Interview by rosanna tinio

I chatted with man of the hour DJ Hunter Pearson and this is what went down…

Hunter Pearson. Birth or stage name? I have to ask, it’s a great name
Haha. Birth name, 100%. I have two sisters, Summer and Cambie, and we all kind of have ‘different’ names I guess. And no, my parents were not hippies!

As a deejay, producer, co-host, writer, (and basically not your typical 24 year old guy) you have a lot of your plate, how do you do it?
I think when you enjoy what you do, it’s easy to let ‘work’ take up a lot of your life without even realizing that you’re ‘working’.. I try to involve myself in a lot of different areas relating to music / new media / entertainment / technology, and so much of that interests me that it can definitely become a little difficult to find the balance of it all. But when it comes down to it, I know that I’m lucky to be doing things that I love doing, so I can’t complain!

So what is it about hip hop that stirs something inside of you versus other genres of music?
I’m a fan of all music. I really only got turned onto hiphop when I was in high school, and before that I was listening to mostly rock/alternative-type stuff. I’m not sure what it was that got me into hiphop exactly, but probably a lot had to do with the sounds that I started hearing on songs that triggered my curiosity. I remember I would hear the sound of a vinyl record scratching and be like, “What was that?!”, and then I had to learn how to make that sound myself!
Nowadays, genres are so blurred anyways. Hiphop isn’t necessarily the same ‘hiphop’ it used to be; there are so many more styles and variations of it, and every genre crosses over into everything else that it’s hard to tell what’s what. I’ll listen to (and create) anything as long as I feel it’s good music.

What is distinctive about Hype Productions?
Technically, according to the Canadian government and some Excel spreadsheets on my computer, HYPE Productions is the big umbrella under which everything that earns me a pretty penny resides, whether it’s deejaying, music production, video production, etc. Personally, I relate the name mostly to my music production and I can’t really say what it is that makes it distinct. Like I said, I create music of so many different styles that it would probably be hard to tell that it all comes from me. I’ve worked on everything from hardcore rap tracks, to Asian martial arts film scores, to children’s TV show theme songs, to excercise workout video music, and as you can imagine, everything’s different! Even just within the hiphop and R&B genres I think my style is different from track to track because I like playing with a lot of different sounds and my taste in music varies so much. You can hear some samples of my music at www.huntbeatz.com

I must say I agree with your statement “today’s radio sucks.” I’ll flip through three different stations only to hear the same song playing (usually almost in synch with one another) on each one. So how or where do you find such untapped resources as those found on your site?
Well, the whole idea for starting my online mixshow, hunt.FM (www.hunt.fm), came from wanting to expose listeners – particularly those right here in Vancouver where our choices for urban music on radio is slim to none – to new music that simply doesn’t receive any attention from the traditional media outlets in the city. There’s a ton of great music out there, it’s just a matter of filtering through everything, and that’s something that for years we’ve left up to radio to do for us. But now people are realizing that Top40/CHR radio maybe filters a little too much, and like you mentioned, we end up hearing the same songs on heavy rotation for weeks until a different song becomes popular and then we hear that one over and over again. And let’s just say that these “filters” are not always acting in the interest of “good music” either.
On hunt.FM, I’m playing really great songs that radio in Vancouver isn’t playing yet (and probably never will), and you’ll never hear me play the same song twice! We’re like the opposite of CHR radio in that sense. I think of it like my job is simply to introduce people to good music, then if they like something they hear, they can buy the CD or download the songs themselves. Or just put our show on repeat!

I (along with many I’m sure) very much appreciate the work you do in this city, what is it about Vancouver that keeps you here and not heading south of the border like many have?
It’s definitely something that crosses my mind from time to time, especially given the fact that I have dual citizenship (my mom’s from Hawai’i) so it would be fairly insignificant for me to work down there. But I love Vancouver. Sure, the music industry here is nowhere near what it’s like in some of the bigger cities in the States, but I think it’s easy to take for granted a lot of what we do have here. More sun would definitely be nice though.

I think I can safely say music is your life Are there actually other things that you enjoy doing? (Granted you find the time in your chock-full schedule.)
Music is my life, but I’m also fascinated with the whole notion of ‘new media’ and the convergence of media and the internet. I think it’s going to be real interesting to see how more and more of the general public becomes aware of all that the internet has to offer, and how the traditional business models of broadcast television and terrestial radio slowly dissolve.. Wow, I apologize for the geeky answer.. I guess my girlfriend’s right: I do spend too much time on my laptop!

Are you currently in the completion of your master plan or is there more to your vision?
Haha, my “master plan”? Well without divulging too many secrets…. my goal for right now is simply to create content, whether music, audio or video, that is interesting to a wide audience and is something that hopefully isn’t being offered anywhere else. I enjoy being an ‘early adopter’ of new technologies and I’m always playing with the latest method of delivering content, like a podcast or streaming online video. The future of EVERYTHING is online, so as long as I keep building up my presence, then I feel I’ll be ready and waiting once everyone truly comes around and makes the complete transition.

Any words to live by?
“You can never know everything.” – Malcom Gladwell, ‘Blink’
“If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse.” - Henry Ford
“Live. Love. Laugh. Learn.” – me

Check out what all the hype is about at http://djhunt.hype-productions.com