The Sit Down with The Hunter Brothers
On November 7th, Saskatchewan’s Hunter Brothers returned with their new EP All Kinds Of Country. The family 5-piece have become one of Canada’s most dynamic country acts, with over 90 million streams, multiple CCMA and JUNO nominations, and Gold-certified hits including “Lost,” “Born and Raised,” and “Those Were the Nights.” Returning with their first new release since 2023, the brothers have released the EP just as they head out for the second leg of their Homegrown Nights Tour and we sat down with Ty just before the release o find out more.
Hey, how are you?
Doing very well, thank you.
I’ve been looking forward to this one because I don't get to talk to many Saskatchewan artists. I think you are about the third or fourth we’ve spoken with!
I mean, it is a low-populated location in the world, so it's probably one of the reasons, but it’s a pleasure to talk.
You're also going to have heard of my random Saskatchewan place because, as a kid, I used to go on holiday to Melville.
Whoa, why?
My great aunt and uncle lived in Melville! A ballpark there is named after Bob.
Very cool. Well, actually, my second oldest brother Dusty, he played hockey in Melville for the Millionaires for years. Actually, some of my favourite people live in Melville, so that's wild because today I was having a conversation with someone at the coffee shop and all these people were coming in, and they were recognizing each other from the past in different locations, and a couple of us were talking about these towns—these foreign towns in Saskatchewan—that we had never heard of, like literally asking, "How do you spell that? We don't even know." There's these little hamlets and little places that you don't know exist, and there's tons of them. It's bizarre.
All I can remember as a kid is just driving for hours and seeing nothing, and then suddenly this little town appears, and it's got the ice rink, the ballparks, and all that kind of stuff going on.
Right, and then you see the next town, and it's named after a body part or something, but I don't think it was meant to be because it's spelled differently!
You guys are towards the Alberta side of the state, is that right?
We're, yeah, like an hour and a half from the Alberta border, so we definitely are the other side of the equation!
Hey, how are you?
Doing very well, thank you.
I’ve been looking forward to this one because I don't get to talk to many Saskatchewan artists. I think you are about the third or fourth we’ve spoken with!
I mean, it is a low-populated location in the world, so it's probably one of the reasons, but it’s a pleasure to talk.
You're also going to have heard of my random Saskatchewan place because, as a kid, I used to go on holiday to Melville.
Whoa, why?
My great aunt and uncle lived in Melville! A ballpark there is named after Bob.
Very cool. Well, actually, my second oldest brother Dusty, he played hockey in Melville for the Millionaires for years. Actually, some of my favourite people live in Melville, so that's wild because today I was having a conversation with someone at the coffee shop and all these people were coming in, and they were recognizing each other from the past in different locations, and a couple of us were talking about these towns—these foreign towns in Saskatchewan—that we had never heard of, like literally asking, "How do you spell that? We don't even know." There's these little hamlets and little places that you don't know exist, and there's tons of them. It's bizarre.
All I can remember as a kid is just driving for hours and seeing nothing, and then suddenly this little town appears, and it's got the ice rink, the ballparks, and all that kind of stuff going on.
Right, and then you see the next town, and it's named after a body part or something, but I don't think it was meant to be because it's spelled differently!
You guys are towards the Alberta side of the state, is that right?
We're, yeah, like an hour and a half from the Alberta border, so we definitely are the other side of the equation!
You have new music coming out, and it's your first full release since 2023. How excited are you guys to have this release coming?
It's super exciting. Anytime you get to release new music, it just feels like it's a chapter of your life that's being uncovered and unveiled; especially because you've worked towards it for a period of time. Obviously, you don't just create a song and release it the next day. Nowadays, people are moving quicker than they have before just because of modern technology, but it feels like you've poured your heart and soul into something for a period of time, and you've marinated a big juicy steak, and now it's like, here, we're serving it on the platter, and you're gonna see if people actually enjoy it or not. But it's a part of you. Regardless of what the public reception is, it's a part of your life and of your story, and that's a personal, relatable point in your life wrapped up in this artistic package. I think it's a really neat opportunity anytime you get to release new music, for sure.
You've packed it as a six-track EP. Did you always plan to do an EP this time around rather than go into a full-length album?
There are actually more songs that are going to be following it. A lot of things come down to timing, and there's a lot of pivoting in the industry itself. We knew that we were going to be touring our second leg of the Homegrown Nights tour in November, and we had this many songs ready and prepared, and we knew that there were more pieces of the story. But at the same time, there's no one-size-fits-all or this-is-the-way-you-have-to-release-music approach. You can release things once every four weeks now if you want. I think, as a whole, when you look at these songs, they work together, but then there are these few pieces to the puzzle that are still to be added. We have a tour that wound up in the middle, and it's good to release music around that time. It's actually being released the day that we're starting the tour.
Was that always the plan to release it on the first day of that second leg?
I wouldn't say that at the inception of the album, that was the idea, like, "Wow, we're gonna make this project, and it's gonna come out when we sing in Ontario on this day." That wasn't really the conversation. It was more, you're making music, and then all of a sudden you see how it can be threaded together in a creative type of way. There are times that you work back from a very specific goal, and you can see the vision and exactly what it is that you're making, and other times you'll write a song, and it's like it comes out of thin air, and that ends up being the song that people resonate more with because it wasn't something that you tried to pre-package. Instead, it was something that hit you at the time. And so, I think that's what's really powerful about artistry and creativity—it just tends to happen differently at different times.
With going out on the road, is it going to be a chance to see how fans take to songs that you might not have expected them to take to live?
In this case, we did actually perform some of the songs earlier on in the year in the first leg of the tour. We tested out some of the songs and then through festival season, so we have an idea already of what was resonating with people in a live audience. Sometimes what resonates in a live audience doesn't necessarily always translate to what they're listening to in the car, though, as each song has its own identity. The tracks coming out definitely resonated with people live over the course of the summer, so I'm excited for people to hear them on the record.
It's super exciting. Anytime you get to release new music, it just feels like it's a chapter of your life that's being uncovered and unveiled; especially because you've worked towards it for a period of time. Obviously, you don't just create a song and release it the next day. Nowadays, people are moving quicker than they have before just because of modern technology, but it feels like you've poured your heart and soul into something for a period of time, and you've marinated a big juicy steak, and now it's like, here, we're serving it on the platter, and you're gonna see if people actually enjoy it or not. But it's a part of you. Regardless of what the public reception is, it's a part of your life and of your story, and that's a personal, relatable point in your life wrapped up in this artistic package. I think it's a really neat opportunity anytime you get to release new music, for sure.
You've packed it as a six-track EP. Did you always plan to do an EP this time around rather than go into a full-length album?
There are actually more songs that are going to be following it. A lot of things come down to timing, and there's a lot of pivoting in the industry itself. We knew that we were going to be touring our second leg of the Homegrown Nights tour in November, and we had this many songs ready and prepared, and we knew that there were more pieces of the story. But at the same time, there's no one-size-fits-all or this-is-the-way-you-have-to-release-music approach. You can release things once every four weeks now if you want. I think, as a whole, when you look at these songs, they work together, but then there are these few pieces to the puzzle that are still to be added. We have a tour that wound up in the middle, and it's good to release music around that time. It's actually being released the day that we're starting the tour.
Was that always the plan to release it on the first day of that second leg?
I wouldn't say that at the inception of the album, that was the idea, like, "Wow, we're gonna make this project, and it's gonna come out when we sing in Ontario on this day." That wasn't really the conversation. It was more, you're making music, and then all of a sudden you see how it can be threaded together in a creative type of way. There are times that you work back from a very specific goal, and you can see the vision and exactly what it is that you're making, and other times you'll write a song, and it's like it comes out of thin air, and that ends up being the song that people resonate more with because it wasn't something that you tried to pre-package. Instead, it was something that hit you at the time. And so, I think that's what's really powerful about artistry and creativity—it just tends to happen differently at different times.
With going out on the road, is it going to be a chance to see how fans take to songs that you might not have expected them to take to live?
In this case, we did actually perform some of the songs earlier on in the year in the first leg of the tour. We tested out some of the songs and then through festival season, so we have an idea already of what was resonating with people in a live audience. Sometimes what resonates in a live audience doesn't necessarily always translate to what they're listening to in the car, though, as each song has its own identity. The tracks coming out definitely resonated with people live over the course of the summer, so I'm excited for people to hear them on the record.
You had some big festival dates in the summer. Has it always been quite cool to have these dates mixed in amongst a tour?
Yeah, every stage is an opportunity to perform for a completely different set of people. No performance is ever the same. We were actually just talking in rehearsal here shortly before I got on this call about how it is so different in a festival setting compared to a tour, whether you're in a theatre or an arena. There is a difference when people are coming exclusively to watch your show compared to a variety of artists, and they might be there to party and have a good time and not necessarily listen to all those stories in between. At times, it just depends on the crowd that evening. You literally can feel the sense of where people are at as a whole in the crowd, and that's one of your jobs as an artist. The show is somewhat the same, but the stories you tell or how you tell them or how that's presented is going to shift based on the energy in the room or in an open field. For the most part, festivals just have a very different feel from your own tour.
Being five of you, is it tough to get together to try and plan music, record music, and then, let alone, even try to plan a tour when you have your own lives and other interests?
Yeah, my wife and I are actually operating an independent cinema theatre that also has a coffee shop in it, so we have that endeavor. The other four guys are farming, and some of them are coaching hockey, Brock is a pilot, and they just literally finished harvest on the farm at like two in the morning this morning. It’s like 20-some-hour workdays, and then we're packing up and going on the road tomorrow. It's wild, and I don't even know, I feel—I don't know where I am half the time. You just—it, no, you nailed it on the head. The short answer is yes, yes, it is a lot of schedules that are moving around simultaneously, and then you add a dozen children into the mix between four of us, so there's their schedules and hockey games and dance competitions to go to. I don't really know how it works, but somehow it does! It is tough!
Yeah, every stage is an opportunity to perform for a completely different set of people. No performance is ever the same. We were actually just talking in rehearsal here shortly before I got on this call about how it is so different in a festival setting compared to a tour, whether you're in a theatre or an arena. There is a difference when people are coming exclusively to watch your show compared to a variety of artists, and they might be there to party and have a good time and not necessarily listen to all those stories in between. At times, it just depends on the crowd that evening. You literally can feel the sense of where people are at as a whole in the crowd, and that's one of your jobs as an artist. The show is somewhat the same, but the stories you tell or how you tell them or how that's presented is going to shift based on the energy in the room or in an open field. For the most part, festivals just have a very different feel from your own tour.
Being five of you, is it tough to get together to try and plan music, record music, and then, let alone, even try to plan a tour when you have your own lives and other interests?
Yeah, my wife and I are actually operating an independent cinema theatre that also has a coffee shop in it, so we have that endeavor. The other four guys are farming, and some of them are coaching hockey, Brock is a pilot, and they just literally finished harvest on the farm at like two in the morning this morning. It’s like 20-some-hour workdays, and then we're packing up and going on the road tomorrow. It's wild, and I don't even know, I feel—I don't know where I am half the time. You just—it, no, you nailed it on the head. The short answer is yes, yes, it is a lot of schedules that are moving around simultaneously, and then you add a dozen children into the mix between four of us, so there's their schedules and hockey games and dance competitions to go to. I don't really know how it works, but somehow it does! It is tough!
You've got Shantaya coming back out on the road with some of these gigs. Was that an easy decision to bring her out again?
Yeah, she is a fellow Saskatchewan artist. She's an insane vocalist who has been working her butt off. She's been back and forth from Nashville to Canada and everywhere in between, and it worked in her schedule to come out again. We had heard each other sing like eight years ago at a Saskatchewan awards show and knew at the time that there was something special happening in each other's careers, and the potential was bright ahead. It's cool when later on in life those pathways cross and you get to share the stage together.
You also teamed up on Better Days. Was that done before the tour, or is that something that came out of the first leg?
It was before the tour, but I think after we had asked her to open! It kind of unfolded in between those two milestones, so that was actually really neat because it was one of those situations where it felt real to ask somebody to go on tour, and then there was a song that just felt like it worked well for her vocals and our vocals. We recorded it, and we feel that it came out well, and then we're able to perform it live too. It all just kind of worked out and was just part of the story of the tour!
Has it been a bit of a bonus then being able to bring her out on stage to perform it each night?
Yeah, because it doesn't feel forced. We're not trying to fabricate something. It's just, hey, come on out and join us. It's been fun, and like I said, she's a really, really good vocalist, so it's fun being able to sing together with somebody who, yeah, is just very talented.
Yeah, she is a fellow Saskatchewan artist. She's an insane vocalist who has been working her butt off. She's been back and forth from Nashville to Canada and everywhere in between, and it worked in her schedule to come out again. We had heard each other sing like eight years ago at a Saskatchewan awards show and knew at the time that there was something special happening in each other's careers, and the potential was bright ahead. It's cool when later on in life those pathways cross and you get to share the stage together.
You also teamed up on Better Days. Was that done before the tour, or is that something that came out of the first leg?
It was before the tour, but I think after we had asked her to open! It kind of unfolded in between those two milestones, so that was actually really neat because it was one of those situations where it felt real to ask somebody to go on tour, and then there was a song that just felt like it worked well for her vocals and our vocals. We recorded it, and we feel that it came out well, and then we're able to perform it live too. It all just kind of worked out and was just part of the story of the tour!
Has it been a bit of a bonus then being able to bring her out on stage to perform it each night?
Yeah, because it doesn't feel forced. We're not trying to fabricate something. It's just, hey, come on out and join us. It's been fun, and like I said, she's a really, really good vocalist, so it's fun being able to sing together with somebody who, yeah, is just very talented.
You've also got Laughlin Warwick on the album.
That was such a fun collaboration. It’s very different from anything we've done before. We all love that song. I feel like it's just one of those songs that does throw you for a loop. It takes a moment to realize that the Hunter Brothers decided to put a rap in the middle of a country song, but it works. I feel like the sentiment of the song is that we are just being all kinds of country. People might have a different definition of what that means, and I find that discussion very interesting because what country is to one person is different from the next person. We're all connected as human beings, and we share a lot more in common than we think we do at times, and country is just this channel that people have maybe identified in different ways.
Has it had a good response from people?
I have a good friend from the Philippines who sent me a message saying he’s listened to this song like a hundred times, and he's like, "I have my family all listening to it." I was like, that's so cool, because that's the sentiment of the song. It's universal.
That was such a fun collaboration. It’s very different from anything we've done before. We all love that song. I feel like it's just one of those songs that does throw you for a loop. It takes a moment to realize that the Hunter Brothers decided to put a rap in the middle of a country song, but it works. I feel like the sentiment of the song is that we are just being all kinds of country. People might have a different definition of what that means, and I find that discussion very interesting because what country is to one person is different from the next person. We're all connected as human beings, and we share a lot more in common than we think we do at times, and country is just this channel that people have maybe identified in different ways.
Has it had a good response from people?
I have a good friend from the Philippines who sent me a message saying he’s listened to this song like a hundred times, and he's like, "I have my family all listening to it." I was like, that's so cool, because that's the sentiment of the song. It's universal.
You're eight years now into releasing music. Does it feel like sort of 2017 when you released Getaway?
It's wild. My wife and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on the weekend, and November of 2015, when we got married, was around the same time that the record deal contract was signed. I actually kind of equate everything to that time period. It takes some time to release the music itself, but I was talking to my manager on the phone a couple of days ago, and I was like, "Hey, we just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary," and it was right around the same time as that deal was signed. So in some ways, it seems like I've lived a whole lifetime in those years, and in some ways, it's crazy to think that basically a third of my life has gone by in that time. It is wild, and when you think back to the places you've been, the places you've gone, the miles you've put on—because I think sometimes, as an artist, you can get a little frantic in your brain because it's such a hurry-up-and-wait situation in this industry. You're touring, and then you're back home, and then you're recording, and then you're with people, and then you're not with people. You kind of get into these seasons where you’re like, 'What am I doing?' and then you think back to what just happened in the last decade, and I've had to do that a couple of times. I've had to stop and just remind myself of what we've experienced, what we've done, what's happened in those years, and it's quite a lot! It's quite a lot when you break it down and think about everything—from the projects you've made, the music that you've written, the stages you've sung on, the people that you've met—and I think it's important to reflect on those things.
Then you still have songs like Lost and Those Are The Nights, which are now closing in on almost 10 million streams on Spotify. Do you still keep an eye on those songs’ milestones, or is it now that you're proud of them and just let them do their thing?
I think less now than you would at one time when you're focusing on a song that's been released. Algorithms and how people consume music are so different now, and a lot depends on how much marketing you place around a specific song in a certain area or region. Some of these platforms work differently according to the time period that you're in, so what was more relevant at one time is less relevant in another season. Sometimes those numbers do reflect butts in seats on a tour, while other times you find out that you have a contingency of people listening in Japan! It's really interesting how you'll have a song that maybe didn't have as many statistics around it in terms of streams, but you'll have tons of people who come to a show referencing that particular song because it meant something to them. I'm grateful that we were advised early on in our career: don't get too lost in chart numbers and those types of things, as you have to remain true to the artistry.
After eight years, is it getting tougher to make the set list for these shows?
It's fun to present songs differently as they get older, but you don't want it to be unfamiliar for people either. I think, in a set list, part of the enjoyable process is figuring out how they work together, how the puzzle fits, what song goes where, and as you have more and more of a repertoire, there are songs that get turfed. One brother might want a particular song in the set list, and again, if it's outvoted, it may not make its way in there. Obviously, the ones where the statistics do come into play are if there's a lot of people who are going to be coming to those shows who are familiar with these particular songs, you're going to put them in there. You just almost have to determine where they're going to go. In the Homegrown Nights Tour, the set was actually designed to take you, whether knowingly or not, through a day in the life of the Hunter Brothers. We do, though, change it up based on the region we are in too. There might be more of a farming community, or not, so the context is very important in how you're introducing a song, because people might be listening through the lens of escapism, or they might be listening through the lens of experience. There are people who are living a very similar narrative, and then there's people who are living a completely different narrative but may find it interesting.
What scheduling is it going to take to get all five of you over to Europe?
Just getting all of those schedules simultaneously lined up would be the bigger thing, and just getting everybody together at the same place! If we can make something work, that would be a dream for sure.
Well, we would have you anytime!
I appreciate that.
It's wild. My wife and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on the weekend, and November of 2015, when we got married, was around the same time that the record deal contract was signed. I actually kind of equate everything to that time period. It takes some time to release the music itself, but I was talking to my manager on the phone a couple of days ago, and I was like, "Hey, we just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary," and it was right around the same time as that deal was signed. So in some ways, it seems like I've lived a whole lifetime in those years, and in some ways, it's crazy to think that basically a third of my life has gone by in that time. It is wild, and when you think back to the places you've been, the places you've gone, the miles you've put on—because I think sometimes, as an artist, you can get a little frantic in your brain because it's such a hurry-up-and-wait situation in this industry. You're touring, and then you're back home, and then you're recording, and then you're with people, and then you're not with people. You kind of get into these seasons where you’re like, 'What am I doing?' and then you think back to what just happened in the last decade, and I've had to do that a couple of times. I've had to stop and just remind myself of what we've experienced, what we've done, what's happened in those years, and it's quite a lot! It's quite a lot when you break it down and think about everything—from the projects you've made, the music that you've written, the stages you've sung on, the people that you've met—and I think it's important to reflect on those things.
Then you still have songs like Lost and Those Are The Nights, which are now closing in on almost 10 million streams on Spotify. Do you still keep an eye on those songs’ milestones, or is it now that you're proud of them and just let them do their thing?
I think less now than you would at one time when you're focusing on a song that's been released. Algorithms and how people consume music are so different now, and a lot depends on how much marketing you place around a specific song in a certain area or region. Some of these platforms work differently according to the time period that you're in, so what was more relevant at one time is less relevant in another season. Sometimes those numbers do reflect butts in seats on a tour, while other times you find out that you have a contingency of people listening in Japan! It's really interesting how you'll have a song that maybe didn't have as many statistics around it in terms of streams, but you'll have tons of people who come to a show referencing that particular song because it meant something to them. I'm grateful that we were advised early on in our career: don't get too lost in chart numbers and those types of things, as you have to remain true to the artistry.
After eight years, is it getting tougher to make the set list for these shows?
It's fun to present songs differently as they get older, but you don't want it to be unfamiliar for people either. I think, in a set list, part of the enjoyable process is figuring out how they work together, how the puzzle fits, what song goes where, and as you have more and more of a repertoire, there are songs that get turfed. One brother might want a particular song in the set list, and again, if it's outvoted, it may not make its way in there. Obviously, the ones where the statistics do come into play are if there's a lot of people who are going to be coming to those shows who are familiar with these particular songs, you're going to put them in there. You just almost have to determine where they're going to go. In the Homegrown Nights Tour, the set was actually designed to take you, whether knowingly or not, through a day in the life of the Hunter Brothers. We do, though, change it up based on the region we are in too. There might be more of a farming community, or not, so the context is very important in how you're introducing a song, because people might be listening through the lens of escapism, or they might be listening through the lens of experience. There are people who are living a very similar narrative, and then there's people who are living a completely different narrative but may find it interesting.
What scheduling is it going to take to get all five of you over to Europe?
Just getting all of those schedules simultaneously lined up would be the bigger thing, and just getting everybody together at the same place! If we can make something work, that would be a dream for sure.
Well, we would have you anytime!
I appreciate that.
