Eric Junge
Maggie Valley, NC (via Cedar Falls, IA)
Hungry Robot Pedals
www.hungryrobotpedals.com
How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place?
I have been a musician since I was 14 years old. I started out on bass and slowly added instruments. I would still consider bass my main area of proficiency, but can play quite a few instruments fairly well.
Who have been some of your major musical influences, past or present?
I am all over the place on musical influences. The purpose of music, in my mind, is to express emotions and ideas. So, depending on my mood, I will listen to almost anything that does a quality job of creatively expressing emotions or ideas whatever they may be.
What led to the start of Hungry Robot Pedals? How long have you been in business?
I started the company to build a few pedals for myself and maybe sell a couple to pay for the parts and break even. I can’t really remember why I named the company Hungry Robot Pedals. I enjoy works of science fiction, so that probably had something to do with it. It quickly became an obsession. I never really thought I would build the company to this point. I have surprised myself with the amount of knowledge and experience I have attained. I have been in business since Summer 2012.
How big is your operation/how many employees do you have?
Right now, I operate out of my home. My wife and I are the only employees, but will have someone hired hopefully by summer. I have been stretched too thin for about 6 months now. I have been waiting to move to North Carolina to start expanding. I’ve held out for expansion until we made the move, but the move has taken a lot longer to happen than expected.
Did you have formal schooling, or are you self-taught? Take us through that story:
I have a degree in Physics teaching. So the only formal schooling was not super applicable to building pedals. I taught high school science for a few years, working with at-risk juveniles and then eventually got busy enough to take it full-time. So my knowledge is completely self-taught. The internet is full of a wealth of knowledge that if you are a good learner and reader, you can really teach yourself anything.
What drives you as far as new pedal creation is concerned? How long does it typically take for an idea to come full circle and become a demo pedal? What’s the process behind new gear, and the eventual release of it to the public?
It always starts with something that I want personally and would use myself. It varies a ton. For me, pedal design is an extremely artistic, creative expression. Like any creative expression, you can’t force it. So it really depends on how excited I am about the design and how complex the design is. Some ideas take a full year to go from idea to production. Some maybe months. Some never go to production. Some might get tabled for 2 years and then all of a sudden, I get really excited about it and it is finished in a month. At any time, i have about 2-3 dozen designs rolling around in my head. I usually have 5-10 designs in some stage of development at any time.
What are some of the biggest concerns facing your profession today?
The market is extremely over-saturated. It is very hard to get your name out there at the beginning. It takes some very good marketing and very good product to have a successful company right away. Most builders that have been successful (me included) have just kept trucking and grinding away until things start to take off. Because it is an over-saturated market, sometimes really great products (especially from new companies) don’t get the recognition they deserve. So it becomes a market where it is more about shiny marketing than actual design quality. The ones that make it big are the ones with both.
Where do you see pedal building going in the future?
Weirder!!! I think the market has explored almost every aspect of the drive category. Companies have to start to find ways to do things that haven’t been done before to keep afloat.
For me, I expect to be doing a ton of Eurorack a year from now. Who knows, it may even dwarf the number of pedal workload. Eurorack is such an interesting world and as a designer, I am very excited because there is so much more that you can do in the Eurorack world that wouldn’t work in the guitar world.
Who are some of your favorite builders in the industry right now?
I have a lot. I won’t make a list for fear of leaving someone out, but one thing I respect is when I see a builder doing something new or different. I am completely bored by drive pedal releases or reverb pedal releases. I like seeing companies that are pushing the limits.
Name the last couple records you listened to:
1. Willie Nelson – Greatest Hits
2. John Denver – Greatest Hits
3. Johnny Cash – Walk the Line
4. Bing Crosby – Merry Christmas
The Klon hype: Love it or Hate it?
Tired of it. The Klon hype is over. Seems like every builder jumped on the bandwagon and now it is nothing special. Most guitarists has one now or has had one, whether it was built by Bill Finnegan or by a company that does clones. The design has never struck my ear as sounding super great, but I like my drives full-bodied rather than a huge mid presence, but I understand why people like it.
Thanks so much to Eric for taking the time to answer some questions! Make sure to go check out hungryrobotpedals.com to peruse all of their gear – Cheers!
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