Bella Hunter determined to break down dance music’s boys’ club with chilled house single Deja Vu
Her dad was the charismatic frontman of one of Australia’s biggest pop rock bands. Now Bella Hunter is hoping to blaze her own trail in dance music.
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Bella Hunter suggests her late father and Dragon frontman Marc Hunter would be equal parts proud and furious with her.
The singer and songwriter launches the next chapter of her music career with the single Deja Vu, after signing to respected European dance music label Armada.
From a shelved American singing reality series to auditioning for Australia’s X Factor seven years ago, from basing herself in Los Angeles to finding a label home in Europe, Hunter has prevailed with her music ambitions despite the knockbacks.
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“People here would be like ‘Your dad would be so proud’. He’d probably be telling me to get the f … out of the music industry; it’s so hard, what are you doing?’” she said, laughing.
“But if it’s something in your blood, you cannot fight it. And I tried.”
Hunter’s passion for dance music was fuelled by her family’s beach parties when she was a girl, soundtracked by the turn of the century’s popular Ministry of Sound compilations.
Since basing herself in the US a few years ago, she has doggedly pursued writing opportunities with hit-making producers including Deja Vu co-writer Chris Malinchak and renowned DJ Erick Morillo.
She found the “boy’s club” of the dance world difficult to break into as an artist rather than as a DJ or producer.
“We’re now deep in the world of streaming and full-packaged artists. If you rock up to a record label, they don’t care unless you have every song done, videos done, your look is done, you have a social media following and know how to work in the studio or perform live,” she said.
“Artist development is dead. I learned that pretty quickly over the past couple of years and that’s how I got signed to Armada, by having my song ready to go.”
Hunter plans on heading home at the end of the year to link up with her DJ brother Jackson for live performances to launch new music.