears For Fears, and I'm not a lead guitar player by any means, so it was nice for all of us to venture out of our wheelhouse a bit and come up with something unique and special for the track.
RM: After all the adversity and misfortune that befell you I can’t think of a better way to counter that than by returning to Every Little Thing to play out with the infectious and up-beat title track.
JFH: This was one of those songs that kind of came to me nearly all at one time as I recorded the demo.
I mean, my guitar playing was terrible [laughs], but all of the elements of that arrangement and that melody and vocal just fell into place one after another.
The opening verse was pretty much stream of consciousness scat singing, but it guided the rest of the song just from those opening lines.
There was no question that it would be the title track of the CD, and it's one of my favourites...
Hunsicker takes you through the unforeseen problems and its difficult birth.
RM: After your Californian Journey you returned to Frontiers, who grew in stature and reputation to become the full-time touring band we talked about earlier.
However outside of Frontiers and with your song writing abilities and musicality, it was perhaps inevitable you would eventually record a solo album. When were the seeds of Every Little Thing first sown?
JFH: There was a time, during most of 2010, I thought I was going to record another CD with some other collaborators that would have a Journey sound, that we were going to tie in with Frontiers and have something to sell and promote at our shows – I waited and waited for something to happen with that, but it just never got off the ground.
So in January of 2011 I just decided I would make my own record that sounded the way I wanted it to sound, and I'd be true to my own muse and let it stand or fall on its own merits.
That's when I really started putting these songs together and I was really, really lucky that I had friends like Vic Rivera and Eric Ragno that could actually play the songs I was trying to demo in my studio.
Because believe me, nobody wants to hear a recording of me playing Every Little Thing on guitar or This Is Your Life on piano! [laughs].
RM: This is a good time to put a shout out to Vic's guitars and Eric's keyboards because they played a major part in the sound of the album, featuring on most of the tracks. Vic also laid down some of the drum work.
You have Vic, you have Eric, the recording and writing is all going smoothly and then at the eleventh hour you hit a problem with funding, only to be saved by a little thing called Kickstarter...
JFH: It was a no-brainer to me that I was going to finance the CD myself with ease – Frontiers was booked for months, we were on the road full-time and I knew I'd have the funding to make the record.
But when it became clear in July that I had a serious vocal injury, that changed overnight.
I had a five figure contract cancelled due to my injury and I didn't know if, or how, I was going to perform all of the shows I had booked. I said earlier that I should have stopped performing right then and there because you don't continue singing with a haemorrhaged vocal cord.
I tried all the home remedies and kept pressing forward to try to get through, but once I knew I'd have to cancel some shows I figured the album was dead in the water.
And that was so frustrating, especially after all the time I spent the previous year waiting for something to gel with the other project, but the Kickstarter programme was a godsend.
I had no idea if I'd be successful but there was no other way the record was going to be made, although I wasn't too hot on the idea of soliciting people for money to begin with.
But the reality is – once I read more about it and studied other people's projects – it's a legitimate business model that's really the essence of this whole "direct to fan" movement.
And I was really lucky that a few guys like you came along and gave it a little viral push, to help spread the word outside of my own little circle of friends.
RM: Here’s the thing about that – a number of Kickstarter backers came via FabricationsHQ and some were not overly-familiar with you, if at all.
But, the fact those people were pledging based not on who you were but on the music they were hearing via working demos and pre-final mix songs on Soundcloud? That must have been extremely gratifying...
JFH: It was extremely gratifying and you know, Ross, the more people supported the project the more I believed in the songs.
People prefer to keep musicians and entertainers in their own little boxes but, with this project, a few of those songs were really outside of my box [laughs]. But people liked what they heard and that really gave me hope.
RM: And just when the funding target is reached and you have the green-light, you realise you will have to have surgery on your vocal cords just as you are finishing off the vocals for the album.
Was there a point where you thought "this album is never going to happen."
JFH: Actually, the contrary. As bad as things have gotten over the past several months, the bright spot in all of this has been "at least this album is going to be made."
No one can ever know how much strength that has given me.
RM: That is a boon, absolutely, but there was one more "if it wasn't for bad luck" story to come...
As you are wrapping up the album and looking to get out on the road with Frontiers your doctor tells you that you are still not good to go and a procedure with a specific recovery time is going to take a lot longer.
You've already invested heavily in Every Little Thing and now you are on unpaid sick-leave from the job that pays the bills – that's a frustrating and very worrying scenario...
JFH: I have an excellent team at Duke Voice Center in North Carolina that's been working with me for months. And the surgery that I had in December, I actually had to have it done again in January because a bad case of bronchitis did some damage to my tissue.
And now, it's true, it looks like the recovery will be a little more open-ended than what we had planned for.
It's just a bad situation but my family and I have been really blessed with strength and support from a lot of different corners.
The plan was to have the CD released and sold at our shows to help with the expenses all this surgery and down time has created but for now, at least, that's changed to an internet only release, being sold from my personal site and on iTunes.
That's a huge hit in the potential of sales so what I'm doing right now is hoping that there's a strong word of mouth to this release, once it starts getting into people's hands – especially since some of my biggest supporters have already bought their CD’s! [laughs]
RM: Considering the adversity you had to overcome it's a credit to you that Every Little Thing is such a confident, fresh and quality-laden product.
But it's a short release of less than forty minutes and ten songs, one of which is a short instrumental.
Without your voice issues and the already established target deadlines, would the album have been longer?
JFH: The CD initially consisted of thirteen tracks, so there would have been another three tracks on the CD had I not gotten sidetracked.
The way it turned out though, I feel very strongly that it's better to have nine full-length songs that are each well crafted musical statements, every one of them, than to have any filler on the CD.
You can also listen to a full-length forty minute CD very easily without getting fatigued but that's not to say the other three tracks wouldn't have fit perfectly on the CD; they were all strong songs.
But when I realised I was really going to have some trouble finishing studio quality lead vocal tracks, I knew I would either have to delay the release or cut the album with the tracks I had already completed.
I recorded my last vocal on the album three days before my first surgery and, for all I knew, it could have been the last time I'd ever sing.
I asked myself "if I don't get to finish these other three songs, can I still make this work?" and I knew I could. Once I closed the book on the album I let go of those other three songs; and I was really at peace with that because I've got ten really great tracks on Every Little Thing that I hope are really going to connect with people.
RM: We’re going to feature another of those songs shortly but first I'd like to give honourable mention to a couple of others.
I know you were pretty jazzed to meet and work with John Spinks of The Outfield; you co-wrote a great piece of power-pop with John, What Can I Do.
JFH: Oh yeah, The Outfield is one of those rare bands that I just bought every release they've ever put out, over the history of the band.
Their music really means a lot to me and it was an incredible experience to be able to write with John.
We worked on three or four songs over the course of about six months and What Can I Do and another one were completely finished; but as demos, not releasable as a final master.
In 2010, John had an incredible opportunity to reunite the original Outfield line-up and started working on what became last year's Replay CD, which put our collaboration on hiatus.
We remained friends though and when it came time to release Every Little Thing John was extremely gracious with his time and talent and helped me finish What Can I Do as the final master track.
He also played the amazing guitar solo on Hoping For You, which still gives me chills when I hear it!
RM: The other track I want to mention is Goodnight Song by Tears For Fears.
We discussed this song when you were compiling and sequencing potential tracks for the album and I'm delighted you included it. Great song, great cover and a perfect fit for the album.
JFH: Thanks Ross, that track was a natural fit for the record, and, having been through a lot over the past year, it was a good catharsis for me to not only sing that song for the record but to perform the lead guitar on the track as well.
Eric and Vic weren't extremely familiar with Tears For Fears, and I'm not a lead guitar player by any means, so it was nice for all of us to venture out of our wheelhouse a bit and come up with something unique and special for the track.
RM: After all the adversity and misfortune that befell you I can’t think of a better way to counter that than by returning to Every Little Thing to play out with the infectious and up-beat title track.
JFH: This was one of those songs that kind of came to me nearly all at one time as I recorded the demo.
I mean, my guitar playing was terrible [laughs], but all of the elements of that arrangement and that melody and vocal just fell into place one after another.
The opening verse was pretty much stream of consciousness scat singing, but it guided the rest of the song just from those opening lines.
There was no question that it would be the title track of the CD, and it's one of my favourites...
RM: One final question, and it's the sixty-four thousand dollar one.
The journey – pun intended – that eventually led to Every Little Thing and the associated difficulties we have discussed… was it all worth it?
JFH: I guess that remains to be seen, Ross.
At the end of the day, am I glad I had the opportunity to make this record?
Absolutely, and for every obstacle in my path, there was an opportunity as well.
A lot of people gave a lot of their time, effort, faith and cash towards making this album a reality, and I guess now it's up to me to have produced a CD that lives up to that expectation.
The music business is like this great, dark cavern in the middle of the earth and no one knows what's in there; no one knows what makes it tick.
All I know is that the time I've spent in this business, in this big dark cave, walking around blind, I've been really, really lucky to have people out there who have struck a match for me so I'm just glad I had the chance to make this record for them.
RM: Jeremey, this has been a lot of fun and I appreciate you being so open and candid throughout.
May every little thing you wish for come to be, because you certainly deserve it.
JFH: Thanks so much Ross, it's been a pleasure and I wish you the best as well, my friend!
Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation with Jeremey Frederick Hunsicker
March 2012
Photo Credits: Elspeth Erickson Photography.
Audio tracks to accompany the above article by kind permission of Jeremey Frederick Hunsicker.
No infringement of copyright is intended.
The journey – pun intended – that eventually led to Every Little Thing and the associated difficulties we have discussed… was it all worth it?
JFH: I guess that remains to be seen, Ross.
At the end of the day, am I glad I had the opportunity to make this record?
Absolutely, and for every obstacle in my path, there was an opportunity as well.
A lot of people gave a lot of their time, effort, faith and cash towards making this album a reality, and I guess now it's up to me to have produced a CD that lives up to that expectation.
The music business is like this great, dark cavern in the middle of the earth and no one knows what's in there; no one knows what makes it tick.
All I know is that the time I've spent in this business, in this big dark cave, walking around blind, I've been really, really lucky to have people out there who have struck a match for me so I'm just glad I had the chance to make this record for them.
RM: Jeremey, this has been a lot of fun and I appreciate you being so open and candid throughout.
May every little thing you wish for come to be, because you certainly deserve it.
JFH: Thanks so much Ross, it's been a pleasure and I wish you the best as well, my friend!
Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation with Jeremey Frederick Hunsicker
March 2012
Photo Credits: Elspeth Erickson Photography.
Audio tracks to accompany the above article by kind permission of Jeremey Frederick Hunsicker.
No infringement of copyright is intended.