Nashville Songwriter: Joseph Hunter Duncan

On his new release EP III, Nashville, TN songwriter Joseph Hunter Duncan crafts swirling, dreamy, shoegaze-tinged pop-folk. Charting the artists journey to sobriety, the vulnerable, yearning vocals glow with an internal warmth. At turns intimate and grandiose, the music is lifted by the sweet harmonies of Duncan’s fluttering falsetto. A soft-edged and gentle record, EP III is the work of a songwriter coming fully into his creative maturity. From the basement of his parent’s house to dingy dives across America, Joseph “Hunter” Duncan captures raw emotion and distills it into well-crafted songwriting. He has spent the better part of a decade touring and releasing albums under various monikers (The Lion In Winter, Yosef), nurturing and focusing his storytelling. Now releasing music under his own name, EP III follows 2019’s EP I and the 2020 release EP II. While all of the releases in this series were tracked with Tommy Carnes in Nashville at his home studio, EP III is the first that was performed entirely by Duncan. “These songs mostly came along during late summer of 2020” says Duncan. “I was working through massive lifestyle changes, reflecting on behaviors, relationships, and my overall perspective on the things that were and are important to me. I was getting my life in order and mending a broken relationship. I had a rough go with alcohol abuse that affected my family, my work, and just about every aspect of my life.” Diagnosed with Bi-polar 2 disorder in early 2017, EP III reflects that dichotomy in its production. The first half of the record is a touch loud and brash, while the second half is relaxed and stripped down. “I wanted to capture some of the frustration that comes along with having this condition” explains Duncan. “The line in “Rabbit Hole” that goes “I can’t, I won’t” is really the focus of telling myself to stay on track and don’t let the past take you back into the spiral of chaos.” What Duncan has crafted with EP III is a record that eloquently captures the essence of heartbreak, and the re