HANNAH MARCUS

NYC indie chanteuse
interview by Brett Abrahamsen
(December 2024)

Hannah Marcus has lingered in obscurity for many years. She's one of the greatest singer songwriters of the past three decades, yet even fans of the artists she's collaborated with - Mark Kozelek, David Grubbs, etc. - seem uniformly unaware of her. She has flown below the radar, and her music deserves more recognition.

She began with River of Darkness (1995), a competent but relatively conventional album that recalled Lisa Germano and Tori Amos. Her next album, Faith Burns (1997), was a quantum leap. Haunting tracks such as "Face In The Moon" and "Trona" created an atmosphere of psychological desolation that was at times otherworldly. Black Hole Heaven (2000) didn't reach the same heights (though it did include some decent tracks). Desert Farmers (2004), however, marked a powerful return. It included at least two of her great works: the hyper-abstract "Canon" and, in a completely different vein, the propulsive "Hairdresser In Taos." These tracks put her in rarefied company: perhaps only Nico (and, in recent years, Julianna Barwick) could create something as haunting as "Canon," and perhaps only Dylan and Neil Young (and possibly her friend Kozelek) could create an epic narrative-driven track like "Hairdresser In Taos." Following this album, she formed the Wingdale Community Singers with David Grubbs and novelist Rick Moody. Their first album (self-titled, 2005) is a bizarre send-up of Appalachian music, particularly in tracks like the demented and utterly brilliant "Rat On The Tracks." Here she takes a look back at her career.

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PSF: "Trona" is perhaps the most otherworldly song in your catalogue. I interpret it as a paean to desolation and solitude - it's a song that seems to explore the eerie strangeness that crops up in the total absence of civilization. What are your thoughts about it?

HM: "Trona" was written out of an experience in Death Valley where I got out of the car and a horsefly found me and followed me for a disturbingly long time, me and the horsefly being the only 2 living animals I could perceive - in the heat of the day - and I got back in the car and the fly chased me for a while - it's also about that creepy feeling when you are on the side of a long highway in a place where you really should be in a car driving and not out of the car, because outside of the carapace of car you are in a kind of impossible space. - in fact, I am just realizing that the word 'car' is probably from a shortening of the word 'carapace' - also used to describe insect shells, and the desert being a place where insects and carapaces thrive and people vanish - ok one down.

PSF: "Canon" has a similarly dreamlike quality. How did you write it?

HM: "Canon" was directly from a short story Rick Moody wrote dedicated our friend the great artist Fred Tomaselli. I wrote the music to go under his reading of the text. It was for a show called "The Next Big Thing" on WNYC. I took a few of the lines from the story to expand the canon and in the studio, we just made it cracklier and bigger. Yes, also about the natural world but more friendly and fecund in this iteration.

PSF: "Hairdresser in Taos" showcases a completely different side of your music - a Dylanesque epic (Blonde on Blonde is namechecked, in fact) with unstoppable momentum. Is any of it autobiographical?

HM: "Hairdresser in Taos" is 100% true.

PSF: You were linked with Mark Kozelek early in your career. Are you a fan of his music? Did his songwriting method influence yours? How would you describe his demeanor in your interactions with him?

HM: I love Mark Kozelek's songwriting and production style - it just continues to speak to me. Those recent records he made with Jim White and Ben Boyd are so good. We were good friends. It was the nineties. Haven't talked to him in a long while.

As for the rest of the stuff - maybe another time.

PSF: The Wingdale Community Singers was a bizarre project. I still think the first album holds up. How did you end up working with David Grubbs?

HM: David Grubbs was a friend of Rick Moody. Rick got the three of us together to write. I very much admire David Grubbs, particularly the work he's done with Loren Connors.

PSF: What is your favorite song of all time? Album?

HM: I don't have a favorite song of all time - how about you?

I also don't have a favorite album of all time. Though I do find myself coming back to the Mountain Goats' The Sunset Tree as far as albums go - that's a real album.

PSF: Any insights about life in general? Politics? Religion? Art? Etc.?

HM: As far as life - I have insights - so many insights.

PSF: Do you think anyone will listen to your music hundreds of years from now? If so, which songs do you suppose have the best chance of being remembered?

HM: My mother was concerned about her painting being remembered in a hundred years' time. A guy who spoke at her memorial told a good joke:

Couple guys sitting around looking up at the stars.

One says 'you know, the universe is going to end in 7 billion years ...'

The other guy looks dismayed and says 'WHAT?!? What did you say???'

Guy repeats what he said - 'I said you know the universe is gonna end in 8 billion years.'

Other guy looks enormously relieved. He says ' oh thank god. I misheard you - I thought you said 8 million.'

And probably "Hairdresser in Taos" or "Laos" maybe in 8 million years?

See Hannah Marcus on Bandcamp