As she gets ready to kick off her Hell in the Hallway World Tour, I spoke with Hannah Wicklund about her start as a musician, her international performances and the rather unconventional journey to her latest album.
Wicklund grew up in South Carolina and started playing music at age four, switching between “fun” songs such as the Beatles and more technical lessons in classical music. Throughout her childhood, Wicklund was exposed to artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Neil Young, all of whom inspired her to start creating her own music. Although her albums have sometimes been labeled as blues, Wicklund sees herself as purely rock ‘n’ roll.
“If you’re playing a piano ballad, then you’re playing an acoustic kind of folky rock thing,” Wicklund said. “Then you’re like having some, you know, big guitar solo and jam music moments, there’s no other category that would encompass all of that besides rock’n’roll.”
However, Wicklund acknowledges that she pushes the boundaries of this genre, which has traditionally been dominated by men. While early in her career she conformed to many of these classic rock standards, she now feels free to embrace her femininity both on and off stage. She’s even begun wearing a crown on stage, giving herself full permission to do “kind of silly, lighthearted things that just kind of make [her] happy.”
Embracing her femininity was a part of a larger goal, starting in her twenties, to bring together the woman she was offstage and “marry that with what [she] had been doing [her] whole life” as a performance artist. While she has always felt confident in her performances and musical abilities, it took her a bit more effort to accept and embody her unique sense of fashion and passion for her art.
Wicklund released her first album in 2018 titled “Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin Stones,” recorded with members of the band she formed at age nine. In the six years that followed her debut album, Wicklund struggled to find a manager that fully met her needs. After she tried on a few different big managers and labels, she decided that the best way to ensure she was represented authentically was to become her own manager.
She saw herself as “more than just a musician,” but an artist nurturing a complex piece of art. About a year ago she made the decision to not only become her own manager, but self-release her latest album, “The Prize,” under her own record label and brand Strawberry Moon.
When Wicklund first started recording “The Prize,” she lacked a bass player. Luckily, her manager at the time was also working with American rock band Greta Van Fleet. Greta’s bassist, Sam Kiszka, stepped in to help Wicklund with the recording process and eventually became a producer on the album. Daniel Wagner of Greta also joined the production on drums. Looking back at the recording process, Wicklund admitted that “a lot of things in my career weren’t very fun for a very long time,” but working with Kiszka changed that, and she had a blast.
Wicklund’s work as a visual artist contributes to her complex musical identity. Each song from “The Prize” has a corresponding oil painting, all of which are scenes from a castle floating atop a cloud. In describing the reason for the paintings, Wicklund explained, “when I was a kid, if I wasn’t practicing guitar, I was in the living room with my mom drawing mandalas and the ‘Patterns of my Youth’ print you see tied to this record.” She believes that visual art and music are “natural mirrors of each other, both portraying emotions, but each conveying a distinct point of view.”
“The Prize” juxtaposes Wicklund’s dreamy vocals with her vibrant guitar, telling the story of the transition to womanhood. She hopes that listeners of all ages will resonate with this message of universal sisterhood and feminine power.
Wicklund will travel to dozens of venues during her tour, including Brighton Music Hall in Allston. The last time Wicklund was in Massachusetts was 2022, when she performed at Levitate Music & Arts Festival in Marshfield. She confessed that she has a certain soft spot for Boston and values her chance to perform in big cities. Wicklund has new music coming very soon, and “The Prize” is available on Spotify, SoundCloud, Bandcamp and more.
Naomi Zwelling can be reached at [email protected].
