HANNAH FAIRLIGHT: LONE WOLF OR REBEL WITH A CAUSE? YOU DECIDE!

“Why play by the rules when you can make your own? Hannah Fairlight knows.”

That’s the intro from Hannah Fairlight’s press release for her new album Lone Wolf. I absolutely love that quote! Trained on classical piano but swapped it out for a guitar for her very first gig at 18 which was at the legendary CBGB. What a way to start! She not only played there, but she killed it! If that doesn’t add to your confidence (not that she needed any), I don’t know what does? She dropped her debut EP Creatures of Habit in 2014 and she’s been carving her path ever since. She’s been battling it out in the musical trenches with a love of music as diverse as a love of iconic storytellers such as Paul Simon and Dan Fogelberg to being a staunch Tori Amos fan. She refuses to stay in one lane or have her sound confined to a box of a single label. Her latest album Lone Wolf dropped on May 24 and she’s been busy promoting it and getting the word out. We were lucky to grab a few minutes with her for a great talk that spanned almost her entire lifetime. This was one of the coolest talks that we’ve had in a while.

How’s life?

Hannah Fairlight: It’s good man, it’s really good. I’ve been doing a lot of work prepping for the album launch. It’s been a blessing having, I call it, my team. I really do feel like I have a team this time around. Every day for the last three months it’s been boots on the ground doing it.

Before we get into the new album, I’d like to back up a little bit or maybe a lot bit actually and ask when you were bitten by the music bug. When did you know you wanted to do this?

I absolutely remember; it feels like yesterday pretty much. I guess I was bitten before I started making cognitive thoughts as a child. My dad was an avid record collector and music enthusiast. He played trumpet and flute in band during school. His father was also a music enthusiast and had a lot of big band playing growing up so he had that in his collection. Dad gravitated more towards songwriters and I would have trouble falling asleep at night. From a very young age he would play music to help me. John Fogelberg An Innocent Age was a big one. That was my main bedtime album. Carly Simon, Carole King, James Taylor were more on the soothing music front. He had a lot of others mixed in there too. I remember holding Paul Simon’s Graceland cassette tape and just running fingers over it and looking at the art and listening to it front to back over and over. I especially loved “Call Me Al” and I thought it was the coolest song. It may have been one of my first favorite songs as a child. So, it hit me pretty early on. I have an older brother Nathan and we’re a very artistic family. He took to visual art and was very good at a young age. I always wished I could draw like him and I would brood. My mom had always wanted a piano at her household growing up. We really didn’t have much money at all. She rented an upright piano. We didn’t even have a tv for a while and when we did it was a little tiny b&w with bunny ears. I remember it would sit on top of the piano in the corner. I was glued to the piano because I learned how to start figuring out songs playing them by ear before I learned how to do music reading. So I would spend countless hours brooding over my own non-visual arts skills. I started was seven or eight when mom got me into formal lessons. I would get babysitters to show me stuff on the piano if they knew anything. I did actually get an intro into reading music. The first thing melody was “Fur Elise” by Beethoven which was cool. I felt like I had a little magic there. I took lessons until I was 18. So, I had 10 classical years of piano lessons. When I was nine, I wanted to play the drums in school band and mom didn’t want me to.

I think most parents don’t because all they’re thinking about is how loud they will be! (laughs)

I thought it was the coolest and the most rock and roll.

Oh, most definitely!

The next coolest rock and roll thing was the saxophone. I ended up taking classical lessons on the saxophone as well all through junior high and high school for a good eight years. I picked up the guitar when I moved out of the house when I graduated. I went to live with a family in Peru for a year on a foreign exchange program. Up until that point, I had not gone an extended period of time without a piano. When I got to Peru I felt a little stranded not having one. I found a theater that would let me use their piano sometimes and a restaurant that would let me practice. I think my whole family was a little mystified by me that I would find these places that would let me use their pianos. Ultimately, I ended up buying an acoustic guitar, taught myself a few chords and that’s what I took with me to New York when I left Peru.

New York brings up another interesting part of your journey. You were 18 when you played CBGB?

Yeah.

What was that like?

It was wild; I didn’t even really understand how wild until years later. I didn’t have an understanding of the history of the place. I just knew after trudging around New York for a couple of weeks looking for a place to play that it had the reputation and vibe that I needed. I was trying to get gigs and I didn’t have anything recorded on a cd that I could give the clubs to show them what I could play. So, I took my acoustic guitar with me in the middle of the day and I literally auditioned on the spot (laughs) and I got the gig. It was my first gig ever besides piano recitals in the mid-west.

What a first gig!

Right! Talk about catching the bug; I caught the bug! I had friends that came and they recorded it so I ended up having a cd recording of my show that I could then use to get gigs for other shows. And I got paid! It was $75 which was a huge amount for me at the time.

How long of a set did you play?

I think I played 30 or 40 minutes. Unbeknownst to the audience, I practiced my in between banter with the audience because I didn’t really know how to do it yet. I memorized little bits that I thought were jokes and I practiced so hard. I only really knew about four or five chords, just enough to get by. I had this little handful of songs, just enough to get by, and one cover song. I played a Jewel song at CBGBs (laughs) I was flying by the set of my pants but it went ok.

That’s such a great story! I love it!

Thank you.

We did some work together a few years back when Covid had everyone on lockdown. It was an article of ours called the Lockdown Lowdown. In it, I asked you to name five albums that changed your life. They were all classics by iconic singer/songwriters. I can see how they laid the groundwork for who you have become today.

I agree; I feel lucky that my dad is such an emotional, sensitive person. Music was always that element that he’d bring into any space. Medial everyday tasks would always have music blasting. We’d be listening to Paul McCartney while washing the dishes or changing oil in the car. I went on to do that because it’s this way of decorating life. Music decorates time and I’m really grateful to my dad for having that kind of connection with deeper writing artists. Don’t get me wrong, he also listened to rock and roll. We’d be out on the highway and he’d blast The Who “Eminence Front” and we’d be all into it. So, he was there too.

It’s been four years since your last album Muscle and Skin. How do you know when it’s time to make a new album?

That’s a great question. The first thing that came to mind when you asked me is I drew an analogy in my head when you asked me of how I chose it was time to have our second child (laughs). It’s like the moment chooses you and catches you by surprise. At the same time, there is still some agency that you take on to put things in motion. It’s kind of like you knowing when you feel ready. I put out Bright Future and I had my son in the same year. We had the release show and my belly was way out. Then we put out Muscle and Skin and I had my second son. It’s so interesting on this one. I’ve not having a human child; I’m having a music child. This is something where I don’t set down and come up with a timeline where I need to have this many songs or this many albums out by a certain time. It’s never been like that at all. I’ve always been an open vessel and letting art come through me. When I feel like I have a collection of songs and I get a lightning moment, it catches me by surprise as it did last April. Over a year ago, I wasn’t even tossing the idea around of doing another solo record. I met with my friend Paul (Defiglia) who ended up being the producer on the album. He invited me over to see his studio. I had been writing some songs with a friend for a side project called Odd Cop, to be continued on that. I knew there was the possibility of him being involved in that. There was something about the meeting that just spoke to me all of a sudden. I had written the song “Fever” already and I got this crazy feeling like oh my god, I need to make a new record for me and I want it to be mostly rock and roll songs. I want to do it with Paul and record it here. By the end of the day, I came home and demoed all my songs out and sent them to him and totally overwhelmed him. Three weeks later, we were in the studio recording them so it all happened very fast.

Wow! I’m not a musician but that really does seem quick!

My favorite guys, Paul Mercer on bass and Paul Simmons on drums, were available in town and I got them. We caught lightning in a bottle; it was crazy.

All the stars lined up for you. It’s one of those things that were meant to be.

Must have been.

I love that even though you wanted a rock record, you still paint with a lot of colors on this album.

I keep thinking about the Stevie Wonder album Talking Book or the David Bowie album Hunky Dory. Those guys are storytellers and they paint these vivid stories with their lyricism and it’s powerful. It’s also powerful how they change their sound and take you with them and they don’t stay in one lane. I think that part of me will always be there and I think I’ll never make an album with one style of music. I don’t even think I could if I tried. When “Fever” came out of me, it was the challenge that I set for myself. I was excited because it’s something that I normally never do. It’s such a simple song. It’s very direct, three chords, which is nuts to me because I’ve spent all this time in classical music and did jazz band. Honing in the sound and getting things sonically to a simplistic place was actually a big challenge for me. I set the challenge for me and then I accepted the challenge for me. Let’s go! Then, “sum pal r jerks” is literally the story of me riding my bike here in Nashville near where I live and people don’t take kindly to bikers being in that area. This dude hit me with his car! Ok, I’m going to be like The Strokes in that song. In “Fever” I’m going to be like Bikini Kill, so let’s see how simple I can be. I wanted to see how far I could go with that. “Jaded” needed to happen, which is one of the piano songs and that’s Ben Foldsy to me. He’s always been in my pocket as a huge inspiration. I didn’t want to completely sell the piano on this album although I did on Muscle and Skin but it’s definitely on the back set on this album. It’s a very emotive and expressive; it’s my heart instrument. I can still rock it but I usually lean into it for my catharsis and my emotional support so that usually doesn’t connect with rock into it. I really wanted to rock it on this album. I wanted to feel like The Zombies.

The Zombies? How so?

Like we’re in this moment in time where our earth is falling apart before our eyes and people are still chucking garbage outside of their windows. We’re still digging for oil, cutting down trees and there are wars raging. I wanted to voice frustration there. Then, I’ve got these little tiny nuggets. I played my very first show at CGGB and I played the second song that I ever wrote on guitar called “Naked.” I played it at that show and it made it onto the new album.

What a journey that song has been on. That’s pretty amazing! Although you mentioned making this album was a quick process, was there any song on it that presented a challenge to you when you started recording it?

Good question; everything was pretty straight forward as far as my understanding of the song and the band’s. We cut pretty much everything live. There are three songs “Naked,” “Where” and “Just Feel Better” that is just me and the guitar. I went in and added just the tiniest element of synthesizer pad onto “Naked” and “Just Feel Better.” “Where” is just me, the guitar and my voice. Most of the other band tunes were done live and I went back and added vocals. The fun one was the title track. I wrote that late night, on my back porch a couple years ago. It was a cold winter’s night and the timing of it is kind of funky. It’s like a Neil Young one and it goes where it wants to go. When we went to cut it, it was at the end of a long recording day. It’s a story telling song with timing changes and stuff. There’s one moment that I absolutely love around the lyric “narrow my eyes and stick to the path.” Paul Simmons, my drummer, wanted to go back and retake that one because he didn’t change at the right time. I was like ‘nope, I love it exactly like that.’ I played my guitar all day and it was well out of tune at that point. I told Paul that the guitar was out of tune and I asked if we really cared. I said ‘I don’t care; does it bother you?’ It didn’t bother him. It was out of tune but it had the perfect sound for that song so we keep it.

The album is out on May 24 and then you have a big Hometown Record Release Show on June 2 at The Underdog in Nashville, Is there anything else on your radar that you might want to mention?

I want people to listen to album. I put a lot of work into the three music videos that I put out, especially the newest one “Fever.” I need to ask people to follow me on Spotify, You tube subscribe to me, etc. I also want to tour. I’m putting the music out there first to see where it sticks and I want to go to where the music is calling me to. The “follows” and numbers really matter when people are looking to book you. People ask me how they can support me and following me on my socials and subscribing to my YouTube channel really helps. I feel like I put a lot of content out there. I make a lot of it myself. I edited the “Fever” video myself and shot the first two videos of myself by myself. So, I’m the actor, the director, the editor, the star (laughs).

The likes, comments, shares, etc. really do matter and I totally get it because it helps us to.

The scrappy 18 year old says ‘do you want to see if I can do it or not?’ I’ll show up with my acoustic guitar like I did at CBGB and play for them and then they can tell me if I’m good enough for the tour or the opening slot or whatever it is instead of looking at my friggin’ Spotify numbers.

As we wrap this up, we do so with something called Three For The Road. We asked you the easy questions for to loosen you up. You know, kind of like stretching for a big run. Now, we hit you with the hard questions. Who was your first celebrity crush?

(Laughs) This is pretty easy. I have to go with the first one that came to mind. It has to be Ewan McGregor. This is not coming from Star Wars. Exclamation point, period, underlined. We need to talk about Ewan McGregor Long Way Round where he’s riding a motorcycle and his accent is super sexy. We can talk about Ewan from Moulin Rouge; now we’re getting warmer. But let’s talk about the Ewan McGregor from Trainspotting. That’s the Ewan McGregor that has my fucking heart and he still kind of has it. He’s been a little replaced by Cillian Murphy, but I think you can understand the pool of star that I’m drawing from here. The heroin addict, super skinny, punk rock type. Ewan was my first and I was probably too young to have even been watching that movie. I must have been 10 or 11.

If you could have any person, cartoon character, historical figure, who would be your inner voice, who would it be?

Michael Madsen.

That rocks!

(Laughs) It’s his voice and his facial expressions.

Last one; if music was over tomorrow and you had to go into professional wrestling, what would your wrestling name be?

This is obvious but I have to go with it though. I think I’m going to have to go with Hannah the Hammer. I have hammers tattooed on my belly but that’s from a Keith Whitley song called “Ball Peen Hammer.”

Yes! You could even cheat with a ball peen hammer foreign object! I like it!

Oh yeah!

Thanks for your time Hannah. It’s great to finally get to talk to you. My next quest is to hopefully see you live. Fingers Crossed!

Thanks Johnny; I appreciate all the support. See you soon!

Interview by I’m Music Magazine Owner/Editor Johnny Price