Wisconsin-born singer/songwriter Jeff Hanson is playing at Union South's Club 770 tonight. Why should you be interested? Aren't there enough guys playing quiet, folksy music these days? As Hanson will freely tell you, yes, there are, but not any others who possess his beautiful voice, a falsetto that somehow makes each song on his last album Jeff Hanson seem earthy and epic. The Daily Cardinal talked with him about his career and music.
Daily Cardinal: How would you describe your music to someone who had never heard it before?
Jeff Hanson: That's a good question. How would I describe it? I'm always horrible about that. I would say maybe more of a singer/songwriter-oriented folk-pop, I guess that's the best way I could describe it. That's how I would describe it to my grandma at Easter.
DC: Does your grandma enjoy your music?
JH: I think so. I think I have a big niche in the grandma market; I should start up a supper club tour at some point.
DC: You'd make a killing. So you started out in an emo band, M.I.J.'describe your early years in the music industry.
JH: It was a lot of fun [but] it wasn't the kind of music I wanted to make any longer than we did, so as soon as I left that group I started recording my own stuff at home on a demo, on a 4-track, and decided just to start sending it out to records labels, and I picked some of my favorites. Kill Rock Stars was pretty much top on the list, and I didn't think I'd ever hear back from them, but they were the first label to contact me within a few weeks of me sending it out.
DC: When you were in the emo band, did you sing in the same voice that you use now?
JH: Yeah, kind of the same response, like, who's that girl in the band? Who's that sweet, sweet sexy lady?
DC: Your voice does sound feminine. Do you think it's a point of interest to people, or do you think it puts people off?
JH: If anyone would be put off by it, they don't need to listen to it. That's kind of the weird thing: if I was a woman and I was singing, no one would think anything about it, you'd just say, 'Oh, that's a pretty voice.'
Do people need to detach the male part from it to enjoy it? I don't know, that just seems really ridiculous to me. I definitely find it a quality I'm really pleased to have. Sending out a demo tape, it's nice to have something that might catch somebody's ear, and I would totally say it's something that has helped me quite a bit. There's a lot of people doing what I do, there's a lot of people that pull out an acoustic guitar and sing in a microphone. So if there's something there that's different from what other people are doing, I'll take it.
DC: If you were to imagine yourself five years from now, what would you envision ideally happening?
JH: If I'm sitting in a gutter five years from now, it's like, 'Oh, I'm in a gutter,' or if I'm sitting on stage still touring and putting out records, I'll say, 'Wow, this is great, this is much better than a gutter.' I just hope I can keep doing this as long as I can; I love it. I can't think of anything else in the world I'd want to be doing. I feel lucky as hell at this point to even be doing it right now. I don't know if there's anyone who can do this and be realistic. You kind of just really have to be out of your mind most of the time and just think, 'Wow, this is crazy that I'm doing this at all.'
