It's been a wild few months for fans of the nu metal act, Moodring. Once a three-piece, it now acts as a solo project for singer-songwriter-producer Hunter Young. To the general public, Moodring had remained somewhat dormant until October 8, 2025 saw the release of the single "Half-Life," alongside the announcement of a signing to SharpTone Records. From there, the entity, as Young dubs it, would release a second single "Cannibal" on December 8th. Not long after, on December 30th, I sat down with Young to discuss what had come before, what comes next, and everything in-between.
Sam Owens: How are you doing today, Hunter?
Hunter Young: I’m doing great, how are you?
S: I am doing just dandy.
H: (laughs) Awesome.
S: By the time this interview comes out, you’ll have just announced a new album. How are you feeling about it? Is it a relief to get the secret off your chest?
H: I’ve been sitting on this album and various versions of it for, I dunno, over two years now, so it’s bittersweet in a sense, I guess. Like, I think a lot of the fun has already worn off for me, but I’m stoked to see if people like it, ‘cuz it’s definitely different… and if they don’t, simultaneously, I don’t really care.
S: I’m really liking the stuff that’s been released so far. So, in anticipation of the album, you’ve put out two singles, with a third one dropping the same day as this interview. How are you feeling about the reception to the first two that have been out already, and what sort of reception do you anticipate with the next one?
H: With the first single, "Half-Life," I think that was kind of a pre-meditated thing of putting out a song that was somewhere in between what Moodring has already done in the past, y’know just, still pretty melodic… Melodic is a pretty generic word to use, but, I dunno, “pretty” in a sense, but still having a massive chorus and be somewhat familiar to the regular Moodring listener, but with the second single “Cannibal”, it was like “Okay, this is more where we’re going”. So Half-Life was kind of a safe move to have a decent drop, and “Cannibal” was like “let’s test the waters and see if they are interested in this at all”. I mean, it doesn’t change the fact that it was gonna come out either way. "Half-Life" was perceived about how I thought it would be perceived. If anyone had been waiting on this record, they’ve heard 17 different snippets of "Half-Life" and could've constructed the song on their own cuz I’ve been teasing it for so long. A lot of delays with this record, but “Cannibal” was mixed, for sure. They definitely… I’m not sure if they like the more, I hate to use the term, “butt-rock” Moodring. I don’t think they like it as much. Again, that’s fine.
S: So, “Cannibal” your second single, was released alongside an AMV for Crunchyroll. what, as a fan of anime, is that like?
H: It’s pretty cool. Some lore that people may or may not know is that the Moodring EP Your Light Fades Away was actually made specifically for a massive anime that ended about two years ago now, but you could say it was probably the biggest anime in the world at the time?
S: I was gonna ask you about that.
H:I didn’t sign anything, I can talk about it. It was made for that, so this is kind of like, I dunno, maybe them showing good faith ‘cuz that whole thing went really sideways, so that was cool. Our team worked on the AMV for it, and then kinda sent it to them and they just reconstructed it with the clips they head. So yeah, it was definitely cool.
S: This isn’t your first time dabbling with the anime realm either, is it? Back in April of ‘23 you debuted the track “BLACK_WAVE” on Crunchyroll news and then, more importantly, the band’s got some history with… I’m allowed to name the anime, right?
H: Oh you know it?!
S: Yeah, the band’s got some history with Attack On Titan.
H: (laughs) Yeah! Originally, those three songs that were on the Your Light Fades Away EP, that was never even supposed to be an EP.
S: It was trailers, right?
H: We made that, it was supposed to be for the final season trailers, like trailer 1 was gonna be one song, trailer 2, trailer 3, and that went south because Japan was like “Why would we use this?” They’re Sony. They’re Sony, and they own everything and they’re like “What are we doing here”. While I think that, I won’t say his name, but while I think that Crunchyroll man had really good intentions, I just don’t think it was really in the cards to begin with.
S: That’s unfortunate. On top of Moodring, you’re in PSYCHO-FRAME, and you write for various other bands as well. That’s quite the portfolio. Is there a certain mindset that has to happen for you to go “Oh, I’m writing for PSYCHO-FRAME” or “Oh, this is a Moodring song”?
H: That’s an interesting question. Yeah, I think the easiest thing, outside of things being genre separated, I think I mostly hone in on the aesthetic of whatever project I’m trying to write, and if I can visualize something more as a screenplay vs “oh, I have to write this type of song”, that helps if I can visualize the type of art and what the entire package looks like? But yeah, writing for PSYCHO-FRAME is a physical marathon, whereas writing for Moodring, I’m kind of just focused on writing whatever the fuck I want at this point. Moodring doesnt have to sound like anything. It can sound like whatever it wants, I think, and as Moodring goes further on, I could release really far out there stuff and no one would really be surprised. I’m trying to get to that point where I can really just do whatever with it.. That’s always been the intention, but I feel like I’m finally kind of enacting that plan into motion.
S: Do you find that to be more freeing? Where you’re able to just “I’m gonna do whatever the fuck I want?"
H: Yeah, I mean, that’s why I named the band Moodring to begin with, because, what if we don’t want to do this anymore. It was never the intention to get stuck in the, y’know, when I was still touring and we were an active touring band, It was never our intention to get pigeon-holed into the spot that we did, and I felt like the point was really missed, but now that I’ve had so much time away, not from creating, but from touring, and kind of being isolated due to health stuff, I really just feel like I can do whatever I want and it’s the… the most freeing thing is just writing for yourself and not caring about what the end result is, and perception of fandom or general population.
S: Which leads me, somewhat, into my next question: You've got a cover of Slipknot's "The Shape" and The Smashing Pumpkins' "Quiet" available on your Patreon. I hear some slipknot inspiration in some of Moodring's material, but smashing pumpkins came from out of left field. Are they a band that's inspired your work with moodring, or is it just a band you're a fan of?
H: Siamese Dream is one of my favorite albums of all time. I grew up with it. Everyone’s, y’know, super into Melon Collie, Siamese Dream is mine, for sure. Especially the first time I heard quiet, I was like “Damn, this is fucking crazy. These guitars sound like airplanes to me” is what I always imagined when I was a kid. I think that there was more of that kind of, I don’t like calling them a “grunge” band and I know that they hate that as well, but there was more of that influence in much earlier Moodring, although it didn’t really nail the mark and ended up sounding like emo. But its always kinda been there in the back of my mind.
S: So various outlets, on the topic of inspiration, various outlets and reviews have likened Moodring’s music to Deftones and Glassjaw, but I’m curious what your inspirations actually are.
H: (Sighs) I never should’ve gotten those face tattoos.
S: (Laughs)
H: We wouldn’t even be having this conversation!
S: Oh is that a white pony right there? (pointing to the right side of Hunter’s face)
H: It is! And then you have this one. (He shifts to reveal a Glassjaw tat on the left side of his face).
S: Aw hell yeah.
H: THAT’S why everyone says it.
S: Really??
H: YES. Like, verbatim. They literally saw my face and went “got it”.
S: That’s really funny. You wear it on your sleeve!
H: I pretty much branded myself. I'll say this: early on in Moodring, the perception of being Deftones-esque came from me being scared to sing, and I was very insecure about my voice so I sang quietly and with a lot of air ‘cuz I was meek and insecure and was masking what I was doing. It wasn’t coming from a, I dunno, a more Chino-esque place, where it was supposed to be sensual and sexual, even if the songs were. It was because I was scared of how I actually sounded without masking myself. The only time we ever actually set out to make a song that sounded like Deftones was, like truly, intentionally, was the song “Sync.wav” off of Stargazer, and that was like “Okay, motherfuckers. You say we sound like Deftones? Here you go!”
So it was almost sarcastic. It was sarcastic, lemme correct myself. I wish I was more mature, but post the giant, i recognize this fault in myself, but post the giant Deftones TikTok explosion, it kinda like soiled this thing for me that was mine for so long. I used to walk into a gas station and someone would say “Oh, you’ve got a pony on your face? Or a horse?” and I would say “Yeah man, I really love horses”. Now if that happens, they know what it is. While I’m simultaneously happy that one of my favorite bands of all time is the most successful they’ve ever been, I kinda felt like I lost what was mine. I don’t feel that way with Glassjaw, I love the band, obviously. It’s on my face. The only question I get asked about Glassjaw is, people ask me if I hate women. So that’s fun.
S: Yep, that checks out. That makes… yeah.
H: It was one album! To siphon back to your point about influences, I’m mostly just influenced by 90’s industrial metal and dance music and, I dunno, a lot of nu metal, and even like actual death metal is my thing.
S: Interesting… Do your influences extend into the realm of other entertainment? Like film, movies, books?
H: Oh yeah, 100%. Unfortunately, most of the time I spend reading is medical journals and medical research. I wish that I had more time to read, but most of my reading time is spent doing that these days. But yeah, I love film more than… it’s my favorite medium of media.
S: What’s your favorite movie?
H: Ever?
S: Yeah!
H: Shit! I don’t… that’s the hardest question! I dunno, I feel like I have so many favorite movies for different things y’know, like.. All time? Oh, It’s Alien, what am I thinking?!
S: Right? Hell yeah.
H: Easy.
S: You can’t go wrong, it’s one of the best sci-fi movies ever made.
H: Dude, it’s a gothic horror, it’s sci-fi, it’s un-fuckin’-believable.
S: Oh yeah, it’s insane. Mine’s La La Land, so…
H: Ha! There we go.
S: Some nice variation.
H: Yeah!
S: In writing this new album, have you found any inspirations that were unexpected, or ones that caught you off guard?
H: Yeah, so, what Austin Coupe, our producer, and I do when we make Moodring is after every really long session, I mean every session is really long, but our way of decompressing, instead of what most people do, is versus listening to the songs a billion times, or planning out the next day, we actually always go sit down and watch a movie, no matter what it is, and I think that what we write the next day is always kind of influenced by whatever we have watched, whether it is one or two films. I think it becomes a subconscious thing where we go to decompress, we watch that, that comes in, and I think those aesthetics end up coming out as well.
S: What are some films that you’ve watched as of late?
H: I gotta think of… as of late or when we were making Death Fetish?
S: Either or.
H: Austin had never seen EVA before…
S: Evangelion?
H: Yeah, and so we watched… That was a big one, where every single night I was like “Hey, you gotta crush like 4 or 5 episodes a night, swear there’s a lot deeper stuff than this”. Funniest thing ever is when we were wrapping up writing one time and he was flying back to California, we watched End of EVA, and he was just on the plane texting me, going “What the fuck did you do to me?" and I was like, “My bad dude”.
S: That’s the End of EVA experience…
H: Yeah, exactly. During that process we also, I’m tryna think, we got pretty big into, and there’s only so big you can get into it ‘cuz he only has 3 movies, but Brandon Cronenberg. So, Possessor, Infinity Pool, Antiviral. That’s all he’s got outside of some short films. What’s that Scarlett Johannsson movie, indie film? Is it Into The Skin? Under The Skin? I remember watching that. I cannot recall the name of it.
S: I think it’s Under The Skin, right?
H: Yeah, we watched that, so we were definitely watching some kinda heady stuff, I guess like body horror, sci-fi stuff, and then that definitely has a lot of subtext. We were watching movies with a lot of subtext and having to watch YouTube videos afterwards to understand what we were watching. So that was it. It’s kinda, I dunno, we’re definitely the “YouTube after the movie” kinda guys.
S: Hell yeah. What are you drawing from mostly when you’re writing this album?
H: Really went into it with the idea, again, of making whatever the fuck I wanted, and pulling from my influences and then moreso with this chip on my shoulder to be like “My band does not fucking sound like Deftones. Good luck finding it”. I was actually, I knew I was sick when we had started recording the album, but I didn’t know what was going on and I was diagnosed during our first writing trip. So while the album was dark to begin with, that crushing moment of me coming back from the doctor and, y'know, he’s sitting in the studio still working, was kind of like the “Oh, shit”, y’know. It completely swayed where it came from and it completely changed the trajectory of the record. The What it was about, the feeling of it, it went from being like, kind of, this “Hell yeah, this fun even though it’s dark” to moreso of a “Oh, I want this to hurt.” I wanted to inflict my pain on the listener, essentially.
S: Do you find it difficult to open up about something deeply personal like that in your lyricism?
H: No, I, maybe, actually, I’ll take that back. Maybe at first, I remember we were writing some of these songs, and we’d finish, and I’d go to bed that night, and I’d lay there and be super emotional and I’d curl in a ball and just be like “Damn, this is reality and now it’s encapsulated forever in a waveform”, but now it doesn’t, now that I’ve been ill for 3+ years, it doesn’t really feel difficult for me anymore, but at the time, originally it did. I also think music is very subjective, and while I’m not big on writing metaphorically, I pretty much just say what I’m thinking, I do still think you can take the songs and kind of relate them however you want. I think that’s okay too.
S: Has your writing philosophy shifted since writing Stargazer and your diagnosis?
H: Yeah, I notoriously have what I call the “first album flop." Every band I’ve ever been in, I’ve never been happy with the first record, dating back to bands from a decade ago. I feel like Stargazer is a really safe album, I think it;s also really funny that if you could go back and listen ot the songs that didn’t make Stargazer, they’re actually way more exploratory and they kinda kick ass and i actually listened to them yesterday thinking “we were actually stupid not putting this on the record. Things started really calculated and really safe, where Death Fetish, and moving forward, that’s not so much the case. I mean, yes, they’re pop song structure, but that’s because industrial metal and nu metal are both in essence pop music wearing JNCOs. I’m not scared of that. So when it’s time to be poppy, we’re not scared of that at all, but we’re also not scared to go to the depths of hell either, you know what I mean? I wanna leave this earth while also leaving behind art that I’m proud of and not just playing it safe, whether people enjoy it or not. Bad for your wallet, good for your brain.
S: As all good things are.
H: (laughs) Exactly.
S: As of mid-2023, you've had to cease all touring due to illness. I know that most bands make a majority of their income from tours and live shows, which begs the question: how have you had to adapt to being unable to tour as a band? is that what the Patreon is for?
H: Yeah. 100%. Moodring… Actually, lemme back up a little bit. There’s a philosophy that you are a merch band or you are not. Some bands sell a ton of merch, some bands don’t. Even when Moodring was a full-time touring band, playing in decent-sized rooms with decent crowds, it was very possible we were playing for the wrong crowds, but it wasn’t like this blowout, insane merch thing online or on tour. It never really was. The Patreon definitely helps to still fund the project and do it in the ways that I want, because I don’t want to compromise the visual aspects of the art, I don’t wanna compromise how I want the music to turn out, it allows me to make covers in my free time. I mean, you touched on the covers earlier, but there’s seven more, maybe more than that. I’ve made an entire other album after this one because of I was able to with Patreon, so yeah… It’s definitely cool. I think if you really care about the band, the Patreon is a really cool thing just to dive deeper and actually have a more personal connection vs “oh, I’m engaging with an instagram post” or “oh, he says some stuff in discord sometimes”. I like having this kind of portal. I don’t know if that answered your question very well.
S: No, that was exactly what I was looking for. These past two singles have been, I would say, at least a little bit heavier than Moodring’s other stuff. Is there a genre shift that you’re looking to go to, or is it more along the lines of “do whatever the fuck I want”?
H: I think it definitely comes down to the philosophy of Moodring as an entity being whatever the fuck it wants to be on any given day, cuz not every song on the album is heavy. There are songs on the record heavier than those two, there are much heavier songs on the record if I’m being honest, but there are also the softest Moodring songs ever created on the record as well. But while they’re not just soft in the sonic way, I still wanted to leave heaviness in everything with it being emotionally heavy. So kinda feel like maybe the softer song is the more load-bearing the song becomes. So, there’s that.
S: You’ve released all three [edit: two] music videos at the time this interview will come out, all directed and shot by Olli Appleyard of Static Dress. I know that Olli brings a very distinctive directorial and visual styling to his own band, so I’m curious what working with him on these videos was like.
H: Psychotic. Period. (laughs) Because of the limitations of my health, I had the genius idea of “what if we just turned”, I have a decent-sized living room, I live in Georgia where it’s very cheap to live and I was like “We’re gonna build these sets in my living room”. So we did it that way.
S: Wow. That was in your living room?!
H: All of ‘em are. Yeah, we built that shit.
S: Hell yeah.
H: It was fucked up. When I get drowned in the "Half-Life" video, that’s the inflatable hot tub outside.
S: (laughs) Oh my god that’s really fuckin’ funny.
H: Yeah, He’s truly a master of making do with what he can, also working around my limitations. The biggest mistake that I made was thinking that by doing the videos at my house, I could escape whenever I wanted. Olli does not stop working, so I never got away. It was one of the worst decisions I ever made for my health and physical responsibility to myself. So say we had booked a set, time’s over, gotta leave. It didn’t end. That first day was a sixteen-hour shoot. The next day was almost just as long. It never stopped. He’s incredibly creative and puts so much passion into his work, and while he is sensitive to me what I can physically do, we definitely were… static-y when it came to getting it done because I physically couldn’t keep going, but I had to to get something that we’d both be happy with. Because, who’s to say if I do it again, or if I shoot more videos.
I just wanted any allocated money or budget I had for the videos to portray what we were putting out, versus just “Here’s a fuckin’ band, here’s a song, and here’s a visual for it. I still wanted it to be gross and stay together with the album aesthetically and still portray it. Obviously they’re very Nine Inch Nails- influenced, pinion-y kinda stuff, and if I was healthier and had more time we probably could’ve gone crazier and more in-depth, but we definitely made do with what we could.
S: They’re really cool videos. I’m a really big fan. What can we expect from the album? Is there an element that you think will catch us off-guard?
H: I think if you’ve been following Moodring closely enough to see the evolution from Show Me The Real You to Your Light Fades Away, you can probably go into it expecting it to be very different. Leading off with Half-Life doesn’t necessarily give that away. I think that kinda falls in line somewhere in between Show Me The Real You and Your Light Fades Away. I definitely think "Cannibal" was one and, by the time this comes out, "Masochist Machine," is a massive departure. It’s more influenced by things like Spineshank, Orgy, even Finger Eleven a little bit. So I’ve been kinda ramping up to “Oh, this is where it’s going”. I’m not influenced by modern popular music whatsoever and maybe that dates me… and shows that I’m “unc”. I’m not influenced by what’s hot, I definitely pull influence from the underground and bands that never really got their moment in the sun, whilst still having my own “Oh, this sounds like Hunter wrote it” stamp on it. I think something interesting about the album is that every song has a twin. Every song has a song in particular that’s supposed to coincide with it, not even in a lyrical fashion, but sonically. "Masochist Machine" has a twin that’s called "Bleed Enough," "Cannibal" has a twin that’s called "Gunplay," that also has a music video that I’ll drop later on, there’s a song called ketamine that has a twin called cold metal kiss. Generally the whole thing is pretty bleak, lyrically, and it’s a very honest record about what’s going on in my life. I just think this record is not only the best music that the entity has put out so far, I just think that it’s really emotionally heavy. There’s also, there’s several songs on the record where there’s no guitar on it, it’s just bass. It sounds like guitar, but it isn’t. We were gonna write the whole record like that. (laughs)
S: That’s crazy.
H: Yeah, but about four songs in, I started missing guitar a lot.
S: I cannot wait to hear what that sounds like. I’ve got one more question for you, and it’s a bit of a curveball. What is your favorite nu metal band, song, or album?
H: I knew this was coming. This answer changes a lot. So you’ve got your big four, right?
S: Right. What’s your big four, because I know a lot of people’s big four is different?
H: The big four is, if we’re being objective, and it depends on how you define nu metal, if you define nu metal of having to have hip hop influence, then you can’t include System of A Down. They’re a fucking nu metal band.
S: Yeah, they’re nu metal. I think a pinnacle of all nu metal bands is their refusal to go “oh yeah, we’re nu metal”.
H: Maybe that’s what I’m doing wrong… I’ve definitely embraced it.
S: Which is great. It’s fantastic.
H: I put it on new merch. Yeah, there it is.
S: Your Patreon is “moodringnu” right?
H: it is, I might actually change all the social handles to moodringnu so…
S: Hell fuckin’ yeah.
H: Now’s the time. They’re dead and getting no interaction anyway, so yeah, we can switch.
So my big four, if there is a big four, is:
Linkin Park, obviously. Limp Bizkit was the biggest band in the entire fucking world. Fred Durst was a literal A-list celebrity at one point in time. No other person in the genre was. Korn. System.
I don’t think Slipknot is nu metal enough, outside of self-titled to like really be considered there. I’d say that you could interchange System and Slipknot, depending on preference. You know what the really shitty answer to this is? The answer is "Tank Club by Pleymo. But you guys already post that so much that I don’t wanna just like, fall in that line. And then my other answer… I gotta be a little gatekeep-y, man. The other answer is “Can't Be Fixed” by Spineshank. Dude, naming my favorite nu metal song ever is so fucking crazy.
S: It’s always fun whenever I do these interviews to watch my interviewees’ gears kinda turn as they figure it out.
H: Well, I’m a fuckin’ connoisseur, y’know what I mean. I’m a deep diver. I could talk about so many things. I’m sure you get so many like “Linkin Park”s and your standard answers. My answers are like… this is my genre, y’know. I listen to R&B, nu metal, and death metal. That’s about it. I guess a lot of the answers I’d give would be industrial metal. Like, I’m a huge Static-X fan.
S: They’re nu metal.
H: Where? They’re industrial metal. Same with Fear Factory. They’re in that weird middle ground that you’re about to see Moodring fall into, especially with this album and ESPECIALLY the one after. I dunno who the fuck is gonna like this shit.
S: Me! I like it!
H: (laughs) I appreciate it. I could like, deep cut Korn, I guess, cuz Korn is like, my favorite band. Just run "Tank Club." Pleymo. Let’s do it.
S: That shit goes stupid.
H: I don’t drive much anymore, but when I do, I listen to that on my drive and I’m like “I’m gonna go to jail!”
S: As one does.
H: I’m also from Florida, and Limp Bizkit being from Jacksonville was fucking massive for me. But my favorite, probably not.
S: I think this is my third interview with the agenda, but I think the other two answers I got were Slipknot’s self-titled album and Issues by Korn.
H: Oh, you asked song and album.
S: Song, band, or album. It doesn’t matter. Answer as much or as little as you want.
H: Let’s give you 3. Band, as a total: Korn, up until Untouchables.
S: You mean you don’t like the Skrillex album?
H: NO! I don’t like anything after Untouchables, like at all. You can fucking light Take A Look In The Mirror on FIRE and I wouldn’t give a fuck. Song, I could run "Tank Club." And then album, as a whole… Spineshank’s Strictly Diesel.
S: Fuck yeah.
H: These’re fire ass answers.
S: These’re great.
H: I even went Strictly Diesel over The Height of Callousness, which is crazy.
S: Most people would say Height of Callousness because it’s their most popular. Y’know, it’s got "New Disease" on it.
H: I fuckin’ love that song.
S: It’s so good. Was it that song that was in Jason vs Freddy?
[Editor's note: It's Freddy vs Jason, and the song was "Beginning of the End," but fair play to Hunter.]
H: Yeah. Er, no no no, it was "Beginning of the End," off the album after that. Dude, that’s such a good song too. It’s also the only good song off that album. Dude, Ill Nino was on that too, “How Can I Live."
S: Such a good song.
Death Fetish releases on March 27th via SharpTone Records. Pre-order the album here.
