Local musician Carter Hunnicutt is one of those guys I’ve just known forever. I’m pretty sure I met him while making band posters at the old Clark Graphics on Locust (in a space that was later swallowed up in an Atomic Records expansion).

Definitely we knew each other by the time this former XCleaver had started his own band, Flat Rabbits, in which my band’s trombonist played bass.

After only occasionally running into each other -- he typically on a Milwaukee Fire Dept. truck – I reconnected with Carter on the occasion of the release of his new CD, "Dangerous World," which pairs a trio of older songs with three new ones, recorded with Kelp Chofs and other local musical vets, like drummer Mike Koch.

Like the vintage of its material, "Dangerous World" blends the best of mid-80s music with contemporary sounds and styles and is full of catchy songs with memorable choruses. Hunnicutt’s writing is a little quirky, but it’s traditionally poppy, driven by his keyboard playing and vocals.

In advance of the CD release party, Sunday, May 22 at Circle A Cafe in Riverwest, I asked Carter to share some thoughts about his career and the new record and he had a lot to say...

On making music:

My mother was a classical piano teacher so I was not given a choice in the matter. She trained me, including music theory. She also listened to a lot of old country. I grew up to an odd soundtrack of Chopin, Eddy Arnold, Brahms, Roger Miller, Beethoven and Tennessee Ernie Ford. She taught me how to improvise and figure out songs by ear.

At about 15 years old Mom caught me playing "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" by ear and scolded me: "You can’t improvise Mozart"

To which I replied,"I just did."

I call myself a rock and roll piano player because I’m really into Jerry Lee Lewis and other boogie guys but I do have Mozart and Thelonious in my DNA. In high school any guy with a guitar that could play Stairway to Heaven had a circle of girls around him so I was motivated but self taught. A guitar player friend said that guitar players were a dime a dozen and that I should play keyboards. So I bought an electric piano and found I was in demand. I’ve been trying to sort out rock and roll keyboards ever since. But I never quit the guitar.

In college where I took a BFA, I met my buddy Dave Weidig (guitarist on this album and a very accomplished American fingerstyle guitarist who studies with Pierre Bensusan) I learned more guitar from him in two months than I had in all the years prior. The new wave was just crashing onto Milwaukee and I was playing guitar in a punk band called the I.V. League, performing songs solo on acoustic in coffee houses and Dave and I were in two bands where I played keys, one a top 40 cover act and the other a recording group called Babylon which did Arabic influenced music that kind of slammed Zeppelin and Adam Ant together.

On the XCleavers:

One fateful day I was in Mainstream Records and bought a keyboard magazine. The clerk was Terry Tanger of Those XCleavers. A week later we gigged at the Starship and a week after that we opened for Joan Jett at The Palms for 500 people. I was lucky to join the band after they were already established and playing regular gigs. The high-water mark was getting several songs into regular rotation on WLPX and setting an attendance record at Century Hall with our record release party. That and being called to replace Reflex opening for The Police at the Arena for 15,000 people.

Terry and I took our first trip to Jamaica and made a point of visiting Tuff Gong, where we met (Wailers’ bassist) Family Man. His reaction to our single, "Do The Confusion," was funny, he listened intently to this decidedly "not reggae" new wave tune and asked, "De topic is confusion? I like it, good beat."

On the drive back from Kingston the bus stopped in the various villages and people would surround us selling food through the windows. The guy next to me saw a young lady that struck his fancy and he called to get her attention, "Slim girl!, slim girl, sell me an orange" While they flirted I had my notebook out writing Slim girl which I played with both Those XCleavers and Flat Rabbits.

I did some of my stuff in the XCleavers, but Terry and Tom were such solid and prolific writers and my material was a different flavor. So I started The Flat Rabbits with Steph "Woody" Angelos, doing primarily my material and some of his. The line up changed up about four times in as many years but we were regulars at Century Hall. "Slim Girl," "Dangerous World" and "Big Road" from the CD were all Flat Rabbit songs. I also played on "Satan’s School for Girls" with Couch Flambeau, and was in the band for Clancy Carroll’s album "Honesty," and accordion with John Kruth on a few songs.

Life after music:

My day job (often night job) of working at Alpine Valley and at the Riverside Theater in stage management and production ended when the promoter went belly up. So I wound up applying to the fire department and despite very fierce competition made it in. I’m an adrenaline junkie so it was a great gig. But the job is 24-hour shift work every three days and kind of takes you out of sync with the regular world. The day after your shift is usually pretty much a sleep deprived fog. Between the job and the way that the music scene had turned into pay to play gigs, I set bands aside.

Back on board:

I continued writing and set up my studio (Dead End Studio.) I did some "odd jobs" musically. Played some weddings, did some accompaniments, a few pick up bands, recordings and some teaching. My brother, Walt, who ran Eastwind Studio in the ‘80s has a new studio called Combined Minds. He got involved in creating video tutorials for Steinberg, the German parent company of Cubase music software. He created a two-hour tutorial released with their product, basically writing the manual for one of Pro Tools' biggest competitors. Walt asked me to create original music for this project and that has sold over 100,000 units. A strange way to get music out.

Now after nearly 25 years it's time to hang up my helmet and turnout gear. A fireman’s life included massive sleep deprivation, some significant injuries, a few surgeries and a lifetime worth of "real life" experience which I think makes me a very different writer than I was as a college kid playing new wave and reggae but not really having that much life experience. So now I am going "full time" with music.

The Facebook group Lest We Forget became incredibly successful. The list of musicians from Milwaukee that have died is quite long and unfortunately getting longer. I have too many friends on that list. The big reunion show that resulted has for many of us from the old scene been the start of a renaissance of the Milwaukee Music scene. It got a lot of us out gigging again.

I played at the Lest we Forget reunion show with the Xposed 4Heads and the Blackholes. About 5 months later there was a bookend reunion show at Miramar. I met Kelp Chofs when we both were recruited to support the Dark Facade reunion show. Kelp is a gifted multi-instrumentalist with a golden ear. He was in the music scene in the ‘80s, He performed with Stall and other bands and was with the Irish band The Gleasons. He has worked as a professional recording engineer so he brings a lot to the table.

The new CD:

The "Dangerous World" CD was produced, engineered and mastered by Kelp. We have recruited Kelp into Xposed 4Heads where because we are both playing synth and are both tall bald men, Mark G.E. dubbed us "the Identikeys" which we have played up by dressing alike and using matching keyboard stands. Xposed 4heads released a red vinyl 7-inch two years ago and last year a full length CD called "Choose to be Human," which has shown up on Little Steven’s Garage show and on Doctor Demento several times. It’s gotten a lot of attention in Europe, too. In August we will be playing in Cleveland at an annual Devo fan festival called Devotional. We will likely gig here first to polish up the Devo covers we are working up for this show.