Pool Of Sound - King Hannah

Craig Whittle and Hannah Merrick, aka 'King Hannah'.

Based in Liverpool, 'King Hannah' are led by Hannah Merrick and Craig Whittle, with the density of their sound coming from the combination of their guitar and vocals with support from Ted White on synth, Jake Lipiec on drums and Olly Gorman on bass. Inspired by American artists, the vocals of Mazzy Star, the guitar of Kurt Vile and the lyrics of the New York indie rock band 'Silver Jews'. Craig Whittle started playing guitar age 13, taught Jackson Browne songs by his older brother, he formed 'King Hannah' before Hannah Merrick knew anything about it. Hannah, who comes from Tan Lan, a small village in North Wales, was at Liverpool uni studying singing in 2008. Craig had seen her performing, playing solo guitar and vocals, at a university band showcase, but they didn't meet until a few years later when she was assigned to show him the ropes on how to lay out cutlery at the bar job they'd both taken on to get by while still making music. He immediately pestered her to play some music with him, and they started a routine, spending the hours before work at Craig's house where for a long time Hannah could not pluck up the courage to play him her own music. "That went on for a year," said Hannah, while Craig just waited patiently for her to play. When they finally got to writing their own songs together, everything clicked into place. Craig said, "If we hadn't found each other, I don't know where we would be." They both had played in bands before, but until they started 'King Hannah', neither had found what they were looking for.

Performing at the Shipping Forecast

Music blog Getintothis described them in April 2018 as something of an enigma. "A fairly new band, it is difficult to track them down to see what they are all about. Their social profile is low, gigs are few and far between. Finding their music online ends in frustration. But persistence is recommended, because 'King Hannah' are special. Often described as being 'built around' lead singer Hannah Merrick, 'King Hannah' create a beautiful, haunting blues with Merrick's vocals taking centre stage and driving the songs emotional current." Their sound has been described as both soothing in its moods and intoxicating in its rushing soundscapes. Their neon guitar lines and intimate torchlight vocals put the everyday on a pedestal, lifted by melodic licks that swell into dense and swirling atmospheric textures.

They originally released 'Crème Brûlée' themselves in May 2019 and a month later, Krista from City Slang got in touch with them to say how much she loved the track and asked to hear more music. At the time, they had nothing they liked enough to send her, so very quickly wrote and recorded a few more songs and sent them to Krista one-by-one, as and when we thought they were good enough to be heard! Thankfully, she liked them and they signed up to Berlin based City Slang Records in 2020 just before lockdown began.

Their debut EP 'Tell Me Your Mind And I’ll Tell You Mine' was released in November 2020 with their good friend, Ted White, who is the synth player in the band, working with them on production. 'State Trooper' was released in March 2021. Having always loved the Bruce Springsteen album 'Nebraska', how sparse and raw it sounds, and how it is effectively a live demo recording, they wanted to keep that live-feel when covering 'State Trooper' and so tracked the song live in their little home studio. "We tried to do justice to the atmosphere of the original when arranging the track, with rumbling tom-heavy drums, warm creamy guitars and intimate slap-back vocals. Produced by Ted White and mixed by Ted and Craig."
Their hopes for 2021 are Hannah says," to make the best album we're able to make. We just want to be really happy with it, really proud of it." Craig adds "You only get one chance to make a first album and we want to be able to look back and say we're proud of it. Even if everyone hates it! In a more general sense, gigs and festivals start happening again and being able to go out on tour."

see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/07/pool-of-sound-delta-maid.html