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Hana vu interview12/15/2023 ![]() ![]() Growing up in LA I never noticed that I'm part of a particular region of sound but I guess I am. Have you been in LA long? How does LA shape the music you make and your outlook? I didn't take music lessons or learn theory so what I make is sort of what I can figure out. I think the low-key sound of my music is contingent on my musical abilities. I think my music is a lyrical reflection of how I want to be. Is that a reflection of your personality? There's something really effortless and low-key about the music I've heard from you so far. I don't think any artist wants to be a part of a genre. ![]() I never know how to describe my music but I guess if I make it in my bedroom then it’s supposed to be bedroom pop. I've seen your music described as "bedroom pop." Is that a term you embrace? It’s really interesting to hear the different perspectives in a collaborative song and how different they can be while still making a great cohesive product. But sometimes one of my talented friends will send me a beat or a hook and I build on that. That’s when I ask other people to get involved. Sometimes I write a half a song and then feel like there’s nothing more I can give to it. How do you choose who to collaborate with? Is that something that comes naturally for you or is it difficult to get someone involved with your process?Įvery time I collaborate with someone, it comes about differently. I have some self-deprecating opinions on my work because I don't think I can ever be 100% satisfied with anything I create but I feel confident in my intentions. Of course after I've figured out all the parts and structure, recording it is a challenge. When I'm writing stuff I don’t really think about the outcome, the writing just sort of happens for me. What were those first steps like? Were you confident of what you were making, or was there any hesitation? As for this EP, I started recording/writing it in 2016. Writing is a continuous activity but consolidating that work into a shared product is like a yearbook almost. I would release something like once a year and it was sort of marking time for me. Sharing it just seemed like the thing to do, I wanted my friends to hear the stuff I was doing. I initially started recording music when I was like 14, the good old-fashioned way using Voice Memo and GarageBand. When did you first start recording your music? Did you know right away that you wanted to share it? I've recorded with engineers and studio musicians before, but I think ultimately only I know what I want to make, and it’s much easier to do it on my own time. I guess it just sort of happened that way. ![]() Is that a choice, to handle everything yourself, or did it just kind of happen that way? You wrote and produced your whole debut EP. I was born in San Francisco and then grew up in Los Angeles. Unpacking “Maker,” Vu explains, “I am not religious but I imagined a sort of desolate character crying out to an ultimately punitive force for something more.” Tender banjo plucks and piano keys serve as the base for Vu’s escalating harmonies, overcome by remorseful exhalations, the song culminates on the lines: “save me oh my angel / are you angry / cos I’m not stronger and I crumble / oh that’s my nature / just like you.Can you give us some of the basics-who are you, how old are you, and where are you from? Bear, who released Vu’s self-produced debut EP in 2018 on their Luminelle Recordings imprint, followed by a double EP the next year. But what I was listening to at that time was very different from what I performed.” Ultimately she’d do her own thing, keeping a journal of bedroom pop experiments on Bandcamp, including a low-key Willow Smith collaboration and covers of The Cure and Phil Collins. She remembers, “A lot of my peer musicians were surf rock/punk type bands and so I tried to fit into that when I was gigging around. She’d wake up every day and listen to LA’s ALT 98.7, home to ’90s and ’00s alternative rock later in high school, she found the local DIY scene. Vu’s relationship with music began when she picked up a guitar her dad had lying around and taught herself to play. For the first time, she welcomes a co-producer, Jackson Phillips (Day Wave), who helps Vu create an atmosphere with a deeper sense of luster, sophistication, and urgency. The track builds on the sound of the 20-year old’s previous work: brooding, melodic pop driven by guitar and Vu’s distinctive contralto. Los Angeles-based artist Hana Vu makes her Ghostly International debut with “Maker,” a commanding first glimpse into new material. ![]()
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