Interview

Demon Hunter's Jonathan Dunn Discusses New Music, Faith, And More

Seattle's Demon Hunter has become one of the most mainstream recognized Christian bands in metal lately, appealing to religious and non-religious audiences alike. The group released "The World is a Thorn" earlier this year, and is currently lining up a string of European dates. Demon Hunter's Jonathan Dunn spoke with about the band's concept and the issues behind the name, stating "The title is definitely not meant to be taken literally, although we do get some people who take it literally and that sometimes gets a little weird trying to explain that to them. It’s more trying to be in reference to your personal demons and issues you are dealing with and going through. It’s more in that aspect of hunting down demons."

Dunn goes on to discuss his personal faith and belief in Christianity, his musical roots and more recent influences, and the possibility of the band working on new material next year.

xFiruath: So what’s the Jonathan Dunn story? What got you into metal and music in general?

Jonathan: My dad is a pretty sweet guitar player and has a finger picking style, so I kind of grew up around music. My mom played piano as well so I started playing music at a young age. I was under their tutelage and kind of gravitated towards drums for a long time and started playing drums in local punk rock bands. Around the age of sixth or seventh grade I was really into the Dead Kennedys and Black Flag and stuff like that. Around those years I was first introduced to the band Living Sacrifice and I grew up in a Christian home, not overly strict, but a Christian home where Pantera was allowed, but kind of frowned upon. I was going through this identity crisis in my sixth or seventh grade years where I was juggling who I was as an individual, and a Christian, and within my family, and the kind of music I listened to. Especially at that age music is so important to your development of who you are. So I felt like I was being pulled all these different directions, especially at the time when there wasn’t a whole lot of options in terms of Christian metal.

I was actually at Bible camp one summer and feeling all bummed and mad that I was being forced to go to this place. The camp counselor was a dude with a Mohawk and a skateboard and seemed awesome so I started hanging out with him. He gave me a tape of Living Sacrifice’s “Reborn” and Vengeance Rising and that was like my first introduction to Christian metal. At the time I didn’t know that even existed. My two worlds were suddenly combined and no longer did I feel like I was trying to juggle these two different ideologies. That Living Sacrifice record specifically had a huge impact on my life and I thought it would be killer one day if I could reach somebody with music the way Living Sacrifice did for me. I feel like in some ways I’ve been able to do that with Demon Hunter. My hat’s off to Living Sacrifice.

xFiruath: Other than the punk bands of your youth and Living Sacrifice, who would you say is the biggest influence on the way you play music?

Jonathan: With more recent ones, probably the biggest influence on me is a band called 16 Horsepower. It’s this dark Americana, folk rock, gothic thing, not gothic as in Hot Topic and face paint but more dark and brooding, band that isn’t metal per se but the vibe of their music and lyrical content is very inspiring to me. They are amazing craftsman of their songs. They are on an island all their own. That’s probably the biggest one that’s influenced me lately, specifically their record “Secret South.”

xFiruath: Your latest album “The World is a Thorn” has been out for awhile now, so I’m wondering where that disc lands in your overall discography and how it differs from other Demon Hunter albums.

Jonathan: Obviously being in a band you always think your newest record is the best. It’s kind of cliché for me to say that “The World is a Thorn” is the best, and before that I said “Storm the Gates of Hell” is the best and before that “The Triptych” is the best. But that’s just part of making music and making art, you always feel you are getting better and putting out a better product. The question is whether or not people are coming along for the ride and think it’s the best effort. I really feel it’s our best record. What sets that record apart is that it’s got more roots in earlier ‘80s and ‘90s metal. There’s a little bit of thrash thrown in there. I’m not going to compare us to Slayer or Megadeth or anything like that, but those elements are kind of added to the music where we didn’t have quite as much of that before. Personally, just in terms of comparing to Demon Hunter albums, I feel this one is thrash, but at the same time it still has the signature ballads and mid tempo modern rock songs. I feel it’s our heaviest.

xFiruath: Tell me about the shooting of the music video for “Fading Away” you guys did.

Jonathan: “Fading Away” we did a couple of years ago and we did that on the Paramount movie lot, which was pretty awesome. I remember being there as kid in L.A. taking the tour and they’d show you where “Back to the Future” was filmed and “Jaws” and all that kind of stuff. It was funny to be on that lot shooting on the stoop where they shot Bill Cosby or whatever and the little tour trams are going by seeing the movie sets, and they see this big production crew with a bunch of metalheads standing around. I doubt any of them had any clue who Demon Hunter was, but they thought they were witnessing something really cool seeing this video shoot, so it was kind of ironic to be on that side of the tram this time around. It was a blast. We shot literally all night long. We got there at like nine in the morning but didn’t start shooting until the sun went down and shot until six in the morning. We got two hours of sleep and then got up for a photo shoot and jumped on a plane. No sleep rock and roll time.

xFiruath: Demon Hunter managed to get some songs on Rock Band, which must be pretty exciting.

Jonathan: Yeah we’ve got a few up there now. We’ve been getting videos from people doing their best to score perfects on the songs and stuff like that. Patrick, our guitar player, is actually a wiz at Rock Band. That dude can master every song on whatever the hardest level is. He’s just out of control. He’s actually the one I first played Rock Band with and had a blast, so it’s cool to see DH songs on there now. Hopefully people are having as much fun with it as we have.

xFiruath: Last year the band parted with Don Clark and Ethan Luck. What happened there with those guys leaving?

Jonathan: Demon Hunter is not a full time touring band, we don’t do this year around and rely on it to pay our bills. It’s more a side project to the other arts we are involved with. With Ethan, he needed a full time touring gig and he was touring with some other bands. He got an opportunity to play drums in the band Relient K, so he couldn’t really pass up the opportunity to have a paycheck and full time touring to live off instead of waiting for us to hit the road. We were bummed to see him go, but obviously we understand that he’s gotta do what he’s gotta do. We’re still buds with him and he comes up to see us and we go down there to see him. We still see Don every day, Ryan and I. He works for Invisible Creatures, the design company Don and Ryan have. He got really busy with awesome opportunities with work as well as being a family man with two kids now. There was a pull between going out on the road for six weeks and missing his children growing up and all those opportunities at work. There was no bad blood in either case.

xFiruath: Will the band be writing or recording any new material soon?

Jonathan: Yeah, we haven’t started writing anything yet, but we’ve started to talk about it. We’re heading over to Europe in November for a couple of weeks to do a run over there. Probably early next year we’ll start getting serious with when, and where, and how we’re going to be recording. Ryan is always kind of playing with song ideas in his head and putting down little riffs. It’s just a matter of him buckling down and putting pen to paper and putting the songs together.

xFiruath: Out of all the shows you’ve done do you have any particular tour memory that sticks out in your head?

Jonathan: For me one of the coolest things was the very first tour that Demon Hunter ever did. We played in Little Rock, Arkansas, and we played Living Sacrifice’s last show. They were saying they were disbanding. So being such a Living Sacrifice fan it was crazy that I got to be at that show and be on the bill. Fast forward four or five years later on the “Storm the Gates of Hell” tour and Living Sacrifice came out as main support, so to see those dudes play every night was a blast. If I could go back and tell myself as a kid that I’d be able to watch Living Sacrifice play every night for 40 days in a row I would not have believed it. I’d throw on a baseball cap and try to make my way towards the front of the stage all incognito and thrash out like I was 15 again.

xFiruath: What bands are you listening to lately?

Jonathan: Ryan and I both have day jobs working at the label Solid State. Ryan works on design and I do A&R, so in work life I listen to the whole gamut of metal, whether Solid State bands or whatever is current and going on in the metal scene. In my personal life I try to keep it a little more chill when I’m driving in my car to avoid road rage and stuff like that. I listen to a lot of older stuff like Fats Domino and older Bruce Springsteen stuff. A lot of oldies stations, I kind of grew up with that and my dad always listened to that. My personal life is definitely much more chill on the music. 40 hours a week I’m sitting at my computer blaring metal.

xFiruath: So I’ve got a few questions submitted from readers, and to start out with I’ve got to know: how many demons have you in fact hunted down and slain thus far?

Jonathan: The title is definitely not meant to be taken literally, although we do get some people who take it literally and that sometimes gets a little weird trying to explain that to them. It’s more trying to be in reference to your personal demons and issues you are dealing with and going through. It’s more in that aspect of hunting down demons. So I guess the tongue in cheek answer would be “none.” I’ve never seen a demon that I know of. As far as personal ones, well hopefully every day I’m knocking out two or three.

xFiruath: A Demon Hunter fan also wanted to know if there was one defining moment in your life when you realized you believed in ideas like God and the supernatural.

Jonathan: Obviously there were different phases in my life. I grew up in a Christian household and had those ideals as I was young. I spent my late teenage and early college years trying to figure out what that meant for me apart from my family. My college years were definitely very defining in who I am personally and as a Christian. I was going through a lot of different things then. I had my best friend commit suicide and I had some serious struggles in my life. I was kind of weighing out what life is all about, what I’m living for, what I’m not living for, what my priorities are. That was the moment that I separated myself from my parent’s faith and made a personal commitment on my own as a Christian. I guess it wasn’t one blinding light moment that changed my life. A good way to described it would be from C.S. Lewis. He has this quote that “I don’t believe in the sun because I see it but because I see by it.” He’s making this reference to the illumination of your life and how all these pieces start falling together and you can make sense of everything, not necessarily because I’ve seen the face of God, because I haven’t, but because through that light the puzzle pieces come together.

Ty Arthur splits his time between writing dark fiction, spreading the word about underground metal bands, and bringing you the latest gaming news. His sci-fi, grimdark fantasy, and horror novels can be found at Amazon.