During the family weekend tailgate on Oct. 3, guests enjoyed the musical stylings of The Hunts, a seven sibling folk band from Chesapeake,Va.—ages ranging from 17 to 26. The band incorporates harmonic vocals, thoughtful lyrics and multiple stringed instruments to create an “organic yet transcending sound.”

Mother Sandy Hunt explained that her children’s musical roots began early.

“I am a music teacher, so the girls were taught the violin when they were five or six years old, and then another, and another and another learned,” she said. “Their dad and I would do shows as well, and the kids ultimately joined us.”

After signing a deal with Interscope Records two years ago, The Hunts have released two albums, Life was Simple, released last year, and Those Younger Days, released in June.

I had the opportunity to speak with four of the seven members and their mother backstage in between sets.

Q: For starters, what are all of your names? I want to make sure I get the quotes straight.

Josh, Jordan, Jenni and Jonathan.

Q: Wait, do all of your names start with J’s? That’s awesome.

Josh: (laughs) Yes, they do.

Q: I know you’re all siblings and have grown up with each other, but when did you start playing music together?

Josh: We’ve been playing music together for the better part of our lives. Probably since we were five to seven years old, but we’ve been writing our own music for the past six years.

Q: What genre would you consider your music?

Josh: It’s a difficult thing to determine because we would be considered singer-songwriter, but there are seven of us. We sound a lot like indie folk, but our record label calls us alternative folk.

Q: Who or what would you say inspires you the most?

Jordan: Our inspiration is based on the experiences that we had.

Josh: We write a lot about our childhood, and we were raised on music like the Mamas and the Papas and the Beatles.

Q: Are you currently on tour? Where have all you been?

Jordan: We’re currently on a fall tour [Those Younger Days Tour].

Jonathan: We’ve been to a lot of places already. For our last tour we visited Texas, Nebraska, South Dakota, New Hampshire and D.C., amongst others.

Q: Where is your favorite place to perform?

Jonathan: Our favorite place would be Virginia because it’s so close to home and we have a lot of friends who come out and support us.

Q: What is the most difficult thing about being on tour?

Jonathan: Deciding what to eat.

Jordan: (laughs) Deciding where to stop to eat is actually really hard.

Josh: Being away from home for so long. You really start missing a lot of people

Q: What is your favorite song to play and why?

Josh: For me, it changes frequently. As of recently, my favorite song is tied between two. The first is “Douse the Flame” because it is slow and melodic. The other would be “Valentina” because it is written about an orphan we met in Haiti.

Q: What were you doing in Haiti?

Josh: We ran a two-week music camp at an orphanage in Haiti. We send instruments down there and teach the kids about music. We’ve gone every year since 2012.

Jenni: [regarding the siblings’ missions to Haiti] It is such an amazing experience. You will never complain about problems we have in America after spending time there.

Q: Where do you see, or where would you like to see, the group go in the future?

Jordan: We would like a lot of people to experience what we have to say, and make our music known.

Jenni: We want to dream big, but at the same time, we’re content with where we are. We love what we’re doing and we love writing music.

Mrs. Hunt: They have more songs they want to write, and a fan base they want to grow. They want more people to hear their music. As long as they’re happy, and love what they do … I am very, very, very proud of them.

Featured Photo Credit: Courtesy of Victoria Stevens.

Jordan Stovka is a freshman journalism major and can be reached at jstovka@icloud.com.