To hear the full interview you can also check it out on Soundcloud and YouTube.

On July 5, 2023, I had the pleasure of sitting down with indie rock artist Hana Eid for my radio show Wrinkled Page Radio on WXCI 91.7. 

The artist originates from Nashville, a hub for music, and also studies songwriting professionally at Belmont University. With a background of always being immersed in music, she appears to be finding her groove. 

Eid’s music perfectly captures the essence of girlhood and growing up. It’s through the artist’s experiences that the songs come to life in a sort of diary entry style while also featuring rock elements like heavier guitar to tie the emotional impact together.

From the moment I heard “Shrapnel” and “Let Down” by Hana Eid, I was hooked, listening to these tracks in the car anywhere I went.

However, it was after getting deeper into her discography beyond a love for these tracks that I knew I wanted to reach out to Hana to discuss her craft and career. One thing that struck me prior to the interview on her social media was her love of reading, and I began to think about the way that this love of the written word could inform her creative process.

When we talked about her love of books in the interview briefly she recommended the book Crush by Richard Siken. “I loved that book. I’ve been hunting for it [for about a year] and then I found it at McKAY’s, which is a thrift bookstore near here. I found it there for like $0.99 and I got it… I think Richard Siken is a devastatingly good writer… It’ll probably make you cry if you read it. It definitely made me cry a lot, but it’s a really good poetry book. But I’ve been inspired by and liking a lot recently.”

After asking how she got into making music, Eid mentioned that when she was younger, she aspired to be a novelist. However, at the same time around nine years old, she got into playing electric guitar and writing songs. “I just eventually ended up combining the writing passion and the guitar playing passion,” the artist explained. 

Eid is able to articulate herself in beautifully unexpected ways with small details like lyrics from “Shrapnel” that say, “The bottom of your driveway still sort of smells like me,” or “I’m still pulling up the shrapnel made of you.” It’s this attention to sensory and personal struggle that truly helps to paint a clear picture for the listener. 

When asked how she would describe her own music, the word that came to mind for the artist was “reminiscent.” Eid went on to explain, “I think a lot of the songs I write feel really reflective, and I definitely use songwriting to dissect things that happened to me or emotions that I wasn’t able to address in the present moment at the time. So I think a lot of my music feels really reminiscent of a time or a feeling or something I felt at a certain point in time.” 

Naturally, we discussed Nashville and how that has influenced her love of music over the course of time growing up there. “The Nashville music scene is just so community oriented…it’s been cool being in a place where people are genuinely excited about music and interested in artists, especially smaller independent artists. People are really excited about the local talent and the local art here, which has been super exciting.” 

“I think it’s forced me to expand in a way I didn’t expect to,” she said as we discussed her experiences with studying songwriting and music business. “The songwriting program at Belmont in particular is very commercialized and intended for people that want to do pop, country, radio music or write for other people, which makes sense… What else would they teach? But it’s definitely interesting because it’s forced me to do co-writes and write songs in genres that I wouldn’t normally write in, which at times has felt really difficult but also at times has felt super exciting. It’s been cool to expand in that way.” 

Building off of how her education helped to expand her process, Eid mentioned that it allowed her to become more deeply involved in the production process of a song, and she also got to meet a lot of great creative people through that program. One song where Eid was more involved in production is “Shrapnel,” which grew to be a fan favorite in a very short amount of time. When asked what has been the most difficult or challenging song to make, Eid revealed that it was this very track. 

“Recording vocals for it took forever, I mean not for no reason. It’s a difficult song to sing and I’m also very particular about how my vocals process and how I want them to sound. It was a huge struggle trying to get those vocals done.”

She also mentioned that they went in to change a lot of things during the song’s production including some of the instrumentation and that the track took about a year to finish as it was written last March. “But once we nailed it, and I got the final mix back and the master back, I was so happy with it and it felt really, really good.” 

When asked what came to her first when making “Shrapnel,” she noted that it was actually the guitar chords. The artist revealed that she usually uses a lot of open tuning and that this track was one of the first songs in a while that she had composed in standard tuning. The track took her only about twenty minutes to write, which she called one of those “creative outbursts where it just comes to you.”

Despite the fact that the song poured out of her, the artist revealed that at first she didn’t really like it. Eid had a clear memory of writing it in her freshman dorm room and proceeded to show it to a friend who told her it was amazing. “I’ve been very pleasantly surprised at the response to it, especially for a song that I was so kind of unsure of at the beginning,” she said. 

I asked about her writing experience and where the idea for a song starts. “Usually it starts from one lyric. I keep a list of random lyrics I think of in my phone. So when I sit down to write, I’ll kind of go through those and see if anything resonates with me from whatever I’m feeling in that moment.” Eid went on to explain that a lot of the time her explorations of experiences are very retrospective and at times feel more like storytelling. She also explained that rarely does she write about a very specific event and that her ideas come from a more ambiguous place of exploration. 

The artist started singing at a very young age and just started releasing music at the age of 14. When asked what it was like to first put music out into the world and not just keep it to herself, Eid said she felt excited. “I think I’ve always felt like what I’m doing is what I’m going to do… [being a musician] always just felt like part of the plan if that makes sense.”

When comparing her experience from adolescence to what it’s been like now to release music during college, she explained that she began to take her craft a bit more seriously. “I remember just being excited and a little terrified, but just trying my best to detach from the results…It was definitely a lot of…excitement and that jittery anxious feeling but in a good way.”

The growth that Eid has had as an artist over the course of time growing up is noticeable when listening to her discography. Her music has developed from a soft singer-songwriter sound into a more heavy and upbeat style. 

I asked what has inspired this indie rock sound to be more present in her recent music. The artist explained that she has most recently been inspired by Wednesday, Adrianne Lenker, Big Thief, Indigo de Souza, and The Districts. Wednesday is her biggest inspiration as she mentions listening to their most recent album Rat Saw God front to back. Wednesday also came up as a dream band she would like to collaborate with or even open for on a tour if the opportunity arose. 

We also discussed more artists focused around summer and what she has been listening to outside of the creative process.The band feeble little horse and their newest album Girl With Fish as well as their previous work Hayday was mentioned. Eid also said that Big Star, Pinegrove, Launder and Been Stellar are artists of the summer for her. Been Stellar in particular stuck out; Eid said, “They have an EP out that’s another one of my favorite EPs that I’ve heard in a while. They’re like a smaller indie rock, garage rock sort of band out of New York. They’re pretty small…they’re doing all these like huge tours, but they just have this EP out and it’s awesome.”

Eid noted the band as one that she can look up to in terms of her style and highlighted that she really enjoys bands that are fronted by women. 

When talking about the bands that have been inspiring her, the artist also revealed that she is currently working on an EP. Going back to the idea of her music being reminiscent, the new project came to mind as an example. “I’m starting to roll out my debut EP, and I think that project especially feels really reminiscent and really captures a lot of what the past couple years have been for me in terms of emotional growth and experiences.”

“It’s been daunting for sure. I definitely felt a lot of pressure to make it like the best thing ever, because I feel like when an artist puts out their first body of work, it’s the first thing substantial enough to receive critique,” Eid said when opening up about the process of what it’s been like to compile her longest body of work.

“I think it’s a little more indicative of where my artistic project is going and what I want my sound to be. So that has been kind of terrifying to me. But it’s also been really exciting because I feel good about the music and I feel like all of it is really some of my most authentic and honest writing coming from real experiences and emotions…For all of these songs, I wasn’t really trying to make them a certain way or make them digestible in any sort of way. So it definitely feels authentic and true to like the time where I am, or have been in like the past year or so which feels good and I hope it’s received well,” she said. “but I also know isn’t like the last thing I’m ever going to put out and it doesn’t have to be perfect and art is constantly subject to change.”

 It’s clear that the artist is eagerly anticipating what reception the EP will receive but in a healthy and manageable way that’s realistic to anyone who cares about their art. Listeners can get excited to hear more coming from Eid in the future  that the artist is clearly proud to have been making.

With the talk of this newest EP having the most raw emotions and explorations of events thus far, I asked about what it’s been like to openly put out such vulnerable music and share such intimate pieces of yourself with an audience. 

“I don’t know that I’ve ever thought that much into it, which sounds kind of ridiculous. Sometimes it’s felt maybe a little uncomfortable to be that vulnerable, but I don’t think that the way that I feel is ever unique to me. I think other people experience everything, or have experienced all of the emotions that I’ve experienced and that I talk about… So it doesn’t feel as scary because I know that I’m not like a freak of nature for saying the things that I say. But yeah, it definitely can be scary at times, but there’s also definitely a level of comfort in being that vulnerable and being that honest with a group of people.” She joked however at shows that her parents don’t need to hear what she’s singing about. 

On the topic of performing live, the artist is fresh off of a handful of shows that took place in New York City. Eid seemed to deeply enjoy the city and exclaimed, “It was really, really fun. I mean, it was crazy because it was my first time ever traveling for a show or playing a show that wasn’t in the place where I was living…I was really nervous because I didn’t know really anyone that was going to be there other than like the few, like the handful of friends that I have in New York City and I like didn’t really know what it was going to be like.” 

She opened up further about her experience playing more often as an opener. When playing shows, you never know if people are going to talk over your set or pay attention at all, but she said she was very lucky in New York. “The crowd was really, really kind and people were really receptive and attentive and curious about the music, which I really appreciated because it’s always hit or miss.” 

I asked if performing brings in a new element to the songs. “Performing I think is where I probably have the most fun…It’s way less rigid as opposed to the recording process where obviously we’re trying to get it perfect, but there’s just so much up in the air and you get to kind of interact with the crowd and when I play with my band, I get to interact with my friends on stage and so that’s always really exciting.” She also noted that a key element is getting to feel the audience’s energy and experience the music with them.

Some notable venues she mentioned include Baby’s All Right in NYC, The East Room in Nashville, The End (which also features young and upcoming artists in Tennessee), and Songbird in DC. All of which Hana Eid has played over the course of her career. 

Given that she grew up in Nashville and has played at these venues that support small artists that are up and coming, I asked her about advice for anyone who might be starting to write music or wanting to release it but doesn’t really know where to start.

“My advice would be to be kind to yourself and accept that it’s going to take a long time…Even now, like most of the songs I write are really awful and I would never want anyone to listen to them. It takes time, it takes repetition and be okay with where you are and that process…Recognize that it’s going to be imperfect and that that’s okay. The important thing is just [to] keep trying [to seek] vulnerability in yourself and your writing.”

One of the last questions I asked Eid what she’s learned about herself as an artist with both the new music and performing. 

“I think the main thing I’ve learned probably in the past year or so, is that it’s okay to not have it all figured out and like it’s okay not to be perfect all the time. It’s always an ongoing and ever evolving process and that’s okay. That’s actually like largely the fun of it is getting inspired by new things or messing up in correcting it or you know, figuring out what works and what doesn’t and that the in between is just as exciting and fruitful as the end result.” 

I know I can’t wait to listen to Hana’s new EP and see what comes next with her career. To follow all of Hana’s future endeavors and even see her play live, you can check out her Instagram. You can also check her out on Spotify to hear all of her most recent music. It was an honor to have Hana on and her creative process is incredible to hear about.