Hunter Young of Moodring: I've made myself too sick to work many times, and I know I'm pissing off people in my shoes right now.
Credit: Twitter @moodringrock
Moodring’s 3rd full length release, “Death Fetish”, is less than a month away and I sat down with frontman, Hunter Young, to discuss everything that went into creating such a raw, graphic, and transparent album and the challenges faced when it came to completing a record where the frontman bared all. Following on from his diagnosis of ME/CFS [Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome] back in 2023, Hunter opened up about the drastic decline in his health, even pre-diagnosis, and how he has had to re-evaluate where he allocates his time and energy, and learn his limits to avoid complete shutdown.
“I can’t stomach a life without creating, in any capacity that I am able to.” - Taken from an Instagram post that Young put out when he announced that the release of “Death Fetish” was imminent.
So when you’re faced with a chronic neurological illness that is worsened by over-exertion, and one of the things that you can’t imagine life without - making music - pushes you to and beyond your limits, it’s no surprise that Hunter has found it difficult to learn how to continue with his passion for writing/producing music whilst simultaneously maintaining his quality of life.
This interview covers everything about the new album, from the lyrics to the snare used throughout, but it also offers an insight into the man behind Moodring, so that we can all appreciate him that little bit more.
“I taught myself how to turn tension into a weapon.”
Hayls: I’m not going to take up too much of your time, the man, the myth, the legend.
Hunter: Gross. You can take up as much as you want, but far from that.
Hayls: We're going balls to the wall, we're going straight in. People who know ball know you. Hunter “Moodring” Young, because that's what version we're talking about today.
Hunter: Hell yeah, finally.
Hayls: We got to do it justice, we got to put eyes onto this absolute fucking masterpiece that's coming out, which drops on the 27th of this month.
Hunter: Also, finally. It's been done for so long.
Hayls: We're finally in Moodring March?
Hunter: Is it March 1st?
Hayls: Yes.
Hunter: Oh fuck, I have to pay rent. Whoops.
Hayls: We're in Moodring March, that's what we're calling it. It's a month of Moodring.
Hunter: Here we are.
Hayls: We're getting it after what? How long have you been- January? When you announced that this was coming out?
Hunter: I don't know. I mean, we've started dropping singles for it in November or October or something like that, so the rollout's been way too long and I'm really happy to get it out. But on top of that, I've already grieved this record. The record is so old I've already been like, "Damn, cool record." I've gone back and hated it and then been like, "Fuck." Redid the entire thing, then got over that, and now we're finally getting it out. And I'm like, "Okay, this thing's cool again. I'm back with it,” but I'm really ready to move on.
Hayls: And no one's even heard it yet.
Hunter: It's been sitting on my phone for the better part of three years.
Hayls: Yeah, because you've teased parts of this over the last few years.
Hunter: Started in 2023, started posting almost full songs to Twitter and stuff.
Hayls: I remember that, and everyone was like, "What the fuck is this?"
Hunter: I told people that when they were complaining about us not dropping a song, I said, "Well, if you really wanted to, you could just go find the multiple teasers I posted and put them together, and you might be missing 10 seconds tops."
Hayls: Sometimes people just need it said to them in black and white. "Oh, we're dropping an album-." That's what it was. 10th of January was the day that you actually announced that it was going to be an album.
Hunter: The thing is, everyone in Discord and stuff who are the more active Moodring listeners and people who enjoy the band, they've known this thing has been coming for so long. I think two years ago I accidentally said the name of the album. I was like, "Fuck. Alright.” It used to be much more rough in there. And when people who listen to straight-up metalcore stuff would join, they would talk about djent-y shit and stuff, and I'd always try to steer them into what I perceive as better stuff. And then I kind of gave up on that. I was like, "They're going to like what they like." And now everyone just is who they are, and there's normal people, there's hoe scarers, there's- it’s a good time.
Hayls: Yep, there’s a variety of people there. It is a fun place to be.
Hunter: Yeah, it is. I like how it's turned out. It's gotten a lot more active lately, because before it was pretty deserted, and now it seemed to have picked up a lot.
Hayls: That's good. I like having active Discord servers to talk in.
Hunter: Everyone thinks I'm being mean to them, but I'm just telling them things without using emojis.
Hayls: Yeah, you're mean to me.
Hunter: Definitely.
Hayls: Yeah, we've had a few bickers.
Hunter: What that guy said the other day, he said his new favourite bit was me coming into the Discord and just shooting on people. And I was like, "This is fun."
Hayls: The biggest thing that I have wanted to know from you is, because you're very, very vocal on socials about how you feel about certain things, and one of the things that you have said repeatedly, maybe not on a certain social, but you've said it to me, you've said it in Discord, and you've said it on some of the posts when you've been doing the single releases, is that “Death Fetish” means absolutely everything to you, but you've hated releasing it. And I just want to know, why have you hated it? Why have you hated releasing this album so much?
Hunter: So notoriously, I hate releasing music in general. I don't enjoy the aspect of trying to generate hype or, I don't know, get people invested in stuff. It's hard for me to want to- it ends up feeling like begging to me a lot of the time, especially when it's on more of a pro-core level. And especially with this, if I wanted to generate a hype, for lack of better words, before, I just would have gone and played shows. So I can only rely on the internet. I'm a 32-year-old man. I'm not getting on camera face forward with my phone and getting on TikTok and doing the dumb shit and playing the fucking game. And all power to anyone who does that and it actually works and they get their bag. I have friends who do that, and I used to make fun of them, and they told me what they make money-wise, and I went, "Yeah, you're never going to hear me talk shit about that again." So I was like, "Wow, you're supporting yourself, you're supporting your family, you're doing great." If anyone can actually make money and there's still integrity in their art, I'm happy for them, as long as it's not made for the sole purpose of making money. That's where I have no respect for it.
But I've really fucking hated releasing this album because, one, it's existed forever. Two, it is about me being incredibly sick and how it affects everyone around me. I mean, the mass majority, not the entire thing, obviously. But it's been kind of like every single time a song comes out, it's like peeling a scab off. And then say if that song doesn't do as well as I perceive it should in my brain, because I've been at this a long time, I can kind of genuinely guess how something's going to do, and if it does better, I'm usually pleasantly surprised. I haven't had a fucking full-blown flop in a while. And I don't know, it's very weird. I don't think anyone really knows how to work an album about someone who's talking about this thing of them dying and shit, and on top of that, they can't play shows. It's kind of a little bit of uncharted territory for me and the people on my team. And I also, like I just said, it's reopening scabs every time a song comes out. Not to be dramatic, but that's how it feels.
Hayls: So it's a culmination of quite a lot of things that's made this not an enjoyable experience.
Hunter: I just want it out. I want it out, and I want to let people form their own opinions, good or bad. It's just taking so damn long.
Hayls: Since you dropped Half-Life, it will have been, until the actual album drops, we're looking at what? Five?
Hunter: Half a year.
Hayls: Yeah, five, six months.
Hunter: It was supposed to come out in January originally, and then something happened to where we had to push it back. I don't remember what it was, but Half-Life was the start.
Hayls: Because I also remember you saying about, maybe it was Half-Life or one of the other singles or the videos, was that something was supposed to come out, but it couldn't because of something else. But I don't think that was the full- that might have even been that. I can't remember when we had that conversation. You put a post up on Instagram saying something was supposed to come out.
Hunter: The release date didn't get pushed back because of it, but Olli [Appleyard] got stuck on the Gunplay video a little bit. He had a lot of stuff going on in his life, so I pivoted and dropped Anywhere But Here instead. And I actually got the Gunplay video last night, so.
Hayls: Yeah, I saw the little snippet in Discord.
Hunter: Definitely can't monetize that or run ads on that one.
Hayls: No, absolutely not. But hey, that's the visual direction that you've gone in with this album. I said to you earlier, I don't think it would feel like “Death Fetish” videos if they were modernized.
Hunter: I wanted them to be worse.
Hayls: Really?
Hunter: Yeah, way worse. I wanted them to be I wanted them to be hard to watch, to go along with this thing that I think is, I don't know, lyrically hard to listen to if you understand. You're not just like, "Oh, you know pain-game rhyme scheme," which is unfortunately I default to a lot. But if you look beyond the surface, you're like, "Oh, damn, this is serious shit." I wanted them to be horrendous to watch.
Hayls: You really wanted to put your whole shit into every part of this album.
Hunter: Whole pussy, especially in the videos.
Hayls: Just wide open.
Hunter: Yeah.
Hayls: Why didn't you then, even if just for one?
Hunter: We definitely had a reason, but it was so long ago that I definitely have memory RAM dumped, whatever the fuck happened. So probably so label could actually try to work it and do things with it. They paid for it, but then it got shadow banned anyway. Hindsight, we should have just made horrible art.
Hayls: There's gruesome videos out there, gory videos out there anyway. Unsettling videos exist.
Hunter: It's getting a lot worse because AI fucking runs everything now, so it's not a human being with discernment. Generally, the rule has been, in the US, the US is really weird about super sexual videos. But Europe is fine with sex, they're like, "Oh, that's a gun." You know what I mean? That's been the thing, and we were like, "Both." But generally, if the first 15 seconds of your video was clean, it would be fine, but now it's AI, and they're just like, "It's not going well." Because fucking everything is AI.
Hayls: That's so grim. That's probably worse than you doing a gore video.
Hunter: For sure. Yeah. I mean, they're in the process of building some odd 15 data centers around where I live right now, and I'm actively looking for somewhere to move.
Hayls: Fuck. Fuck. Hey, you know us. We told you to move to the UK, but you said that's probably the worst place for you.
Hunter: It is. The people I know with ME/CFS in the UK are miserable. Yeah, what's your health service?
Hayls: What's our what?
Hunter: Health-
Hayls: Oh, the NHS.
Hunter: NHS? Yeah. Abysmal. Absolutely abysmal.
Hayls: Oh, yeah, no. Massively understaffed, underfunded.
Hunter: Yeah and then you get into niche chronic illnesses, and it’s just fucking forget about it. If I was going to move to Europe with the prospect of trying new things, I'd try to go to Germany, probably. But a German's definitely going to watch this and tell me I'm out of my mind. I shouldn't do that either. I don't know.
Hayls: Hunter’s moving arc.
Hunter: Also, Europeans don't believe in aircon, as you call it.
Hayls: It's the wind.
Hunter: I need it.
Hayls: It's the wind, bro. Or you can just- it's not really that expensive to get it installed in houses, it's just not standard. You can't get it, though.
Hunter: Do you believe it makes you sick? Because I talk to a lot of people who think it makes them sick.
Hayls: Aircon makes you sick? No. No.
Hunter: What if it does?
Hayls: I guess you're asking the wrong person, someone who's not living with aircon, so I won't be able to tell you. I'll tell you what does make you sick, though, living in London. That does make you sick. I used to live in London, and now I live in Scotland. The contrast between health, mad. Albeit, I have kind of gotten worse in some areas, but back down in London, absolutely not. You couldn't fucking breathe. It's all just pollution and shit. It's grim.
Hunter: Yeah. I have some sick friends who live in LA, and I'm like, "How are you fine?" I remember my first time in LA, literally driving into it and seeing the smog and being like, "Nope, that's not normal. That's the most dystopian shit I've ever seen in my entire fucking life."
Hayls: Yeah, it's grim. When you're blowing your nose and just black soot's coming out, you feel like a Victorian child.
Hunter: You feel like you're when you breathe in, it's so dry it feels like it's fire in your face. I wish I had a better additive, but yeah, it’s something like that.
Hayls: Hey, it's accurate. It works. People are going to be like, "Nah, do you know what? Actually, that's exactly what it feels like. I've never been able to put that into words before."
Hunter: Got fire in my face. But yeah.
Hayls: Cool. Sidetracked. Love that.
Hunter: That was a tangent. Yeah, I always do that. My bad.
Hayls: No, it's fine. It's fine. All of mine- if anyone's ever seen any of my shit, we always go off on tangents. We'll come back around to it. We'll circle back. It's fine. So we touched on why you've hated this. You've made me understand that a little bit better now, because obviously, I only just started to understand that once I'd listened to the album. But yeah, I get it now, especially since you said you would be so used to just touring and doing shows as your way of promo.
Hunter: All I can do is post it and say, "Hey, go listen to it. That's it." And that's up to the person who sees it or doesn't see it to do so. And that sucks, because if someone's trapped in a room with you, you're like, "Listen to this fucking song." Yeah, if you're on stage, you can convince someone to like it if you put on a good show. I hope they just play one. I just want one.
Hayls: What? You just want one show?
Hunter: Mm-hmm.
Hayls: Do you know what? I actually thought about this the other day. It's just like, if you couldn't do an in-person, you physically couldn't get to a venue, do all the setup or the logistics to get in other people to help you, just do a mini concert on fucking Discord or something.
Hunter: Fuck that.
Hayls: No, I think people would love it.
Hunter: Because if I could do that, I could get my ass to a fucking venue and play a show. It's only this much more work. It's just a matter of me getting in a car and going to do it. The preparation would be the same.
Hayls: Where’s your closest one? Hour.
Hunter: An hour.
Hayls: An hour?
Hunter: Yeah. I'm out in the fucking middle of nowhere.
Hayls: Oh, same.
Hunter: I want to be more in the middle of nowhere.
Hayls: It's good.
Hunter: I'm south of Atlanta in the suburbs. My neighborhood looks like fucking Edward Scissorhands. It's terrifying, and it's completely quiet. It's really weird.
Hayls: That's fun, though.
Hunter: It feels like Silent Hill outside. Maybe I'm not actually sick, and I just don't leave the house because it's fucking weird out there.
Hayls: No, don't feed into the people that say that.
Hunter: I'm just kidding. Yeah, I just want to get healthy enough to do it one time at least. My goal is to operate something like Glassjaw, if you will, where they don't play many shows, but when they do, it's important. And that's kind of my endgame with the band at this point.
Hayls: I'm sure a lot of people would make the effort to come and see that. You got a lot of Moodring riders.
Hunter: Riders?
Hayls: Yeah.
Hunter: Worms.
Hayls: Worms, yeah. Okay. Yeah, worms.
Hunter: I didn't name them that. They did that.
Hayls: Is it because of the ring and the ringworm?
Hunter: Yeah, it's ringworm, but I didn't like it because Ringworm was one of my favourite bands ever, and I was like, "Don't do this. Different worlds. Y'all are going to get made fun of." And yeah, too late.
Hayls: Yeah, they've adopted that.
Hunter: That's on them.
Hayls: Yeah. I get called that all the time. I was like, "Excuse me? Huh?" And now I’ve put two and two together.
Hunter: It's a grubby name. I would have picked something better. I wouldn't have called myself a ringworm.
Hayls: No. That’s something you want to get rid of.
Hunter: Yeah. You can take something for that.
Hayls: Yeah. You need to get rid of that. That can't stay.
Hunter: I saw this tweet the other day that just said, "Why does Moodring fucking suck now?" And all I thought was, "You're not a ringworm anymore."
Hayls: No.
Hunter: Fuck. You're not a worm.
Hayls: No. That's wild when the term worm becomes a compliment.
Hunter: Yeah. I need my worms.
Hayls: Yeah. There you go. Jesus Christ.
—
You put a post out in June 2023, and that was the post that you disclosed to the internet, to Instagram, about your health condition without going into too much detail. That was just basically where you said that you had been struggling for the past year after seeing doctors and-
Hunter: I said, "Chat, I'm cooked."
Hayls: Yeah. In more words than that. So yeah, that was back in June 2023 and then in July, you dropped “YOURLIGHTFADESAWAY,” a month apart.
Hunter: Yeah, it was already rolling out, and it had been done since October of the previous year, and when I had made that announcement about my health, we were already balls deep, for lack of better words, in “Death Fetish,” too. So I got diagnosed while Austin [Coupe] and I were writing, and I came back from the doctor, and I sat down, not in this studio, but my old one, and was like, "I don't want to work on music today." I was like, "I need to go in my room and stare at the ceiling." So I laugh about it now, but I've had a lot of time to think about it all and process things.
Hayls: So it came in the middle of you writing “Death Fetish”?
Hunter: Yeah, no. We did “YOURLIGHTFADESAWAY” in October of '22. That sounds about right, maybe a little later, during a hurricane, and I think we did it in two days. A lot of people who follow Moodring know the lore behind that. It was supposed to be for a big-ass anime. It didn't happen, whatever. And then yeah, we were already very deep into “Death Fetish” by the time that happened and I was trying to figure out what was wrong with me because tours were coming up, and I was like, "I am terrified because something is clearly wrong." And it was just getting worse and worse and worse. And then so yeah, it was not a good time.
Hayls: No. So was “Death Fetish” always about your health even before?
Hunter: No.
Hayls: No?
Hunter: No. Early songs in there are more heavy, fun songs that didn't have vocals on them yet. We didn't get vocals until they were about my health, I'll tell you that. And then I would get tired of being like, "I'm sick. Listen to this song." So I'd stray a little bit just to get a breather on it. So I mean, it's hard to, I don't know- how many songs do you have- how many songs like that can I have in me?
Hayls: So like you said, you had the writing part down of music and what it was sounding like, but you hadn't really got to-
Hunter: We kind of did it in blocks. A lot of the first block of songs didn't make the album at all. The only one out of the first session that did is Sickf_ck, but lyrically, that wasn't done yet at all. We toyed around with ideas. I remember at one point, we had something on that song that was really sick, but it sounded like Beyoncé, and I was like, "I don't want to sound like fucking Beyoncé." I had been diagnosed for a while and was learning how to live with it. I think the second time Austin came to Atlanta when we were working on the record, and that's when we got our Half-Lifes, our STFAs. Our song used to be called Cocaine Vampire, but it's now called Bleed Enough?.
The breakthrough on it lyrically was when Maddie, aka Iris.exe, is available. Austin and I really like to work with her as well on Moodring stuff. I think the three of us together, and we're all firing on all cylinders, get the best and most unique Moodring. I mean, other people might disagree with that, but personally, for me, it's the better thing because she can really help me say what I'm too scared to say. Or not even that. She can help me say things in a more elegant way than just, "Fuck you. I'm dying." So she'll paint a picture of that. Her breakthrough on the album was Coldmetalkiss, and that was pretty early and I couldn't listen to it when we made it. I was like, "Fuck. This is real now. This is recorded. It's forever. The pen's on the paper. This is happening." And then Masochist Machine was kind of like this, "We're still a little on topic, but it's a little more fun." So I guess we- retract everything I just said, and we kind of created that dichotomy off rip thanks to her and then the rest followed. We kind of had a guideline, if you will. I forgot all about that. Memory is going bad.
Hayls: Just needed a little jog.
Hunter: Yeah. It's been a long time. It was three years ago.
Hayls: Yeah. Quite a bit- you've had quite a bit to process since then and currently process and still have been. No, it was just I always wondered whether “Death Fetish” was always going to be [about health] obviously, because you don't- do you name the album first, or do you wait?
Hunter: Depends. I like having an album named first if I have something really cool or that I enjoy a lot because it gives me kind of a vision to work towards. I'm not going to talk about [Psycho] Frame any more than this, but the current Frame album I'm working on, I already have the art done. I don't have the name, but I'm writing the music to sound like the art, and that's the first time that ever happened. “Death Fetish” has had six different album covers or something.
Hayls: I just wondered whether you started “Death Fetish” with your health as the focal point.
Hunter: It wasn't supposed to be as sad as it is. It was definitely supposed to just be a heavier, more raw, unique version of Moodring compared to “YOURLIGHTFADESAWAY”, because “YOURLIGHTFADESAWAY” is, as much as I do like those songs, really kind of retro-futuristic and really processed, but that was because of what it was for, that was the intention. “Death Fetish” was always meant to be more stripped back, at least sonically. But it was just supposed to be a better, evolving version of Moodring, nothing crazy. And then as it got darker, we were like, "Fuck it. Let's go. Let's go all the way."
Hayls: Just full send it. That's what this album's about. No, you've answered that question.
Hunter: For better or worse.
Hayls: Yeah. I personally think it's a good thing, but-
Hunter: I appreciate that.
Hayls: Of course I do, because I think you should talk about what you're comfortable with.
Hunter: I like talking about it. People think I don't. If anyone wants to know and they're respectful about it, I have no problem having the conversation. It's when it becomes politicized where I'm like, "I'm good."
Hayls: Or you get people going, "Oh, have you tried this? Have you tried this?"
Hunter: The amount of motherfuckers in my DMs telling me to try carnivore diet like, "Motherfucker, I have. Step one, change your diet.” Come on. “How much water are you drinking? Have you tried this supplement?” I swear to you, there's not a supplement on this planet that I have not tried. It's absolutely nuts. I've got a guy in my DMs right now telling me to go to the Amazon rainforest and see a shaman. And I'm like, "You paying for it?"
Hayls: Yeah. If you pay for it, I'll go. Fuck it.
Hunter: Maybe. I don't know about all that.
Hayls: I would.
Hunter: He's going to put some weird I don't know, some juju there. I'm a little superstitious.
Hayls: Because I remember you put that in your post where you disclosed that this was what was going on. Was that the reason why you didn't delve into what your actual diagnosis was? Because you wanted to avoid people becoming medical professionals in your DMs?
Hunter: Oh, well, the thing is, because of the pandemic and people getting long COVID and stuff, a lot of them have similar symptoms to myself, and there's this big - I'll keep this as short as possible. People with ME and long COVID, there can be people with long COVID who are essentially a subset. They have ME symptoms, and it's very close. The people who have long COVID see that ME has been around for years, and there's millions of people with the disease to varying degrees. So they don't want the funding that's going to help them [long COVID] get better to go to this side [ME] because they're like, "What the fuck have they been doing for the last 30, 40, 50 fucking years?" I get it. So I could attract those people getting mad at me, and at the same time, I could also attract a fucking bot on Twitter being like, "Oh, it's because you got fucking vaccinated." You know what I mean? And I'm not trying to go through all that. I'll say this with my whole chest. I had a lot of health problems before I got really sick. I was too scared to get vaccinated. That's not why I'm sick. I asked a neurologist in 2022 before I got sick. I said, "Should I get vaccinated with all this weird shit in my brain?" And he went, "Yes." [Shakes head] And I went, "I'm going to trust " I was like, "I'm going to trust the doctor. I'm not against people getting vaccines or anything like that. I don't have a tinfoil hat on. I just was already scared for my health at that point." But it can get so political, and I don't have fucking time to argue with a bot on Twitter. You know what I mean? It's insane.
Hayls: No, it's rough and some of the conspiracies that they come out with is just absolutely bizarre. And that is the last thing that you need to be putting your time and effort into reading, responding to.
Hunter: Or they can end up being they can end up being real, apparently. So yeah, I mean, I've been telling people they're crazy for the last 10 years, and last week, I got shut the fuck up pretty good.
Hayls: Goodness me.
Hunter: Whoops. I'm down to be really transparent, and I don't love to talk about it, but without hesitation, I'd speak on what I deal with, how I try to deal with it, what it's like for the people around me. And when someone becomes disrespectful, I'm just pretty checked out. And I didn't want to open that gate, but it didn't matter. I should have just come out the gate and said what was up because there's a lot of people who can't- people are so fucking stupid they don't know the difference between a neurological condition and a mental illness. They think it's the same fucking thing. I remember going on Reddit around that time, and they're like, "He went crazy." I was like, "Motherfucker. That's not what that means. My brain is inflamed. I'm not like-” Okay, sure. I'm fucking crazy now. I prefer that.
Hayls: There's less explaining to do if people just think, "Oh, he's just lost his marbles a little bit."
Hunter: Yeah. That'd be way better.
Hayls: I see why you did that to try and preserve your peace a little bit and not have to explain yourself to strangers on the internet, but people are going to dig and-
Hunter: I also didn't understand it as much as I do now, and I knew I had to cancel the year of touring that was coming up, but I was also a lot healthier back than I am now even. So in my head, I was like, "Well, if I just chill the fuck out, can I go back?" No. I mean, I didn't chill at all, but-
Hayls: No, you haven't.
Hunter: No. I keep saying I'm going to, but I don't really have a desire to.
Hayls: Another thing that you're very transparent about on social is this is everything to you: creating music, craft, making songs, writing, working on all of these other projects that you do. Being in a musical- just centered around music is what you do, and you can't imagine yourself taking the foot off the pedal.
Hunter: I need to so badly, so badly.
Hayls: We would always push you to do it because we know that we want you to not burn yourself into the ground, but we also don't see it from your perspective where this is your life.
Hunter: I need something to be like- what the fuck else am I supposed to get dopamine from? I swear to God, I think I've watched every fucking movie on the face of the earth. I can only play so many fucking video games, and I'm really picky with games and just the media I consume in general. I'll look at everything, but I won't dive into everything. And there's only so much I can do, but if I write a song I like for myself or someone else, I'm like, "Dopamine, fuck yeah. Welcome back." Even if it's just for a little bit, it's what I need. And yeah, it's hard. I've been telling myself over and over again I would take a break for an extended period of time, but it's not going to happen. I'm booked until July right now. And if there's someone else with ME watching this right now, in their head, they're watching this, and they fucking hate me, and they know I'm going to make myself more sick and complain about it later because I will.
Hayls: Because it's like a staggered effect, isn't it?
Hunter: It's a double-edged sword. You know what I mean? On one side, it's fulfilling, and on the other side, it's not. It's masochistic, honestly.
Hayls: Hey, we want you to be happy more so, of course, but also, like I said, we don't need to run yourself into the ground. And I don't think that's- I don't think that's for selfish reasons either. I don't think there's people out there that are like, "Oh, I don't want Hunter to take his foot off the pedal because I want more Moodring."
Hunter: No, it's not like there's this huge, giant demand for it. No one's fucking dying without it. But other stuff that I'm doing, there is more of that [demand]. So that's more my fear. But Moodring is fulfilling to me as a human being and for me artistically, so I don't want to take my foot off the pedal. I never fucking did. I just got stuck, and I wasn't allowed to put anything out. I never stopped working. Big misperception that nothing happened for three years. There's multiple albums. There's other things. And if we take too long to get this one out, I'm going to hate the other one by the time it comes out, and then that's going to get all fucked up.
Hayls: Yeah, because you're sitting on LP 3 now.
Hunter: Yeah. I'm already getting there. I'm already like, "Mmm."
Hayls: Don’t do that.
Hunter: We got to speed it the fuck up.
Hayls: Okay. That can kind of swing me round into asking if the way that you work and write music has changed because of your condition. So in contrast to doing Stargazer and how the process went for that, has it changed now since you got diagnosed and with all of the health conditions that you have?
Hunter: Yeah. Not when I work with Austin because Austin's always so heavy-handed in Moodring that it hasn't changed that much, but instead of going for 30 days straight, we'll do two- we'll do a week here or a week there or nine days, something like that, which is even really pushing it. I'm usually pretty shot by day two, day three. Then I'm Frankenstein-ing myself to get through it and just purely running off adrenaline and kind of accepting the consequences I will deal with for pushing through. So in that case, a little bit, we just kind of have become more selfish with our time, and that goes for artists I work with as well. I've had to become much more selfish. I've got a big album I can't talk about yet, but that's a 30-day stretch in May, and I'm fucking terrified, but it's life-changing shit. So I'll find a way.
Hayls: Yes. As you always do. Yeah. I just thought maybe- so it seems like it's a more staggered approach now.
Hunter: I work in bursts now more so whereas before diagnosis, and I guess really before I moved to Georgia when I was still in Florida, I tried to write a song a day. I don't do that anymore. I don't work with as many other artists anymore either, and I miss it a lot. I miss just being around people, but if I have the energy to create, generally, it's just going to go towards my own stuff for better or worse. I mean, and that feels selfish considering how it used to be, but I don't know. Like I said, I still want to make music.
Hayls: I don't think it's selfish. You don't have the energy levels that you might have had before, and like you said, you'll have repercussions.
Hunter: Fuck, no. I was insane before. It was nuts.
Hayls: And like you said, you have repercussions from pushing yourself too hard. So you've kind of got to decide where to exert that energy.
Hunter: I used to go on Demon Time. Like I said, "YOURLIGHTFADESAWAY" was two fucking days, legitimately. And around the same time, “Remote God Seeker,” maybe a couple of weeks, “Automatic Death Protocol,” five fucking days. There's a sick-ass death metal band called Weeping that I record, and that was in that era too. And we did their LP, I think, in a week. So I used to be able to just lock the fuck in.
Hayls: Just churn it out.
Hunter: Can't do that anymore. I'm going to try it this month. We'll see what happens. Maybe I'm cooked, but yeah, I want to activate Demon Time again.
Hayls: Oh, goodness. Right, so if Hunter just goes absolutely MIA on socials, it's-
Hunter: Yeah. If it goes dark, yeah, you know what happened.
Hayls: Yeah. He's worked himself into just a massive hibernation period.
Hunter: I only laugh because it's fucking sad, but I have to joke about it outwardly because the community around it is so fucking doom and gloom and who could fucking blame them? But if I don't openly talk about it and laugh, it's like, yeah.
Hayls: You're going to be miserable about it and cry.
Hunter: Yeah. Exactly. It's got to be comical for me.
Hayls: Yeah. For you, but obviously, if other people come in and- that's the same with a lot of things, though like,“We can make jokes.”
Hunter: Yeah. If my friends fuck with me about it, it's funny.
Hayls: Yeah. But if strangers on the internet, that's what I'm saying.
Hunter: It depends. If it's funny, I'm down. Yeah. If they're funny, there's a difference between being funny and just-
Hayls: And just being a dick.
Hunter: Yeah. You can be a dick and still be funny. I was talking shit to Colter [Adams] downstairs the other night. I was like, "I'm going to beat your ass." He was like, "You're about to die." And it was the funniest fucking thing I ever heard.
Hayls: Oh, goodness.
Hunter: So yeah, it's not a big deal.
Hayls: Oh, God. Fucking hell, alright. Threw me off with that one. Fuck you. Listen, I told you you were top of my list for interviewing, that doesn't mean I want to sit here and start crying.
Hunter: Don't cry. It's fine.
Hayls: Hey, I'm sensitive.
Hunter: Believe me. I'm chilling.
Hayls: Yeah. That's got nothing to do with me. You could be chilling that's fine.
Hunter: I wrote an album about hoping to, so.
Hayls: Yeah. I know. You know it makes me cry. I'm a sensitive girl.
Hunter: I'm not allowed to talk about it in the house anymore.
Hayls: No?
Hunter: Yeah, the idea or what I'm actually saying, I'm not allowed to talk about it anymore.
Hayls: It's not because I don't want to hear- obviously no, I obviously don't want to hear that. You don't want to hear that an artist that obviously, you are inspiring. I tell you this at every chance that I get. You're absolutely commendable.
Hunter: I appreciate it.
Hayls: And I can't put into words how amazing I think you are as a person and as a musician and what you do and what you've had to deal with while still doing that to the level that you've done it. So of course, I don't then want to sit here and hear all these words about you wanting to do these things because I'm just like, "Fuck."
Hunter: Well, I'm not saying I'm going to do it. It might just happen.
Hayls: Yeah. It also might. Yes.
Hunter: Here's the thing about “Death Fetish,” and here's the thing about me. The sicker I get, the more used to my own fragile mortality I get. So I used to be so fucking scared of death, so much health anxiety, so much just anxiety in general. I'd always be checking my pulse, and when I used to smoke weed, I'd be so paranoid, like, "Oh, I'm going to have a fucking heart attack." So I had to stop smoking weed, and I miss weed so much. But as the span of three years has happened, I've gotten so used to it that for me, it's common speak. It's not even attention-seeking or anything. I'm just saying what's on my mind, and I could vocalize, like, "I feel XYZ," but to someone who's not used to that, they're like, "What the fuck?" And I don't mean it any way. I've always really talked about it super casually, I mean, even more casually now. So I definitely have friends who don't want to hear that shit, and I try to be respectful of it because they don't tolerate it well or because of traumas of their own. But yeah, it's just kind of casual. I think I really want the album to make everyone go look in the mirror and go, "Oh, shit. Life is fleeting. Maybe I should do something with mine."
Hayls: Yeah. I think it was more just so after because obviously, I spoke to you when Half-Life came out because I was trying to decipher those lyrics. Yeah. Because I was like, "Hold on. Okay. I think this is what you're saying." And then we put the two and two together, and I was like, "Ah, right. Okay." And then that's when you told me the whole album's pretty grim.
Hunter: That section in Half-Life, you're referencing in particular, is pretty rough.
Hayls: "Paint the walls inside my room, like the roses left for you" because then it kind of goes back to “Remove the red,” because I was like, "Is red blood? Remove it? Get it out?"
Hunter: It’s brain matter.
Hayls: See? So I remember I sat there, and I was trying to figure that out. I was like, "Why am I trying to figure this out? I didn't fucking write it. I'm just going to go pester Hunter."
Hunter: Well, the next lyric is, "It's my head that you're breathing." It's talking about a cleanup crew or someone who finds you, physically breathing in your essence. Yeah. It's rough. That's an Austin line, by the way. He had that fucking diabolical one. I was like, "Damn, bro."
Hayls: That's-
Hunter: Fuck it. Put it on the track.
Hayls: Great. Great way of having an analogy, painting bedroom walls and stuff. It was one of those ones that piqued my attention, and I was like, "Ah, figure out what that is." That's when you told me that the whole album's pretty grim, and there's a lot of references to suicide and death. And then only upon, obviously, listening to it, it was kind of like that, "I knew you were sick. I knew you were ill, and I know what ME/CFS is."
Hunter: People overseas know a lot more about it or are more aware of it. I've noticed that a lot. There's still a bit there's still a really bad stigma on it still, which is crazy. You guys call it yuppie flu.
Hayls: Don't fucking put me into that. I don't- I've never heard of that before in my life.
Hunter: If someone ever says it to me, I'll fucking- I'm going to do something. We ain't going to say here.
Hayls: What the? I have never heard of that.
Hunter: I'm going to do nothing.
Hayls: Yeah. Nothing.
Hunter: Yeah. It's fucking crazy.
Hayls: That's bizarre. I've never heard of that. I know someone who had it, but it was a very, very mild case of it when she was a lot younger, like early teenager.
Hunter: Yeah if you get it when you're a lot younger, your chances of recovery are way better.
Hayls: Yeah. I think she still has- not parts of it, but she still suffers more so in certain areas of life than other people do who have not had that. For the most part, she's not- you wouldn't say that she's fully in that anymore.
Hunter: That's good.
Hayls: Pretty clued up on it from what I know, and I was like, "Oh, no. No. I do know what that is because I have a chronic health condition as well." So it's one of those things that kind of it comes into your reading when you're researching your own. It’s just like, "Oh, maybe look at this one." I'm like, "Nah."
Hunter: Avoid that one. Yeah. Avoid that one because generally, when you have that one, you have all the other ones too.
Hayls: I've just got a shopping list of things.
Hunter: When you try to tell someone, you're like, "Oh, yeah. I have this. I have POTS, I have fibro, I have EDS." You just name them off. They're like, "What the fuck did you do?" The odds of that are so-
Hayls: But they're those ones that kind of tend to be comorbid with each other.
Hunter: They mimic each other.
Hayls: Yeah. And there is a lot of overlap. So it was kind of after I'd listened to the full album, it drove home what maybe myself and possibly other people are slightly in denial of, so how bad it has actually been for you.
Hunter: Hell. I wish we had more pictures of when we were working on the record. There was times where I'd be on the ground with a face mask on and ice all over my body, and the amount of drugs I had to take to get through that. I mean, Austin saw it with his own eyes. My partner saw it. Brandan [Lopez] sees it all the time, my partner in the studio and he made a comment the other day. He was like, "You're much worse than you were." And I was like, "Fuck." It's like running out of mana. It's weird. It's very, very weird. Every crash is a chink in your armor. It's very bizarre. What's funny is, making the record, I was way healthier then.
Hayls: So if you were to do it now, it would probably be quite different.
Hunter: Be way worse. It would just be droning and moaning.
Hayls: Then people really would compare you to Deftones.
Hunter: They would love it.
Hayls: “They've channelled their inner Deftones, I love this.”
Hunter: Yeah. Jesus fuck.
Hayls: I think [for] a lot of people, it's going to kind of drive that [Hunter’s illness] home on full listen of this album.
Hunter: I mean, even if it doesn't, I think that they can take away whatever they want from the songs. It can be applicable to anyone's life still. So it's not like I said, "My name is Hunter Young, and this song only applies to me specifically. I have this fucking disease, and all this can be about. Fuck you." So I think it's still relatable in a sense. You can be like, "Oh, man." You can make whatever the songs you want them to be about. I know what it's about to me, but I still want people to make their own decisions.
Hayls: Yeah. Like you said, it can be relatable to other people who don't have the exact same chronic illness as you or the same disease as you, that it could probably apply to so many people who've probably had those same thoughts.
Hunter: They can just be sad as fuck or going through a breakup or something.
Hayls: But I think it's more for those people who do know you beyond just as Hunter Moodring.
Hunter: If you know you know type record, Moodring in general is just kind of a if you know you know band. It's funny because I feel like so many more people know about it than that talk about it, but it's a band's band. When I talk to much larger bands, they're like, "I fucking love Moodring.” Can you fucking post it, please? I got to eat. But yeah, it's always been a band's band, and I think as the longer it's around, it gets less accessible.
Hayls: Talking about your health and the way that you wrote this album, was there any point that you found it difficult to translate what was going on up here [mentally] into song?
Hunter: I just have so much fucking brain fog in general. I have to think so much when forming a sentence now, and I want to still sound literate. Being from the South [of America] off rip doesn't help that, and when you combine those things, talking is really fucking hard, and then writing it on paper and then singing it is really fucking hard.
I think maybe one of the ones we struggled with and had to end up making it kind of fun I don't know when this [interview] comes out, but the song - when this will come out - but the song Oxidized is not about me, but it's about my partner having to deal with the fucking bullshit of dealing with me on a day-to-day basis and what that looks like for her. And on the song, I'm very clearly saying, "If I knew this would end up like this, I would have never signed you up for this or continued to build this life around this bullshit I'm dealing with because it's unfair to you. And I can tell that it's very hard on you, and I want you to have a better life." But because it was hard, we had to- maybe I inserted new metal tropes in it. There's little things here and there that pull the seriousness out of it, but then bring it back in instead of just being this, I don't know, just really fucking sad song about someone else dealing with a situation. So maybe that's an example. I cannot listen to the song Coldmetalkiss.
Hayls: Yeah, it's a tough one.
Hunter: Yeah. Again, Maddie, Iris wrote with Austin and I on that song, and I was like, "Ah." She put it elegantly, and now it hurts me.
Hayls: Do you know you've just answered three questions in one?
Hunter: Let's go.
Hayls: You've just answered three that I wanted to ask.
Hunter: Knock ‘em out.
Hayls: Hunter knows what I'm going to ask before I even fucking ask it. They kind of track, though, that translating that and putting that into a song that is maybe not as dark as you wanted to go originally. There's probably some barriers towards that. “How can I put this into music?”
Hunter: It's also about someone else, so I was trying to be conscious of how they would feel when they heard it as much as I could be. She still hates the song, but not because it's not good. She's like, "What the fuck? This is sad as shit." So if I would have went 100 instead of 75, I don't know.
Hayls: God, I can't imagine- because that is a sad one and that is literally one of the things I wanted to ask was, “Oxidized, is it about your partner?” And yeah. Oh, fuck, I fucking- Oh, I'm so good at deciphering sometimes. Ah, that one's got me. Fuck you.
Hunter: Reading is crazy. I don't think it's- I don't think that album is shrouded in much mystery I kind of just say what I'm saying.
Hayls: Yeah but there's going to be people that are like, "Oh, what the fuck is this about?"
Hunter: I don't write metaphorically.
Hayls: “Paint the walls inside my room.”
Hunter: I'm saying there's going to be fucking blood on the walls. There's not that much to decipher.
Hayls: There could be someone out there who literally just takes that as, “They're just painting.”
Hunter: Read a book.
Hayls: I don't even need to ask that then. I now know that Oxidized is- who that's about. I remember I was like, "Do I want to ask that one?" Because if you turn around and say-
Hunter: No, it’s okay.
Hayls: "No, no, no, no, no." I meant, "Do I want to ask that?" Because if you turn around and say yes and kind of go into that, that's probably when I'm going to start blubbing. And I almost did just there. I had to hold that in. I was like, "I fucking knew it."
Hunter: That's one of the last songs written on the record, so.
Hayls: Was it?
Hunter: Yeah. I mean, there's so much me, I on it. I wanted to think about how it affected the other people around me. And obviously, that's the person who has to deal with it from the moment I wake up until they see me again the next day, so.
Hayls: That's a tough one.
Hunter: Banger, though.
Hayls: It is a really good song. They're all fucking really good songs.
Hunter: That one, it's in my top two.
Hayls: I remember you saying that that one is and Gunplay.
Hunter: Gunplay, yeah. There's clearly a thing I like. It's not the thing other people like, so.
Hayls: Here we go. While we're on the topic of that, do you want to try and guess what my- you know what my first and third [favourite songs] are. Do you want to try and guess what the second one is? You've got them down. You know what the-
Hunter: First and third?
Hayls: Yeah, first is sickf_ck.
Hunter: sickf_ck, Die Slow.
Hayls: No. You think that just because it makes me cry.
Hunter: You brought it up.
Hayls: Yeah because it makes me cry.
Hunter: Die Slow is not in the top three?
Hayls: No.
Hunter: I figured- It's not STFA?
Hayls: No, that's third. You knew that one.
Hunter: I'm missing the middle one.
Hayls: Yeah.
Hunter: Half-Life?
Hayls: I do think that is the best single, but obviously, you're now about to release Gunplay as a single, so that-
Hunter: Is Gunplay better than Half-Life?
Hayls: Yeah. Half-Life is just- that's not number two, though. You're still wrong.
Hunter: What? It's bleed enough?.
Hayls: Yes.
Hunter: I knew it was going to be one of the more metalcorey ones. I knew it was going to be.
Hayls: Derogatory. Yeah.
Hunter: I've seen your interactions on Twitter enough to know that it was going to be that way. Funny enough, we weren't making that song thinking like, "Oh, yeah. It's got to be metalcore adjacent." We were thinking Fear Factory. So vocal delivery, I was like, "What would Max Cavalera sound like?" And for those of your listeners who don't know who that is because they probably don't, that is the old singer of Sepultura, Soulfly, Go Ahead and Die, many bands Nail Bomb. I was like, "What would he sound like if he was a white boy from the South and not a beautiful Brazilian man?" So yeah. We focus a lot on taking on characters on the record versus just it being, "Oh, Hunter singing."
Hayls: Hunter's singing a lot better now. Hunter's hitting notes and shit.
Hunter: Yeah. Thank God.
Hayls: You even said this yourself. It was only once you were recorded for “YOURLIGHTFADESAWAY” that you actually started hitting notes. You stopped being scared of singing.
Hunter: I started working with Maddie again, Iris again. She's very influential in my life when Moodring was touring because I would be on tour with these bands and couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't. And I was like, "Damn, they're really fucking good, and I'm not." I was like, "We're definitely a vibe, but not the vibe these people want." I was like, "I want to fucking sing." And after working with her, it turns out I was never actually bad, I was just scared and too tense. So I taught myself how to turn tension into a weapon versus something that's hindering me. So that's cool. I would not have figured that out without her, though. How to perform versus just sing.
Hayls: It's just like having a sing-along in your car to one of your favourite tracks to actually delivering something with meaning.
Hunter: Serving the song, whether it's singing, screaming, in between. When I got better at singing, I got better at screaming as well. It was just kind of like, "Here we go."
Hayls: But yeah. You're doing shit on this album that we've not heard before, or at least not to this extent. I think I said this in STFA, the tone in your voice in STFA, I don't think we've heard- or is it sickf_ck? It's one of the S's.
Hunter: Are we talking about- okay. Are you talking about singing or heavy vocals?
Hayls: No, heavies.
Hunter: That thing I'm doing on sickf_ck is the same thing I'm doing on Bleed Enough?. That's new. That's the voice I referenced earlier. Austin and I call him Bert.
Hayls: Oh, okay.
Hunter: So there's Bert who has a little more tone, sounds like a giant man, and then Max is a little more actually screaming. So he'll [Austin] tell me what voice to use, and we'll whip out characters now.
Hayls: That's sick. I'm going to relisten now and be like, "Oh, look. There's Max, and there's Bert."
Hunter: Bert is a reference to Bert and Cybele from Fear Factory, and Max is obviously Max Cavalera. And then there's the almost fake British goth voice thing that I started doing on this record too that's heavily inspired by Jay Gordon from Orgy. I don't know what we call that one. I say, "Do you want me to be,” I say, “Do you want me to be British?” and he [Austin] knows what I'm talking about.
Hayls: You can definitely tell that you've, as you would put it, you've put your whole pussy into this album.
Hunter: Whole pussy.
Hayls: Some of the shit when I first heard this on first listen, it's like, "What? It's a whole new version of Hunter's vocals,” and then you've got to remember that it's been three years since we've heard you.
Hunter: Yeah and these motherfuckers want me to go back to just fucking going [mimicking moaning].
Hayls: No. Please don't.
Hunter: What the fuck is this?
Hayls: No. Honestly, wait. If you're one of those people that's telling Hunter to go back to horny Deftones moaning, you wait until this album comes out.
Hunter: I'm not horny. I don't want to do it. I'm not. I'm fucking sick. It's the last thing I care about, so. It's as simple as that.
Hayls: Just wait until “Death Fetish” comes out. They'll forget all about those kind of vocals, and they'll be like, "No, no, no. This is where it's at."
Hunter: You think? I don't know.
Hayls: I know you're really, really sceptical about this landing with people.
Hunter: I mean, rightfully so. People deny that the pandemic happened at all. Not that I'm saying that's the absolute cause of what I'm going through, but we're so quick and so desensitized as a society that we move on from things that we don't want to acknowledge whatsoever. If I give you an album where I'm holding up a mirror to your fucking face and bleeding all over the listener, a lot of people are going to go, "Fuck this," subconsciously and that's something that I have to live with and accept is very possible. And while that bums me out a little bit, it's okay. The next one won't be like that. It might have a song or two here or there, but it's not going to be the focus.
Hayls: Because you've already got that out.
Hunter: Yeah, unless something drastic happens. If I get worse than I am now, it's going to get to the point where I can't record music. So I don't think- yeah. No. I think this is it. So this is it in terms of the songs I needed to say. I referenced it a little bit on the newer stuff, but not nearly as much. It could really be- and those could really be about anything.
Hayls: I think it'll be a case of it's going to land one of two ways. You're either going to get- you're going to get the people that know you beyond just Moodring's frontman, and they're going to hear it. They're going to hear what you're saying, and it's going to land with them, and it's going to make them feel this album. And then you're probably going to get those people that shy away from the topic of it because they're maybe not educated, they've seen fleeting posts of you saying, "Yep, I'm sick," but they're not really going to listen to the words that are coming out. They're just going to be like, "Oh, this riff's hard."
Hunter: I'm cool with that.
Hayls: I don't really see- obviously, I'm biased because I think it's a fucking fantastic album. I can't come up with, in my mind, a reason why this wouldn't land with people apart from, like you said, they just don't want to hear what you're saying because it's too hard.
Hunter: We're trying to do that. I mean, think about it. Look at all the bullshit that's happened on the fucking news the last month. Why aren't these fucking politicians being bled in the fucking streets? Because we've been so desensitized, and we're so used to this shit now. Why is it okay that the thing that I am angry and fired up about- selfishly, when you have a disease, it becomes very selfish. It's why people who are super depressed, they often feel selfish because it's all me, me, me, me. I am sad. I am this. I am that. But we are so desensitized as a society to the negatives and the evils and, I don't know, gaslighting, for lack of better words, in our fucking world that half of the fucking politicians should be fucking dragged out in the street and fucking hung, but they're not doing anything. We're used to it. Same thing goes for people who are sick.
Hayls: It's one of those things where it's like if you're the onlooker, it's easy to just kind of shut off.
Hunter: It'd be way easier too if it showed on my face more. If I had a fucking tumour growing out the side of my face like this, and I was like, "Guys, I'm sick," they'd be like, "Damn, he's sick."
Hayls: Yeah. “He's not well. We believe him.”
Hunter: I can't spend my energy being mad about shit anymore. I used to be very, very angry, especially before I was sick. I was a very angry person and was just on demon time, honestly, and being forced to get sober because of the position I'm in and stuff. I don't know. I find myself getting worked up about shit now, and I'm just like, "Man, I really don't have energy to devote to that."
Hayls: The energy that you have, you want to put it into shit that you love and that actually gives you something back.
Hunter: Exactly. I like to keep a little for myself. I got stressed out yesterday and just fell asleep. I was gone. I don't really care for negative criticisms or people overstepping boundaries or anything anymore. It doesn't really bother me. I just do my best not to give it my energy.
Hayls: Good. You got to decide where it goes and be picky with it. You absolutely can be selfish with that.
Hunter: 100%.
Hayls: It's not a bad thing at all. So again, another question that you already answered yourself. Great. Thank you. You said that coldmetalkiss is a really, really tough listen. It was really hard for you to listen back to that because it kind of made it- it's that realization of, "Fuck."
Hunter: Yeah. That was the one that made it all real for me. I had been kind of processing what I had been told by the doctor. I remember she told me, and I was like, "Well, I can still go on tour, right?" And she went, "No?" to my fucking face. I was like, "What do you mean?" And they kind of gave me some guidelines to live by because back then, I was what is considered mild, which, mild is just a funny fucking word because it's still 50% reduction of normal life. But coldmetalkiss was a song that made it that was like, "Oh, fuck. It's real." And I remember listening to it in bed and being, "I have to acknowledge that this is happening," so. And that was fucking crazy.
Hayls: Is it still kind of tough to listen to now, or?
Hunter: Yeah, I don't listen to it.
Hayls: You don't?
Hunter: No.
Hayls: It is a tough listen I'll give it that.
Hunter: I don't listen to it.
Hayls: That is a hard listen, that one.
Hunter: Ketamine is a pretty rough listen too.
Hayls: You did say that because you said that you were surprised that Die Slow makes me cry because you were like, "It's not even the worst lyrically."
Hunter: Oh, yeah I don't see it.
Hayls: It has nothing to do with the lyrics. It's more the deliverance of that one line. And I was in even- because it wasn't like I started that song, and I was like, "Oh, fuck. I can feel myself tearing up." It just got to that one scream that you did, and it's just the way that you project that, and it fucking ripped a hole in me and floodgates were open. I was like, "Right. Well, I guess we're crying at this one." And now, every single time I listen to that song, just as it's coming up, I can feel it. Yeah, floodgates are coming, and it does every single time. And it is less about the lyrics because I can totally agree that Ketamine and coldmetalkiss are the roughest lyrically. They're heartbreaking.
Hunter: Oxidized, coldmetalkiss, Ketamine, Half-Life.
Hayls: Depending on the way that you look at them, they're all pretty sad.
Hunter: Not all of them.
Hayls: They're all either sad or really grim, not upsetting, but they're very disgustingly obvious.
Hunter: Masochist [Machine} is kind of fun. I still talk about dying in it, though.
Hayls: You definitely do. I think this is what I was saying earlier, where it's going to land on some people that are just going to hear the music. Sometimes it's so easy to overlook the lyrics because of how the song sounds. Half-Life.
Hunter: It could be a breakup song. I mean, same with Oxidized. It could be like, "Oh, he wants to break up. Me too. Get out my house." So yeah. I mean, again, it's still user interpretation. I'm talking to you about it because you're asking. But if no one else asks, I'm not going to go online and be like, "Actually…”
Hayls: I had an interpretation of sickf_ck.
Hunter: Very clearly, it's just about people who chose not to believe me, and that was my outlet to be angry about.
Hayls: And it was that kind of, it reads as a, because I think maybe my problem is I read too much into shit.
Hunter: No, it's very surface level. It's not hidden with lore and shadow and mystery. It's definitely just on the nose. I'm talking my shit.
Hayls: But sickf_ck is a really cool one with how it's a conversation. It's a back and forth.
Hunter: sickf_ck and coldmetalkiss have no guitar on them at all. It's just bass.
Hayls: coldmetalkiss, I know that. I'm going to have to go back and listen to sickfck. I'm sorry, sickf_ck is just too fucking good.
Hunter: Funny song. I call someone a poor bitch on it-
Hayls: It's great. It's great, great use of words.
Hunter: -Financially and of spirit.
Hayls: I told you that that has been number one since I first listened.
Hunter: It's because it's got breakdowns.
Hayls: Fuck off. It's not just because it's got breakdowns.
Hunter: That's crazy.
Hayls: Vocally, you are very, very different on that, and it is very impressive. And then also, it's the back and forth. I think that's cool. I think that's cool as hell to be able to have two parts in it.
Hunter: Wait, and Bleed Enough? was your number two?
Hayls: Bleed Enough? is number two, yes.
Hunter: There's a trend here.
Hayls: And then STFA is three.
Hunter: There's a trend there. It's when I'm using that [Bert] voice.
Hayls: Oh.
Hunter: Boom.
Hayls: Fuck. I'm so predictable. Yeah. Okay. Fine.
Hunter: Philosophize. You picked the metalcore songs, that's crazy.
Hayls: That's not to say that there is a skippable song on this album. They're all fucking fantastic.
Hunter: STFA is my skip.
Hayls: Is your what?
Hunter: It's my skip.
Hayls: Really?
Hunter: Yeah, I love the verses. I don't know. It's too big. It's too octaney for me.
Hayls: I like it. It's just very angry.
Hunter: I'm happy if everyone else [likes it] we'd never written a big halftime chorus like that before, and we wanted to go for it. And when we wrote it, I loved it, and then as the record got more raw and kind of got more stripped back, I was like-
Hayls: Do you feel like it kind of stood out a little bit?
Hunter: Mm-hmm. But I know that'll be the more casual listener who just picks a song they like from an album, and they put it on the playlist. That's probably the one. If I wanted this album to do really well, that would have been single one.
Hayls: Which one?
Hunter: STFA. It's a clear-cut single. I intentionally made it not [a single] because I didn't, it's not what I like.
Hayls: Oh, okay. To be fair, that doesn't surprise me. You don't like many of the Moodring songs that I like.
Hunter: Self-sabotage. Oh, yeah. No, I do not.
Hayls: We're not getting into that. No, fuck off.
Hunter: Disintegrate. throw it away. Empty Me Out. Throw it away. Constrict. Throw it away.
Hayls: No. I will protect Constrict with my life.
Hunter: Fuck that song. Same problem with that song.
Hayls: What?
Hunter: It's too poppy.
Hayls: Yeah. It's just a fucking good time.
Hunter: I said this publicly too, that nu-metal is just pop music and jingles, and I said that in the What's Nu? interview. But it crosses a line. I don't know.
Hayls: It's just a good bloody time, man. I just like having a good time, and I love that chorus. I think it's great. Do I think they're standout absolute masterpieces? No. It's just a good time. It's just one that I want to put on and I just want to have a little boogie. That's what I'm going to put on.
Hunter: That's fucking wild.
Hayls: So that's why I'll protect them.
Hunter: That's funny. I loved all those songs so much at one point, and then I was just like, "Nah."
Hayls: You realised you had more in you to do better.
Hunter: I don't think they're objectively bad. It's just not what I- it's just not my personal taste. It's the same thing with the argument of what is popular in modern music. There's a lot of stuff that I don't think is objectively bad. I just don't care for it, and I'm not passionate enough about not caring for it to start shit about it. But I do agree with a lot of people that sometimes the let people enjoy things goes too far, and then we get some dog shit, so. I won't name names.
Hayls: You can tell me to fuck off because you've already told me that you don't dish out snare sauce, right? I'm not asking for actual specifics. If you can, if I'm not being too cheeky with it, the Half-Life snare in the breakdown.
Hunter: It's the same snare on the whole record.
Hayls: Yeah. But that specific part where it's stripped back, and it really just sounds like it's just a snare and.
Hunter: Alright, alright. It's a Tama Bell brass with brass hoops. It's a very expensive snare, and that's what it is.
Hayls: And that's what it is, a snare? It's not an added in computerised effect?
Hunter: I don't know what part you're talking about exactly.
Hayls: Hold on. “I can't fucking take it now.” And that's how the snare goes.
Hunter: Oh, fuck. Guitars.
Hayls: It's guitar. Fuck. I thought it was a [snare] because it sounds like you're hitting a giant metal can.
Hunter: It's guitar.
Hayls: Oh. See, I don't know none of this.
Hunter: I couldn't even fucking tell you what he [Austin] did. It was crazy. He did it in front of me, and I was like, "The fuck is that? Run it."
Hayls: Yeah. That's fucking awesome.
Hunter: Yeah, those are guitars. Most of the effects and stuff are just guitars that we did really weird shit with. The album is real. It's real amps. It's real drums. It's a human record. And at one point, it wasn't, and I was like, "Fuck this. It has to be real." So sorry, Austin, once again. The record was done, but it sounded sonically closer to- it sounded like a very rich man in LA made it, and it would have done fucking numbers on XM Radio, but that didn't translate to what I was saying. And I could not release this hyper-produced thing - that could mean fucking anything to anyone - but I couldn't release this thing with fake instruments on it that was about what I perceived to be the most human experience of all, which is dying. Because there's one thing we all have in common, and it's-
Hayls: We're all going to die. We just do it in different ways.
Hunter: Some people die cooler than other people, for sure. I want to be eaten by a shark.
Hayls: Do you actual?
Hunter: That's what I want.
Hayls: Do you reckon? No, I don't-
Hunter: You wouldn't feel it.
Hayls: Do you not think?
Hunter: No.
Hayls: But they might not get you first in the first go, and you're just floating about knowing that you've been [bitten by a shark].
Hunter: I'm picking a big shark, not a little shark. I'm picking a big-ass shark. I'm going to South Africa, I'm getting on a boat, we're travelling the water. It's a great white. I'm finding the biggest motherfucker.
Hayls: Have you seen that shark that's been alive for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years?
Hunter: Of course. The Greenland shark.
Hayls: He looks like he's just ready to-
Hunter: He old as fuck.
Hayls: He looks sick of it. I would be too if I lived on Earth, and I'd been alive for that long.
Hunter: It's fucking nuts. Yeah, sharks are my favourite thing ever.
Hayls: That's cool. So you want to be taken out by one?
Hunter: Mm-hmm.
Hayls: I guess there's a nice undertone to that in some way.
Hunter: I fuck with sharks heavy. I'm looking at one on my desk right now it's fucking weird. It's in a jar.
Hayls: Wait. Wait. Is it a real one?
Hunter: Yeah.
Hayls: You have a real shark? What, like taxi-dermied?
Hunter: Yeah, or wet specimen. It's in formaldehyde.
Hayls: Wow. He really does love sharks.
Hunter: I love sharks.
Hayls: That's cool as fuck.
Hunter: When I'm rich and I can pay people to take care of stuff, I want sharks in my house, like supervillain shit. I've already got the hairless cats, but now we need sharks.
Hayls: You can get one of those walls that's just an aquarium. It's just an aquarium wall.
Hunter: It's got to be so big because I want them to have room to swim.
Hayls: That's awesome. Okay, right, let's all get Hunter his sharks.
Hunter: I need it.
—
Hayls: Right, I've got two more. Probably pretty straightforward, and then you're free to go, my guy.
Hunter: Hell yeah.
Hayls: I know you said that we've discussed that this album's probably going to land differently with people, but if you could say that there is the biggest thing that you hope people take from this album, what is it?
Hunter: I keep changing my answer every time I get asked this question. It's going to make me look like a liar.
Hayls: This one's the real one.
Hunter: Fuck. I've said that I want people to acknowledge that sometimes people get sick and don't get better because that seems like a really hard thing for society to do. It's hard for me to get my own friends and my own family to acknowledge that. Very luckily, the guys in PSYCHO-FRAME have acknowledged it, and we've gotten to a joking point with it, right? I'd like them [the listeners] to do that. I'd also like people to just- I think I said this earlier, but acknowledge their own mortality and acknowledge how fleeting life is and a lot of the things that we're upset about don't actually fucking matter. The stuff inside of your screen that you're so pressed about means fucking nothing outside of that screen. So I would really like people to take into consideration their own time on this planet and how they want to use it.
Hayls: It's a good thing for people to take away from it.
Hunter: It's not even that negative.
Hayls: No. It's not. It doesn't necessarily have to be inherently negative. It could be a good way of looking at things. It just all depends on who that goes to.
Hunter: Yeah. For sure.
Hayls: Finishing off, coming from you, Mr. Hunter, not Moodring Hunter, just Hunter, as-
Hunter: They're the same person.
Hayls: I know they're the same person, but we're taking you away from musician Hunter for a second and [asking] the Hunter that has been dealing with a chronic illness for the past few years.
Is there anything that you wish someone had told you or said to you either pre or post-diagnosis that you want other people, maybe who are going through the same or very similar or even not similar at all? Is there anything that you wish you had been told that you want to tell other people?
Hunter: I was told. I just didn't listen. I was told over and over again to stop what you're fucking doing, to pace, to slow the fuck down, listen to your body, to do all that. And then even starting in 2023, I was like, "Okay. After I'm done with this one, I'll take a break." It's fucking 2026. I have not done it. I've made myself too sick to work many times, and I know I'm pissing off people in my shoes right now.
It's so fucking hard because I was given, not the keys to get better, but the keys to maintain, essentially. But that life looks so much different. And from knowing how my life used to be and how active it was and actually being able to be involved in a scene, which I miss a lot, and help bring up younger bands and fucking book shows, promote shows, tour, the whole nine yards, play guitar for fun. Fuck. God damn. I miss that a lot. I could still do most of those things when I originally got sick. I just couldn't afford for someone else to get me more sick. Because of my inability to slow down, I made myself way more sick. I wish that I would have had the wherewithal and the mental toughness to actually do what I said I was going to do versus continue to push through. But now I feel like it's too late.
Hayls: Do you think it is?
Hunter: Yeah. I don't think I'll ever be back to where I was in 2023 or before. I mean, it's pretty improbable, honestly. Science shows, not being a pessimist. That's just what it is.
Hayls: Yeah because I think you said originally, recovery rate is 5%.
Hunter: 5%. There are people who just wake up, and they're like, "Shit. That sucked. I'm back." But it's pretty fucking rare. I would seriously trade a fucking arm and a leg to go back to how I was in 2023, though, because now compared to then, it was so much better. I would have said no to more stuff. And my life is better in a lot of ways. I'm not wondering where my next meal is coming from. That was the first year I went, "Oh, fuck. I can pay my bills from music." And it took until I was almost 30, and I'd been doing it since I was 12 years old. But simultaneously, yeah, it’s not I guess I wish anyone told me anything. I just wish I would have had the respect for myself to fucking listen.
Hayls: You wish you'd been a little bit more selfish and more, listen to what you were told. Less, not ignorant, but less in denial.
Hunter: I still deal with denial all the time. We could be in the middle of working on a record now, and I'll go downstairs and be like, "I don't even think I'm fucking sick anymore." And then it's like, "Sike, bitch." Not instantly, but generally upon awaking. Every time I've ever had that thought, it's like the universe has been like, "Watch this."
Hayls: So I guess that could kind of translate to just listen to your body. If you're going through a chronic health condition, listen to it. You know it better than really anyone else does. You'll probably start to learn the signs. Listen to when it's telling you to slow down.
Hunter: Yeah. I tell people who hit me up with similar stuff all the time. I'm like, "Don't do that. You're going to make yourself more sick." And meanwhile, I'm not listening to that advice at all, so it's a bit hypocritical.
Hayls: It is a bit hypocritical, but also you also know very much first-hand.
Hunter: Oh, I only have myself to blame. I'll only have myself to blame because I could have said no.
Hayls: You've just got too much to give, Hunter.
Hunter: I'm trying to enjoy something, trying to feel, so.
Hayls: We love that. We don't love losing Hunter for a couple of days because he's been wiped out.
Hunter: A couple of days is easy, it's when it's months and weeks.
Hayls: That fucking wipe out is rough.
Hunter: That happens.
Hayls: Yeah.
Hunter: Bleak.
Hayls: I know. But I did it I finally got [to interview] Hunter.
Hunter: I did it.
Pre-save and listen to “Death Fetish” HERE: Apple Music/Spotify - Out in full everywhere on 27th March!