As a part of Music Is To Blame’s What’s To Blame? interview series, we talk about her creative process, musical influences, and the inspiration behind her latest work.
Can you introduce yourself to our readers?
I am Hannah Mazey and I am an independent artist from Wigan, which is in the middle of Manchester and Liverpool. I have an EP, and three singles out at the moment and I am planning on releasing some more music soon! In the past couple of years, I've been performing around Manchester and Liverpool. In the past year, I've been playing with a live band. We've also gained quite a little bit of a following, and we sold out our first headline show, which we're playing on the 22nd of February.
What would you say is to blame for your music career?
I feel like I've always kind of had music as a part of me growing up. I've always been a singer. When I was a kid, I used to like performing for all my parents and my family, and it felt like it was always for me at that time. I was like “I want to be a singer. I want that to be my job”. And then I grew up and I was like, “Wait, I can't just be a singer. I need to have money; I need to have a normal job”.
It was always like a dream of mine, and in the past few years, I've kind of put that all into place, because I had a bit more of a vision of what I want to do as an artist.
When did you start writing?
I released music two or three years ago and I started writing when I was at uni. Then I was like, “Okay, I don't want to actually do uni anymore; I want to write music, and I want to perform”. That's what I did. I left uni and got myself a job that I could help fund what I really wanted to do. Since then, everything's kind of formed itself.
That’s brave! How did that feel?
It was very intimidating at first. I couldn't really imagine myself properly doing it until I did it then it was like, “I don't need to be embarrassed about it because no one cares I’m going to do it and then see what happens. It made me more of a confident person because I used to be really shy. It's made me push myself more as a person. It's made me braver in myself.
If someone were listening to your music for the first time, which song of yours would you recommend starting with?
I have quite a diverse palette of songs. But I would probably say 'WISH YOU FELT THE SAME'. I think it represents me as a lyricist and I try to tell stories through my songs, so I feel like that song does that quite well. It also shows the indie-rock side too, which surprisingly wasn't really what I was going for. It kind of shaped out that way. I never really know what genre I am, because when I write music I kind of let it flow, and we see what happens, basically. 'WISH YOU FELT THE SAME' is an upbeat summer track, which makes it a happy one because everyone loves summer, but it also has depth of lyricism and that shows me off as an artist.
Your latest single 'LITTLE BOYS` has racked up impressive streaming numbers, what has inspired the track?
‘LITTLE BOYS’ was inspired by a situation from my time at university. I had a friend who was in a relationship with a toxic guy—he wasn’t just horrible to her but also to the people around her. I remember telling her, "He just acts like a little boy" because he was so deeply insecure that he made her and everyone else feel the same way.
I’ve experienced similar dynamics in past relationships, so I wanted the song to capture that feeling—of being undermined and made to feel like the insecure one when it’s the other person. I actually wrote the song about a year and a half after the situation. I wasn’t friends with that girl anymore, and looking back, I realized how ridiculous it all was. It reminded me of those moments when you call out a friend’s toxic boyfriend, they get back together, and things just get awkward. That’s what inspired the track.
Who are the biggest musical inspirations for the sound you've curated?
It’s hard to pinpoint because I listen to so many different types of music. In terms of songwriting, Ed Sheeran was a big inspiration when I was growing up. His `Plus` album was the first I ever listened to all the way through, and I still have it on vinyl. His early work really influenced me, especially when I was learning guitar.
Vocally, Amy Winehouse was a huge inspiration, and I also grew up listening to a lot of Northern Soul, going to all-nighters and dancing to that music. I think my sound blends a lot of different genres. Most recently, Chappell Roan has been a big influence—I sit down every day wanting to write a song like hers, but she’s just too good. When people ask about my influences, it’s hard to name just a few because there are so many. I don’t like being put in a box—why stick to one genre when you can explore them all? Music should constantly evolve.
Where do you get inspiration from in general?
I find my inspiration when I have time to shut everything else out and really dig into my emotions. Lately I´ve been writing a lot with a band called Barstaff, who are good friends of mine. Collaboration is key in music art - it is great to bounce ideas off each other and it's helped me get back into writing. Over the past six months I haven’t written as much, partly because when life is going well, there is less to write about- no heartbreak, no frustration. But working with others brought back that inspiration. Sometimes, they suggest a topic to write about, and it sparks something in me. My bedroom is my favorite place to write, it makes the process feel more personal.
What's been your most memorable live performance so far?
It was in November last year, when we played Favourite Days Festival which was in Liverpool. We weren't expecting anyone to be there for our set because we were the first ones on. The headliner of the stage was a band called Balancing Act.
When we came out to go on the stage there were a lot of people, and they were all standing right at the front, so it made it look even more full. We're just all shocked. We weren't expecting all these people and we got so many followers from it. To be honest, I think it helped us sell our show out in Liverpool because the amount of people that bought tickets after that weekend was insane.
Was it scary performing in front of all those people?
It's so much easier to play in a packed-out room than it is toa half-empty room, because it feels like the adrenaline kicked in. When you see all those people and every thought just goes out of your brain and you don't really think about it. Whereas I genuinely think the scariest gigs that I've done have been acoustic gigs, where I'm playing in a pub. I feel so anxious that people are going to be like “play this, play that”, and I'm going to be like, “I don't know it”. I prefer playing to more people because that way I don't have to look anyone in the eye. I'm just going to do it, and if you like it, great! If you don't, then I don't care because there's too many of you for me to care.
Where you see yourself in five years? Do you have any goals you're working towards?
I would hope that in five years' time, I'd be able to do a UK tour and hopefully I will have played in another country as well, still with the band that I'm with now, because they're all amazing. My long-term goals are to be able to play big festivals whether it's on a small stage or on bigger stages. Those festivals that I grew up seeing my favorite artists play. Then hopefully I'd be able to drop my full-time job. But I don't want to speak too soon about that; it's a big step. I don't know how people don't have a job and still do music because I just wouldn't be able to. Also, hopefully I'll have released an album as well.
Laura Nagy
Image: @lens_of_a_wool
