FEATURE: Spotlight: Hannah Grae — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Hannah Grae

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A tremendous…

PHOTO CREDIT: Sam McMahon

artist who I have known about for a while, I wanted to highlight the brilliant Hannah Grae. I would recommend everyone checks out this incredible talent. To get more insight into and background to this amazing artist, I am going to source a few interviews. The first is from the Irish website, STELLAR. Although these are early days for Hannah Grae, there are definitely sparks of potential and ambition – her best work still lies ahead. I would thoroughly urge people to check out the Hell Is a Teenage Girl E.P. from April. In a market with so many competitors, there is something distinct about Grae. Her music definitely makes a mark. I will explore that more soon:

“In 9 STELLAR questions, we put the spotlight on your favourite celebrities and influencers to get the goss on their deepest secrets, gas anecdotes, and their best hangover cures, for good measure.

This week we caught up with Welsh singer Hannah Grae when she jetted into Ireland.

Who would play you in a movie of your life?

I’ve been asked this before but I genuinely have no idea. I feel like I would want someone like Florence Pugh but I don’t know if that’s just me being really vain. She’d be great. She has the septum piercing too.

Who’s the most famous person who follows you?

Probably YungBlud. I’m on the same management as him so he’s given me advice, which is quite sweet.

Who are your 3 dream dinner date guests?

Taylor Swift, definitely, Paul McCartney and Gordon Ramsey. I don’t think there would be any awkwardness. Imagine the conversations between those three.

What’s one thing you’re passionate about right now?

Crochet. It’s all I think about other than music. For my show in Wrexham the other day, I made the two-piece set I wore on stage. It was hot, I was sweating. I made a top on my knitting machine and crocheted the ends for my show in Ireland. I’m obsessed. I close my eyes and I just see crochet hooks.

I also released my mini album, Hell is a Teenage Girl. I wrote that project in 2021, it’s been a long time coming. But it’s been nice to explore the creative stuff and get to know the industry a bit. I had no idea about anything. It’s been wild, I’ve loved it.

I’ve loved playing all the shows, it’s special. My whole EP is about my teenage experience and my school experience. The title is more about me. When you go through bullying and stuff like that you become self-aware in a way. That can be really good but also not so great. It’s that journey and I think a lot of people can relate. The title came from Jennifer’s Body, as soon as I heard it I loved it.

I’ve also written my second project. It doesn’t have a name yet, but it has 10 songs on it and I’m very excited for that.

What’s your ultimate hangover cure?

I’ve got tips to not get hungover. The first tip is just not drink. The second is electrolytes. I found them in a health food shop, they’re drops you put in your water. I swear to God, even just staying up late, I put a few in my water bottle and I feel perfectly fine. Do that. Lucozade works too.

You’re getting ready for a night out, what song are you playing?

Probably Hannah Montana. Any song from the movie can get me going.

Who’s your ultimate celebrity crush?

Zac Efron. I’m a Disney kid. If I could bottle Troy Bolton that would do me fine.

What is the best advice you’ve ever been given?

I think the best quote I’ve ever heard is, ‘The harder you work, the luckier you get’. I think that’s something that always stuck in the back of my head. I got told that in school and I think it’s the only thing that stuck from school.

It makes me feel like I’m in control of the things that come to me. People tell me I’m so lucky, but I did this. I think it’s important to be grateful for what you’ve got but also to be proud of yourself.

Describe yourself in three words.

Short, driven and clumsy”.

I want to wind back to earlier in the year. Hannah Grae released the single, Hell Is a Teenage Girl. I do admire the honesty of Grae’s music. Not following cliches or the market as such, she is making music on her own terms. This is why she resonates with a large audience. If her demographic at the moment is teens and those in their twenties, I think there are a lot more years ahead where her music will cross borders and reach a wider audience. The Honey Pop spotlighted Hell Is a Teenage Girl back in March:

“It’s no secret that being in your teens can absolutely suck, but so many artists have turned that angst and turmoil into incredible art for the world to enjoy. The latest to do so is the incredible Hannah Grae, who challenges the status quo and stands firmly in who she is on ‘Hell Is A Teenage Girl.’ And yes, it’s as satisfying as that title suggests. The song starts off fairly mellow, centering around an acoustic guitar before Hannah exclaims, “you look the same,” with a higher intensity, and it switches into a rock anthem!

I really wanted it to feel like a journal entry of mine. For the first time, I had an urge to truly explore how I was feeling and not sugar-coat it with profound metaphors or fancy words. To be honest, I just wanted to complain. The whole song is a big fat 3 and a half minutes of me being an unapologetic brat, and I love it…I listen to it now and I’m proud of how honest and simple I could be. It really feels like I’m looking back on an old diary entry, and I already feel like I have grown since then.

We love how the contrast between he song’s two main sounds mirrors the contrast between who we really want to be as teenagers and who we’re expected to be. ‘Hell Is A Teenage Girl’ centers around a scene in the bathroom where the seeming It Girl of the school, AKA the boss who’s back at it, influences those around her and pays a little too much attention to her makeup instead of how she’s impacting her peers.

You could even argue that the It Girl isn’t a girl at all but a personification of the standards women are held to, especially in their teens when they’re trying to figure out who they truly are. Your teen years are a time when you’re juggling school, friendships, and figuring out what you want in life… but ridiculous beauty standards add even more pressure that no one should have to worry about. Teenage girls are put through hell on so many levels, but even then, they have the fire to fight back against social standards and become hell in their own ways.

We could really see Jenny Humphrey from Gossip Girl jamming out to this song in her first years at Constance Billard – come on, “prom queen so keen to ruin everyone’s life” totally sounds like something she’d say about Blair Waldorf! And “she walked from the mirror as I took her place” would so match up with the arc where Blair loses her Queen B status as Jenny rises to the top”.

Sound of Brit spoke with Hannah Grae when she was in Paris last month. She was playing Rock en Seine. It is clear that, now she is playing big festivals like this, there is this hungry and large audience out there. That will only grow! Make sure that you keep your eyes peeled for the incredible Hannah Grae. I can see great things in her future:

“SOB: In April you released the superb Hell Is A Teenage Girl, which we loved. Do you have any other releases planned for the future? Or a continuation of your tour with dates in theatres including France, for example?

Hannah Grae: I’ve got some new music coming out on Friday. It’s sort of the first single of the new era. I’m really looking forward to it. I think the next couple of months are going to be really busy and I’m really excited. So probably a mini album. And, after that, I hope there’ll be a proper album. And, obviously I love being on stage so I’m hoping for more dates yes.

SOB: You started your career very young, and we know how hard the music industry can be, especially for a young artist. Isn’t the pace too intense? Do you feel under pressure? Everything’s happening very fast for you…

Hannah Grae: Yes, that’s true. Everything moves very fast and I feel that sometimes I have to stop and take the time to digest everything. I’m grateful for how far I’ve come, but I have a very good circle of people around me and I feel that if I’m overwhelmed or stressed, I have people I can turn to. I think that’s changed a lot in the last two years. I think if you’re lucky, you have more time to make music. But there are places where you can go to talk about it.

SOB: How do you go about recording? Do you start by writing the lyrics? Your songwriting is reaching more and more people.

Hannah Grae: Oh, that’s a good question. I come to my producer with a subject, a theme. And he plays guitar for an hour. We find the right atmosphere, then I sit in silence for an hour and write the lyrics, then we build the song from there.

SOB: Could you tell us how many people tour with you? Musicians, technicians… We don’t always realise how many people there are!

Hannah Grae: Yes. There are seven or eight of us. But it’s a small team. There are four of us in the band. There are three musicians on stage with me. Then there’s my tour manager and my sound engineer.

SOB: Do you have any little rituals before you go on stage?

Hannah Grae: I like to have 20 minutes before I go on stage, in a room by myself, to prepare my voice. And I also take time to finish my crochet!

SOB: Do you have time to see other artists at festivals?

Hannah Grae: Yes, I love seeing other artists. I think I’m really lucky to be able to do it so regularly. Tonight there’s Billie, of course, who I’ve already seen because we’ve had several festivals together. There are artists I’ve seen several times, but I may never see them again.

SOB: We’re a website with a lot of small artists. Do you have any younger artists that you think should be given more consideration, that we could discover and talk about?

Hannah Grae: There are quite a few artists, I suppose the same age as me. I love Nieve Ella who’s playing tonight too. She’s incredible and deserves recognition. She’s brilliant”.

I am going to finish off with an interview from DORK. They chatted with Hannah Grae very recently. This is a great time to spotlight her, as she has performed some important dates. Her music and name is reaching throughout Europe. It will not be long until the U.S. comes calling. Since the amazing single, Propaganda (2022), to her current, Screw Loose, this is a wonderful young artist with ambition and a real passion for what she does. It is only a matter of time before she penetrates the mainstream:

“Right now, though, Hannah is feeling nothing but excitement. She’s about to head out on a two-week European festival tour that’ll see her play the likes of Sziget, Pukkelpop and Rock En Seine before appearing at Reading & Leeds. Not bad, considering she only played her first outdoor gig in May. Hannah already knows what every festival stage will look like, thanks to an evening sat on Google, and has just one day to crochet eleven different hats inspired by the flags of each country she’ll be visiting. During each set, she’ll throw one into the audience, but for now, it’s a way for her to wrap her head around exactly how momentous this summer is turning out to be.

It’s made more special because, for a long time, Hannah really wasn’t sure if things were going to happen.

Growing up, Hannah believed music only existed within the worlds of film, TV and theatre. She loved Hannah Montana and had her mind blown when she discovered Justin Bieber as a ten-year-old. Her original plan was to work in musical theatre, but then she saw an episode of Friends where Phoebe Buffay writes a song, which sparked something within her. Hannah wrote her own “ridiculous” track called ‘The Chicken Song’ and would play it constantly. “I just loved creating something from nothing and playing it to people.” She carried on doing that throughout her teenage years, writing stripped-down, piano-led pop songs based on stories and suggestions sent in by her blossoming YouTube following. A rejection from theatre school coincided with her first proper studio session, and she quickly realised playing her own music is all she really wanted to do.

From there, she started posting rock-inspired covers and reworkings on TikTok as she chased what felt good and set about figuring out how to bring that untethered joy to her own music. In 2021, she shared an updated version of Aqua’s ‘Barbie Girl’ featuring pointed lyrics like “they think that they can stare, undress me anywhere. ‘It’s just romantic, stop being dramatic’.” It quickly racked up millions of views on YouTube and TikTok.

While ‘Hell Is A Teenage Girl’ offered empowerment and giddy catharsis around every corner, Hannah isn’t sure you’ll finish listening to this next record and feel excited. “It’s more a picture of a really bad time in someone’s life. Hopefully, if anyone has gone or is going through that, they’ll feel seen. That’s all you need sometimes.”

Hannah’s spent this festival season sharing the bill with artists like Dylan, Nieve Ella and Maisie Peters, who make unapologetic guitar-driven anthems. “I’m so inspired by all those women. I love seeing that feminine energy in something that is usually quite masculine. It’s just so powerful,” she explains. “They’re all so lovely as well; it feels like a big community.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Frances Beach

Her ambitions haven’t changed since she released ‘Propaganda’, though. “They were always quite unrealistic,” she grins. “I wanted to take over the world. I still want to, as well. I do get lost in my ambition,” she admits. “But I think you need to be a little bit delusional if you want to do this.”

For the moment, Hannah is focusing on giving each new song its own moment and has her sights set on playing some headline shows. “All I really want is to be in a room full of people singing my lyrics back to me, who find something meaningful in them. I think a lot of us feel like we’re on the outside of something,” she adds. “I want to create something that feels inclusive.”

“I also want to prove to people they can do things they’ve been told they can’t do. And that it can be fun”.

An exiting and busy summer for Hannah Grae, she will have time towards the end of the year to reflect on a wonderful and successful 2023. Things will only get bigger and better. I am sure that she will want to play in countries further afield than those in Europe. Maybe an album is coming. I can see her collaborating with artists like Nieve Ella. An exciting blend of contemporary Pop with something very personal, her dedicated and loyal fanbase is growing. I would recommend everyone checks her out. These may be the first steps from Hannah Grae. But what is clear righty away is how big an impression…