Stephen Atkey – Vocals
Brad Trivett – Guitar
Corey Wharton – Bass
The band began in Vancouver, British Columbia when Brad, using years of experience in bands and IT, began fully composing music on his computer, including material co-written with long-time friend and former band-mate Corey Wharton. The new music was fast, concise, and particularly short in duration when compared to the music from Brad’s two former bands, Oddchild and One Tree Forest, both known for their vast exploratory soundscapes. The new material did away with the massive arrangements in favour of dense, rich music that got straight to the point.
Looking to give life to this new material, Brad enlisted the help of another long-time friend and former band-mate Daniel Beavington to add his unique and powerful drumming flair. Daniel had worked previously in many Lower Mainland groups, including Oddchild and Rune.
After working several weeks to nail down the structure and challenges the new material posed, the two were ready to bring in the earth-shattering talents of bass player and close friend Corey Wharton. Daniel and Corey had both worked previously with Brad in Oddchild, and were excited to reclaim the passion and start a new group. Corey had also contributed to the writing of some of the new material, and was quickly bringing more to the table.
Brad, Corey, and Daniel worked smoothly together as they were quite familiar with one anothers playing style, quickly rekindling the chemistry they had developed over their 15 prior years of experience playing together. They carefully transcribed the material from it’s original digital format and further expanded on the ideas by adding depth and dimension found only in live performance.
After a few months of intense rehearsal as a trio, the group felt that the time was right to make the next step toward completing the group with a powerful vocalist that understood the music and themes, but they somewhat disagreed on how to go about it. Brad was focused on lining up decent recording of the music, believing that the right singer would be found with a wide casting of good recordings and shows, while Daniel wanted to schedule auditions to see what their limited world could offer immediately.
Brad called upon another former band-mate and family-friend Kirby J. Kaye, enlisting his cooperation to produce for them a good-sounding instrumental album to attract the singer that was needed to finish their music. Kirby quickly contacted his good friend and sound engineer John Webster, and together with Brad, Corey, and Daniel, booked studio time and recorded the drum lines for the five tracks of new music in one intense day. From there, the group began recording the corresponding bass lines.
Meanwhile, in response to the push for auditions from Daniel in an ad online, after some respondents that unfortunately didn’t make the cut, the group received an email from singer-hopeful Stephen Atkey.
Stephen had recently quit his job in Edmonton, said farewell to his friends and family, and moved to the west coast, following a personal dream that he would find a promising musical partnership there.
The email that Stephen sent included a tough-to-find live recording of one of their songs, which he had used to assemble a layered vocal line using ProTools that immediately got the band’s attention. The quality of work done and artistry displayed was more than enough to hastily arrange a meeting, which went very well, and they decided to meet up for the next rehearsal.
After the first jam it was clear that the four musicians had a unique chemistry and with that, the group took their first lumbering steps towards significance by making official the roster of the new four-piece band.
By that time, the guitar and bass lines were fully recorded and the team was ready to lay down the vocal tracks, despite Stephen having only been involved in the project a brief time. Despite this, Stephen was able to quickly craft and record vocals that supported and enhanced the existing music beautifully.
Two months from that meeting, the group had finished and mastered the album to be known as Skyward Eyes, and were ready to grow the group further, but were unable to without first discovering a name that would fit the grandiosity of the music and the aggressive drive they all had toward the project. After some time, the group finally emerged as Hunting Giants.
Brad used his background in IT and filmmaking to create unique synchronized visuals for each song that are projected onto the stage in unison to the music they are performing live. Each song features a finely-crafted display of visuals that enhance and deepen the psychological impact of the music being performed.
Hunting Giants have performed at many events around the Pacific Northwest, and continue to look for new opportunities to present their music. The energy and precision with which they play always gets a powerful response from the crowd.
In the spring of 2019 Hunting Giants were nominated Western Canadian Music Awards Metal/Hard Music Artist of the Year. They also showcased at Seattle Hempfest 2019, among many others, and won Journeyman Production’s Battle Royale 2019 in Vancouver, BC.
The end of 2022 saw the departure of Daniel Beavington as the drummer for the group. The three remaining members were quick to regain their live momentum with drumming powerhouse Mac White filling in while a search for a new member ensued.
Hunting Giants is a group driven by their passion and curiosity, eager to share their ideas and contribute to their music community.