Hannah Fairlight- I sing, act, write, and play music. Former Gypsy, current Tennessee Cabin Princess.
Interview conducted on June 1, 2020
By Dan Locke
The songs on Muscle and Skin dance between sassy retro vibes and haunting string-laden odes of hope, lost love, and regret. “This Silence” and “Do What You Said You Wanted To” splash listeners with an upbeat self-righteous opening. “Too Late To Wonder” and “Do You Ever Think of Me” settle us into more familiar Folk/Americana territory, while “Bells,” “Money & Run,” “Mother Moon,” and “Walk Away” are beautiful storytelling ballads. The title track “Muscle & Skin” leaves us pondering our own accomplishments and defeats.
What is your upbringing?
I grew up in a smattering of lower middle-class households, across several Midwest small towns. We were pretty poor, but I remember a happy childhood filled with music, travel, gardening, and art. My parents were avid environmentalists and nature enthusiasts, so we did lots of tent camping and car traveling to many different state and national parks and historical monuments. We moved a lot, so I got good at being social at a pretty young age.
How did you discover music?
My dad had a big record collection and a strong admiration for many bands and artists. We only had a black and white antenna tv when I was little, and my mom rented an upright piano which I took to insatiably. I’d spend hours every day trying to figure out melodies and making up little songs.
How did you start to write music?
I wrote instrumental stuff first… my first “composition” was really an arrangement I made of Canon in D with different melodies and harmonies that built up and intertwined. I recorded it on a cassette tape and entered it in 4-H and it got honorable mention at the Iowa State Fair. I was 12 or 13. After that I started attending band camp each summer and wrote my first few “rock songs”, one which I got to play in a big talent show at camp one year. I still play that song today too – it’s called “Don’t Know”. I wrote that at 13.
What was the first LP you purchased?
Haha hahaha oh man. Ace of Base was on pop radio in Indiana, and I sang their songs all over the playground at 6, 7 and 8 and 9 years old… along with Mariah Carey and Amy Grant… that was my first departure from dad’s classic rock and big band music. but I wasn’t able to purchase music albums myself until later. I was 9 and there was this quirky second hand place my family would go to for some fun near our town in Minnesota called “Treasure Hunt.” (We’d also drive through Amish country for fun… aaah, the Midwest). I picked up cassettes of MC Hammer (Too Legit To Quit I think… though it may have been Let’s Get It Started) and The GoGos Beauty and the Beat, the one with them in towels and beauty masks. I didn’t really know where to start with finding music of my own, so that’s where I started after that it was a Bangles album (also from treasure hunt I believe), followed by a four-song compilation I begged for called Hot Traxx 2, with a Roxette song on it – Joyride – I was so obsessed with it I broke the tape playing it and rewinding it so much. followed somewhat closely by Crazy Sexy Cool by TLC (which was a gift from a friend at my 9th or 10th birthday, and my mom confiscated it like 7 times but I always stole it back). Then my first CDs were Shania Twain The Woman In Me, and Ace of Base The Sign. But I was simultaneously getting into Prince, Aerosmith, Beck, and bands like Soundgarden and Spacehog.
What was the first and last concert you went to see?
First was Weezer! I mean, I’d seen Herman’s Hermits, and a smattering of amazing blues artists and world musicians at festivals and fairs, but first-ever me-alone-seeing-a-rock-concert with friends was Weezer in the Quad Cities. I was the ripe age of 16 (it’s hard to see cool stuff when you live out in the corn…). I got all the guys from the band to sign the pink joggers I was wearing, and Brian Bell gave me his coat and tried to convince me to come to Chicago with the band. I was like… um… I have to go to high school tomorrow. Oops haha. He and I did exchange a couple of emails where I got to show him my first band’s only recorded song… I still have those emails printed and in a photo album with pictures from the night
I’ve been to OODLES of concerts since. The last handful before the pandemic set in includes Ace Frehley, KISS, Queen, and The Who. All frikkin amazing shows. I’ve gotten to see and become friends with lots of amazing classic rockers in recent years, mostly through my husband playing with them or on bills or in festivals/cruises. Our son has seen Neil Young, Jeff Lynne’s ELO, Deep Purple, Queen with Adam Lambert, and many others. He’s a lucky little dude and he doesn’t even know the long and short of it yet.
Do you remember how you got your first guitar?
Absolutely. I bought it shortly before leaving South America, where I lived for a year when I was 18. I brought it back to the states with me to New York City and played my first guitar gigs there with it. It’s was a Memphis Acoustic-Electric, small body, and neck with a cut-out.
And do you still have it?
Sadly, no. I was playing in a band called “Girls Don’t Cry” and we had a midnight radio interview in downtown Manhattan. I had brought the guitar for our show but put it in the trunk of the cab so all ya girls could fit. We were all so excited about the radio show that I didn’t realize the cabbie had driven off with my guitar until we were already entering the building. That sucked bad. I had pretty much ALL my writing inside the front of the case, along with some sentimental garb. I sobbed so hard over the loss that one of my band mates came back to my apartment with me after the interview and spent the night to make sure I’d be ok. It was Heartbreaking at the time, especially it being the guitar I learned on.
What is the make, model, and year of your favorite guitar? And what is its name?
1977 hard tail Fender strat, butterscotch with a black pick guard. I bought it on Denmark street in downtown London. His name is Clarence after the character in Tarantino’s “True Romance”.
You played at the CBGB. How was it to perform on its stage?
Holy shit it was incredible. I didn’t even realize historically how incredible until later, especially after it was torn down/made into a John Varvatos shop. I mean what a crock. I still can’t believe it’s gone. I went in there with my guitar and auditioned in person for that show because I didn’t have any way of recording myself at the time. I still have the recording of the show – video tape and audio. It was one of those beginner’s luck shows – I had a real decent sized audience show up, AND someone recorded the audio… so, I had a demo to use for other gigs. AND I got paid… I left there on cloud 9 thinking; I want to do this every day for the rest of my life. ️
You are an actress also. Tell me about your role as Veracity in the movie Pitch Perfect 3?
What an awesome experience that was. I had been on a reality TV show a couple years prior and vowed never to do “reality” again. I would do scripted from then on, or no dice. Then the PP3 opportunity fell into my lap, and I got my wish! I had my son by then who was a year and a half when we started shooting, so getting to work in such a large-scale project was nourishing to my autonomous and creative “non-mommy” side. Luckily my son had naturally weaned from nursing by that time too. My husband and sister both brought him to and from set in Atlanta to visit a few times. I clicked really quickly with the cast, producers, and crew, and the acting was very natural to me, given I was playing kind of a Joan Jett rock n roller character in a tough chick band. Everyone on the production was awesome, kind, smart, professional, cool, and extremely talented… so being surrounded by that exceeded my wildest dreams. Hanging with Andy and Joy was rad especially on a musical level, we even did a little writing together on set, and the guys from Whiskey Shivers (Saddle Up in the movie) are so insanely talented and fun they got everyone laughing and singing throughout the whole shoot. I bonded with Kelley Jakle and Hana Mae Lee and DJ Looney and Trinidad too… and I even shot some dance sequences with some of my fellow cast members for the music video for my song “Bright Future” while on set at Tyler Perry Studios… so that’s a fun memory you can check out featuring PP3 cast members . Director Trish Sie was a super bad ass to work with and it was also awesome meeting Elizabeth Banks, a powerhouse badass herself. Such a killer group of people and fun role to have played. I’ll be grateful forever for that experience and those memories.
Your new release “Muscle and Skin” comes out on June 12th, June 12 at all digital outlets with a physical CD and vinyl coming later this year. Tell me about it?
Muscle & Skin is my deepest, most vulnerable work to date. I felt the need to chronicle a span of my songwriting in a “coming of age” kind of way. Some of the songs date back over ten years ago… some were written and finished while recording the album. I had been so busy working on a duo with a friend, raising my son, and filming Pitch Perfect that my own solo work had been on the back burner even though I continued to write songs. By the time four years had passed I had well over two albums’ worth of material tugging at me to be recorded and released. So, I got back to work on the solo stuff right at the beginning of 2019 and wrapped up mixing and mastering by the beginning of 2020.
How did you get the title for the CD?
I thought about naming the album “Becoming” for a while before… but then Michelle Obama released her bestseller and there was no way I could use that title haha. But I felt the album really was about me becoming who I am, “arriving” to the place I am at now, a symbol of growth in relationships, self, and the industry. So, muscle and skin showed up in my head one day as a song idea… and I wound up feeling like that encapsulated the idea I was going for with the album. “Muscle” to me is like internal strength… the below-the-surface strengths we develop and use that perhaps others don’t always see. Intelligence, perseverance, character, instinct. Wit. Intuition. The “skin” is the surface strength… the image and presentation of ourselves we choose to use in conjunction with everything underneath. In my early 20s I felt grave pressure around me to look and act a certain way to “make it” in the industry. Experimenting with my look lead to being a slave to it, and I decided I wanted my craft to speak louder than my image. I wanted to be a good writer and musician first, and a good person. If I were going to use sex appeal and pizzazz as part of my offering, I wanted the musical chops to precede it or back it up. So, I veered away from the attention-grabbing kitschy looks to completely hone my craft, much to the chagrin of producers and club owners around me. And so, “muscle and skin” is about the inner and outer strengths we choose to use to get us where we hope to go.
How did you get Brett Ryan Stewart to mix it, and Austin Hoke to record and be the co-producer on it?
I kidnapped both of them and used brute force. Just kidding, of course. I went to Brad Jones, who I’ve worked with some and my husband has a long working relationship and friendship with. I trusted him to know what to do with this idea I had… “deep songs mostly on piano with lots of strings” is roughly what I presented to him. He brought up Austin Hoke immediately, who I had not met yet, but whose reputation preceded him (as well as his father’s, a very accomplished Nashville-based multi-instrumentalist who also had a cameo with some sax and pedal steel on the album). Austin and I met to discuss possibly working together and hit it off immediately. He hadn’t done lots of producing specifically but is a DYNAMITE musician and string arranger. Like, genius level. I loved that he was willing to go as far out as me and further sonically, and I love where we were able to land with the songs because of how open both of us were to creating something unique that we could be really proud of. The songs have so much color and life in them in these recordings because of Austin. The strings are painfully beautiful, and he also made so many of the other tracks pop and sparkle in ways I couldn’t have even thought up (For example, we pushed the Jaco Pastorius vibe on the bass in Shaking Hands, which Austin brilliantly played. The guitars, driving bass, and drums on This Silence were all his concoction. The 80s Twin Peaksy DX-7 on several of the tracks – all Austin’s idea. The infectious syncopated clave and bell tower on Do What You Said – Austin. The idea to add pedal steel and push the “Nashville” on Do You Ever Think Of Me – Austin. The vibraphone on Mother Moon – Austin’s idea AND Austin playing it. The dude breathes creativity and experimentation, and fun. Even though 2019 turned out to be a pretty tough year, we had a good time making these recordings and Austin put a ton of time and energy into the songs.
Brett Stewart and I became friends after he and his wife played on a radio show I was engineering every Saturday on WFMU. When it came time for mixing, I felt strongly about asking him to do it, knowing he would understand my desire to make the mix an instrument and really take the songs as far as they needed to go. We’d become close as friends, I’d seen and heard his work, and I really wanted the chance to collaborate. We took a “White Album” approach and just did what we wanted to do with the music instead of putting it inside an easily digestible box. It was a pleasure to chisel and shine with Brett, and Austin and I could NEVER have done it without him. We aren’t decisive enough and want too much stuff Brett was able to make decisions that really capitalized on the strengths of each songs, and he and his wife Rosemary also brilliantly added some backing vocals that breathed so much life into songs I thought were “finished”. I’m so happy they insisted on this, and so happy I chose him because of his level of care and his own musical genius he brought to the project.
What is your favorite track on the album?
Oh, good lord. I don’t know. I have a hard time being objective with my own material. I don’t know what is good and what isn’t, and what I like and what I don’t like. I forget about my best songs sometimes for like, years, just by accident. My ideas battle for attention in my mind like hundreds of needy children with only one mother. Haha. Honestly, I wound up liking the title track quite a lot. It was the one I finished writing and recording LAST… incidentally. And arguably the sparsest one on the album. There’s something in it that reminds me of Johnny Cash’s version of NIN’s “Hurt” … a somber simplicity with dropping piano octaves and notes that leaves you full and empty at the same time. Plus… the older I get, the more I really do feel like… what’s all this fuss about? Why are we all so needy and anxious and materialistic? We’re here for a super short time and all in for the same fate. So, there’s not anything to get so worked up about. It’s a quiet “fuck you” to the people early in my career who pushed me too hard so all I wanted to do was rebel. It just isn’t that serious to me, the fame game. I’m here to live a full life and write stories about it and play them for people and do my best. I don’t need to kill myself being the greatest and best and selling out to an ego and making shit tons of money. I just want to be a good person, as ‘Gilbert Grape’ Johnny Depp once said. haha. I just want to be able to keep creating.
How do you stay healthy while touring?
Lots of water, in the form of drinking and hot baths. ️ Yoga. A good sense of humor and strong sense of adventure.
What are your feelings about streaming music?
I’m all about it. I’m down with following the winding paths of technology if it means more music in more people’s ears. I’m not about fighting it; I don’t see any point. It’s just another form of falling in love with music, and a convenient one. If you want the real sit-down hi-fi experience, I believe people will still buy the vinyl record of the stuff they really dig.
Digital vs. vinyl?
Vinyl always wins for sure. But again – I get the convenience of digital. I’ve moved so many damned times over three decades I know the value of being able to pack all your stuff in your van or onto your back. And physical stuff doesn’t mean as much to me as that timelessness of a recorded song. I think digital backs up that timelessness. So, digital for lots… vinyl for the extra special and necessary.
Any plans to tour?
Oh, good lord again. Haha. These pandemic days are not days for plans of any kind. I can barely plan a week in advance, let alone what I’m having for dinner tonight. I’d love to tour. I’m always “planning” to tour. I’m currently 5 months pregnant due in September 2020. And there’s a worldwide virus really mucking up my husband’s and my art and livelihood at the moment. So, I really couldn’t say. In a weird way I’m not too fussed about it except that of course I miss playing live shows in front of an audience. And of course, I’m lusting after some international travel and the chance to see outside our little world here in American Nashville. I like to see the world going by, to feel different cultures and lifestyles and talk to different people. I’m also keen to share these new songs from the album in more than just a “sneak peek”. I guess it’s all going to just have to wait. I’m feeling ok with the unknown. I’ve gotten really good at that over the years. As long as my family and new baby are healthy, I’m ok with whatever the near and distant future holds. I’ll keep painting, writing, recording, and performing for YouTube and Instagram and Facebook for my fans in the meantime. I’ll keep creating content and surprising and challenging myself.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? And what is the meaning that song means to you?
Lots of past everything has been coming to mind during this time. I tend to be pretty cyclical when I go through my chronology of music and places I was when I was listening to particular things. During this time, it’s been such a mish-mash clash of time periods. Lately, it’s been a lot of stuff I was listening to when I lived in England… as well as in Australia. So, anything from Muse to Wombats to Bon Iver to Bombay Bicycle Club to Sia has been popping up. I tend to gravitate toward electronic music a fair bit (feeling inclined to incorporate more of that love in my next album actually), so stuff like Yeasayer, MGMT, Passion Pit, and Bloc Party tends to find its way in.
Sylvan Esso has been high on the go-to list. Songs that seem to really lift me up from the past I’ve thrown on recently include Touch of Grey by the Dead, the Oogum Boogum Song by Brenton Wood,
Cool, Cool River and The Obvious Child – from Paul Simon’s Concert in the Park, Let My Love Open The Door by Pete Townsend, and Wildest Dreams by The Moody Blues. I also threw on ZZ Top’s Tres Hombres LP the other day and listened to both sides twice it hit me so damned hard. Music sounds different and cuts deeper right now for some reason. I’m hearing stuff I’ve heard a thousand times in a totally different light, almost like a precious buried treasure I’ve unearthed after decades of silence.
How do you feel the Covid-19 virus going to affect the music business in the future?
I have no idea, except that I think it’s going to be a permanent departure from what “was”. Which I don’t think is necessarily bad. What “was” already was kind of dysfunctional and over saturated. Who knows – hopefully/maybe this situation will remind us of our shared humanity and inject some truth and grit back into music and the “industry” that hasn’t been as prevalent these last couple decades in my opinion? I think the innovators are still going to innovate, and the money people are still going to seek them out blindly and try to exploit them, and copycats will still copy. That part won’t change. But I’m excited to see what the innovators will create throughout and after this, and whether or not I rise to the occasion to be part of that movement.
Your next show is July 10th at the Grinder House Coffee Shop, LLC in Crossville, TN. Do you think it will still happen with the Gov. of Tenn. starting to open the state? And putting a 2 person on a stage limit during music performances.
I don’t know. I’d prefer to do my trio of Austin on cello and Rosemary singing backing vocals… so if we’re limited to two people, I’m not sure who I’d choose. I also had a show at The Smokehouse in Monteagle this past weekend that was cancelled (but I was going to cancel myself if it wasn’t). I don’t feel good about playing yet. And I’m not sure if it’ll feel right yet in July. I’m watching and listening and waiting. My biggest priority is the safety of myself, my family, and those around me. There’s no point in me playing a live show if it’s going to risk people’s health or make people uncomfortable. I’d just as soon do it at a safe distance and just record it or stream it live, so I can share the show but not share germs unnecessarily while our country is still getting a hold on this crisis.
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
A whole lot of thinking. I’ve stayed relatively busy, but mostly with smaller scale but important stuff. Helping my husband with homeschooling our son. Keeping our son Rory occupied while we’re all at home together 24/7 is a full-time job. Keeping house. Spending time outside, gardening, taking walks and bike rides. Writing lyric books and sending thank you packages for donors to my album. Making wolf print art, shirts, and tote bags for fans. Shooting and editing music videos and promos for the album and single releases and behind the scenes stuff. Painting some. Working on financial goals and overhauls. Organizing. Dreaming. Reading. Watching movies. Eating my husband’s delicious dinners. Camping (just recently for the first time). Being very pregnant (I feel like The Penguin already at just 5 months).
I tried selling health insurance from home full time for about 6 weeks and totally couldn’t stick that. I decided I should stick to what I know and to hocking what I care deepest about.
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
Painting. Drawing. I’ve been doing occasional process art – which is sitting down with a few colors or a single pen and seeing what happens. Watercolors have been a go-to.
I discovered I’m not cut out for independently selling health insurance and cold-calling hundreds of people a day, haha. Thank god.
I’ve started baking these vegan “healthy” cookies and have enjoyed that. I usually get pretty anxious about baking and don’t think I’m very good at cooking in general.
My son and I like to geek out over marble runs and hot wheel track contraptions.
Our son just learned to ride his bike without training wheels, so we’ve enjoyed lots of family bicycle rides, which I love. I adore riding my bike and hadn’t done it for almost a whole year. I don’t have a regular place to swim right now, but I’d love to get back into that.
Lots of people are doing nightly concerts over either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Are you planning to do something like that?
I’ve been doing a little bit here and there. But not as much as I figured I would. I think the combination of how quickly saturated those performances became, with how tense the climate is right now, has made me choose carefully when to toss in a jolly happy-go-lucky live streaming performance. I want to make sure I make it count and make it meaningful. I also don’t want to spend all my time staring into screens and interacting with strangers. The more private side of me has been taking precedence during this time and I’ve been indulging in limited social media presence.
Do you think it will be possible to make a living doing concerts this way?
Not really. I think it’s got to be a combination effort – concerts, interaction, personal access and socializing, conversation, products, merch, music, recordings… the whole artistic package is a must. I think people are very engaged, and many I’ve noticed have been very generous toward artists at this time. But I don’t think “making a living off concerts this way” makes any more sense than making a living only off concerts in person… being an artist means being extremely resourceful all the time. So, the making a living part comes with innovation and adaptation. I’ve been very lucky to hold a humble but steady stream of support from fans thus far. I trust that if I keep putting heartfelt honest content out, that support will continue.
First it was an article in the New York Times, then Rolling Stones talked about it and finally Live Nation CEO said that concerts may not start again until fall of 2021. Do you think this could happen?
I do think this could happen, and my husband and I have been bracing ourselves for this scenario. It seems pretty likely (and logical in terms of what we know and don’t yet know about the virus).
What about Holographic concerts in our living room? Hmmm… I guess if this technology gets invented before a vaccine, then… yes? Ha.
How do you see yourself in the next five years?
Successful, strong, sexy, still working hard. Mama of two boys. Wife of the coolest sexiest guitar player and most awesome husband a woman could ask for. I’ll be 40 (holy SHIT) so I see myself hitting my Willie Nelson/ Ray LaMontagne late stride with music ️ likely one or two more albums under my belt and just a little bit wiser and slicker at this business. Hopefully I get to properly tour Europe and maybe more and take my kiddos with me to show ‘em some world.
Anything you would like to say in closing?
I’m just grateful for the chance to be this long-winded about my thoughts, opinions, and stories. Everybody’s got thoughts, opinions, and stories, and it’s nice to have a platform once in a while to be able to think about and talk about mine. So, thank you for that and for your interest in me and my art.
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