Adam Hanney & Co.

by Julijana Capone
CALGARY — It started out as a challenge. Four years ago, nascent indie-pop singer-songwriter Adam Hanney put himself to task to write one song every month for a year. The resulting tracks are an audio portrait of a year in the artist’s life, and form his debut LP, fittingly titled, 12/12.

Armed with an acoustic guitar and a desire to build his own song catalogue, the then 18-year-old Hanney dove head first into the songwriting process, finding and forcing inspiration throughout the year.

“It was such a haphazard thing,” says Hanney. “I only had 30 days to come up with the arrangement… I would write little thoughts down in my phone all the time… sometimes it would be building the song from absolutely nothing, and trying to force it to come together, which is a good exercise for any songwriter.”

While the bare bones of each song was initially conceived by Hanney solo, the songs would be fleshed out over the next few years with a full band, hence the “& Co.” in Adam Hanney & Co.

“Nothing was written outside of the studio other than the lead guitar, the lyrics, and the melody,” explains Hanney. “A lot of the remaining parts happened over the course of years, so it was a good experience to reflect on a song that you had written years ago, and you’d have to build on it using different methods of songwriting.”

“As much as they were written, it didn’t feel like they were fully formed,” he adds. “It still felt like they had a lot of potential to go in different directions musically. We had to write every drum part, every guitar lick, every keyboard part in the studio.”

The added instrumentation pays off with numbers, such as “Howl”—also the first track that Hanney wrote, and one that he says began as a forced exercise. Stinging guitar licks, shimmering synths, and ticking percussion punctuate Hanney’s careening vocals, while also revealing the songwriter’s anthemic indie-rock ambitions.

Some Manitoba music scene pals also make appearances on the record. Jess Rae Ayre of Sweet Alibi provides backing vocals on “Manhattan,” and Adam Fuhr of Yes We Mystic contributes some synth parts.

Though the record’s sequencing runs askew from the chronology in which it was written, the physical format includes a booklet with lyrics, and a corresponding number for each song that denotes the month and year it was created.

Hanney suggests listening to the album from both angles for an alternate experience. “I think it’s really interesting listening to it chronologically,” he says. “I did it recently and I was really surprised at how well it worked.”

On the heart-stricken slow burn “Manhattan,” and closing kiss-off “Wait,” Hanney reflects on the end of a long-term relationship. He confesses that the breakup was especially motivating for his songwriting.

“I find that I am exponentially more creative when I’m sad,” he says with a laugh. “I remember being up at like three in the morning and writing that all in one go.”

Indeed, the album is as much about the self-discovery of an 18-year-old as it is about the arduous process of songwriting and its rewards.

“That was why I did this, “ says Hanney. “It was fundamentally an exercise in songwriting. I just wanted to get some songs and I wanted to get better at writing them.”

Adam Hanney & Co. perform at the Park Theatre on May 18 (Winnipeg), Fratters on May 20 (Red Deer), The Biltmore Cabaret on May 26 (Vancouver), Upstairs Cabaret on May 28 (Victoria) and The Almanac on May 31 (Edmonton). To purchase or to listen to 12/12, head to adamhanney.co. - BeatRoute

It is year 4 of PHM at CMW. Thanks to special contributor Kristina B for her review below.

All the way from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Adam Hanney – Electric Guitar, Jordan Cayer – Bass Guitar, Keys, Samples, and Mike Dunn – Drums, Samples make up Adam Hanney & Co. I thought I’d never heard of a band from Winnipeg before but upon a Wikipedia search I realized Crash Test Dummies, The Watchmen and The Guess Who all come from Winnipeg so I guess Adam Hanney & Co. are actually in good company. Go Winnipeg! (Editor’s note: Kristina does not speak to my knowledge of Winnipeg bands. That being said, forgot about the Watchmen!)

CMW2016 post

Venue: Cameron House (Back Room). I was wrong before – the Cameron does not look bigger with more people packed in. Mu judgement was clearly impaired last year. Needless to say, more people came out for Adam Hanney & Co.

First Impressions: My first impression was that these guys seem really young (Google later confirmed this is correct – they’re in their early 20s) but they sound like they’ve been playing together forever. You can really hear their influences (Arctic Monkeys, Bombay Bicycle Club, Radiohead, Ryan Adams, Tokyo Police Club, We Are The City) but they’ve definitely developed their own unique sound.

Stage Presence: Adam Hanney & Co. have a great stage presence and are pretty interesting to watch. They really get into their music and you can tell they have passion, which is lacking a lot these days.

Crowd Reaction: The crowd was really into the music. No outrageous dancing (still too early for outrageous dancing) but there was some serious swaying and head bopping going on.

Random Observation: There was a drunk older lady standing near me who really REALLY doesn’t want Trump from President (although who does?) and was deeply offended that the young guys she was talking to (who were from somewhere in the U.S.) called the Cameron House a venue. It’s an ESTABLISHMENT with history damn it!

Last Word: Adam Hanney has a very powerful voice and the band play really well together. They put out their first full length album “12/12” in March and this was the first time the band had taken their new album outside of Winnipeg. They also made it into the Regional Finals for Manitoba for this year’s CBC Searchlight so it would seem 2016 has been a good year for this band thus far. They did an awesome cover of Radiohead’s “You’re All I Need” which was a definite crowd pleaser. Overall I’d say Adam Hanney and Co. are a band to watch. Rating: 7/10. - Pete Hates Music

reviewed by Chris Matei

Creative individuals love to challenge themselves in intriguing ways: Project 365, NaNoWriMo, and the like. For Adam Hanney, the fuel for a creative rocket launch came from the decision to write a finished song each month for a year. Hanney’s series of sprints ended up being a bit more of a marathon than he expected: over the next three years, the acoustic-forward songs that stemmed from the then-18-year-old’s writing process would be fleshed out into what is now 12/12, a record that is both an intimate snapshot of one formative year and a retrospective reflection on it through a more mature point of view.

The album’s opening pair of songs establish one of its two dominating sonic personalities: energetic, poppy rock with indie and alt-country flavours and sweet, warm guitar crunch. This is the sort of focused, compositional, art-class rock and roll that would stir the inner fires of CBC Radio’s Rich Terfry, blending bookish lyricism with homespun approachability and just a little edge – in the vein of a Jordan Klassen, Bahamas or Jasper Sloan Yip. “Caught,” “Third,” and “Architects” all play in this particular register, and would all probably work exceptionally well in a live setting as their heady late crescendoes whir to maximum power.

“Cede” switches into a ballad gear built on subtle looped brush strokes, and “Giselle” marks an early highlight: if we’re going by this record chronologically, we’re now situated somewhere in April, and by that logic the song feels every inch like the vibrant, nervous, expectant, bright thing it should.

“Howl” is split into a two-parter – in some circles, this identifies ambition and scope, while in others, it might signify a lack of willingness to edit. However, both parts shine on their own merits. The first is a scrawling rocker out of the Franz Ferdinand book, matching synthy verses with gritty chorus sections. It leans a little hard on a scrappy “rawk” guitar cue, but otherwise burns with a real energy. Part two opens up to fully expose a second distinct personality woven into 12/12 – that of the bedroom producer/beatscaper/Ableton fiddler-arounder, subtly hidden in other songs but explored here with dedication. The tune strongly evokes Radiohead’s “15 Step” in its drive to slowly and dramatically pile simple components on top of one another, sequences and melodies Jenga-ing upward into something dizzying.

Despite a cliched pound-pound kick drum pattern, “Manhattan” twists a keen knife: it starts out as a typical long distance/missing you song, but reveals its jealous/bitter streak halfway through and comes into its own thematically and musically. “Champagne” – one of the songs on 12/12 that appears to have stayed closest to its bare-bones singer-songwriter origins – also hides a moody build across the end of the track that hints at something darker.

An album with intent, focus, and creative variation from a young and talented Canadian artist, 12/12 packs a lot of depth into one year of self-reflection.

Top Tracks: “Giselle”; “Howl pt. 2”; “Manhattan”

Rating: Proud Hoot (Really Good) - Grayowl Point

by Sarah Murphy

Winnipeg indie rock outfit Adam Hanney & Co. are finally set to unveil their debut full-length next month, but before it arrives, Exclaim! is giving you the first look at the music video for tracks "Howl" and "Howl Pt. II."

The songs come from 12/12 — an album that began back in 2012 with the simple goal of writing a song every month for 12 months. Since then, the tracks have evolved from their basic acoustic guitar and vocal beginnings into fleshed-out, full-band affairs.

Fast-paced and adept at finding the balance between rock riffs and synth-driven pop melodies, album cuts "Howl" and "Howl Pt. II" have now been matched with visuals that showcase the band in all of their live performance glory.

"We worked extensively with our director Chris Gaudry to extend the visual concept and 'camera obscura' style photography of our album art into the video itself," the band's frontman and namesake explains. "Projections are an important aspect of 12/12, not just visually but also conceptually. It reflects the idea of taking the environment you're in and projecting your own experiences and thoughts and emotions into it, creating a wildly different perspective and understanding of the space you inhabit. The album itself was made by taking a year of experiences and turning them into songs, then projecting them into larger forms by bringing them into a studio to be recorded and transformed into bigger, distorted, glowing images."

Watch the concept come to life in the video premiere of "Howl" and "Howl Pt. II" in the player below. 12/12 is out on March 3. - Exclaim.ca

by Grant Lawrence

Artist: Adam Hanney & Co.
Song: Thirds

An uptempo, triumphant, nerdy indie rock anthem from this young singer-songwriter and his band from Winnipeg. This song is part of a concept album, delivering one song a month for a year. As for Hanney's sound, think Tokyo Police Club, the Promise Ring and Library Voices. - CBC Music

How many New Year’s resolutions have you kept? I can count on exactly no hands how many I have, and though I’m tempted each year to make one (and I often do), I do so with all my bets made on blowing it. Maybe it’s the ambition of it all that makes the idea so attractive. “I want to be healthier, better read, more well-rested, sober, single, taken, thankful, outspoken, quiet…” But ambition is a hell of a thing. It’s a by-product of planning and doing, not something that can just be planned or done; it’s intangible and can be fleeting. Above all, it’s worthless without execution. Without a doubt, Adam Hanney is ambitious — lucky for us, he followed through.

In 2012, Hanney spent the year writing music, with each month yielding a track on his debut album, 12/12. As great as the idea of writing a song a month for a year is, I can imagine that it wouldn’t take very long into the process for some real self doubt to set in. There’s no space to walk away. Not staying the course means not only giving up on that project but it means giving up on that year. Dedicating a year of your life in the hopes that you’ll come up with an album is essentially what musicians do all the time, but the pressure of putting together only what comes from that year, and only (at least) one track from each month is terrifying. Yet limitations often fosters creativity, and 12/12 is a prime example.

The album is, as the title suggests, twelve tracks. The tracklist is laid out in a way that flows together as an album, rising and dipping in a musical sense with special care taken to highlight the sonic diversity of the record. However, the brilliant packaging of the physical copy, which includes a booklet with complete lyrics and stunning accompanying photographs, reveals an alternate way to experience the album. A light pencil scrawl on each page holds the key, showing the month within which each song was written. The album, when listened to this way, takes you on another journey through Hanney’s experience writing the record. The chronological track list feels more like it’s spiralling forth; outward, from darkness to light or perhaps angst to acceptance. It’s a journey that is identifiable, but perhaps not as marketable. I’m glad he chose to share both.

The sound of the album is much like Adam Hanney describes the band himself. “Indie rock meets a contemporary singer-songwriter. Electric guitars, drums, synthesizers, samplers, in tandem to narrate memories of sentiment & regret.” The songs are positively lyrics-focused, and it comes as no surprise that the heart and soul of this project is indeed a singer-songwriter and storyteller — each set of lyrics occupies a thick block of text in the book. The songs are narrative and specific and at times border on verbose, but therein lies their charm. If you want to hear stories rendered in lush, descriptive language, look no further.

Not far below the surface lies a bed of wonderfully instrumented textural work that seems at once familiar and ever-changing throughout the record. From the whine-stripped pop-punk sound of “Ashes” (think Panic! at the Disco without all the negative connotations that carries), to the trembling, rocky lullaby of “Manhattan” (think Nice, Nice, Very Nice-era Dan Mangan), to the delightfully stripped-back and groovy “Howl, pt. II” (don’t think, just listen), this album was meticulously designed and crafted with a variety of compelling sounds in mind.

For me, the stand out is the third track, “Cede,” written in October. Over a dusty bed of ambience Hanney paints a picture of togetherness and warmth; familiarity and nostalgia. This is quickly interrupted by drums that seem to tear the characters apart, leaving the speaker to muse on an October night, “I’m completely alone.”

“…I’ve got evergreens in my heart. And I don’t choose where they grow, but it’s still my fault, I suppose.”

For his current tour, which swings through Regina on November 10th at the Artful Dodger with The Tourist Company, Adam has scaled his 11-person deep “Co.” back to a simple two. The trio has spent the last few weeks on the road playing fourteen shows leading up to their final stop in the Queen City. Expect to hear the warble of delay pedals, layers of keyboards and samples, clicking and popping percussion, ripping offset guitars and Hanney’s signature voice alternating between gentle coos and searing wails. The band’s live approach to 12/12 is described by Hanney as “a lot more immediate and focused.” Expect a little extra though, because Hanney & Co. have been road-testing new tunes. Hanney describes the new material as having “more immediate, familiar song structures, minimalistic production, a lot more synth and a lot less guitar…” He says he “tried reaching for something [he] wasn’t sure was in [his] musical universe but it seems like it might be here to stay now. It’s a lot of fun.” This show promises to be a tight, tried and tested showing of one of Western Canada’s most interesting young bands, so show up early and bring money for merch.

Adam Hanney plays the Artful Dodger this Thursday, November 10th.

by Dana Remple - Runaway Pup