In Hunter Amazing's Room and Mind
Photography by Michael Salisbury
Solitude can be followed by a range of emotions: comfort, boredom, and perhaps even the inevitable, loneliness. For Chicago artist Hunter Amazing, the pandemic allotted her much-needed reflection during the state of isolation we all fell victim to these past few years. Through savoring the time spent with herself and her innate knack for creating, Hunter delivered a body of work that would later set her up for her producer debut with her sophomore album in my room 2.
Layered with polished, mellow vocals and ethereal instrumentals, in my room 2 makes up a collection of timeless R&B tracks. Despite being relatively new to the scene, Hunter has established a strong and definitive presence for herself as a rising artist with a soulful spirit driven by intimacy and emotion.
Prior to dropping the deluxe version of in my room 2, we chatted with the creator, whose last name speaks for itself, to discuss the emotional journey that motivated her albums, her ventures outside of music, and the artists she credits as inspirations for her unique sound.
I’d love to talk about your earliest interaction with music. When did you start creating and what led you to pursue it?
Yeah, my earliest interaction with music was actually when I was about five or six when my dad put me in piano lessons, and I always just had a knack for it. He put me and my sister in piano lessons, but I was the only one that stuck with it because it really resonated with me. I only had issues when I would try to make my own music instead of following what the teacher was trying to teach us at the moment in time. I started making beats on my piano because it had the software where you could kind of record yourself playing notes and stuff like that. So that was really my first interaction with music.
Your sophomore album, in my room 2 is a strong follow up to your debut project, in my room. Can you speak to the creation of in my room 2 and the growth between the two projects?
in my room 2 really was just me coming of age. My twenty-third year was kind of a hard one, a lot of personal stuff had happened, and I really wanted to just put it into music and really document my life through a series of songs I literally recorded in my room. That's what the whole in my room series kind of started as, just me going through things, having nowhere to really go because of the pandemic, and having to kind of switch from going to the studio to being able to record yourself in your room, you know, at home. I was able to capture a lot of emotion that I probably wouldn't have been able to capture in front of people at a studio when it's just me and myself recording. I think that it’s a lot of growth from the first project to the second one because I kind of figured out how to use my voice better, and how to sound better in short, especially with autotune and engineering in general, because I engineered both projects. So I just got better on all four fronts.
That leads me straight into my next question! I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge you and CBBeatz as a match made in producer heaven. How did it feel to wear multiple hats when creating this album?
I think that's what made the project so cohesive and seamless like you said because I was able to really be a part of each step to make sure it was to my liking and what I wanted to hear from when you make the beat yourself, you kind of have a vision of what you want it to be like, what you would want something to sound like over it. So I think that just me having the direct hand in producing and engineering and making the cover art, everything just like you know, it really was tailored to exactly what I wanted.
It’s always empowering to witness artists get as hands-on as possible because, as you know, it’s common for musicians to face a lot of limitations in certain areas of the process. You delivered a collection of tracks that flawlessly incorporate both classic and contemporary R&B elements. Who are some artists that you credit as inspiration for your sound?
For sure. Number one, Brent Faiyaz because his attention to detail is crazy. I think his musical accuracy is really something that needs to be studied. He doesn't know how to make a bad song in my opinion, and I like how he has a bunch of melodies going on at once. So Brent Faiyaz is definitely number one. Number two, Summer Walker. I just like how her bodies of work stand for a moment in time. Like, you can look back at a Summer Walker project and be like, ‘Oh, I was going through this at this moment in time when I started listening to that.’ Third, I'd say probably like Young Thug. That sounds kind of weird, but just his cadence, how he's able to be fast with what he's saying, and how to use his auto-tune as an art form is what I’m really, really big on.
Outside of music, you’re also the designer and creator behind the clothing brand Feline Energy. Can you talk about its significance and how it contributes to your art as a musician?
Feline Energy was a brand that I started in 2020. Shortly after all of the civil unrest surrounding the George Floyd case was happening, I wanted to make a brand that embraced the message of black liberation and merge it with streetwear that actually looks fashionable to wear. I believe if we're walking around with Nike signs, we can be walking around with a sign that says, like, ‘Protect Black Women,’ or ‘Black Boy Joy,’ or something like that. Feline Energy comes from my fixation and constants; just like I always use a black panther. I have a black panther wherever I'm at. That was where the name derived, and it definitely does shape me as an artist because I think as a whole, I just always want to be the best that I can be with anything that I touch. I know he's kind of been controversial lately, but Kanye West has definitely been an inspiration to me, and just how he's been able to merge fashion and music together is what I really want to do. I want to be a fashion and music mogul.
You dropped in my room 2: deluxe edition last month. What does this alternative ending provide listeners, and what else is in the works?
The Deluxe is a very interesting ending. It’s all produced by me, so you'll definitely hear my original basis for music when I started making beats, which is sampling strictly; I would only sample like 90’s and 2000’s R&B, John Rose specifically. [The deluxe edition] kind of touches on the personal things I was going through that brought out bad emotions from me, emotions I had realized that I hadn't fully healed from, and I think this was my perfect way of just putting it all out there. It's a very melancholic tone, and it's interesting when you listen to it.
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