Tim McPhate | KissFAQ
“The Elder” Writer/Director gives an in-depth interview, providing his thoughts on “Music From The Elder” while also detailing his film’s progress and firing off a message to his critics
In conjunction with KissFAQ’s month-long NovElder retrospective, “The Elder” film writer/director Seb Hunter has gone on record regarding his feelings about the album and what has led him down the path of making a film. Hunter also details the film’s progress, shares how he wants to approach Gene Simmons and KISS, and fires off a message at critics of his film, among other topics.
The following are excerpts from Hunter’s interview with KissFAQ’s Tim McPhate:
His thoughts on “The Elder” album:
KissFAQ: Seb, some KISS fans love “Music From The Elder” while others loathe it. Another segment is ambivalent. Where do you stand?
Seb Hunter: I’ve always liked it, but then I’m a bit of a contrarian. Everybody comes into the KISS back catalog at their own point. My first-ever real-time KISS album was “Animalize.” I thought it was good. It was Mark St. John and this kind of whole non-makeup thing. And of course, in those days, it was pre-Internet so you had to figure everything out for yourself. AC/DC were my first band. I think I went from them to Iron Maiden to Judas Priest. I was looking for the next thing. I saw KISS and [they had] a scary look, you know. So I made the plunge with “Animalize.” I liked it enough to investigate the rest of their work. There was a huge record shop near me. I went through “Destroyer,” and all the ones with the coolest covers. “The Elder” took awhile to get to because the cover didn’t draw you in. I think the cover is something we’ll come back to, because I do genuinely think it’s a fucking awful cover. It just doesn’t work for what they’re trying to do: to render a rich, alluring, mysterious [album]. It just doesn’t do the job. I mean we all like it now, because it’s part of [the band’s] history. But it really doesn’t draw you in as a child. I mean, “Creatures” is incredible visually. “Lick It Up,” I think is incredibly strong visually. “Unmasked” is a masterpiece visually. But “The Elder,” it’s just like …
KF: What are your recollections of first listening to the album?
SH: I think everybody always says the same thing, that they were confused. (laughs) Everybody wanted to like it. I thought, “Right, I’m up for this journey, this odyssey.” And the titles were portentous and slightly pretentious and alluded to something deep and weighty and mysterious and mystical. And the album didn’t really deliver. The album had certain songs that were great, that kind of made the album totally acceptable. For me, I don’t think I was old enough to have the guts to say, “I like this album.” I was so utterly, utterly in love with KISS and what they represented. And they had such an incredible narrative from the first record up until “Unmasked.” They certainly had their ups and downs, with “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” and all that stuff. It was just another part, albeit it bizarre-shaped, of the KISS puzzle for me to untangle and to discover. I remember thinking, because Ace was always my favorite, I wanted more Ace [on the album]. I was a young musician at the time, and you could tell when Ace was playing and when he wasn’t playing.
We truly miss you Eric…