An interview on the making of “Desiderium,” out now on QUSP
Transmission 422: Interview with Jacqui Hunt
Jacqui Hunt is an Australian vocalist and songwriter. In 1986, in her late teens, she joined Single Gun Theory, an electronic band built around the programming of Pete Carnac, staying with the project through three albums released between 1987 and 1994. The band received an ARIA nomination in the electronic dance category, charted in Spain with “Exorcise This Wasteland,” and toured North America with Sarah McLachlan after signing to Nettwerk Records.
Artist: Jacqui Hunt
Release Date: 2026-06-26
Genres: Dream Pop, Indie Pop, Synth Pop
Label: QUSP
Description: Jacqui Hunt talks about "Desiderium," her new album on QUSP, 18 years after "Auraphonic." Music, grief and memory.
In the late 1990s Hunt wrote and sang “Euphoria (Firefly)” with Bill Leeb (read our interview with Bill Leeb) and Rhys Fulber of Delerium; a remix of the track won a Juno Award. Her solo debut, “Auraphonic,” followed in 2008, its track “Calisthenics” licensed for the film “Adore.” She has also collaborated with Paul Mac, Vision Four 5, and David McClymont of Orange Juice, moving through these projects with the ease of someone who has never treated genre as a fence.
Her new album, ‘Desiderium,’ arrives eighteen years after ‘Auraphonic,’ written after Hunt lost both parents to cancer within eighteen months of each other.
Featured image: © Brian Conolly
What were you listening to just before you started making music? Which artists or bands originally pushed you toward the electronic scene with Single Gun Theory?
I was around age 19-20 when I first joined Single Gun Theory. Radio played a huge part in introducing new bands to me. These very early years of my life I was absorbing a lot of different music, including listening to bands that friends and family liked. I remember being introduced to Severed Heads around age 17-18, and hearing The Birthday Party track “Deep In the Woods” on radio and being totally stopped in my tracks, and instantly converted to the temple of Nick, which was a long way from electronic. I recall hearing Laurie Andersons “Oh Superman” for the first time on my cassette radio one night when I should have been asleep with school the next day, extremely memorable and captivating.The electronic label was something I became aware of as I grew older, and certainly through SGT. I was not so genre driven really, more track driven, and persona driven, and I still am to a certain degree.. Some artists that would have been in the mix for me: This Mortal Coil, The Cocteau Twins, The Smiths, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, New Order, Kate Bush, Madonna, Malcolm Mclaren,The Police, Brian Eno and David Byrne, Cabaret Voltaire, Prince ( Purple Rain) Eurythmics, The Cure, Monsoon, Divinyls, Soft Cell, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Blondie, Bowie, Donna Summer, Severed Heads, Talking Heads, Frankie goes to Hollywood, Peter Gabriel, and the list goes on. Pete Carnac from SGT may have been driven to create electronically, coming from a background in computer science. He is a tad over a decade ahead of me in age, so his teens and early 20’s had completely different musical influences, and he produced the tracks.Im sure there would be some surprises in there.. I was equally excited by the culture that went side by side with the music. I’m talking pre 1987. We were very absorbed in our own creations and after a certain point, and I don’t recall who we may have been compared to, I always felt SGT had our own handwriting.
There is a line in the sand, the before and the after. I have preserved memories in these songs absolutely, and for me those few minutes hold a vast amount of emotions and visuals, far greater than the sum of the song.”
—Jacqui Hunt
Desiderium is your first album in 18 years. Why was now the right moment to step back into the spotlight?
Oh it was definitely time for me to release something ! I had always intended to release another solo work, I did a few collaborations in those years, and kept writing and jamming along the way. I kept music in my private life, and those who are close to me know that it was my intention. After the deaths of both my parents from cancer in just over 18 months apart, followed by and my substantial bout of surgery and healing. Time was a very important alarm. My parents were not super old, and I did start to think.. none of us know how long we have, so we have to seize the day. It had been an enormous few years mentally and physically. Sitting at the piano /keyboard was such a great relief of my thoughts, along with programming, a massive portal to something I needed, an escape and a return to passion. I needed to release the album to acknowledge a part of myself I had kept putting aside, to step into the reality of time. To mark this era, a departure and an arrival.
You launched Single Gun Theory 40 years ago. How has your relationship with your own voice changed since then?
Oh I appreciate the ease of which I could do certain things 40 years ago, I also appreciate the ways in which my voice has matured, I am a better guardian of it now than ever before, and are more deeply tuned to the nuances. We have been longtime companions, sometimes frustrated with each other, but shared some great times with future plans still on the horizon.
It conveyed so much to one another with so little. It is a love song; the poem stretches back through time and distance.”
—Jacqui Hunt
Desiderium means a profound yearning for something lost. Was writing this album more about processing grief or preserving memory?
Elements of both. The lost part in myself after life changing experiences. There is a line in the sand, the before and the after. I have preserved memories in these songs absolutely, and for me those few minutes hold a vast amount of emotions and visuals, far greater than the sum of the song. I think known as temporal compression.There has been a huge yearning for many things through this grieving process, and perhaps none more than my own peace at times. Longing for the understanding of why people behave as they do, yearning for truth. A comprehension that not all I desire to understand or resolve will occur, yet the desire never remains.A longing for a past emotion.
After the deaths of both my parents from cancer in just over 18 months apart… none of us know how long we have, so we have to seize the day.”
—Jacqui Hunt
The album touches deeply on the concept of “inheritance.” What is the ultimate emotional inheritance your parents left you?
My father who was not religious said to me he believed in women’s intuition, and I feel that while I have always had an awareness of what that is, I may not have always acted accordingly. I’m listening more deeply these days to my own… perhaps that is not considered an emotion, but he tuned me into that observation of myself.. He was optimistic and passionate, and resilient and joyful. I know I carry parts of these traits. My mother gave me a good dose of empathy and humour was another. I could really laugh with mum at times. Any spiritual slant came from my mother, …the ultimate would have to be “loving” and “gratitude” from both.
What is the story behind the focus track “Cape of Light,” and why did you choose it to lead the album?
Cape of Light is about feeling overwhelmed, broken and empty, then receiving love you had almost given up on. When love is given and not destined to be recipricated in that moment, it is so humbling. So beautiful it is capable of shifting the emotional landscape, destroying nightmares. The track also demonstrates the intimate organic sound of the album along with electro fusion.
“Planet” started as a poem sent by your husband from overseas. What was it like turning his written words into a spontaneous love song?
I just thought it beautiful and felt compelled since we had begun collaborating, and I was curious to know if Brian would like what I did. The version on the album isn’t the original version, I’m actually curious to dig that out sometime. It sort of came back into focus while writing the album. The anchor that has sustained a lot of turbulence and still holding.
Kade was 19 when he made this video, my mother was 19 when she had me… The creative cycles of generations was in the past and present.”
—Jacqui Hunt
The video for “Cycles” was directed by Kade Stenders, whose parents directed Single Gun Theory videos decades ago. How did that full-circle moment feel?
It was extremely special, the emotional connection was so symbolic. Kade was 19 when he made this video, my mother was 19 when she had me. The black and white photo I am holding in the clip is my mother acting in a play directed by my father. The play being a “Taste of Honey” written by Shelagh Delaney premiered when she was 19. The creative cycles of generations was in the past and present. It was fuelled by passion and desire to create. While relatively simple the song, I feel that there are so many layers and family ties that again fall into temporal compression.
Outside of music, what art, literature, or films helped shape the mood board for Desiderium?
I have been drawn to the art of James Turrell for a long time.The light, shape and colour of his work, the contemplative nature in the airy minimalism reaches a part of me that is difficult to articulate. For me it is in the silence of observation I become quite consumed. The spacious aspect. It opens an internal conversation.This influence is reflected in the vinyl artwork. I have also experienced unforgettable visuals during meditation, alone and guided, which I do on a weekly basis, and have for some time now in a small group. A giant future powered gradient light orb I saw my mother enter the day before she died was unforgettable. The colours and the deep humming sound, the energy source and speed capabilities of this orb was beyond my comprehension. There were a few others inside as well. It still blows me away when I reflect on it. I am drawn to the paintings by American artist Virginia Shepley for this reason, connecting on a spiritual level for me, and Hilma af Klint. I was also intrigued by some old films such as “Meetings with Remarkable Men” and ” The Colour of Pomegranates” and Elizabeth Taylors ” Boom”. I was curious about mystic Gurdjieff for a while, the dance sequences especially .. Mysticism is fascinating for me, and I enjoy researching, and delving into philosophy and historical figures. While venturing down rabbit holes, Australian artist Charles Blackman did a series based on Alice In Wonderland. I have an etching that belonged to my late mother Maggie, she gave it to me a little while before she died. It was an extremely symbolic piece in her life, and the circumstances under which it was given to me. My track ‘Alice Magic” was inspired by this. I have also admired the very clean photographs of Petrina Hicks, and Cristine Coral. My own photographic work and art is also entwined in the mood. I have a lot of books from my late father, theatrical scripts, books on the theatre for which he was hugely active in his entire life. I have been meandering and flicking through all sorts of things. Really quite a bittersweet luxury. These are some of the moods that come to mind with Desiderium. The video for “Cycles” has a theatrical staged setting for example.
Do you have plans to bring Desideriumto a live stage, and what would that show look like?
I would love to do some live shows, and I’m imagining it will be 2027. I am just about ready to begin experimenting and rehearsing. First as as duo, to get the back bone of the set, that’s as far ahead as I can be at this stage, but I can say it is the next progression.
Are you working on new material?
I have a couple of remixes in the pipeline, and I feel very inspired. One 18 year gap is enough! Hahah…I write lyrics in my phone constantly on the go, and I’m itching to get back in the saddle recording. The album concept was very caught up in nostalgia for me as well, also a nod to the days when my parents both had record shops, another cyclic addition. Dad would have loved the white vinyl. I have no plans to stop creating music, in fact I feel like I have crossed a bridge in my own musical evolution, entered a new phase, and I’m beginning once more, even though it is all connected to the one me…the past is present in me always as I navigate the future.
Photos courtesy of Jacqui Hunt
Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others
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