FEATURE: To Watch in 2024: Gretel Hänlyn

FEATURE:

To Watch in 2024

Gretel Hänlyn

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I featured the mesmeric and superb Gretel Hänlyn…

PHOTO CREDIT: Brennan Bucannan for The Line of Best Fit

in a feature before. Rather than spotlight someone who is very much on the way up and has had a successful 2023, I want to revisit an amazing West London-based artist who is set to have a tremendous 2024. She is one of the coolest and most talented artists on the scene. I would expect to see her playing Glastonbury and maybe thinking about an album. A person who is amazing solo, yet there is a guestlist of artists I can see her collaborating with. I am going to end with a new DORK interview. They tipped Gretel Hänlyn for big success next year alongside a range of other immense artists. In 2022, Hänlyn released the album/long-E.P., Slugeye. Head of the Love Club (another long-E.P.) was released back in March. As it is Christmas Day, I wanted to use this special day to talk about a very special artist. Someone who is so oriignal and instantly compelling. I am going to start out with an interview that I may have used last time around. Earlier in the year, The Line of Best Fit saluted a wonderful and hugely impressive young artist on the rise:

“Hänlyn, aka Maddy Haenlein, has taken time out of her afternoon to catch up at a pub in central London for a chinwag over a pint. She sips on her Guinness contently, feeling better after a nasty infection earlier in the week. But also coming in armed and ready with the prospect of new music, a run of live shows in April and a festival slot alongside the legendary Iggy Pop this Summer, her drink is sure to taste that extra bit sweeter.

“I feel really happy with how things are working out,” says Hänlyn as she reflects on her musical journey to date. She first cropped up in 2021 with her distinctively brooding vocals marking her adrift from her contemporaries.

The buzz around Hänlyn has only grown since. Her debut EP Slugeye gained her critical acclaim and this month she deliver its follow up Head of the Love Club. It’s a bold new body of work which showcases an evolving artistic persona with depth, vulnerability and a brazen edge that’s characteristically ‘Gretel’. Most of all, it’s a statement that showcases just who Hänlyn is.

“I wasn’t trying to please any majority,” Hänlyn assures. “A lot of the time during recording, I was messing around with different vocal lines and styles that made me go ‘eugh, I hate that, let’s do it!’. It’s often the things that are ugly and a little too honest that resonate with people rather than nice, romanticised lyrics. They’re the kinds of things that make people think about what’s going on in their lives.”

Hänlyn’s capacity to confront challenges in her own life as a 20-year-old adult has been resolute. As a teenager, she went through an illness which impacted her muscle growth. This particularly affected her diaphragm, meaning that she had to learn how to sing all over again. “Emotionless” is how Hänlyn says she felt during that time and the numbness she experienced then continues to pervade her today.

“This is a little heavy, but I remember the time when I’d just finished my GCSEs, my mum sat me down and she told me that she had cancer," Hänlyn explains. "I didn’t feel a thing. Nothing happened inside of me. A few weeks ago, my aunt died. When I was told that, I didn’t feel a thing. It’s so weird. It makes me think like ‘what is wrong with me?’ But I think music is how I process emotions. I don’t get that catharsis without having processed it through a song first.”

That cathartic release sprawls across Head of the Love Club, which fuses elements of Gothic fantasy influenced by her background in short horror stories with searing doses of introspection. From energetic lead singles like “Drive” to more pensive moments like “Little Vampire”, as well as the gloriously abrasive title track, there are a diverse range of soundscapes which paint the EP in a myriad of eerily dark and colourful tones. “When I go into a song, I don’t want there to be a reference track of what it sounds like,” says Hänlyn. “I had a clear idea of what of what I wanted and what I feel would impress me as a listener, which was how I approached the project.”

Her latest material has been essential for her to compose: “During the time when the majority of Head of the Love Club was written, I had quite a strange and unique relationship with someone who was a lot older than me,” she says looking down slightly nervously. “There was quite a strange dynamic; for around a year, I found myself being so confused and obsessed with this person that I felt powerless, like a little girl. So, a lot of the EP is me reflecting on that relationship and often how tiny it made me feel”.

You can check out Gretel Hänlyn’s music here. There was a lot of love out there for her during this year. As she relaxes today and enjoys some family time, I know there is a part of her that is also thinking about next year. Personal and career plans. I think she is going to be an artist who will take some big steps next year. I want to come to a CLASH interview from July. When it was mentioned that she is being compared to artists like PJ Harvey and Florence Welch, Hänlyn said that this was really cool:

“There was a very exuberant, extravagant young man dressed all in sparkly pink called Zack, who I promised I’d get a drink for because he was singing all of the lyrics, but I couldn’t find him afterwards. Zack if you’re out there!” laughs 20 year-old musician Gretel Hänlyn via Zoom. Real name Maddy Haenlein, Gretel is known for her powerful vocals and unique blend of rock, indie and grunge. The young singer-songwriter has built a dedicated fanbase since the release of her first single ‘Slugeye’ in September 2021. Despite a whimsical and offbeat musical persona, Gretel herself comes off grounded and self-aware, speaking with refreshing candour and warmth as we sit down to discuss writer’s block, the pros of being self-critical and creating your own fantasy worlds.

“I didn’t always sing like this,” Gretel explains as we discuss her commanding voice, “I had a developmental issue where I didn’t really have enough muscle especially in my diaphragm so I couldn’t sing very well, and it took a lot of energy to sing. So one of the things that made it a lot easier to sing was lowering my larynx […] I do consider that to be my singing voice, but with this next EP I’ve kind of allowed myself to use my voice as more of an instrument.”

The ‘next EP’ in question, ‘Head Of The Love Club’ is out shortly, but its creation wasn’t the easiest process for the young singer: “Before I wrote this new EP, I had really bad writer’s block for a while and everything that I wrote I absolutely hated, but I didn’t throw away the demos. [The EP] ended up being the songs I wrote in my writer’s block.” Gretel remarks how the EP cathartically tackles “themes of ongoing rejection, how it feels to have an obsession that you’ve mistaken for love.” When writing the EP, Gretel found she kept returning to the same subject matter: “I found that I kept on talking about this one character, who is based on a real person, who I refer to as the ‘Head Of The Love Club’. This was someone in my life and I was tackling a very unique relationship with him where I didn’t know where I stood. There was a lot of confusion and my age definitely played a big part in my own naivety in that situation.”

Entering the music industry at such a young age wasn’t without its struggles, however. “I remember when I first started entering the music scene and I think it was my Mum who said that I might get hate for being too similar to Ellie Rowsell. I mean she’s just another great woman in rock, why are we drawing these comparisons when there are so many dudes who sound exactly the same yet they have earned their own place?” Often placed alongside the likes of PJ Harvey and Florence Welch, Hanlyn seems proud of the comparisons. “I like getting compared to cool ladies!”.

I am going to end with that DORK interview that acknowledges Gretel Hänlyn as a wonderful artist we need to watch next year. Before I get there, I am going to bring in this interview for Head of the Love Club. If there is maybe a sense that the very best is still ahead, this long-E.P. (or is it technically an album with eight tracks?!) is a hugely strong release that showcases a London artist with a big future ahead:

“Gretel Hänlyn’s Head of the Love Club is a boundary-breaking addition to the indie-goth-pop icon’s unrivaled discography. Using occasional pop devices to fuel her punk-adjacent eccentricities, Hänlyn has written an EP made in heaven for lovers of Fiona Apple, Mitski, and Mazzy Star, and is a modern gateway to all things grunge.

“Dry Me” tells us everything we need to know. Raw, grungy guitars meet Hänlyn’s low resonance and half-spoken delivery for an avant-garde, '90s alternative-inspired opener. Subtle instrumental touches like a cascading acoustic piano and fitful drums welcome us to the rule-breaking dreamscape that is Head of the Love Club, where pop boundaries are smashed through with a post-grunge uppercut.

“Drive” keeps the ambiance alive as spiraling, looping electronic drums dance under distorted, hooky vocals. Meanwhile, “King of Nothing” is a work of lyrical finesse, punching cleverly crafted lines over dissonant chords. With nonchalance, Hänlyn spits out, “You’re the king of nothing at all, you huel-fueled diet / fake tan fucker...” “Wiggy” is the catalyst for the EP’s shift in pace, maintaining the blithe, grown-up-teenage-dirtbag tone but relaxing the arrangement. Hänlyn’s signature unbothered cynicism coins us the iconic line, “Falling in love isn’t weak it's gross...”

While “Little Vampire” flaunts its '90s grunge flair, title track, “The Head of the Love Club,” is a witchy standout on the lineup. A gritty, distorted guitar marches out the beat while ethereal background vocals set the moonlit, smoke-shrouded scene. It’s a love song, but Hänlyn-style—every twinge of desire is matched with scorn, ambling through Mitski-esque melodies.

“Easy Peeler” is fringed with delicacy, a gentle sort of sadness that Head of the Love Club doesn’t reveal to us on other tracks. The acoustic fingerpicking lilts over the distorted bass line in a satisfying contradiction—soft meets steadfast. “Today (Can’t Help but Cry)” rounds out the EP with a hopefulness that masterfully balances the bitterness we begin with in “Dry Me.” A wistful guitar riff loops over droning synths, evoking a bit of '80s, The Cure-style nostalgia. The light arrangement lets Hänlyn’s voice soar, and listeners will finish Head of the Love Club with an addictive blissfulness”.

Let’s come to the Hype List inclusion from DORK. Fans of the majestic music Gretel Hänlyn is putting out, they spent time with an artist reflecting on an important year. It is clear that there is nobody out there like her! I can also see her having this T.V. or film career, as she has a natural magnetism and cool that you love to see on the screen. Go and follow this astonishing artist:

“Her songwriting and storytelling abilities and knack for bewitching wordplay mark Gretel as a special talent. It’s a craft she’s spent years honing and is forever evolving. “I’ve been going into rabbit holes left, right and centre and trying to find that thing that I want to have when I’m writing,” she explains. “I’ve definitely almost had it, but I’m trying to refine it and find the purest form of writing I possibly can.” There’s a constant desire within her music to take things further, either musically or thematically. In 2023, she felt like all the pieces that make Gretel Hänlyn so exciting were falling into place on the back of the most productive year of her career so far. “It’s been a year of artistic discovery,” she smiles. “Just before going on tour, I finally came home to myself as an artist. I feel like I really understand myself and the fundamental values of what I want as an artist. I want to enjoy writing and get some catharsis from it. It doesn’t have to be anything other than pure writing. It doesn’t have to be clever. That’s what 2023 has been for me. Discovery and building, building, building.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Louise Bennett

The thing that Gretel is building, is music in its most primal form. Powerful emotions distilled to their purest qualities. The realities of trying to make it in the music industry, though, often force artists to second guess themselves or subconsciously work against their natural impulses. As her nascent career has progressed, Gretel’s development as a writer has seen her fully realise that those early impulses are most potent. “It’s so interesting because when I first started writing, it was what I think of as really pure, just feeling your way through the dark type of writing,” she reflects. “Feeling it out and using instinct. That’s when I first started going to the studio and challenging myself with writing parts for instruments other than just guitar and vocals. As my musical tastes developed, I naturally put more pressure on myself to be smarter with my songwriting. Even copying certain sounds or certain atmospheres for songs and getting inspired by other things but feeling my way through the dark around it. I went down a rabbit hole of feeling like nothing was right, and nothing was ever enough. I was never clever enough, and it wasn’t leftfield enough. That’s the rabbit hole I went down this year, and I’ve come out the other side and I’m back to feeling my way through the dark and not knowing or trying to force my writing anywhere. I’m not pressuring myself to compare myself or my career to other artists that are maybe the same age as me or have a similar sound.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Louise Bennett

There might be some artists out there who have a similar sound in that they also make music primarily focused on guitar, but there’s no one out there quite like Gretel Hänlyn. Distinctive and singular in a way that makes her stand out, she’s continuing a lineage of women making exciting indie music while also forging her own path. “I always had obsessions growing up with artists in the same way that a lot of quite young women obsess over a certain band or another female artist or a boyband, or an emo band. I always had those obsessions, and I would deeply follow the characters,” she remembers. “I don’t think it actually clicked with the writer inside of me until I started listening to Wolf Alice. Female-fronted guitar bands. I looked at it, and I was like, wow. That sounds absolutely incredible, the amount of energy and female rage. I found it all very impressive. I was also getting into a lot of folk music when I was 14, and that inspired me to start writing. It was a combination of having that representation in female guitar bands plus the songwriting inspiration of people like Tim Buckley and Nick Drake. Nico was a big influence earlier on because she had a low voice, just like me. That encouraged me to feel allowed to sing. It was that musical and songwriting element, plus I was writing a lot of gothic stories at the time, as well inspired by Nick Cave. It all had a bit of a folky beginning, and then I got into the studio and started using other instruments, and it all got a bit grungier and full band-y.”

Those gothic stories are what became the heart of Gretel Hänlyn; from her debut EP ‘Slugeye’ to the grand flourishes of her latest work, it’s all there. It’s not just despair and sadness, though; despite the emotional resonance of her music, often it’s playful and funny and engaging. There’s a gothic underbelly which allows her to take her songwriting stories to wonderful places. “It’s a bit cheeky,” she laughs. “It’s just being real because one thing that I love is the beauty and the humour in the grotesque. It’s making jokes about something bleak because nothing is ever black or white; nothing is ever just completely shit. There’s always something funny; there’s also always something depressing about something really happy that’s happening. There’s always something incredibly pretty about something horribly ugly. It’s using the contrasts to make people smile or cry if they feel like they shouldn’t be smiling.” It’s these amplified emotions crashing into each other that make her songs such rich tapestries. “Exactly! Black looks blacker next to white, and white looks whiter next to black.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Louise Bennett

As the world of Gretel Hänlyn becomes more expansive, she’s looking for ever more elaborate ways to take things further. This may or, intriguingly, may not involve a debut album in 2024. “I’m currently working on a body of work, and I’m deciding what I want it to be,” she says. “Whatever it is, it’s the final milestone of me building the base of what my music is going to stem from. This is the last chapter of the beginning. It’s a mixture of both challenging and really great, well-written music, and then from there, the main thing for me is touring and playing music live. That’s my favourite part of all of this, playing live and travelling.”

In 2024, Gretel’s main ambitions are to continue building and reaching new heights. She’s already played her biggest London show this year at Village Underground and is looking to step up to the next rung on the way to her ultimate goal of headlining a stage at Glastonbury. But what about some of the new music she’s working on right now? “I’m not sure yet that this is the debut album. All I know is that I’ve got loads of songs, so it probably is. When I was writing it, I was thinking it’s a cult classic,” she laughs. “It’s a collection of songs; some of them have some really gnarly parts. Each song is quite fearless. Each song sticks out like a sore fucking thumb. I love it.” She also excitedly teases what might be her best song yet, “I have written a six-and-half-minute track that feels brutally Gretel. It’s called ‘Shame’.”

At one, with herself as an artist and the world that she’s inhabiting, Gretel Hänlyn is setting a marker for other new pretenders to try to reach. Good luck. “I just want to release loads of music and just throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. I’ll use that to write a big body of work. This is the first chapter of this next bit where I’m fucking Gretel Hänlyn”.

Go and check out the brilliant Gretel Hänlyn. She is, as you see there, entering a new chapter. Beginning this new phase. With support from stations including BBC Radio 6 Music, there is a lot of love behind this unique and promising artist. I am looking forward see where Gretel Hänlyn heads next. She is one of my favourite artists around. I know 2024 is a year where she will…