Will Hanson
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Will Hanson

Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom | SELF

Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom | SELF
Band Alternative Singer/Songwriter

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Still working on that hot first release.

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Glasgow based musician Will Hanson is a bit of a mongrel. Having lived all over the world by the time he settled in the British capital as teenager, he developed a real passion for the idea that there is no “one correct way” of doing things. This is reflected in his music, “I love the Frankenstein thing” he says, “that idea that you can violently rip apart a whole load of other things, sew them back together and create something that you feel is unique and breathe a genuinely new identity into it”. As guitarist/songwriter with cult London outfit, PROXY, Will cut his teeth with 2 years of incessant recording and touring before signing and releasing several singles with Island/Universal in 2007. This period saw his band play along the likes of The Pigeon Detectives, Good Shoes, David Jordan, Remi Nicole, and Sam Sparro. Will left to pursue his own music full time finding his own voice as a solo artist, having made his bones on the Glasgow coffee shop and open mic scene in 2006-7. “It allows the egomaniac in me to breathe. No compromising. Much more direct. Intensely personal. but it’s still all about the songs for me… they have to be the foundation.” Will spent the Winter of 2008/9 working on an LP with collaborator and producer Oli Bayston of Manchester band Keith, recording in Oli’s in London and in Kennel Studios in Brooklyn. The sessions were an immediate success, resulting in a sound layered with musical saws, e-bows, natural room echoes, and groaning backing vocals. That resulted in 2009's "Hope on Top". He has an EP and a new album scheduled for 2011. If there is one discernable theme to his recordings it is one of earnest horror mixed with eerie romanticism. Lyrically, Will Hanson’s inspiration comes from taking things to the extreme, “ I like to make a point by taking something to the Nth degree, that is how real perspective can frame a mood or a feeling- when you see it at it’s most potent. I like lyrics to go further than just love or sadness… I like to take those themes further, like in Girlfriend Materials, where the character is killing strippers for body parts to try and make the unobtainable perfect partner- It’s the loneliness of the character I’m really interested in. I love the idea of the best/worst case scenario. Although you may not know it on first listen…” Will’s gigs are gaining an increasing reputation for being intense affairs, the atmosphere changing all the time. One minute feeling like you’re at a funeral parlour, the next at a football ground. “It’s the violent scrap book thing again” says Will, “little pieces of intensity stitched together with very little consideration for being slick. Will played at South by Southwest 2010 in Austin, Texas and received an amazing reception by music fans and the industry alike. This led to a 3 month residency in New York, as well as offers supporting acts closer to home such as The Strange Death of Liberal England, Fighting with Wire and For Abel. With the finishing touches being put on the second album, the best kept secret in music is coming to a town near you. A U.K tour alongside For Abel is planned for the end of May and his own U.S tour in the pipeline for June.

Will's new E.P. "Gowns" is out in April. It was recorded at Chem19 in Hamilton, and Leeder's Farm in Norfolk.

Press release below...

Will Hanson – GOWNS E.P. Press Release

Multi-talented Glasgow troubadour-cum-noisemaker Will Hanson this month releases his “GOWNS” E.P. which serves as a mouth-watering appetiser for a full album to come in the winter. The “GOWNS” E.P. sees the Paris–born Hanson leave behind his days of acoustic melodrama and embrace the sounds of crashing drums, strings, roaring guitars, sweeping soundscapes and in-the-red-distorted drum machines. Shedding the Elliott Smith comparisons, he heads in his own direction, meshing the songcraft which showed so much promise on his debut effort “Hope on Top” with a considerably more ambitious attitude towards arrangements which, at some points, recall Portishead and Mogwai, and at others Springsteen and Mirah. Recorded at Chemikal Underground’s Chem19 Studios in Hamilton, Leeders Farm in Norfolk and at producer Oli Bayston’s own premises in London, the “GOWNS” E.P. documents an artist’s transition from quiet to very loud indeed. And Hanson certainly has something to say – lyrically these songs address issues such as his own religious apathy (Deathbed Conversion), the relationship between frustration and madness (The Bats), and the reality of those happily-ever-after moments (And so…, The UnGodly Hour). The “GOWNS” E.P. shows a real maturity from Will Hanson and clichés are not just avoided here, but actively hunted down. What remains is a collection of six breaths of fresh air. Many of the songs on this record address the desire for faith tempered by an inability to ever be truly convinced: Hanson himself is a Theology graduate, which makes him perfectly suited to dissect these kinds of themes in a man