The full interview audio can be found here.

On June 28, 2023, I had an amazing conversation with artist Hannah Jadagu for my show “Wrinkled Page Radio” on WXCI 91.7. What became immediately apparent was how down to earth yet passionate about her craft that she was.

Hannah Jadagu is a twenty-one-year-old musician from Texas, who began creating music as early as eighteen years old with her first singles. Jadagu even produced her entire first EP completely on her iPhone in GarageBand. She is now studying music business

Her debut album Aperture released on May 19th of this year and has been killing it ever since on the NACC charts for College Radio. She also is currently on a headlining tour. 

“I think I was just really always inspired by music since I was in, like, even elementary school. I always wanted to play, you know, the instruments and stuff and listening to music was always really fun for me, so in terms of  wanting to make it, I just felt like it would be really cool to do, and I was always obsessed with it naturally,” Jadagu explained.

She elaborated by saying, “When I got to high school, I picked up the guitar, and I started, you know, learning my favorite artist songs and stuff like that, and then I was really heavily using GarageBand, and yeah, I think it was just a combination of loving music from an early age but also wanting to express myself through music in the same way that a lot of my favorite artists did as well.” Playing around in GarageBand and exploring music certainly paid off as that was when she was able to begin her career as an artist. 

We then talked about if there were any specific memories tied to writing songs or a memory of beginning to create her very first song. 

“Yeah, I remember when I was like eight, somebody gave me for my birthday like a journal and a guitar. Somebody was like setting me up, but… I didn’t use the guitar. but I just wrote in my journal little songs. I used to watch Hannah Montana a lot, so I was convinced that, you know, we had something in common, but they were very bad at that age, and then later on, I think I remember writing my songs “Sundown” when I was probably sixteen, and that was when I was like, ‘Okay, I think I have a song, and I know how to somewhat produce the skeletons of a song.’ So, that was definitely my reintegration into making music  more confidently,” the artist reminisced.

“Sundown,” as she discussed, is a track that carries a light and airy sound that captures the self reflection that Jadagu does throughout her projects. She went on to include the track in her EP What Is Going On?, which is the perfect home for the track given the amount of self exploration on that project. 

The topic of albums that defined her teenage years also came up, and along with the works of Hannah Montana, she mentioned Immunity by Clairo, After Laughter by Paramore, and the work that the band Hers did before their passing, after a car accident on tour. She even mentioned getting to see them on tour before they passed and has a clear memory of that experience. Clairo was another artist that she got to see in a 300 cap room and Hers in a 350 cap room. 

There is undoubtedly something special about being able to see your favorite artists perform their magic on stage, and the work of Clairo specifically fits Jagadu’s style so perfectly. Claire Cottrell started out making music at thirteen and putting out her bigger tracks around the same age. Cottrell was very inspired by the bedroom pop sort of sound by making it herself and just speaking organically to her experiences as well. It’s incredible to see the influence that other artists can have on amazing musicians like Hannah Jadagu as well. 

When asked what it was like in terms of the process creating her first EP, Jadagu had this to say: “The creative process looked like me getting my phone, getting an iRig, and plugging my guitar into there, and I would open it up, like you said, on GarageBand iOS, and it was really fun for me because I have been using that create a process since I was pretty much in middle school and high school. So, it came naturally, and that was easiest to me, and also all that I could afford so that was just intuitive at the moment, and it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed making my EP, and I did a lot of it while I was still in high school and finished it up my first semester at college, but it was cool. I think it was very cathartic for me, so I loved making it.

Other artists like Steve Lacy have done this and achieved major success, and sometimes starting out with what’s more accessible and affordable can feel more authentic to the listener. 

I wanted to delve deeper into what it was like to write an EP at such a young age and to explore those emotions. When asked what that writing process was like, Jadagu explained, “I think a lot of the time, it started from me just trying to analyze how I was feeling in those moments, and I used to be pretty, you know, shy and reserved, so I think I just was sort of looking for an outlet that I was comfortable expressing myself in, so that’s definitely originally at its core where writing down those ideas started.”

The need to get words out and express herself as an outlet shines through in the song “Think Too Much,” in which the lyrics state: “Now I’m searching for words in a place that confines/And it’s scary, rarely easy to like, but I/Think too much, it’s all in your head.” However, it’s the vulnerability of being able to talk about these feelings and really explore the internal creative world that allowed her EP to be as raw and beautiful as it is. 

In her first body of work, the artist talks about having imposter syndrome. “Yeah, I think realizing that especially when you’re so young, comparison is just not healthy for you, and that I think, inadvertently, I was comparing myself to maybe other people my age or anything I had seen online and social media. I think just knowing that what I do is enough and trying to reaffirm myself of that, you know, affirmation type stuff. Not that I really do daily affirmations, but I think subconsciously just telling myself ‘Okay, some people like your music, and that should be good enough.’…I was eighteen at the time [or] nineteen so just understanding that it’s silly and it doesn’t have to be that deep helps a lot.”

With over 200,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, Jadagu has certainly found an audience that understands her creatively and connects with her music, even with her debut album having just been released. 

When asked if her experience studying music business has helped her with navigating the industry, Jadagu said, “In some ways, yeah because I think you definitely need to be aware as an artist in terms of how things function, how money moves, and how people ultimately have to pay their bills, too. And I think that’s something that you should be cognizant of, but also, you know, just understanding that as an artist, they’re going to be moments when you really have to vouch for yourself, and I think studying, you know, music business for a little bit has helped me understand that and help me be confident in that.”

We then talked about her brand new debut album, Aperture, and how she has grown as an artist. The album has a central theme of coming-of-age, and you can hear a progression if you listen to her previous discography before delving into the album. The album is also what inspired me to want to do this interview and made me fall in love with her sound. 

 “I think I knew on Aperture …I was still writing about things I’ve gone through or maybe a little blip of something I had gone through and expanding upon that. But I knew that I wanted to elevate the way that it sounded, and sonically that when you make something that sounds really good, it’s easier for other people to also sort of get what you’re going for… not everybody is going to like what you do, and that’s okay. but yeah, I was just really wanting to push myself production-wise and working with my co-producer Max helped a lot.”

On her album there’s a song called “Six Months” that specifically mentions camera focus, tying back to the album title. When asked what inspired this specific imagery to be used to tie the album together, the artist said, “That’s cool that you caught that, nobody has ever asked me before and I’m okay. But honestly, I think sometimes it’s really cool to think about how music and other art forms work together and  the similarities that you see because I have [not a lot], I have a few photography filmmaking type friends, and I find it fun to sort of  combine the two things because you find that they’re pretty similar in different ways, but yeah, I just have a little blip of fascination with it.”

Naturally, we began to talk about her music videos and what the ability to combine the video aspect with the music is like for her in a creative sense. “Yes, music videos are so interesting because I don’t know if I’m the biggest fan of having to be in them, and my manager is always like, ‘No, it’s fine, just do a video,’ and I’m like okay, but apart from the actual, (video) I think it is very cool to see a crew come together and work on something.”

She went on to say, “that was something that I got to experience this album cycle compared to the EP and just seeing a lot of people, you know, know their roles and stick to it and have a cohesive goal and meet said goal was incredible. The “Admit It” music video was done by my friend Sterling, who shot the album art as well and does a lot of my other stuff. It was just so cool to see that come together but yeah I think music videos can be important when you want to tell a story further or maybe help elaborate on it, and it can help people see something come to life in front of their face rather than just hearing it.”

A lot of her music with the nature of it being about coming of age focuses around a lot of personal topics and relationships. “There’s a lot of times where I’ll write something, and I’m like, ‘Hm, should I say that?’ But then it’s just what I was talking about earlier, you just realize that you know it’s your art, and it’s what you want to do, and it can be scary, and I’ve acknowledged that it is scary for me. But I think sometimes it’s just what will serve the song better or what feels the most authentic to you and trying to constantly just be my authentic self and say what I feel needs to be said helps me get past that.” She said when asked about what it’s like keeping a balance between what is put into the music and what is kept for herself. 

A lot of writers have struggled with this balance of when to put everything out into the world and when to take a step back, including poets like Emily Dickinson. It’s incredible when you hear artists talk about their vulnerability and willingness to put their emotions out even when they’re afraid. Ultimately, it allows for the listener to enjoy the work even more and humanizes the experience.

“I love ‘Six Months’ and I love that you brought it up. I just feel like it’s the most wonky song on that album. My friend Wolfgang, he’s from Texas, and he composed a lot of that song, and he is so brilliant, so smart. I think you can hear it, and that’s the only song on the album where I had somebody else help me make it from the beginning. So, that was really cool, that is my favorite song. I always come back to that one. It’s just so fun. What is another one? I really like “Dreaming.” I think that’s fun. It reminds me of Ralston-type production and Clairo-type stuff. Yeah, I like those two right now,” Jagadu explained when asked what her favorite song has been to create.

We then talked about what it was like to work with another artist instead of working by herself on her music given that this was her favorite track to make. “I love to work by myself, I don’t really like sharing with other people. Just because it feels really personal and I think the more people you let in, the more you can lose whatever you’re working on, too, but that being said, working with Wolfgang for me is always pretty easy. I’m just such a fan of what he does, and…he let me just kind of do the lyrics stuff, but I would send him inspo or things I was listening to, and he would just get it, and I think it is so rare, or at least hard to find people that just get it. But when you do, it allows you to open yourself up to collaboration a lot more, so it was a great experience, love Wolfgang, shout out Wolfgang.”

“Going back to collaboration, [the album] taught me that collaboration, like a harmonious collaboration, is possible as long as you just find the right people that, you know, listen to you and try to get what you’re doing. I think Aperture also taught me a lot about just making songs and, you know, from the lyrics, to the arrangements, to the production, and it’s taught me to trust myself. Also, I think it was a process of just making sure that I believed in what I was doing in every aspect,” she said when asked about what Aperture specifically taught her about herself as a musician. 

The artist also said that fans can expect new music; she’s not sure how soon, but definitely in the future. 

Jadagu also mentioned that creating new music for her right now has been a really fun time. I wanted to discuss if the confidence within her music has affected her new sound moving forward and if she notices that that growth has helped to develop her process. “Yes, definitely, I think I’m a lot more eager to try new things especially because I love personally when an artist of mine sort of not goes in a completely different direction but at least ventures out a little bit. I’ve been listening to the singles put out by Dominic Fike and Japanese House and you can hear their core structure and value is still there, but they’ve completely expanded on their sound with each, you know, project, and that’s sort of something I would love to do.”

We then transitioned to talking about touring. Jadagu has been on tours with artists that have dominated the indie scene like Beach Fossils, Wet, Frankie Cosmos, and Faye Webster. She specifically talked about how Faye Webster is one of the sweetest artists that she’s ever gotten to work with as she toured with her both in the U.S. and the U.K. The two artists got to talk and be more silly with each other. She also talked about Beach Fossils in particular and how they have dad energy, and that was really great for the bigger shows they played.

Another thing that she talked about was having to manage her energy on these tours because she tends to be very introverted, and she recognizes when it’s getting too bad. With the experience under her belt of these support tours and getting to go around the world with these bigger artists, Jadagu is more than prepared for her current headlining tour.

“I think being able to play your songs live allows for your fans to hear it and—ugh, fans, that word, but it allows for people to hear it in a new context. I think our live version is also a bit more interactive. I like to, you know, sort of interact with the crowd and make sure that people just have a good time, and sometimes I’ve had albums where I was like, ‘Eh, it’s okay,’ and then I go see it live, and I’m like, ‘Wow, I love this album and now I’m obsessed.’…And I think that a live show, it just brings so many emotions to anyone, so I think that’s just such a cool aspect and also community. It’s a great place for, you know, people who are like-minded or maybe go through similar struggles to meet each other and hang out so that’s cool,” the artist explained when asked what touring brings to the table for her versus the act of creating the music and recording.

When asked about what she’s most excited for with her own headlining tour, Jadagu explained, “I’m excited because I’ve never really played consecutive shows to crowds that are there to see me. So, I’m interested to see how that feels for like team morale purposes and how that feels as an artist because I’ve just never experienced that. I’ve got a lot of, you know, opening gigs under my belt, so it’s just going to be a new experience and hopefully a good one.”

To wrap up the interview, I asked if she had any advice for any artist who wants to put up music but isn’t really sure where to start. “I would say if you’ve already started making music and you’re kind of just doing it secretly, that was me, and I think you might maybe get to a point where you feel like you could share your songs with other people, and when you get to that point it might maybe be scary. But just understanding that there’s something out there for everyone and somebody might connect with what you’re doing can be really promising and bring a lot of hope because that’s what happened to me. So, I think just keep doing what you’re doing, and just have fun. and don’t get caught up in comparing yourself and all the industry things that you see. Just focus on making music and being a nice person, and good things will come.”

To hear the full interview featuring parts I didn’t cover here, including more about her experience with artists she’s opened for and what that was like on tour, you can access the interview on SoundCloud at this link.  

If you would like to see Hannah in action on her headlining tour, you can go to this link to find more information. She is coming to neighboring areas including Philadelphia and New York, so it’s an experience that you don’t want to miss. You can also follow the artist on Instagram to stay up to date with her activity.

Thank you so much to Hannah and her team for this interview. It was amazing to have this conversation, and I wish her the best in everything moving forward. I know I’ll be tuning in to any new music.