We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hunter Bates a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hunter , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Life is all about taking risks, learning, and growing. I’m a pretty firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and without taking some risks, I’m not sure where I’d be at the moment. When I moved out to Denver in 2018, I took the risk of moving somewhere where I knew few people, and no real timeframe of how long I would be here. And now, as I’m hitting 5 years of being here, I feel like I’m supposed to be here playing music, and I’ve been more motivated and eager to learn and create as much as possible.

Hunter , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Hunter Bates, and I’m a local musician based out of Denver, Colorado. Currently I play bass in Shady Oaks, a bluesy-rock band, and guitar in The Study Abroad, a post-punk band. Both projects are based out of Denver, and most of my time is spent between the two. Currently both bands are in the process of writing/releasing new material, and stepping into what feels like a new chapter for each one. Myself and a few other Denver musicians are in the process of starting our record label, Mean World Records, to help distribute and promote some of our most talented friends, and our first release will be a new single from the band In Plain Air, one of my favorite bands here. A lot of my time at home lately has been listening to records and doing the marketing work, sending emails, you know, the boring stuff. When that work is done, I’m probably recording songs for my new project, Splash Hog, but no one really knows about that yet.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I feel like artists especially use social media poorly sometimes, especially when they aren’t interacting with any other accounts, or trying to be “mysterious”. A lot of it comes down to overthinking, but you just have to be yourself. Interact with people in your community.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Collaborate, build yourself a team of creatives. Every band needs a photographer to take pictures, a graphic designer, etc. And every designer needs something to design, every photographer needs subjects to take pictures of. And if you’re not a creative, but love the art, support it! Come to shows, buy merchandise, even just sharing on social media does wonders.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/huntybates
• Other: instagram.com/shadyoaks_band instagram.com/thestudyabroadmusic instagram.com/meanworldrecords instagram.com/splashhogband

Image Credits
Brent Mcquillin, Jason Myers, Morgan Elizabeth, Sophie Medvick