The Daily O’Collegian

At a 14 he went to drug rehab for pot.

He spent the next three years of his life making music in his garage.

At 17, he signed with Island/Stolen Transmission Records after becoming an underground phenomenon.

At 18, he has a full length album out and making some of the most creative and original music that can be downloaded.

Daniel Hunter has dealt with more problems than a character in a Lifetime movie, but has not let any of his past define him.

Upon his release from rehab Hunter had two choices. He could either fall right back into the lifestyle that sent him to drug rehab as a fresh-out-of-middle-school teenager or make a change.

Luckily for Hunter and the music industry, he didn’t slip back into old habits.

“Once I got out of rehab, I still had the same friends that were drinking and doing drugs,” Hunter said. “So when they were doing that I was writing music.”

PlayRadioPlay!, Hunter’s solo project, was born. It was lack of something to do while the people around him were lighting up that helped spawn his musical career.

“Because I had nothing else to do for three years, I went from a kid making really s—ty demos on a multi-track recorder in a garage to someone that produced their own EP and got signed to a record deal,” Hunter said.

His years of trial and error are what have helped him evolve from bored kid just out of rehab to one of “Rolling Stone’s” artists to watch in 2008.

He is more than hype.

The last couple years of songs on http://myspace.com and the 2007 “The Frequency EP” have culminated in PRP!’s first full length album, “Texas.” which was released in March.

Unlike most of his previous work which was done in the Texas teenager’s garage, “Texas” was produced partly in Los Angeles with Lester Mendez and the other half in London with Garrett Lee.

His said his time in both cities was entirely different but he feels that is what helps make the album complete.

“I didn’t do anything but sleep in my hotel and go to the studio [in L.A.]. When I was in London I was actually working at Garrett Lee’s house. I’d wake up and go downstairs to the studio so I was really focused on the record,” Hunter said.

“It was a very different experience in both places.

I feel like it mold together really well as far as the Garrett Lee tracks are a little bit more rock and the Lester Mendez tracks are a little more pop but they are all electronic.”

It is Hunter’s combination of indie pop and electronica that makes PRP!’s music so different from everything else out there.

The genius is that he is able to pull from multiple genres without being defined by one type of music and he still produces a refined product.

“It is really just what comes out of me naturally, I guess. It is what to my ears sounds pleasing and I am not trying to be a certain genre,” Hunter said.

“It has kind of evolved and is still evolving. I am not limiting myself to anything or striving to be anything.”

For those fans that are already begging for more so soon after the release of “Texas,” Hunter said he doesn’t plan on recording any new material until next year.

He has already started writing for the next album and he said what he has on paper so far is a lot different than anything he has put out before.

Hunter said he thinks he is inspired by the experiences he has but one of the most influential factors on his music is where he grew up.

“As far as what shaped me and the way I write I guess more than anything, living in Texas has been a really large part of who I am,” Hunter said. “I would be a very different person if I grew up anywhere else in the country.”

Hunter’s music is not like anything most people have heard and for some a slow transition into it is best.

Five songs that will open any true music lover’s ears to the wonders of PRP! are “Bad Cops Bad Charities” and “Confines of Gravity” off “The Frequency EP” and “Loco Commotion,” “I’m a Pirate, You’re a Princess” and “Madi Don’t Leave” off “Texas.”