FEATURE: To Watch in 2024: Hannah Grae

FEATURE:

To Watch in 2024

Hannah Grae

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AN artist I have highlighted previously…

PHOTO CREDIT: Frances Beach for DORK

I feel that Hannah Grae is going to do some incredible things before the end of the year. Definitely someone that we should all be looking out for. There are a few interviews from last year I will start with before ending one from recently. I will start out with an interview from DORK. They chatted with her back in August, Earlier in the year, in April, Grae released the E.P., Hell Is a Teenage Girl:

“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.

“It was weird because nothing like that had ever happened to me before,” she explains. “I read every single comment, and I got really emotional because I felt this strange sense of responsibility knowing I was responsible for the conversations that were taking place. I think people wanted to share their own stories and experiences, and they saw that video as a safe space for that.”

After seeing the impact that sharing something so honest had with others, Hannah started writing the super personal, super direct songs that she’s known for today. “I’m so proud of how brutally honest I am in my songs now. And I’m only getting more confident in doing that,” she teases, her background in musical theatre giving her permission to not hold anything back and removing any fear about being “too much”.

Hannah Grae’s ambitious, nine-track ‘Hell Is A Teenage Girl’ was released earlier this year. Inspired by Paramore, My Chemical Romance, Queen and Taylor Swift, the record sees her revisit her shitty high school experiences with all the swaggering, disruptive attitude of Mean Girls. “I wanted it to feel like a movie,” she explains, with a focus on worldbuilding as well as killer songs.

“School was a really tough time for me, but I always knew I’d get my revenge someday, somehow,” she grins. The entire process was a cathartic one, offering Hannah a much-needed sense of closure. It also gave others a chance to “scream about their feelings at the top of their lungs,” she explains. The entire project was written before Hannah had ever played a proper gig. “Seeing people’s faces and just knowing which moments hit, that was a really important thing that I took into writing this next era.”

And that next chapter starts today with ‘Screw Loose’. According to Hannah, the fiery, twisting track sits well with ‘Hell Is A Teenage Girl’ but is also quite different. “I’m not worried about that, though; it’s exactly what I wanted to say in this moment.”

Still imbued with the theatrical might of what’s come before, the track also features the angst and humour of early Green Day with Weezer’s emo slacker anthem ‘The Sweater Song’ another big inspiration.

“When I wrote ‘Hell Is A Teenage Girl’, there was a clear story, and it was all written in hindsight,” explains Hannah, who approached each song wanting to make something she needed to hear. “This second endeavour was written in real-time, as Hannah moved to London in January 2022 to pursue a career in music.

For some, that shift wouldn’t be as much of a gamble, but for Hannah, it meant she was the first person in her family to ever move away from Wales. While both her mum and dad worked in creative fields (drama teacher and film, respectively), she still had to promise them it was just a gap year and she’d return to education if things didn’t work out. “Oh, I always knew I was never going to go to uni,” she grins today.

Hannah soon found herself sitting in her cold room of a house she shared with strangers in an unknown city, questioning her decisions. “I’d spent so long dreaming of living in London, and I’d been so excited to get out there and chase my dreams, but I just felt lost,” she explains. “‘Screw Loose’ is about that feeling.”

“No matter what you do with your life, you probably feel confused about it at some point,” starts Hannah. “Isn’t it weird that if I had listened to my parents and gone to uni, I’d have just finished, and I’d probably be asking myself, ‘What do I do now?'”

This upcoming project might be more eclectic than what’s come before, but the themes are altogether “darker and less blind” than what Hannah has previously explored. “It’s got way more perspective,” she explains. “Life hit me hard over the past year, and I realised it wasn’t all roses. It’s actually quite a sad collection of songs.”

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”

I want to come now to an interview with The Line of Best Fit. I was not sure about some of the artists who have inspired Hannah Grae’s own music. She is someone in turn who is going to inspire a lot of artists coming through. Such a compelling and strong artist who is going to have a very long and bright future in the music industry:

“Grae’s music is littered with female influences, from Swift’s songwriting sentimentalities and melodic prowess to the energy of No Doubt and a powerful vocal dexterity that, at its highest reaches, carries echoes of Paramore’s Hayley Williams and Disney alumni Demi Lovato. “Alanis Morrisette is a huge influence, just how honest she is. She’s one that I definitely sometimes sit and think, ‘What would Alanis do?’” This writing as her influences and embodying their quirks helps Grae trial what feels right in her own music, but she reflects that on Hell Is A Teenage Girl she can tell that she was playing a character even though it’s autobiographical. “I’m just not getting to the core of things, and the more I’m writing, I’m just getting more vulnerable which has reflected in my real relationships as well.

“Before I started writing [for myself], I never wrote about myself ever – I was writing about scenarios or different perspectives of different songs. I was quite a closed book and I didn’t really love to be vulnerable at all,” Grae says. “I can’t tell if my communication has become better with people because of songwriting or because I’ve experienced more and got a bit older, but they probably go hand in hand.”

Grae describes some of her upcoming music as her most “devastating” yet, even if her feelings are masked under upbeat drums or an epic guitar riff, but others songs have challenged her to strip back the arrangement to allow her vulnerability to shine. One track, unnamed, was recorded in one take with acoustic guitar and documents the experience of grief. Another, “Number Four”, talks of Grae’s relationship with her mother”.

Rolling Stone spoke with Hannah Grae last year. Even though she is a fledgling artist still coming through, there is an ambition there. She wants to take over the world. Make sure that her music is making an impact and reaching people. As we look ahead to a new E.P. or album, it is interesting learning more about Grae’s past and what comes next. There is this loyal and growing fanbase behind Grae. So many people love her music. She is an artist everyone needs to check out:

“When did the transition from doing covers and reinterpretations to writing your own music happen?

When I first did my first proper writing session two and a bit years ago, I knew I wanted to be very autobiographical, because I had so much pent up anger and bitterness from school and I needed to get it out in some way. I realized that I got a lot of closure from writing about things, so that’s when that journey kind of started.

How does your debut mini album, Hell Is A Teenage Girl, reflect that anger and bitterness?

That whole project is different angles of my teenage years and my school experience. ‘Time Of Your Life’ is about me feeling like I’ve maybe wasted those years, because I didn’t have the best time. But, you know, that’s ridiculous. You can’t force an experience. So I’ve kind of took a little sarcastic tone in that song. There’s also like songs about friendship breakups and then ‘I Hope You’re Happy’ is kind of like a little ‘See ya, I’m doing better now.’

How does your next project build on what you were doing with ‘Hell Is A Teenage Girl’?

I took a five month writing break between those two projects, which was really beneficial. In that time, I moved to London, and I wrote the whole of Hell Is A Teenage Girl when I was still living in Wales. So I experienced a lot of new things in that five month period. The second project in terms of concept is more about starting your 20s. I guess a lot of it is about me choosing a life that I didn’t think I would choose, I thought I would go to university and I didn’t. In terms of musicality, I wrote that project when I had started playing live, because with Hell Is A Teenage Girl, I hadn’t played one live show yet. I took the experience of playing live seeing people’s reaction to certain things into writing my second project.

You’ve said your new single ‘Screw Loose’ “kickstarted a new headspace” for you. Where were you in your mind when writing it and the other songs you have that are yet to be released?

I was in a pretty bad place when I was writing that project. I was struggling elsewhere in my life and I threw myself into writing, completely just distracting myself with these songs. They’re literally my favourite songs I’ve ever written. They make me feel so happy now in hindsight, but if you actually listen to the lyrics [closely], pretty much all of the songs are pretty devastating! The first song that I wrote for this project was ‘Screw Loose’ and it was just when I was feeling like every day was the same and I lost a lot of hope for what I was doing.

What would you say the big dream is for you right now?

A big dream is for me to take over the world! My main goal is to be in a room full of people, no matter how big or how small, and every single person in there knows every single lyric and [it feels] so alive when I’m playing live”.

In fact, when reading this recent interview with Kerrang!, that I discovered that her mini-album, Nothing Lasts Forever, is out this month. A perfect time to highlight and celebrate the remarkable and distinct Hannah Grae. I hope that there are going to be more interviews with her. I feel we have only scratched the surface:

“When she first began writing music, Hannah was more accustomed to telling stories not about herself, but about others. She’d always fancied herself as a performer, but after being rejected from drama school she shifted focus, giving herself a more unconventional, self-directed education by making music for her YouTube channel in lockdown. As well as recording herself playing covers, she wrote reinterpretations of existing songs based on suggestions her followers would send in, such as a new version of Olivia Rodrigo’s 2021 mega-hit drivers license.

Hannah was far more reserved about exhuming her own feelings for the purpose of music. “I literally was never, ever vulnerable,” she admits. “I never spoke about my feelings to anyone. I just pushed them down and ignored them. The idea of writing a song that was about me, and the idea of playing it to people, was so scary.”

Eventually, Hannah felt more able to tell the world exactly how she was feeling at a given moment, set to a vibrant alt.rock sound inspired by everything from No Doubt and Alanis Morissette to Taylor Swift and Disney pop-punk. Her breakout moment arrived in the form of her mini-album Hell Is A Teenage Girl, a diaristic expulsion of coming-of-age growing pains determined to tear to shreds the idea that your school years are the best years of your life.

Growing up doesn’t stop when you hit 20, however, as Hannah has learned. When Hell Is A Teenage Girl was released, she was still at home in Port Talbot, Wales, but then moved to London to grow her career. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is a dream come true,’ and then I got to London and realised I had way too high expectations,” she says. “I really struggled for a couple of months and I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to write again.”

Fortunately, songwriting was still there for Hannah as a means of distracting herself from the awkward adjustment to leaving home, which forms the basis of her second body of work, Nothing Lasts Forever. The latest taste from that release is her fiery new single Better Now You’re Gone, whose fun and upbeat feel is contrasted by angst and regret. “It’s about that phase in a break-up when you’re convincing yourself that you’re fine and as the song unravels, it becomes more clear that I’m not fine,” Hannah explains.

The rest of Nothing Lasts Forever is a more ambitious, mature project than its predecessor. “I had so many ideas and I executed them all. It means it’s not the most concise, fluid project you’ve ever heard, but it really is just [going into] every pocket of my brain. There’s some very high-highs and some very low-lows on there, but it’s really honest. I’m really proud of it”.

Check out Hannah Grae and her forthcoming project, Nothing Lasts Forever. She is an artist who is going to be playing massive stages and headlining festivals in years to come. I think that she is a standout artist this year. Someone that should be known far and wide. If you have not yet discovered her music, then make sure that you spend time with…