Have a listen to Hannie while you read
What are your names?
Hannah and Annie.
What is your genre of music?
We would say you could describe it as funky electronic pop. Our melodies and lyrics are pretty poppy but then there’s always funky guitar going through all our songs and a lot of synth. We also try to keep our sounds varied, if we love it and it feels right, it’s right!
Give us a little bio about you.
We both met at Uni on our first day and became friends. We were the only girls in our courses so I guess we HAD to become friends. We were both pretty nerdy at uni, just wanted to get really good at our instruments (Keys and Guitar). We never thought we could be artists but after we put a couple of videos of us live looping and jamming in our living room online, people started following what we do and asked when we’d release our own music and go on tour together. So that’s when we started to get into songwriting and started this whole project! Best decision ever, we’re having so much fun making music every day, songwriting and producing! Wouldn’t want to swap with anyone else!
What made you go in to music?
We both learned to play instruments when we were young, Annie learned guitar and drums, I learned Keys and violin. We both just stuck with it, Annie got into production really young, I formed a band when I was 12, so we both just spent all our free time making music. It was just clear for us to do something with music after school. That we’d end up doing songwriting and releasing our own songs neither of us ever expected to be honest!
Are you a signed?
We’re our own label! HANNIE Records, which goes through a cool independent label called AWAL. These guys are great, they help us out with a lot and help us get our music to streaming platforms like Spotify etc!
You set to release your new single ‘ Drama’, tell us more about it.
Drama! Wahoo, we love this track! We wrote it with Hicari who are Shai and Ryan, a writing duo and it was just fun to write cos the whole song is just a bit sassy and so relatable. We’ve all had Drama with people we thought were close to us. Later on we played the demo to Isaiah Dreads when he came round to our studio and he basically immediately started rapping over the Middle 8, so it was a no brainer to keep him on the track which makes it even more exciting for us since we’ve never released a song with a rap feature before!
Describe the track in two words.
Dramatically catchy
What was the writing process like?
Writing it was so much fun! We were just hanging out with HICARI and jamming in our living room and the song started to form. That is always a good sign. When everyone in the room ends up dancing, having fun and jamming out together the song always feels right.
What was the recording process like?
After we’d written and produced the song with Hicari we took it to our friend Embody who did the post production. We just spent two days in the studio with him, re recorded some vocal parts, ate way too many crackers and had a great time. One vocal part was even recorded on an iPhone voice memo and it ended up in the song!
What is the message you want listeners to take from the single?
That we all have drama in our lives but it’s about what you make of it. Whether you beat yourself up over failing relationships or if you just get on with it. The song is written out of both perspectives, the guy and the girl which is cool. it shows that there is always two sides to a story and that nobody is ever completely right or wrong!
You worked with Isaiah Dreads, how did that come about?
Isaiah came round to our studio one afternoon and we did some writing, jammed and ended up playing him a couple of our songs. When he heard “Drama” he immediately started rapping over it, so he ended up writing the rap within 15 minuets and that was it!
Will we see a video for the single?
For sure! Videos are our thing haha!
Where can we buy the single from?
Everywhere! Spotify, iTunes, Deezer and if you’re lucky you’ll find us selling a few CDs on our road! 😀
Will we see an EP or album soon and if so what can we expect from that?
We’ve planned to be putting out an EP soon but there’s a few singles still coming first!
What can we expect in 2019?
We’re insanely stoked for this year. We have written so many songs in the past year and they’re all hopefully going to be released this year! So a LOT more music from us, but also live shows. We just got back from a rehearsal and you can definitely catch us playing around London in the next months! Hopefully we get the chance to play shows outside the UK too this year. We’re always getting so many messages from people all over the world and would love to play in their cities and get to meet them! Fingers crossed!
Do you have any collaborations coming up with any up coming artists?
Totally! All our songs have feature artists, which is super exciting, but maybe you’ll get one or two songs this year with us singing on them too…
Would you be up for collaborations if other musicians wanted one with you? and who would they have to contact?
Hundred percent. I think it’s all about collaboration and working with different people. Firstly it’s fun, but it also widens your circle and new people get to hear about your music. We’re doing so many collaborations with other musicians, writers, singers, instrumentalists, there’s a beatboxing video out there… so yes, totally up for collaborations.
Do you play any instruments?
Yes! That’s our thing. Annie plays guitar, drums, bass, I play keys, violin and bass too.
Who are your influences?
Loads of different people. There’s some amazing players we look up to like Nile Rogers or Robert Grasper but then also some writers and producers like Julia Michaels, Ryan Tedder or Calvin Harris.
How do you get inspiration to write songs?
We write a lot with other people which is great. Usually you meet up and start talking about things that are going on in your life at the moment and that turns into a song. Also listening to a lot of different music is really inspiring. When we listen to some music we love we often end up jamming to the song and from that you get new ideas which you could turn into a song.
Where do you see yourself now in 5 Years?
Hopefully fingers crossed we’re in a place where we have released a tonne more songs and done some touring around the world.
When you’re not doing music, what do you do?
To be fair, even when we don’t “do music” we end up doing music. We’ve turned out living room into a studio so there are instruments wherever you look so we always end up picking up a guitar or drum machine, ableton or a synth and practicing and playing. But if we ever ACTUALLY don’t do music we’ll probably do sports or cook or go to gigs and jam nights with friends. Or you can quite often spot us in East London with this cute fluffy black dog called Rebel.
What was the song you listened to most that influenced you to go more in to the music scene?
The Maroon 5 Album “Songs about Jane” was definitely a huge influence. We love their sound, writing and lyrics and especially when we were both young that was a big influence!
What’s the best advice you have ever been given?
Keep going, believe in yourself and always give 200%
What advice would you give to aspiring musicians not about the industry and just as an artist?
Always try and put yourself into situations that can bring you a step further, speak to the right people, create as much social media content as you possibly can, be relatable and original.
What quote or saying do you always stick by?
Always work like you’ve got something to prove
Where in your hometown is a must go to visit?
London Fields! Best place in London and always such nice people there!
Your coming off tour;
1/ Where do you go first?
Back to our Flat where all the guitars and keys are we couldn’t take with us! 😀
2/ Who do you see first?
Our friends!
3/What do you eat first?
We’d go to Homeslice pizza around the corner. Pretty much a must after long rehearsals or writing sessions and especially a tour!
When you are at a gig, what are 5 things you cannot forget?
Annies Guitar
Hannahs Keys
Our drummer, singers and George our Soundy
Releasable cable ties Ableton
Do you have social media accounts so your fans can follow you?
Yes we totally do! There’s our personal accounts, @hannahplayskeys & @annieplaysguitar with endless amounts of videos of us jamming and live looping and collaborations with other singers but there is also our band account which is @hannieplays where there is everything band related including all our original songs and gig updates!