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Jeff Hanson

Jeff Hanson is a singer/songwriter who resides in St Paul, but has created a large following of his delicate folk-pop on the road. In this interview, he talks about what brought him to the Twin Cities, his recording process and his CD release party for Madam Owl at the Triple Rock on Saturday, August 23.

 

 

Jeff Hanson: I started playing the guitar at about the age of four. I started with classical lessons, but only continued with those for a few years. I felt better about learning how to play on my own, but the lessons were cool to get me started and headed in the right direction. Then my dad got a drum set when I was 10, so I would just sit down in the basement every night determined to learn how to play those as well. I guess I’ve just always had the music bug—not sure why. I’ve never thought about where that interest came from, but I’ve had it for as long as I can remember.

 

 

 

JH: I moved up to the Cities from Waukesha, Wisconsin in 1996, right after I finished high school. I was in a band at that time and the two other members were already up here because they were both a year older than me. So I had to wait it out a year, then I moved. I love the Twin Cities, and the Midwest in general. Every time I go on tour, I always think about how I would never want to live anywhere else. What’s not to like here? And yes, I do like the cold—just until January 1, though. After that, it just hurts.

 

 

 

JH: I don’t think that it was a 180, really. M.I.J. was a really melodic band. We were loud most of the time, which I’m not so much anymore, but I was putting solo acoustic songs on our records even back then. One was on our full length The Radio Goodnight. I was also mistaken for a female vocalist in that band too! Also, I’m not really sure that I am “folk.” I feel more pop or something than I do folk, but I don’t know. I’ve never thought about what I am exactly, or what genre or anything that my music falls into.

 

But to go back, M.I.J. was a rock band, and I was in my teens for most of it, so as a songwriter, I started to grow out of that band and that kind of music in general. I wanted to do other things musically, and I had all of these solo songs that I liked so much more, and maybe going straight to the acoustic guitar after that band was a direct result of ear-bleeding indie rock for so long.

 

 

 

JH: Yeah, I was glad that Kill Rock Stars was listening to demos at that time, it worked out well. But I was happy with the songs I was sending out—most of them ended up on my Son record—so I was feeling like if I kept at it, I would end up on a label at some point. I’m just really glad it was KRS because they’re rad.

 

 

 

JH: This was a really difficult, but really enjoyable album to make, for me, anyway. I wanted to do everything different for this one—different studio, producer, instruments, everything really. Plus, I knew that I didn’t want to play the drums or bass or anything other than guitar, so we just brought in a bunch of musicians and had them play on it, I thought that part was the best. I met a lot of really cool people who are friends now, and they all are excellent players.

 

I spent months in the studio making Madam Owl, well over a thousand hours of recording. This record was so much more enjoyable for me though because of working with the co-producer/engineer Robert Bartleson. He’s a super laid back guy, and has a ton of great ideas. I thought we worked really well together—plus, I’m a perfectionist in the studio, and that can get ugly at times, but he was a perfect mix of patience and creativity. I could go kind of crazy sometimes about a vocal take or a guitar part or something, and he was able to think things through calmly and work it out. It was nice.

 

My process was pretty much the same for the actual recording. I would start the song with the guitars, and then just layer everything on top after that. There are no amplifiers or distortion on this record, only one song has anything electric, the bass on “The Hills.” Other than that, nothing got plugged in, just miked. I’m not always so comfortable in the studio, because I have a fear of not being able to ever get the songs to sound the way they do in my head, but I think with Madam Owl, I was able to get pretty close.

 

 

 

JH: I think every song on the record sounds a lot different from one another, and that was the goal. I’ve never had horns in a song before, so that was new, and “I Don’t Quite Remember” is just strings and vocals, and I haven’t done that before either. I just wanted to make the songs as interesting as I could.

 

 

JH: You will see me going up onto the stage and playing some songs by myself, then Chris Koza and his band are going to join me in playing a couple new songs and a few older ones as well. I am excited about it.

 

 

JH: The plan is to stay on tour for the rest of this year and most of next year. I will be doing the US several times, Japan and Europe too—lots of things in the works right now.