How The Dear Hunter Turned Me Into A Story Teller
My discovery of conceptual storytelling and how it’s so much better as a means for expression.
Even if I didn’t understand at the time, I have always loved concepts. I used to really like an artist called Ren and he has suites like Money Game and Love Music all telling one thematic story.
I used to adore this and never understood why I wouldn’t see this more often. I would do this thing with albums where, even if they weren’t intentionally telling a story, I would try to piece songs together as one large overarching emotional narrative.
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I ended up doing this with Thank You Scientist and one of their albums called Terraformer and it ended up becoming one of my favorite albums of all time. I wanted to search for more and I found three artists that completely changed me but specifically I want to talk about The Dear Hunter.
Initially I was reluctant as the song I was recommended is called Waves. I absolutely love this song now but back then I thought it was a little corny and sounded like a Hallmark Christmas movie song. But I saw that their albums were ordered from Acts 1 to 5 and I was intrigued.
I listened to Act I: “The Lake South, The River North” and was blown away. Somehow, it was absolutely nothing like the song Waves and set up such a good story.
The dramatic escape, the abuse of power, the complicated life of sex work, and the overarching story of a boy who will ruin his own life. All set up in one EP so seamlessly. Everything about the album was practically flawless and the rest of the Acts just improved after each one.
The Acts showed me how to create a musical narrative you can live inside. Every chord change, every lyrical choice, every transition serves the story. That’s how I write now, not collections of songs, but complete worlds where nothing exists without purpose.
