Electronic-based PlayRadioPlay look break onto national scene

Listen Up!

By: Brian Washburn

Posted: 4/28/08

The digital age has quickly dawned upon us with ever-growing technologies and techniques to accomplish normal, everyday tasks in half the time required. But when you say the "digital age" regarding the music industry, there's a different feel; a feel of an iTunes dominated, label-less music world. However, a select number of musicians take the "digital age" to another meaning - one of computer beats, synth programming and electronic music.

PlayRadioPlay's Dan Hunter takes this musical "digital age" and mixes it with a recipe of fast drums, fuzzy guitars and soft vocals to come out with a concoction all of its own. When you listen to his music, it's no wonder Hunter's wildest dreams came true for him at an age we all just thought of as the age you could purchase a ticket to an R-rated movie. Now at just 18 years old, Hunter's debut album, Texas, has taken his unique sound to the nation, including MTV. (By the way, PlayRadioPlay was also one my three breakout artists of the year at the beginning of 2008. Not to brag or anything.)

"My music's hard to describe," Hunter said. "It's electronic music and rock mixed together. I'm really happy with the way [Texas] came out."

Texas has quickly garnered much fan praise and popularity for Hunter. The album debuted in the Billboard top 200 charts, according to billboard.com, and the first single off of the album (the soft, drum- driven "Madi Don't Leave") is even garnering a little bit of air time on MTV.

"There wasn't a huge push right off the bat for the record because of the kind of failed model in the music industry," Hunter said. "That's one of the reasons labels are losing money. They don't just put millions of dollars into a band anymore right off the bat. They need to tour and see how they do. But my first week's sales were better than the EP I released last year, so it's all been good."

However, the touring aspect of the music industry will probably fill Hunter's schedule for the rest of the year, he said.

"[Touring] has been great," Hunter said. "We recently did a tour with Yellowcard and they were selling out theaters and the crowds were great. It's always best to play to 1,500 people who have never heard of you. That's my favorite thing to do, and to look on people's faces when the programming comes in and see the huge computer on stage. It's not typical."

Hunter is right, though. PlayRadioPlay's music is not typical. What was once a one-man, computer-based band has now evolved into a full sound featuring all instruments and a live show which even differs from the sounds of the record.

"Live, we make a lot more noise and sound a lot fuller than we do on the record, and a lot of people who have listened to us every night and then go listen to the record say we even sound better live," Hunter said.

This fuller sound which Hunter is talking about differs from The Frequency EP he released last year. In fact, the full instruments mixed with the computer-based programming on Texas can even enable fans to take a bit of a break from comparing the band to another electronic band in the scene - The Postal Service.

"I think there's an art to blending the two, the full band sound and the computer based," Hunter said. "I feel more out of touch when it's all computerized. It's a lot more natural to blend everything in there. There's a lot of diversity in the music, between the soft and hard sounds and the programming. The best way to find out what it sounds like is that you just have to listen to it."

Final Thought: This school year has finally come to a close. However, while the campus will thin out, the summer job market will be flustered and gas prices will probably soar, but the music will not stop. And neither will these fun little music columns. Be on the lookout, late June/early July 2008, for www.thisisbrianwashburn.com.