Peter Hunt is a Mullumbimby-based composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist whose music draws on African, jazz, soul and global folk traditions. He is known for his vocals, fingerpicked guitar and trumpet, and also brings bass and piano into his writing and recording. The result is a warm, cross-cultural sound that has become a distinctive part of the NSW music scene and well beyond.
Since 2004 Peter has been the principal songwriter, vocalist, trumpet player and manager of Kooii, a five-piece band that has toured Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines. Kooii has played Byron Bay Bluesfest, Woodford Folk Festival, Splendour in the Grass, Island Vibe, Reggaetown, Kuranda Roots Festival and New Zealand’s Parihaka Festival. The band has released two albums, Beads on a String (2005) and In This Life (2010), along with the EP Call Out (2012). In 2010 Peter won the Queensland Music Award for Best Song in the Blues and Roots category, and in 2025 he and Kooii signed a five-year deal with Yama-Nui Records with the plan to build both the full band and Peter’s solo work.
Alongside Kooii, Peter has built a solo and small-ensemble career under his own name, where his more contemplative, acoustic songwriting comes to the fore. He released his debut solo album Vessel in 2020, followed by the singles “Garden’s Soul” (2023) and “Long to Be” (2025). He performs solo and with a band of Northern Rivers musicians at theatres, festivals and house concerts. Having a local band makes regular touring around regional NSW easy, and Peter finds the two projects keep feeding into each other.
Peter is also an experienced international collaborator. In 2015 he toured Australia, North America and Europe as trumpet player with Xavier Rudd & the United Nations, and he has worked with Bobby Alu, Greg Sheehan, Harry James Angus and Tenzin Choegyal. He also runs community singing circles across the Northern Rivers.
Peter Hunts solo work welcomes listeners into a wonder and peace calling space with his soul-tendering voice enveloped in the pulsating grooves he weaves finger-picking the guitar. Following the architecture of a tree, he grounds his music in palpable rhythms, and from those roots, allows his melodies to soar to the upper branches, offering listeners unique and exotic fruits, from familiar but unnameable lands.
