Michael Hunter is a Scottish musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from the Scottish Borders. Playing bagpipes, guitar and piano to mention a few, he writes, composes and produces music led by instinct, emotion and a natural understanding of sound.
Some musicians learn music. Others seem to remember it.
For Hunter, music has always felt less like something acquired and more like a language already held within him - one instrument simply leading him towards the next.
Born and raised in the Scottish Borders, his relationship with music began at eight years old when he started learning the bagpipes. One of Scotland’s most powerful traditional instruments became his first musical language, placing heritage, emotion and an unmistakable sense of place at the foundation of everything that would follow.
The pipes may have come first, but they would not be the last.
From bagpipes to guitar to piano to everything else
In his early twenties, Michael taught himself to play guitar. Piano came later, followed by a continued ability to pick up an instrument and somehow understand what it was capable of saying.
There was no carefully mapped route and no desire to fit neatly within one musical discipline. He learned by listening, experimenting and trusting what came naturally.
Place an instrument in his hands and he does not appear to search only for its notes. He searches for its character: what it can hold, how it can speak and where it belongs within the wider feeling of a piece of music.
Learning something new has rarely seemed like beginning from nothing. It is closer to remembering a language that had always been there.
That instinctive musical fluency allows him to move between the commanding force of the Scottish bagpipes, the intimacy of a guitar and the emotional depth of the piano. Each instrument carries its own identity, yet the musician behind them remains unmistakable.
A self-taught Scottish multi-instrumentalist
Beyond his early grounding in the bagpipes, much of Hunter’s musical ability has been developed independently. He is self-taught, guided by curiosity, persistence and an unusually natural ear for music.
Being self-taught does not mean being without discipline. It means building a musical vocabulary through listening, observation and experience. It is recognising why certain sounds belong together, understanding when a piece needs space and knowing when technical perfection might take something away from its truth.
That understanding can be heard throughout Hunter’s work.
His music is never driven by a need to demonstrate how much he can play. The instrument remains in service of the emotion and not the other way around.
Whether he is playing guitar, piano or bagpipes, there is a sense that the music is felt before it is performed. It moves through him naturally, finding the instrument it needs in order to take form.
Scottish singer-songwriter, composer and producer
Michael Hunter's music reaches far beyond performance. He writes, composes, arranges and produces his own music, allowing him to carry an idea from its first instinctive spark through to its finished sound.
As a Scottish singer-songwriter, his voice holds many of the same qualities as his instrumentation: warmth, grit, restraint and emotional depth. There is a lived in quality to it soulful without being forced and powerful without needing to demand attention.
His songs are not over explained. They create room for the listener to recognise something of their own within them.
Being able to write, perform and produce creates a rare continuity throughout Hunter’s music. A song does not need to be passed between separate creative interpretations before it is complete. He can remain with its original feeling through every stage of its creation.
The guitar might form its foundations. Piano may deepen its atmosphere. Percussion can alter its heartbeat, while the pipes introduce something older, rawer and more elemental.
Every layer has a purpose, but the finished music never feels overly constructed.
It feels lived.
A Scottish sound shaped by the Borders
Hunter’s music is unmistakably connected to Scotland, but not because it depends upon predictable ideas of what Scottish music should sound like.
Its identity lies deeper than that.
Growing up in the Scottish Borders among open land, shifting weather, old stories and the quiet pull of place has left its own imprint. It can be heard in the space within the music, in its contrasts and in the way strength and tenderness are allowed to exist together.
The bagpipes create an immediate connection to traditional Scottish music, but Hunter’s work is not held in the past. Guitar, piano, voice and contemporary production carry those roots into something individual and alive.
That is what makes the music feel authentically Scottish. It honours where it comes from without becoming confined by it.
The Borders are not simply a backdrop to the music. It is in the soul.
Music that refuses a single category
It would be easy to describe Michael Hunter as a bagpiper, guitarist, pianist, singer-songwriter, composer or producer.
Every description would be accurate. None would be complete.
He is a multi-instrumentalist in the truest sense - not simply someone capable of playing several instruments, but a musician who understands how those different sounds can communicate with one another.
His music moves between acoustic songwriting, Scottish musical tradition and atmospheric contemporary production. There are moments of rawness and moments of stillness. At times, it feels rooted firmly in the earth; at others, it occupies the space between memory, emotion and sound.
The connecting force is instinct.
From Michael Hunter Music to The Gur
Known for many years as Michael Hunter Music, the latest expression of Hunter’s work is taking shape as The Gur.
The Gur is not a rejection of the music that came before it. It is a return to its deepest and most instinctive source.
It is where Hunter’s different musical languages - bagpipes, guitar, piano, voice, song writing, composition and production are no longer treated as separate parts. They are allowed to meet, move and exist as one.
The Gur is music without the need to explain which category it belongs to. It is not the creation of a different musician, but the clearest expression of the one who was always there.
For an artist capable of turning his hand to almost any instrument, Hunter’s most distinctive quality is not simply the number of instruments he can play. It is the natural understanding he brings to each one—and his ability to transform that understanding into music that feels honest, grounded and alive.
Michael Hunter is a Scottish musician formed through instinct, independence and a lifelong relationship with sound.
The instruments may change.
The language remains his.
Discover the story behind The Gur or listen to Michael Hunter’s music.