I had the chance to sit down with Andy Hunter this month to discuss his new album Colour, scoring the film Expelled, getting back on tour and what is next for him. It was a great conversation and let me assure you that you can expect great things from Andy in the next few months.

We started off the conversations by talking about his new album, entitled Colour. I asked him to talk about what made this album different from Life and Exodus. He said that all of his albums grow with him as an artist and a DJ. Exodus was an expression of where he was in life and a reflection of the musical influences in his life. Life was very much an experiment with live instruments. The 12 track Colour is much more focused on the lyrics, more song based. His involvement in the club world has still influenced the album, however. It has a newer sound but expect there to be quite a bit of 80’s influence. Andy teamed up with Robbie Bronnimann for the album for the first time since Hydro. The partnership started in January or February when Andy started working on the album and asked Robbie to write a track with him. They got together, the first time in several years, and wrote the first track together, Sound Pollution. It worked so well that Andy talked with his label, NETTWERK, and asked if Robbie could come on board and help finish the album. It took the rest of the summer and finished it up in August of 2007.

I asked Andy how his focus on worship would come through on this album. He said that each of his albums has a central theme that inspires most, if not all, of the album. The theme for Colour is color, obviously, colors that we see in the world and colors that reflect God in some way. Stars, for example, is inspired by the color orange. He was looking out his window at the street lights and felt God speaking. He said that we live our lives under these lights, we follow them home. But we can’t see what is above them in the heavens because of the glare they cause. System error, inspired by green, is about “green issues”. It is about his son’s future and how our decisions are going to affect that. Fade is about how God accepts us as we are and how He changes the black and white back to color, bringing us back to how He created us before we became faded by sin.

I was listening to Exodus and Life a few days before I sat down with Andy, and noticed that Life seemed to be less “DJ friendly” then Exodus. I asked him if that was the direction he was heading in. In a sense, yes, he replied. He didn’t think that many people would spin much of Colour, other then 2 of the tracks. However, he said that there were plans to release singles and remixes. He still loves DJing, still loves the 12” mix and the “four to floor”, but it when he gets into the studio he just wants to write whatever he is feeling. He wants to be more creative in his writing then just the typical dance club track. The first single Stars, however, already has one remix finished by Guiseppe Ottaviani (signed to Vandit) and Nettwork is looking at doing one more remix for Stars. So Andy’s DJing background is still affecting his albums.

Andy told me that NETTWERK is looking at releasing the CD on March 18th, but they are trying to have the album released on ITunes and possibly one other digital distributor by the end of January. We should be able to expect some remixes to come out soon after the CD release.

Andy paired up with Robbie Bronnimann again to score the soundtrack for the upcoming documentary Expelled featuring Ben Stein. Andy has had several of his tracks used in television trailers and films before, but this opportunity was greater then all of them. The opportunity opened up when Andy met a lawyer several years ago in Vancouver while touring. He said that some friends of his were starting an independent film company and asked if Andy would be interested in writing for a film. He took it lightly, figuring that they just wanted to use Go or Come On. In the fall of 2007, his lawyer friend called him and asked him he was still interested. He wrote a few tracks for them to preview. They liked it and he and Robbie flew out within a few days to Vancouver. After working for a few days, the producers wanted Andy and Robbie to write the entire soundtrack, all 120 minutes. Robbie and Andy flew back to England and worked for 6 weeks straight to finish the work.

All this production work hasn’t left Andy any time to DJ. His last gig was in September but he is excited about getting back on the road with the release of Colour. I asked him about his thoughts on the future of DJing. He said that he has moved away from the vinyl he moved on to Pioneer CDJs and has even played around with Ableton. But when he does large festivals like Flevo, he prefers to use traditional CD or vinyl decks so that people see some movement instead “looking like I’m checking my e-mail”. But in clubs, he feels that it doesn’t matter what format you are using as long as you are really doing well. He said that he prefers CDJs, but is thinking about working more with Ableton with the release of Colour to allow him remix his tracks live. He is also thinking about trying out Traktor Scratch in the next few months as well. Ableton, however, is more attractive for him since it allows him to be more creative.

The last thing I asked him was about what this year holds for him. He really wants to go live with Colour and get out and start gigging. He wants to do a bit of remixing and scoring. He really wants to really be out the in the industry and in the clubs, being the salt and light. He wants to continue leading worship at Christian festivals. I asked him what God had been speaking to him about lately, through his new album and through other avenues. He said he really wants just be more sold out for God and to learn to trust God for provision. He said that it is easy to trust in record deals and gigging and stop trusting God for that provision. But he really wants to really trust God. Music and gigs can dry up but God is constant. He had to trust God fully during one period when he wasn’t on salary with NGM to pay for all of his musical needs but he feels that he trusts God more these days since he has a family and more responsibility.

I would like to thank Andy Hunter again for taking time out of his schedule to talk with me and discuss life.