“Feminine voices and perspectives deserve to be heard too.”
~Hannah Lou Woods
Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Hannah Lou Woods is an ethereal young artist with an old soul. She believes in love, the beauty of nature, and honoring herself and her art with the most honest and truest of intentions. She is simply a breath of fresh air in an industry that can suck the soul out of a songstress if she’s not careful.
And while she may be young, her experience and success are insurmountable. With numerous songwriting credits and projects to her name, including the electro-heart-pop project We Saw Lions, which has garnered over seven million streams on Spotify and averages 80,000 monthly listeners, Woods’ resume, like her views on life and the world around her, are vast and varied. Which is why, when she released her solo EP Meet Me at the Pine Tree, a love letter to her husband, I knew I needed to interview this chanteuse for Women’s History Month.
Music Crowns (MC): Hi Hannah, welcome to Music Crowns and happy Women’s History Month! I love the album; its powerfully personal and yet resonates with the romantic in all of us. Why did you decide to release these songs to the public?
Hannah Lou Woods (HLW): Hi Music Crowns! Thanks so much for having me and for sharing about my music, so glad you are enjoying this sweet set of love songs. This EP was initially a wedding gift to my husband, with most of the songs being about the challenge of letting myself be loved and believe in love, and that he helped be able to do this, so yes, it was very personal. And I always knew I would eventually release these songs, but I didn’t want to put pressure on myself to release something this vulnerable until I felt ready internally, and until it felt like the right time to share it with the world. I guess the right time was February 2024!
I recorded most of these songs with my band back in Boston at Ugly Duck studios, and they were all just amazing players and people — Pat Simard on drums, Sara Peña on bass, and Dave Chapman on electric guitar. We played some shows around Boston and had some amazing jams back in the day. I’m really happy I was able to record something with these sweet musicians and friends, and it feels a little bit like a time capsule of that period of my life. We recorded it with more of a live feel, to make it feel more like an authentic spontaneous expression and like the way we played it live, and I am so happy that everything came together to finally share this collection of songs. I also was able to get some extra support from a grant I received from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, which required me to have a deadline, so that always helps to get things out into the world as well! 🙂 But mostly, I released these songs because it felt like the right thing to do, and in general, I share songs with the hopes that my music can help inspire and uplift others and help add more beauty to the world; that it can help people feel more courage to feel their honest feelings and get in touch with their deeper selves, that it can help support people in some way on their path.
MC: What do you hope listeners take away from the songs?
HLW: I hope that these songs can help inspire others to let more love into their hearts and lives, that it can give people the courage to go on that journey of letting themselves be loved for who they really are, that the songs can help people believe in and feel more worthy of real love, because if it’s possible for me, it’s possible for them too 🙂
MC: You’ve been in other projects, including the massively popular We Saw Lions, which has garnered over seven million streams. How is this project different?
HLW: The songs for both of these projects feel like they come from a different internal channel, and I’ll get a sense/feeling inside of where a certain song belongs. Occasionally they’ll feel like they sort of belong to both. Hannah Lou Woods songs usually come from the deepest aspects of myself and consciousness, the songs are very personal, they come from a more vulnerable place inside, and I use real instruments in the production, to reflect that raw, authentic, unstripped quality and deeper expression. It feels like a place for my deepest truths and feelings to live, and it’s much more acoustic singer-songwriter based.
We Saw Lions is much more electronic and pop-oriented, has a more produced sound, and is a place for me to just sort of have fun and play and experiment and try out different sounds and expressions. The songs feel more universal and a little more dance oriented, sometimes more mystical/spiritual, and it almost feels a little like an alter-ego for me, like a different aspect of my consciousness peering through that I’m still coming to know. Music that lifts the heart open with joy and freedom while also honoring all the feelings. It’s also just sort of one big experiment in throwing paint at the wall and seeing what happens. There’s a sort of mystery about this project unfolding itself over time, even to me, and it also feels more collaborative in nature and sometimes almost like the songs and messages are more for the collective than just myself, if that makes sense.
MC: What is your next project?
HLW: I always tend to have like a zillion and one projects and songs and ideas going on at once, they sort of all exist in a circle inside my head, as opposed to a linear list of here’s the next one and then this one’s next. It sort of just exists all at once and I get a feeling about which one to work on at any given moment, and I try to follow that instinct/inspiration and let it unfold in its own natural timing. My brain sometimes feels like that movie Everything Everywhere All At Once, and it can be a challenge at times to know which idea to give my attention to. But I know that every song and project has its own timing for when it wants to be birthed into the world, and it often feels like I’m a song midwife trying to gently coax these songs into existence, and some come out quicker than others and others take longer and need more attention and care. So yes, all this to say, I’ll just tell you about a few things that are in the works, though I can’t say for sure which one will end up coming out next! 🙂
-My friend Hillary Reynolds and I have a project called The Arrow & the Bow, and we’ve been working on a cover of “Wildflowers” by Tom Petty. Currently working on the video for that!
-My friend and fellow electronic music artist Heather Christie and I have a beautiful EP that we are almost done with. Recorded completely remotely, Heather and I went back and forth sending songs and recording as we went, layering production and overdubs, and it’s been a real joy to work with her. That EP will be called Origins and will be released as We Saw Lions.
-I’ve also got another track with my friend TOPO from Rochester, MN, and we recorded everything at my home studio, I just got the mix back for that song. It’s called “Too Little Too Late,” and is about how it’s never too late to follow our dreams, that everyone has their own unique timing for how they want to grow and blossom and bloom in life.
-I also have several We Saw Lions tracks that I’m working on finishing up, as well as a few more Hannah Lou Woods songs I’m in the process of recording. I have about 60 songs waiting to be fully produced/recorded. Sometimes it feels like the songs are a bunch of doors floating around me and all of them are knocking asking for my attention. I’ve been trying to learn how to listen to which one is knocking the loudest and going with that.
So yes, basically no shortage of things to work on as you see haha!
MC: As a female artist, what has been your biggest obstacle or lesson learned?
HLW: There are many obstacles I face, on the daily. Working in a male-dominant industry while being an extremely sensitive woman, honoring my femininity and integrity and having to be more selective about who I choose to work with, who can honor that and hold space for that. Choosing to play events that are more oriented toward healing and compassion and community, self-reflection, holistic themes and honoring nature, events that I feel respect and honor the feminine side of things. Honoring my rhythm and my need for rest, to not play a zillion shows one after the other and trust that there are other ways to find my audience besides working so hard that I burn out. I feel like I continually face the inner obstacle of self-doubt that I can actually be my sensitive, introverted, sweet feminine self, and be in the sometimes harsh and weird and masculine music business. (Just as an example, according to a report from the USC Annenburg Inclusion Initiative, a mere 3.4% of producers were women in 2022 in the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Chart, among many other statistics).
Definitely one of my biggest struggles has been with knowing how to present myself and my art to the world. Like, I’d really it rather NOT be about my body and the way I look, and more about the sound and the music and the message that I’m sharing. But it does seem like having some type of visual for people to latch onto is necessary, and I’m still growing into that aspect of myself. How do I present what I do to the world in a way that feels right for me? How do I share my music in a way that invites people to listen, without feeling like I’m compromising myself or doing something that doesn’t totally feel like me? It’s a work in progress, but I’m working on looking at image and social media as an extension of my spirit, of my inner world, looking at branding as an extension of what I want to say musically, as an authentic expression of what I feel, a way to support the message. Basically, I’m trying to convert how I write a song into how I present myself to the world, and looking at fashion as self-expression and art, instead of trying to live up to unrealistic beauty standards. On top of that I have a sort of shyness when it comes to being on camera and talking in front of people online, I’d rather just share my music, as that feels easier to me. So, yes, that’s something I’m still growing into and probably will be for a while. At times I think it’s kind of ironic that this is what my life path is, considering part of me would rather just be in a cabin in the woods and not be in the spotlight, but at the same time, I can’t ignore the call from within that tells me it’s important to share these songs. So, I somehow find it in me to keep going. Feminine voices and perspectives deserve to be heard too.
MC: Amen to that! Having said that, what is one piece of advice you would give other female artists?
HLW: I don’t know that I necessarily have very good advice about this, as I still feel like there’s so much I’m learning. But I think it’s really important to be as kind to yourself as possible if you choose to walk in the music business world, to find the people that feel good for you who aren’t going to try and make you something you’re not, to use discernment and trust your inner instincts. Your sensitivity is a gift and deserves to be honored and respected, not looked down upon. To have the courage to be honest with yourself about your needs and trust that you can find your own unique way, that there are people out there you can work with who can honor and celebrate your femininity. Find those collaborators who lift you up, who aren’t just in it for themselves, but who genuinely want to help you express yourself and your art, and even though it can be hard, don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself and say no when something doesn’t feel right.
I remember I booked a session with a producer who I was very excited to work with, we’d had a few conversations and I felt like he was someone who felt safe and respectful and kind and open to my ideas. But when I got to the studio, there were three other dudes in the room with him that I hadn’t met before. I immediately felt unsafe and like they didn’t have the same level of ability to hold space and like I couldn’t be as vulnerable and free to take risks. I made it work, but I felt uncomfortable and upset that the producer didn’t tell me there’d be these other people in the room with us. I eventually spoke up afterward and said, ‘hey I liked working with you but I didn’t know these other people and honestly feel like their energy didn’t feel right for me as an artist.’ He immediately apologized and said absolutely they don’t need to be in the room. The next session was much better. But it’s those kinds of things. Imagine if I’d walked in and it was a room full of women producers and engineers, wow, that would be so cool, and that would feel so different.
“I do think things are slowly getting better with gender equality in the industry, but it does feel like it will take courageous women to keep putting themselves in uncomfortable situations, to keep pushing the needle forward in order to make real change.”
To learn more about Woods, visit Hannah Lou Woods
Follow Woods at @musicofhannah (IG, FB & You Tube)
