Author Interview: Jhunger

This week in our series of interviews of AudioJungle authors, we meet…

Jhunger (Joel Hunger)

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from, what do you do for a living?

I’m from Portland, Oregon, and I make my living as a software engineer.

2. How long have you been composing music and what got you started producing?

I’ve been composing music for about 20 years on and off. I’ve been interested in recording for a while now but only recently ponied up the cash for a decent mic/preamp and DAW.

3. Do you play any instruments? Do you have any formal music training?

I mainly play and compose with an acoustic guitar, but I’ve lately fallen in love with the accompanying sound of the ukulele.

When I was younger, I had about seven years of formal classical training on the piano, which made me dislike (and quit) music for a couple of years until I taught myself to play guitar. Since then I’ve pretty much forgotten everything I learned formally (including how to read music – shame on me), but I still use the keyboards, usually as backing instruments.

I also play the mandolin and banjo, but I’m still green on both.

4. Could you describe to us your home studio and the equipment and software you typically use to produce audio?

My studio right now is only designed for me, so it’s very specific to my style.

For guitar recording, I have an AKG C451B and a Shure SM-81 going through an FMR Audio RNP. I record directly via a firewire interface to Cubase 4.  For vocals, I use a GT-66 tube mic.

I rely on the Waves Renaissance plug ins for both mixing in Cubase and mastering in Soudforge. However, I plan soon to purchase a Neumann KM184 to replace the SM-81 and a Great River preamp to replace the RNP. (Selling songs on sites like AudioJungle is helping to make this possible. )

5. Could you tell us a bit about how you typically compose and then produce your audio? Describe your creative process.

For the royalty free loops, I normally just sit down in my studio when I get an hour or two late at night, pick up a guitar or the uke, and strum and pick along until I find a base progression that I like.  I lay that down, then pick up another instrument and find an accompanying part that I like and lay that down as well.  Usually within an hour or two I’ve got something that I’m happy with.

I’ll then come back a day or two later an mix and master it.  This process has been a great boon to my creativity (I also write a lot of songs with lyrics, and can sometimes get writers block for weeks or months coming up with words), and I’ve been really, really happy with some of the output.

6. What genre of music do you enjoy producing for and why?

I don’t know about genre. The best way I describe music that I like is a composition that could stand on its own if performed by a single musician with a guitar.  I guess this means I’m mostly a folk musician.

7. What kind of things inspire you to create music? Do you have any musical influences?

I don’t know what inspires me – sometimes I feel like creating music, and other times I don’t.  I will say that I’m far more creative now that I have a full time job, a family, a mortgage, etc. with approximately less than 5 hours a week to create music than I was when I was single and had all the time in the world.  Perhaps it’s a sense of urgency, or “getting down to business” that I didn’t have before.

8. What genres of music do you listen to in your spare time? Do you have any favorite bands or artists?

Here’s some selections from my iPod right now: Avett Brothers, Mirah, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Stones, Dead Milkmen, Submarines, Velvet Underground, Beatles.  This could all change in a week or two when I get around to updating.

9. What is your advice to other AudioJungle authors regarding how to create a successful portfolio of audio?

I have no idea! I seem to have had some pretty good sales in my first full month, but I’m sure a lot could be attributed to having a featured song sitting up there on the home page for four weeks.

I did get a little feedback from a couple of buyers that having the acoustic guitar driven compositions was a nice juxtaposition to MIDI based music. So maybe find a niche that you’re good at and that separates you from what else is out there is a good strategy.

10. What do you do to market your AudioJungle files?

So far, I’ve been uploading them to AudioJungle and that’s about it.  AudioJungle has been a great community, and so far has done a pretty good job of marketing my files for me.  But I plan on taking a more active role soon – I’m in the process of setting up a web page and probably a blog. Of course, there are the aforementioned time constraints, so it could be a while…

11. What are your three favorite tracks in your AudioJungle portfolio and why do you like them?

Acoustic Loop – 11

This one turned out completely different than I had envisioned when starting it, but in a good way.

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Ukulele Loop – 2

I like the simplicity of the chords – they sounded good once all the instruments were in there.

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Acoustic Loop – 24

For the same reason as Ukulele Loop – 2

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12. Apart from yourself, who is your favorite AudioJungle author and why do you like them?

I’d guess I’d have to say Soundroll. His tunes sell well for a reason — they’re very professionally produced and quite catchy.

13. If you could change anything about AudioJungle, what would it be?

I’d like to see a field for comments along with the 5-star rating. I’ve gotten some 4-star ratings, which I’m not unhappy with but I also don’t have any idea how to turn those into 5 stars in the future (e.g. is the mix too bassy? Not bassy enough? Did the preview file somehow sound better than the purchased WAV file? etc.).  I love getting critical feedback, but without any direction on what was less than perfect it’s difficult to course correct.

14. Could you tell us about some of your audio projects outside of AudioJungle? What have been some of your biggest audio successes so far?

Honestly, most of the audio I’ve produced heretofore has not been released.  I decided to try the royalty-free thing as a lark a couple of months ago, and have frankly been quite surprised at the promise it has appeared to show.  So I’m hoping my big successes are still in the future.

15. When you aren’t busy creating music, what do you like to do in your spare time?

I spend time with my family, mostly.  I also play in a band here in Portland, though we all have families and full time jobs so we try to play a maximum of 3-4 gigs a year, just to have some fun and make a few bucks now and then.

View / listen to Jhunger’s AudioJungle portfolio.