Photo By Denise Stephanie

Interview conducted by Clara Copps

Hannah Jadagu is a 19-year old singer, songwriter and producer from Mesquite, Texas who was signed to Sub Pop Records during summer 2020. This past spring she released her debut EP, What Is Going On? which features soft synths and deeply honest lyrics. Her clear voice adds to the bedroom-pop sound and it resonated beautifully throughout Thalia Hall this past Thursday. 

Hannah was kind enough to take a few moments to sit down with me after her opening set for Beach Fossils and Wild Nothing to talk about her touring experience, music career, and how she got into songwriting. 

Is this your first big tour?

Yeah, first ever tour, and then it happens to be this big so it’s very cool,  [I’m] very fortunate, but I’m having so much fun.

Yeah, that’s good! So it’s going good so far?

Yes, it’s going good!

How is working with Beach Fossils and Wild Nothing?

Oh, they’re all so sweet, like they’re all such cool people and they make an effort to like, say what’s up and be like “Great set” and they’re like “Oh I checked you guys out, heard your new song” and Beach Fossils shouted out my new song when it came out the other day on their instagram story, so super sweet people. It’s so much fun. 

And has the touring experience been meeting your expectations?

Yeah! I honestly went into it with no expectations because I didn’t know what to expect, but I do have a few artist friends who would like, tell me “Oh you’ve got this”, like “Make sure you do this, do that” blah blah blah, but I think my expectations were to just go out and have fun and right now, that’s been happening, so, it’s cool.

That’s great! That’s so good. And then I know you are in college (kind of)–

Yeah kind of, I’m like on a gap year right now.

So since WLUW is like, a college radio, I was wondering if you have any advice for college students who are trying to pursue music, or how they can start to do that. 

For me, when I went to NYU last year I studied music business, so my advice would be just try and do something in high school that will make you stand out, just be passionate about it, find ways to be active in your community and if music is something you’re passionate about then go make some friends who are also passionate about it, throw some shows (that’s what I did), and then yeah. 

And then kind of going off of that, I was wondering if you have any goals and ideally, where do you want your music career to go?

Yeah, it’s funny ‘cause I didn’t know that I was going to do the music thing until like, maybe a year ago when I got signed, and I was like, “Okay, so this is happening”. But I think I would want it to go in a direction of, like, having a fanbase that really cares about what I’m doing and, sort of like Beach Fossils, playing shows, people show up, people care, they buy the merch, you know, and they’re just like, happy about what you’re doing and excited to see what’s next. I think just knowing that people are digging it is something that I want to always happen on a greater scale. 

Yeah, and I’m sure that opening for Beach Fossils and Wild Nothing is, like, that seems like a good way to–

Yeah, like grow the fanbase and get out there, get my name out there.

Yeah, [get it out to] a similar crowd. 

Definitely, it’s cool.

So you recorded your EP and it was just you, right?

Yeah!

And how did you learn to do that?

Um, that’s a good question. It was kind of just like in middle school–‘cause the EP was on my iPhone, like, actually it’s on this one, this iPhone seven that I’m holding up, you guys can’t see but–um, I just started doing it when I was in middle school and I was like, “This is so much fun”, making songs on my phone. Then when I went to high school and I started playing guitar and stuff a little bit, and I used to only produce the music and then I would just listen to songs that I liked and try to remake them, like when I was younger, and then I started making my own stuff and started writing, and then I was like, “Well I guess I have to sing now”, so yeah I just started singing. 

And then aside from music, do you have any other big passions or hobbies? 

You know, I always hear that question, and I feel like I’m so lame because for me it was always just music, and I used to do sports and stuff, but then I stopped doing that. Which I think, just like, making music right now is the number one passion but I love spending time with friends and family, stuff like that. 

Well that’s fair, I mean you’re good at it so…

Hahaha, thank you, thank you, I try. 

Hannah Jadagu will be on tour with Beach Fossils and Wild Nothing as a part of their Out in the Way Tour 2021 until the end of November. Check out her debut EP, What Is Going On? and her new single, All My Time Is Wasted, released October 5th.