I got to catch up with a very good friend of mine from college to learn about Hunt Club! Knowing Blake at USC, it was inevitable he would start recording on his own, and alas, he and Robbie made Hunt Club. I was fascinated when he began telling me about the origin story of their new single, Edith. Instead of me telling you their story, here is Blake and Robbie to share with you how they began Hunt Club and how Edith came about!
Before we start - we wanna say, welcome to the club!!!!! We are SO glad you’re here!
We are Hunt Club, made up by Robbie and Blake, a music duo on a mission to change the way music is felt and shared.
This may come as a surprise to some, but making the best-sounding music possible is technically not our ultimate goal (although it is a top priority). We get much more joy from immersing our audience in our world, transporting them via unique sonics, memorable imagery, and vivid storytelling. We hope our listeners can close their eyes and activate their imaginations when hearing our music.
At heart, we’re two goofy kids from Southern California who have never been satisfied doing just one thing. Before we were Hunt Club, creating our own music and videos, we were a clothing company called Enoch, embroidering and screen-printing hoodies in our garage. Before Enoch, we were high schoolers in the same art class striving to create visuals no one had ever seen, and even before that we were five-year-olds attending the same AYSO summer camps. The trust and understanding runs deep, and now more than ever it feels like we’re doing what we love with the people we love.
We’re so FREAKING hyped for you to hear our upcoming single, Edith! I can’t believe it’s been almost 2 whole years since we wrote it on Robbie’s backyard patio. We didn’t have a mic with us so all of the vocals you hear in the final mix + master were recorded on an iPhone 7 😎. The story behind this one is actually crazy…
Lemme set the scene: it was a sunny afternoon on Saturday, June 12th, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. Our crew of about 8 friends decided to play some volleyball in a big open field by USC. We ended up just getting in a big circle and peppering the ball around as many times as we could without it dropping.
While we were playing, we noticed that there was this girl who kept eyeing us off to the side of the field. She was with some dude, with a HUGE, super furry dog. She seemed like she low-key wanted to play, so obviously we shouted “come and play!” but she didn't want to leave her male friend/ dog… so we kept rallying until all of the sudden, one of us accidentally knocked the ball off in the distance. I start running to go retrieve it, but immediately I see the girl out of the corner of my eye sprinting towards the ball at break-neck speed. She bumps it back to the group– the ball is still live! Everyone in the circle is going CRAZY. The girl immediately joins up with us and we're so ecstatic that she decided to hang! She introduced herself as Edie, grinning from ear-to-ear, and said that she used to play volleyball in high school.
We played with her for what felt like hours. One of our friends who was with us, Paul, was immediately enamored with her. He was running around with his shirt off, doing coordinated plays with the other guys, really trying to get her attention, and it kinda seemed like it was working, emphasis on the kinda! I have no idea how long it had been, but the sun was almost down and it was getting hard to see the ball, so we decided to call it for the night. Edie said bye and went to meet up with that dude from earlier, but Paul didn’t want to let his chance to talk to her slip by. He marched over to them and asked if he could get her number and if they could maybe grab coffee sometime, but she said that she had a boyfriend… aww :( respect, though. We wished her well, and truly never saw her again…
The next morning Blake woke up inspired. He paraded around the house saying “We gotta write this song from the perspective of Paul!” We spent the rest of the day trying to come up with some chords on guitar/ some drum loops for the song, but it wasn’t until a few days later that we improvised the chorus together sitting on Robbie’s outdoor furniture. Here’s that audio file:
Edith Demo version: New Recording 1482.m4a
It’s just improvised nonsense, but it maps out most of the melody for the final version.
We also decided to change the name from Edie to Edith to protect her identity, but also we literally just told you the exact story so yeah that whole identity protection thing is nullified. Haha lo siento.
About a month later, we realized summer was coming to a close: all of our friends were going back to different colleges (including us), so we had to make the most of our time together. We felt like Edith was gonna be a really special song, so Blake and Robbie got together on Sunday, August 8th, planned and prepped an Edith music video concept for 5 more days, and then shot it all on Friday, August 13th. That shoot day was probably the most fun we’ve ever had doing anything creative like ever: we snuck onto the grounds of some kinda monastery to shoot some of the scenes, as well as decorated the inside of our garage with streamers to look like a 60's high school prom band. We recount those memories so fondly!!!!
Now you might be thinking, what took you so long to release it?! We became SO enveloped in the visual translation of our music that we attempted to create a 20 minute short film that incorporated all of the music for our EP, as well as a unique plot that we plan to continue into future projects. Because Blake and Robbie go to school on opposite sides of the country, and could only film during Thanksgiving, winter, spring, and summer breaks, it took 8 months to film! Nonetheless, we are so proud of the final work and are SO excited to share it with you!!
We’ll end this blog the same way we started. Welcome to the club, stay for as long as you would like <3
