Based out of Auburn, California, Hannah Jane Kile made her musical debut back in 2009 at the Club Car Bar & Restaurant. This Friday night, six years and two full-length albums later, the 21-year-old award-winning songwriter will return to perform on the stage where it all began.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s3OUfT4spg
Interview Highlights
On her Songs From Studio C performance:
Hannah Jane Kile: This song is called "Sweet and Vulnerable," and it's for my grandma Mary. She raised me until I was 6 or 7. My house burned down when I was like 6 weeks old, so she kind of raised me and taught me right from wrong and I have a lot of sweet memories with her. She had a stroke the last couple months, so she's kind of recovering, and she's 92 years old and is still fighting for her life. It's the greatest thing in the world. She's so inspiring to me. The stroke kind of opened up this emotional side to her that I have never seen before. She grew up in the Depression, pretty hardcore, you know, 'Get through it. We're going to be fine. It's going to be great.' But now she's allowed herself to be vulnerable and it's the sweetest thing I've experienced I think.
NSPR: It's very exciting to see someone like you that's accomplished so much but at such a young age. Have you always wanted to be a musician growing up?
HJK: Always. I started on drums and I wanted to be like a hard rock, heavy metal drummer. And I think that's the reason why I love guitar so much is that there's much more rhythm involved than you really think. Like you look at a guitar player and you go, 'Wow,' but it's really a lot of rhythm. It's not just crazy finger picking and stuff like that.
NSPR Where would you say you draw your songwriting inspiration from?
HJK: A lot of my inspirations come differently, but many of the songs I've written come from dreams I have or I have, you know, I dream about a woman on the railroad tracks, walking with her, her significant other. You know, it's raining and there's a lot of tension there. You notice it's... that song is kind of passive aggressive. It's kind of got this upset but kind of swept under the rug feelings and that just came from a dream I had about a woman. I have a lot of dreams like that about women and their stories and overcoming these difficult things. And a lot of them are about muddling through it and just the fact that you got through it is a big deal.
Hannah Jane Kile will perform in Auburn at the Club Car Bar and Restaurant this Friday night at 9PM.