About Me
Pakenham Upper, Kaiapit, Mendi, Olinda, Woolgoolga, Mt Waverley, Narromine, Dubbo, Coonabarrabran, Lismore, Sydney, Christchurch, Waitati, Methven, Twizel, Auckland, Muriwai, London, Willow Grove, Philadelphia. And various points between.
Here's a shout to friends all over the world who've kindly shown interest in my small collection of songs - thank you !
Note: Everything on the player is now available for download - be my guest and go ahead :)
Be sure you meet some of the wonderful T & A* among my friends before you leave!
(*teachers and artists)
On The Player
The songs on the player were recorded at home on my black box. In the box: Asus A7N8X/Athlon XP3200/512Mb/WD Raptor 10,000 rpm SATA drive. Custom install of XP Pro. Outboard gear: Edirol DA-2496, these homemade monitors powered by a trashpicked Denon amp (I built my cabinets but you can buy them to size if you lack tools, time & skill), a Studio Projects condensor mic, a Pod modelling pre-amp (thanks Sharky!), a 55-note Edirol midi controller keyboard. Quite minimal as you can see, and inexpensive. If you can change a light-bulb you can build a digital audio workstation.
These four tunes were tracked using Steinberg's Cubase recording platform, a variety of VSTI's, and software signal-processors. The mix on Greyhorse Road is 'everything up full' because I hadn't yet learned to use Cubase's automated mix function. It rocks along though, with about six guitar parts :) No sound-loops were used in any of the songs. The only conventional instrument I played was the electric guitar. That and my voice if it counts :) My three youngest children Nadia, Diana, and Aandi Hunt contributed their sweet voices on 'Three'.
I've just reloaded ’Home With The Kids’, a bit dark perhaps, though I think it helped to spit some of it out.
A good deal of the content on this page (including notes, essays, images,music, and song lyrics) represents my effort to come to terms with the end of marriage and the disintegration of my family. As such, I claim and assert the right of free speech through artistic expression.
All songs (c) R. Hunt, Reg'd APRA, an affiliate of ASCAP.
A little about myself
Had a decent run with a couple of bands in Australia and New Zealand. Recorded quite a bit for, with and behind other musicians, too. At heart I'll always be a busker. Raconteur. Clown in serious trousers. Children feel safe with me and we get along like a house on fire. Among adults, accounts are varied and conflicting. Been called a lot of different names though I prefer to think of myself as a human being, generally speaking anyway.
I'm fond of acoustic guitars and Strats. I have been playing since I was about six. Though acoustic guitar is my mainstay, bass was my first paying gig by default: there were always too many guitarists. Playing bass gives an understanding of arrangement and harmony. Also, if you sing and play bass it is very effective mind-training because bassline and melody are generally contrapuntal to each other. Your mind will stretch :)
I had no interest in electric guitars until my twenties. I'm no keyboard player, all I can do is record phrase by phrase. I think it is of equal importance to train the ear as to train the body. My belief is that when you hear the part in your mind, you can find a way to play it. Somehow this seems to work :0)
To My Kids: Aandi, Diana, Nadia, Aidan, and Tosh- regardless of how much our lives have changed since we lived together, my love is with you always. I long to see you, hear your voices and be near you. Be proud of who you are, kids. You are loved so much. You are meant to be here. When shadows fall, you are my bright stars.
On life in the Age of Iron
What I can suggest to you about relationships is pretty simple: straight, gay or indifferent, if you are a woman, be a woman. If you are a man, be a man. The more these distinctions are blurred, the weaker in essential dignity we become as mental defilements progressively obscure the clarity of our original identity. Woman becomes a distorted reflex of inferior masculinity, and Man becomes a distorted reflex of inferior femininity.
Identity Loss and Borderline Personality Disorder These disorders are problematic, difficult to treat, and increasingly prevalent. They are rooted in and productive of human agony, yet resolution seems beyond the reach of ordinary human kindness. Fragmentation of family and damage to developing children are the background conditions for personality disorder illnesses. It is significant that high-functioning borderlines often gravitate to positions of influence due to their preoccupation with power.
Borderlines identify others as victim in order to manipulate and control, or as victimizer in order to punish. In relationship, the non-borderline partner may be perceived as either of these by turn, without objective cause. The ensuing emotional chaos mirrors the borderline's unstable sense of identity: 'like four seasons in one day'. Passive borderlines are usually female, prefer co-dependent relationships, are victim-identified (see themselves as victims) and justify their behaviors accordingly. Any expectation of 'reasonableness' does not, and cannot, apply.
It is as unlikely for a non-borderline to comprehend the desperation, self-loathing and unstable identity with which the borderline struggles as for a borderline to feel empathy, maintain stable affect, be emotionally accountable, or accept diagnosis. I can't tell you how to recognize every telltale in advance, but I hope you will know that what hurts you isn't good for you.
To children who may read this page: I am not describing the many - perhaps unavoidable - hurts of childhood, as for example when an adult whom you rightfully trust has forbidden you a treat you badly wanted. I would not wish to encourage inappropriate anger on your part.
What I am describing is a person or circumstance which you have approached in innocence, with a child's open heart and open arms, yet have been repayed with cruelty, ridicule, scorn, a blow; abuse.
It is especially important that you mark and hold the line between what is to be accepted, and what is not. You are intelligent beings. I believe you will know what I am talking about. The reason I am writing this down is because nobody told me, when I was your age.
Familiar hurt can become part of a pattern which repeats over time, drawing you into destructive relationships with persons who seem to have the knack of opening up the unhealed hurt within you, and feeding on your tears.
You are born to enjoy bright and happy lives, run where old legs can't, find new ways to describe the world and solve its riddles, see new sights and shout for joy at the top of your lungs. Your job is to be YOU - and that is someone quite new and precious :0)
A Sidebar
If you seek the archaic, you will not find it in the modern. We are living in Kaliyuga - the era of a goddess manifesting in her most destructive aspect. Its characteristics are fascination with steel, speed, and fantasy - the Age of Iron, not exactly synonymous with the more familiar 'iron age'.
Desperation, deluded hope, yearning, hurt, loss, bewilderment, betrayal and, of course, self-pity are somewhat universal experiences. I know I'm not the only one to struggle with a cunning yet trivial demon. It's only fallout, a recent scuffle with an ancient adversary. These songs are an attempt to write it out of my system, and when the Muse comes next she will bring a different experience for me to write about. I am grateful no matter what.
A Footnote On Ethics
The motivation one chooses to act (or not to act) upon - whether ignorant and grasping, or enlightened and without attachment to limited outcomes - is equal in importance to actions of body, speech and mind one commits.
This statement does not imply that karma is void. To the contrary, motive and consequence are inseparable: the motive underlying any volitional act is inherent to that act, just as the act is inseparable from its consequence. This is 'inseparability of cause and result'.
The narcissist's song-and-dance is the danse macabre after all. Only a narcissist would think otherwise.
Emperor, your sword won't help you out
Sceptre and crown are worthless here
I've taken you by the hand
For you must come to my dance
Life continues in spite of the cruelty of the few. Just as night turns to day, unhappy circumstances will not last forever.
Elkins Park, May 5th 2004.
'Red is for Rinpoche!'
Dharma children, September 2006.
Diana at Dave and Laura's, Fishtown, 2006.
(c) Rohan Hunt 2007
