Van Hunt is one of my favorite vocalist/songwriters.  I’m not quite a stan, but I have been a fan of his music since my sophomore year of high school in 2004.  I was first exposed to him with a song that is still a personal favorite of mine today entitled, “Dust.”  I remember watching the video (here) for the first time on Vh1 Soul at my grandparents house with my best friend.  I remember thinking who is this beautiful man playing a guitar in the middle of the city speaking of how he’s already insane.

Over the years, my appreciation of Van Hunt’s music has continued throughout his whole discography: Van Hunt, On The Jungle Floor, and independent releases: Use In Case of Emergency, and Popular Machine.  Hunt, was scheduled to release a follow up to On The Jungle Floor, however, the album was shelved by record labels which in a way, gave birth to this stellar project that is his latest release, What Were You Hoping For? 

I got the chance to speak with Van Hunt before his show in San Francisco about the release of the new project, the writing on the project and the inspiration behind the album title and a few songs in particular.  I also spoke with him about his metaphorical approach to love songs like “Cross Dresser” on the new album.  Lastly, I spoke with him about the state of males in soul music today, if he had the opportunity to meet any musician who would it be and why and etc.  (Check my in depth review of the album here)