Carlie Hanson on Finding Freedom in Independence
Photos by Georgia Lingerfelt
In just 24 years of life, Carlie Hanson has already seen many sides of the music industry. Like many artists of her generation, her career began on social media. At just 14, Hanson uploaded covers to YouTube. In 2018, her single “Only One” caught the eye of Taylor Swift who included the song on one of her playlists. This was the first domino of many to kick-start Hanson’s career. Shortly after, she signed a major record deal, only to be dropped sometime after her sophomore album Wisconsin. However, independence suits Carlie. Her latest releases have been some of her best work to date. The lyricism bolsters the same vulnerability that fans initially connected with while showing a mature writing ability. “Covering Faces” is a deep cutt-ing track that speaks on being taken for granted. Whether listening through the lens of an artist being dropped by a label and finding success despite that or as someone outgrowing the people who held them back, the rawness of the story and melody are undeniably powerful.
Orange Peel Mag had the pleasure of speaking to Carlie before her North American Tour, where she called in from a treehouse-esque studio in Wisconsin.
As your most recent LP suggests, you're originally from a small town in Wisconsin. Tell us a little bit about the journey from your hometown to where you live now in LA.
The journey has been really crazy. I moved from Wisconsin to LA in 2018. I could write a whole book about it. I only really saw Wisconsin growing up. I didn't ever leave my hometown. Coming to LA when I was freshly 18, was a culture shock. But exciting and I was grateful enough to have a really good crew of people around me right away. I'm so grateful for who I've had around me. I feel like it's easy to get swept up into shit that you don't want to be in that city. But I have a love-hate relationship with LA, I feel like. Being there for so long with no family and close friends, I just want to come home a lot and spend time here. I'm so much more used to the slow pace. In the beginning, it's all exciting because it's so new. You get to meet all these people. I’d never really made music until I was there. It's really exciting to get to work with big name producers and writers and all these things. But it’s a love-hate relationship.
Speaking of collaboration, you recently worked with Gabe Reali on “baby.” How did that come about and what is collaboration like for you?
Him and I wrote that, and then it was produced by a brother duo named Brevin Kim. They're so talented, along with Gabe. I work with them a lot.I think they had the guitar part for “baby” already done. Then they had that talking moment in the beginning of the song, which instantly made me feel nostalgic, but I got on the mic for that instrumental and I pretty much wrote the whole song. Most of the words just fell out of me for that one, which was super dope. It was written already within one melody pass. Then obviously we went back and fine-tuned. But that happens a lot with me, where it's not like I'm looking at a notebook of words that I wrote last week or something. It mostly just falls out of me.
Your authenticity seems to be what really draws fans to you and your music. Recently you've taken to social media to be vulnerable and authentic about getting dropped from your label. Was that scary at all or was it natural after being so vulnerable in your music for so long?
I didn't really talk about it at first, because when you get dropped from a major label it hurts your ego for a second. But the more I talked to other artists and people in the industry, they're like “Girl, this is probably gonna happen again and this happens all the time.” Especially after COVID and TikTok becoming a thing, so many artists are being dropped from labels because labels don't know what the f*** they're doing. It's all based off TikTok and social media. The weirdest thing can go viral and the label has nothing to do with it. So once I understood that I knew it was meant to be.I was talking to so many other artists that shared the same experience. After I got over that embarrassment, I was like, “F*** it. I'm gonna let everybody know that this happened.” It's not personal at all, it just happens.
Right now, it feels like there's a big reformation in the music industry, especially in terms of artist being independent. How are you taking advantage of being independent?
I'm experimenting a lot more. When I was signed, especially in the midst of it all, I was just listening to other people and going with what they thought was right for me. Whether it was who I worked with or the makeup that I wore at a photo shoot. But now that I've gone through that whole experience and now that I'm independent, I have to trust myself and it's created this confidence within myself again, which I had when I was younger. When I was signed, I would send everything to everyone and get everybody's opinions. Like, “what do you think, do you think is this good?” But now that I'm independent I'm making s*** on my own. I don't need to hear all these outside opinions. I have to keep remembering, if I like it, then it's good.
You've been releasing a lot of singles, so it feels safe to say there's clearly a new body of work coming.
Yes, there is
How does it feel different from your previous releases?
It's weird for sure. It's a lot more chill, which is kind of weird. With projects that I released through my label, it was like “We’re doing this date for this because we need to do these marketing things.” It was so much more planned and there's a routine which is good. It can work for sure. But with this project, it's all of these songs that I could say, “OK, I just made this. It's going on here. End of story.” I'm not thinking too hard with this project. It’s nice to just make art and put it out, instead of making it a product
We're going to be seeing you in Atlanta. Can you tell fans what to expect from your shows and what they should be looking forward to on this upcoming tour?
They should expect new music. They should expect to get really sweaty, so they should drink a lot of water, or beer before (if they are of age). All my shows are a good time, baby, put on your best hat.