meet johnny hunter

Sydney post-punk rockers Johnny Hunter first emerged on the music scene in 2018 after four mates got together in Wollongong. In just two years, the group which consists of Gerry Thompson on drums, Xander Burgess on guitar, bass guitarist Nick Cerone and vocalist Nick Hutt, have quickly become known as one of Sydney’s most iconic punk-rock live acts. We spoke to the band’s vocalist, Nick Hutt, ahead of the release of their brand new EP Early Trauma about some of the band’s most memorable performances, what it’s like to be a musician in the midst of a global pandemic, playing at Yours and Owls and what we can expect from their new music.

Words Emma Smith

Johnny Hunter kicked off in 2018 – how long have you all known each other, and how did you meet?
We’ve known each other for roughly five years. I met Xander on a drunken night out at the University of Wollongong. I could hear him playing guitar and I had all this poetry and was hellbent on showing someone. And then I kind of stormed in and he was playing. I started laying some stuff down, and we got on at first glance. Gerry was in a few bands in Wollongong and he knew about a couple of projects we were in, and then came to us almost as a fan. We were like, “Do you want to start playing drums?” So that’s how we met Gerry. And then Nick Cerone, I met at a 21st birthday. Everyone knew Cerone except me. Each of us had heard so much about each other from different friendship circles and eventually we met. There was a moment in 2015/16 where we were all at a party and it was funny at the time to do Boston accents. So we had this huge fight in the middle of the party and the music stopped, and we were all screaming in Boston accents – it was a huge joke, and we’ve been friends ever since.

Since 2018 Johnny Hunter has gained serious momentum – performing alongside incredible talent such as The Saboteurs, Kirin J Callinan and City Calm Down, featuring on popular festival line-ups such as Yours and Owls, Mountain Sounds and Big Sounds, and being named triple j’s Unearthed Feature Artist earlier this year. What would you say has been the ultimate career highlight and why?
I’d say playing with Jack White at Sydney’s Big Top. Performing with someone like Jack White in such a big space was incredible. They had no phones allowed in the gig, so it was really surreal playing to people who just had to sit there and stare at you. I had never experienced that before – we were so used to the phones being up. The phones being up kind of gives you that barrier where you’re like, ‘Okay they’re not really looking at me, that’s cool, this is cool.’ But when I was performing up there, there were so many eyes on us and it was crazy. I think that’s definitely been one of the highlights so far.

What was it like playing at Yours and Owls? Any highlights from the festival?
Yours and Owls was great. We went with a whole group and got a big old mansion in Stanwell Tops and it was a really, really fun house. We would catch a party taxi in every time we needed to play. We had always had this thing about playing at Yours and Owls because we all first met in Wollongong. We all said we 100 per cent have to play Yours and Owls in the first two years of the band being around, and we did! The whole festival was such a highlight for us – Yours and Owls can really put on a good show.

Johnny Hunter is currently renowned for being one of Sydney’s most iconic punk-rock live acts. What would you say sets your live performances apart from other bands who play live in the same genre?
That’s a very flattering question. We just give 100 per cent when we go on stage. When we first started, we all were studying famous bands and how they moved on stage and live performances in the 80s, 90s and 2000s. It was about getting in touch with how we could unlock that within ourselves, and we are definitely still learning. I think we could be way better. But yeah, I think we really just looked at what other people were doing back in the day and kind of took that energy to the stage.

Is there a certain gig that stands out as being the most memorable for you all? If so why?
I’d say Bad Friday, because we got to play in Sydney’s Inner West home festival, which is where all our friends are from. It’s where we go to work and where we go out. Playing at Laneway and having the whole concert packed out, playing at the same time as Jungle with both stages going off was just an incredible experience. We had a lot of fun.

What would you say is the best and worst part of touring?
The best part is travelling to all the different places in Australia, and meeting all the new people and making friends, meeting new fans. It’s really cool when you go somewhere like Adelaide or Perth and someone comes up to you and asks you to sign a vinyl for them. That’s really special. I’d say the worst part is the 5am flights, and the fact that for some reason we think we can stay up late and have a good time at each show – it just ends up killing us. And we’ll keep doing it. We lack the discipline so far.

The music industry has undoubtedly been one of the hardest hit industries as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. How did the band cope with these changes? Has the period of isolation pushed you to produce music you otherwise wouldn’t have had time for?
What a time it is to be a musician! When we were in full-on lockdown where we couldn’t go anywhere but the shops, that meant we couldn’t meet up and produce and also because we didn’t have any money coming in, we didn’t have any money to spend on rehearsal space. But we made a really, really conscious effort to keep reading and listening to music and keep writing, and it’s actually become pretty productive for us… almost a little bit of a blessing in disguise.

Since concerts have been off the cards, Johnny Hunter took to Facebook to live stream a concert, fostering a “pay what you can” initiative. Can you tell us about that experience?
A great company called Create or Die in Sydney's Inner West reached out and asked us if we wanted to participate in a live stream. We were originally very against the live stream thing because it’s not as good as a live show. To experience the band, you really need to be in the mosh exchanging sweat with tears and blood and beer and whatever else. But yeah, we did it with them and it was a really good experience. There were so many professionals involved, and I got to design the sets, so I put some cool Roman pillars up and all these floating heads. It turned out pretty well.

How would you describe your new EP, Early Trauma?
The EP is a collection of five songs that are dedicated to our own wasted youth. It’s like a reflection on missed opportunities and past decisions that have made us who we are today.

What is the creative process like when writing?
It happens very organically. A member of the band will be feeling a riff or feeling a song and we’ll kind of take it to the jam room and we’ll just work on it. It is very organic; we don’t ever sit in a room and say, “okay lets’ write a song”.

What advice do you have for aspiring musicians who are trying to get involved in the music scene?
I’d say start your own scene and give people reason to turn their heads – that’s how we started. We came from Wollongong and no-one was really having us on any bills or bars or anything, so we ended up making our own record label as a means to put on events at pubs. Eventually, when we felt the time was right, a gig came along and we put Johnny Hunter on the bill. We kind of made our own scene, and that’s how we ended up in the Sydney music scene, I guess.

Johnny Hunter is set to perform at La La La’s in Wollongong on the November 21. What can fans expect at this gig?
It’s hard to say, to be honest, it might not even go ahead. If it does, expect all the new songs, expect some old classics as well and expect a raucous live show because we are just chomping at the bit to get out there!