Doomed Confessionary: Trevor Richards (The Long Hunt)

The Long Hunt is a three-piece instrumental doom, drone, heavy-psych band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The group is known for blending sparse minimalism and textured drones with hard-hitting guitar riffs and memorable melodies. The music is both adaptable and dynamic, able to shift in volume and mood at a moment’s notice. With live shows often accompanied with samples, lights, and projected images, the band strives to create an immersive experience for the audience.

The Long Hunt have just released their fourth full-length album »Natural Order« on July 18th, 2025. Building upon the foundation set from previous work, the band expands its signature all-instrumental sound across eight new tracks of post-psychedelic drone-doom. Dense fuzzed-out guitars give way to sparse interludes and textured minimalism, with driving bass and drums creating a firmament that encapsulates sprawling sonic landscapes. The exclusion of vocals and lyrics allows ample space for the listener to create their own worlds to explore.

In many philosophical and spiritual traditions, the number 4 is associated with the four elements: earth, air, fire, and water, which are seen as foundational to the world and physical nature. It’s a number often linked to order, structure, and natural cycles, such as the four seasons and the four phases of the moon.

Can you please say a few words about your band?
The Long Hunt is a three piece instrumental doom/drone/heavy-psych band from Pittsburgh, PA, USA. We started in 2016 and have since released four albums. The music is sometimes heavy, sometimes melodic, sometimes experimental and noisy. Oftentimes grooving and psychedelic. The band consists of Trevor Richards on guitar, Allison Kacmar Richards on bass, and Mark Lyons on drums.

What was the biggest challenge for the band?
As a completely self funded and DIY entity, I think one of our biggest challenges is simply getting our name and music out there to the right eyes and ears. There is a constant stream of new music being released every week and it’s easy for a band our size to get lost in the flow.

What can you be most proud of so far?
I’d say our biggest achievement thus far would be releasing our most recent album »Natural Order« on vinyl. The additional amount of work, time, money and energy to put out an album in that format is quite substantial compared to digital and CD.

What was your biggest regret?
There are things we could have done differently as a band over the last 10 years, but in general, we don’t tend to think of things in terms of regrets. Every misstep is just an opportunity to improve and refine the work for next time. The process of creating art is largely a learning experience and no one out there is coming to the table with a fully realized vision right from the start. It takes a lot of time, practice and experimentation to be able to put something out into the world that even comes close to matching the idea and vision one has in their heads for what the music should be.

What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
Our friend Shy Kennedy (Blackseed Services and singer/frontwoman for the bands Funerals and Horehound) puts on a festival in the city called Descendents of Crom. The seventh iteration is coming up this fall and we’ve been lucky enough to be on the bill five times total over the years (the most times of any band). It is hands down our favorite festival to attend and is something we look forward to every time it comes around.

What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
It was surprising to learn just how interconnected everyone in the heavy music scene actually is. Not just locally, I’m talking on a semi-global scale, with artists on every level, who are inter-connected through mutual friends and acquaintances. It’s a nice reminder to treat everyone with the respect they deserve and to not be an asshole to people, which is something everyone should already be doing anyway. One never knows how their actions, good or bad, might ripple out into the world and what doors might be opening or closing as a result.

What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Here’s the last ten or so albums I’ve listened to recently, in no particular order.

Neurosis – »Times Of Grace«
Quiet Man – »The Starving Lesson«
Axioma – »Sepsis«
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – »Luciferian Towers«
Earth – »Hex«
Blood Incantation – »Absolute Elsewhere«
Grails – »Miracle Music«
Steve Von Till – »Alone In A World Of Wounds«
Slackeye Slim – »Perpetual Doom Presents: Perpetual Tunes«
Goat – »Medicine«

What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
That you’ve got to make music for yourself first, something that you can be proud of and actually want to listen to. If you can’t stand behind and support your own music, why should anyone else?

What are your guilty pleasures?
Allison and I tend to watch a lot of trashy sci-fi/paranormal/mystery shows that get aired on the history channel, or whatever. I’m talking about shows like Oak Island, Ancient Aliens, Skinwalker Ranch, Ghost Adventures, just about anything bigfoot, ghost, or alien related. They tend to string you along from episode to episode and never really show you any particularly compelling evidence, but they can be fun.

Can you say something more about the current music scene in Pittsburgh?
Pittsburgh’s great. Lots of extremely talented people in the scene. It’s sort of like a giant family.

Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
We generally tend to play anywhere we can within a five hour drive of Pittsburgh, though we have been looking at our options to expand that travel radius further out. If you want us to come to your town, let us know! For anyone interested, we have our show dates posted on our website at listentothelonghunt.com.

What are your plans for the future as a band?
We definitely plan to keep writing and recording music. There’s a handful of new song ideas that we’ve been working on since we recorded the last record that will hopefully make it on album number five at some point in the next few years. I would like to eventually be able to do some longer tour runs across the US at some point, so that might be in the cards as well.

How can people best support your band?
First and foremost, come out to a show if you can! I feel our music is best experienced loud and in a live setting. There are a lot of improvisational and situation-specific elements to the live performance that are hard or even impossible to translate to a recorded medium. It’s just something that needs to be experienced. Otherwise, grab an album on our Bandcamp page at thelonghunt.bandcamp.com.

Do you have any message for your listeners?
Listeners (fans?) of our music tend to be hard won, but once brought into the fold, are often very dedicated and loyal. These are usually folks we have met out on the road or who have otherwise connected with us in some meaningful and often personal way. Lots of artists, musicians, creatives and just open-minded people in general listen to our music. The message to them is simple: your continued support and dedication is absolutely appreciated and it is an honor to make art that you find to be valuable and worthwhile. Thank you!

Links:
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube

Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well