What’s next for Hannah Cameron?

Hey Hannah thanks for taking the time to chat with us today!
Can you give us a brief introduction to yourself and your music?

Sure! My name is Hannah, I’m a Melbourne based singer-songwriter. I’ve released two albums in the past few years and am very excited to have just put out a new single.

How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never listened to it, can you liken it to any other artists?

Hmm always the hardest question! I’ve always described my music as “alternative folk” but I think maybe now maybe it’s verging on”alternative folk rock”? It's becoming quite a mouthful. I grew up listening to folk greats like Joni Mitchell, Simon and Garfunkel and Leonard Cohen, sung classical choral repertoire in high school, studied jazz at uni and then fell in love with country and trad music. So it’s a bit of a smorgasbord really. In more recent years I’ve been influenced by artists such as Laura Marling, Margaret Glaspy and Anais Mitchell to name a few.

Your new single ‘Backsliding’ just dropped and is your first material in over a year since releasing your album​ I Lay Where You Lie​ in 2018. Can you tell us a bit about this song, how it came to be, what it’s all about, and your favourite moments on the track?

I wrote Backsliding on the first day of a week-long writing challenge that I set myself. It came out quite quickly which doesn’t happen all that often. It’s about many things but I guess I wanted it to serve as a reminder myself to practice what you preach and to take responsibility for your actions or deal with the consequences. I’d been working with my producer Matt Redlich on a few other songs but when he heard a snippet that I posted online he said he thought we should record Backsliding instead. We tracked it a few weeks later at our friend’s place - a beautiful old house in Balaclava that was due to be demolished within a month of us recording. Matt had set up his tape machine there and had been doing a bunch of recording in the living room which was a very beautiful sounding space. I think my favourite part is probably the band’s performance. We had never rehearsed it before so Matt was kind of conducting the band from the corner like a crazed magician and it totally worked.

Obviously at the time things are getting very interesting with musicians trying to navigate the ways in which they can connect with their fans whilst not being able to perform live music per se. How have you been challenging/accepting this reality?

It’s a very strange time. I love playing live shows and I generally don’t love social media. But I’ve got to say that it feels like everyone is really rallying around each other online and it feels like a special thing. I got to play a set for Isolaid Festival a few weeks ago and that was a really uplifting experience. On a day to day level I’ve just been using social media to try and keep myself accountable for making personal progress. I’ve been posting my (often very boring) guitar practice and also embarked on a handstand challenge which is currently at Day 18. I’m hoping that by the end of the pandemic I might be really good at guitar and handstands. But doing these things has actually allowed me to connect with people who I probably wouldn’t usually have connected with. It’s nice.

And what music, games or TV shows have been getting you through?

I’ve been trying to avoid watching too much Netflix because I think if I start then I may never stop haha. But I have been watching the new Australian series Stateless on the ABC. It’s really amazing. I’ve also been reading a book called A Gentleman In Moscow which is about a man placed under house arrest in a Moscow Hotel but it’s actually quite an uplifting read and really feels quite relevant to our current predicament haha. Music wise I’ve been listening to a lot of Lizzo. I think that there’s really no bad day that can’t be improved by Lizzo. I am living alone at the moment so no one to play games with but I’m in the market for a puzzle.

You play in multiple other musical acts as well as creating your own accomplished solo music. Tell us, what are your favourite aspects of these individual projects and what do you love about being a multi-instrumentalist with so many different projects on the go?

Ohh there are so many things I love about each of these projects. I feel like I’ve somehow just tricked all of my favourite musicians into letting me play in their bands. I mean, the best thing is just getting to play music that I love with people that I love. But aside from that I learn so much from being a part of each project. Before I played in On Diamond I’d never played electric guitar. I started out being really afraid of being too loud and now sometimes they have to tell me to turn down which is quite satisfying haha. It was really through playing with OD that I developed a sound and a confidence on the electric guitar. In Grand Salvo I have to play the piano which I haven’t really performed on since I was in high school. In Brain Romance I get to work with Brian Campeau who is one of my favourite singer songwriters and guitarists and I’ve learned a lot from him. In Clio’s band I get to sing really beautiful and often difficult harmonies. I could gush forever about how much I love playing with all of them but I’ll leave it there.

When this is all over, what’s the first thing you’ll be doing? And what’s next for Hannah Cameron?
When this is over I’m going to drive to each of my friends' houses and squeeze them for maybe ten minutes each. I miss hugs a lot. And after that I hope to play a lot of live music to real people in the real world and maybe record some more songs and then an album. But really I’m mainly concerned with hugs atm.

‘Backsliding’ is out now via AWAL
Spotify / Apple Music / iTunes / Bandcamp