Interview By Alicia Jae

There’s a gentleness in the way Hunter Metts talks about his music — the kind that makes you lean in, knowing he means every word. His new EP, A Crater Wide, feels like an extension of that honesty: understated but deeply felt, a collection of songs that find beauty not in perfection, but in truth.

“I wanted it to be honest,” Metts says. “Even if that meant being uncomfortable.”

That pursuit of honesty shapes everything about the record. The songs are simple but intentional, built around real instruments, grounded melodies, and the kind of space that lets emotion breathe. There’s no excess — just a songwriter meeting himself where he is.

“I just wanted it to sound true,” he explains. “Good lyrics, strong melodies, real instruments. That’s all it needed.”

The EP opens with “Telescope Lover,” a song that feels like looking up at the night sky — tender, searching, and full of quiet ache. Its minimal production gives Metts’s voice room to wander, to question, to reach for something distant. It’s a perfect introduction to a project that isn’t afraid of stillness.

When asked how his writing process has evolved, Metts says this project marked a turning point.

“In the past, I think I was maybe scared or intimidated by writing about real things I’d actually lived through,” he says. “This EP is pretty much all real — my life over the last year and a half. I pressed into real stories, good and bad, and wrote about them unafraid of the response.”

That level of openness changed the way he approached emotion in his songwriting — especially when it came to writing about happiness.

“I thought it would be easier to write positive songs,” he admits with a small laugh. “But it was actually harder than I expected.”

Releasing such personal songs, Metts says, came with a mix of anticipation and vulnerability.

“While you’re not necessarily creating anything for an audience, you want it to resonate with people,” he says. “It was a little bit of everything all at once — excitement, nerves — just making sure that it was something that, above anything else, felt true to me. That was the most important thing.”

That need for truth shows up not just in his writing, but in how he collaborates.

“You have to open up fast when you’re working with new people,” Metts says. “That kind of trust doesn’t always come easy. I’ll usually agree in the moment, but then I’ll go home and ask myself, ‘Does this still sound like me?’”

The project ends with “Till the End,” a song that feels like a promise. It closes the EP softly, with a sense of peace earned through reflection — not a dramatic finale, but a quiet exhale.

For Metts, this record doesn’t mark closure, but a beginning.

“I think it opens a new chapter,” he says. “From a writing style or production style, I really felt like it was just so true to me. As time moves on and as I change, I hope that looking back at this EP keeps me in check and inspires me to keep pushing boundaries — to keep honing the sound into its own thing fully.”

He also hopes the EP finds a personal place in listeners’ lives, the same way his favorite artists did for him.

“A lot of the artists I’m inspired by were the soundtrack to my life,” Metts says. “I can remember where I was when I first heard them. I hope to do that for people — to be the soundtrack to someone’s life, something they look back on and remember vividly.”

Before wrapping up, Metts leaves one final thought — a reflection that feels as much about life as it is about art:

“Keep going until it sounds like you.”

And that’s exactly what this record does. It sounds like Hunter Metts — thoughtful, patient, and sincere. In a landscape crowded with noise and trends, Metts offers something rare: music that simply tells the truth. It doesn’t demand your attention — it earns it.

Want to hear the new EP live? Catch Hunter Metts on his headlining A Crater Wide Tour!