Hannah Wicklund ~ talks her creative process and touring in A Coruña, Spain

Photo : Hannah Wicklund shot by Marley McClain for Meret

Recently I had the honor of being able to sit down and chat with Hannah Wicklund, and dive into her mind and creative process as well as her upcoming album ‘The Prize’

With the sounds and vibrations of the bands sound checking for Grace Bowers event ‘Grace Bowers & friends present an evening celebrating Life, Love, & Music’ in the background we exit the Basement East and cross the street over to Honeytree Meadery. After a lesson in the history of mead and picking flavors to sample, with mead tasting tree in hand Hannah leads us over to a shaded picnic table to sit and chat.

Q: What would you say your favorite thing about being on the road is?

A: I would say my favorite part of being on the road is defiantly the experiences and the people that I come across, because me as a person I just have changed and grown throughout traveling the world and being able to meet different people and really I gathered so many other peoples stories along the way. One of the cool things about being an artist and being in the space that I exist in is that since I was a kid people a lot of times would open up to me and share relatively personal things about them because I think that when people see you play music and see you bare your soul, they recognize that you are kind of a safe place to maybe bare theirs. So i’ve always kind of really enjoyed that role of consuming other peoples stories and energy. so I would say that the people are my favorite part.

Q: Out of every city that you have played which do you think would be the most memorable?

A: Honestly one of my most memorable shows as well as just stunning and beautiful places that I have played is A Coruña, Spain, which is the top northwest corner of Spain. I played there for the first time in 2017, and then I played there again in 2019 at the same little club that I had in 2017, But yeah out of everywhere A Coruña was just the best time and the worst hangover I have had and i’m not a particularly party hardy person but when I was there in 2017 I was introduced to this drink they have which is red wine and Coca Cola. My band and I ended up partying with the owner of the venue till like 6 a.m. and then we had to go load all of our shit out of the venue at 9 a.m. and I was running on about 1 1/2 hours of sleep and ended up taking a nap curled up in a corner of the venue and I still have that picture. I think that out of pure spontaneity, fun, beautiful, amazing food, wonderful people just amazing overall A Coruña would definitely be the most memorable.

Q: Do you have any pre show rituals?

A: Growing up the first 12 years of playing the pre show ritual was pretty much just setting up the PA and setting up the gear, so we would show up to the gig like 1 hour before hand and we would be plugging in until like 5 minutes before we started. I think that something I need to work on moving forward is getting a good pre show ritual because on tour I love a good meal so even if there is almost not enough time between soundcheck and showtime or doors opening I will find a restaurant and have myself a proper meal and almost be late. If anything my pre show ritual at the moment would be yummy food.

Q: Who would you say your biggest musical influences are?

A: musically out of my whole life I always call myself a terrible fan of music because I like to soak in a little bit from a lot, and i’ve never been overly obsessive with artists well not obsessive but as a guitar player i’ve never ever ever learned all of Hendrix’s solos, never learning all of Lindsey Buckingham’s guitar parts, but I have absorbed enough from both of them to where they are definitely musical influences. I’d say from having a classic rock cover band from the time I was 9 years old that I really learned a lot and drew my musical inspiration from the genre as a whole, as opposed to anyone in particular. Obviously there are the standouts though of people like Tom Petty, Etta James, and Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac all of that kind of stuff but modern day as well I think Jack White and The Raconteurs that band of his was one of the first bands I found as a kid that was not one of my dad’s rock bands so id say those first two Raconteurs records where very influential to me on a songwriting platform and then Fiona Apple as of late and her record ‘Fetch The Bolt Cutters’ made a huge impact on me so that’s my collection I would say.

Q: If you could collaborate with any artist dead or alive who would it be?

A: The person who just popped into my head and would be really really cool, ethereal, and weird would be Jeff Buckley. Boy oh boy to be able to hear what his music would have become or just to hear another record of his would be so wonderful, I just love Jeff Buckley so much.

Q: If you could only have one song on a deserted island what would it be?

A: Oh god that’s a hard question, well I feel like this concept in my life has already been proven because once I was tripping on mushrooms with a group of friends, and I don’t know how long we where tripping but we listened to ‘Come Together’ by the Beatles like 60+ times in a row while we where tripping on mushrooms, and then to cap it off we listened to ‘Purple Rain’ like 8 times in a row. But I think I would say ‘Come Together’.

Q: If you could choose to play any venue in the world what would it be?

A: You know I have a dream of playing with a full orchestra at the Met one day. This Record is the first time I have heard what my music would sound like with full strings, on the record there are two songs that have full string action and I think that it would be absolutely phenomenal to experience that live.

Q: How would you say your creative process works?

A: Its really different case by case but I think the most consistent point of my creative process is the procrastination to the tune of that I will have a song idea or I have some visceral lyrics that I have that I wrote about the Larry Nassar situation years ago that I know i’m still going to turn into a song, but I tend to marinate on ideas for a really long time usually. So I would say marination and procrastination are a big part of my creative process.

Q: Which song of your’s is your favorite to play live?

A: I would say my favorite song to play live as of recently with this new record, and I was playing it last year on tour. I love the moment in my set where I strip it down and it’s just me playing solo, I think ‘Songbird Sing’ off my new record has become my favorite because it feels like one of the most complete songs that I have written, so it really activates the same spot and feeling in me every time I play it.

Q: What would you say is an album that really shaped your life?

A: I think the album that transformed my life when it comes to guitar playing and when it comes to something that I know I go to when ever I need inspiration, something that kind of painted a whole new picture for me, and something that I always revisit, usually i’m by myself when I listen to it and it almost feels ceremonious, so I would say Jeff Beck’s ‘Live at Ronnie Scott’s’ that record to me is just pure guitar gold.