GRETEL HANLYN: “IT’S ABOUT PUTTING YOUR EGO AWAY AND JUST CREATING GOOD MUSIC”
Following a packed summer of shows and the release of her debut EP ‘Slugeye’, VOCAL GIRLS caught up with the enigmatic Gretel Hänlyn about conjuring worlds through performance and finding strength in your difficulties.
Gretel Hänlyn has been singing all her life. “I was in love with singing, I’d hop on tables at cafes and sing and humiliate my entire family,” laughs the now 20-year-old over Zoom. And that’s hardly surprising; her moody, distinctive vocals are variable and enticing – they reel you in. She has the kind of voice that stops you in your tracks, but for a while it stopped her. As a teenager, Hänlyn went through an illness that impacted her growth in many senses and physically affected the muscle in her diaphragm, impeding her ability to sing. “When I was growing up I was in love with singing, and then I couldn’t anymore. At the time it wasn’t that devastating because I didn’t really have the energy to care, but I had a difficult time learning to sing again once I’d recovered”.
A shining example of finding the silver lining, Hänlyn managed to sing again for the first time by “jumping over the frog” in her throat - or, if you want to get scientific, by lowering her larynx and ‘pushing’ the sound out. Now recovered and armed with her signature deep tone of voice, Hänlyn possesses a confidence to explore different aspects of her vocal range, allowing her to craft characters into her songs. “When I write, it’s much more about stumbling upon a sound and allowing it to conjure images, an atmosphere, a character… from there, each song forms its own personality”. With a raw talent that draws together the dark mystery of Mazzy Star, the vocal distinction of Nico, and the fantastical storytelling ability of Nick Cave, Hänlyn manages to do the near impossible – she creates music that sounds like something new.
Before beginning her project under this guise, Hänlyn made her start with South London charity The Basement Door, who create a platform for younger people interested in becoming musicians. Hänlyn explains how they help artists to build performance skills and confidence, no matter their experience level. However, it wasn’t until plans to study Physics and Philosophy fell through that Hänlyn took music seriously as a career option, spurred on by her mum. With COVID lingering in the air, she did what she could and hunkered down to write. Her music consequently reached a new, heavier place. “It’s all exploration, isn’t it?”, she muses. “You find bits of yourself, and I’d always been influenced by the more gothic, folky stuff. So I was settling into those roots - I wanted to be held up as a scary front woman”.
Photo Credit: Sacha Renaud
Hänlyn clearly made a good impression right from her first interview at BIMM, explaining that “my interview was carried out by an amazing artist called Saint Saviour, and afterwards she asked if she could send my socials to her husband, who was a manager. I thought to myself ‘this is going to be some shark and I’m going to hate him’”. Luckily this was far from the case, but entering the music industry as a young female artist can come with its hurdles - something that is ever present in the back of her mind.
“I’ve heard some horror stories, and I don’t know how I got so lucky. But you know, when I say that I’m really lucky, I don’t mean that I don’t think I’m good enough or I don’t think I should have had the opportunity - I really do believe in my work. It’s more about meeting the right people; you don’t have control over that shit”.
Hänlyn’s practise of ‘feeling out’ a song recalls the lore around the creative approach of artists such as Beach House and Cocteau Twins.The influence of such fellow dream weavers is clear as day in tracks like ‘In The Water’ and ‘Slugeye’, where razor sharp production glows to surround moody, ethereal vocals. And with new music she’s writing, Hänlyn is leaning even further into the narrative threads she naturally draws. “More recently, I’ve tried to remain conscious of what my themes are, and I think the lyrics I’ve been working on are the best I’ve done”, she smiles. This switch in gear is best represented by latest single ‘Drive’, which Hänlyn says has “this new energy to it, a pace that hasn’t really been seen in my stuff before”.
‘Drive’ itself is an electric track, peppered with more grit than previous offerings but featuring playful lyrics like “You’re so creepy / Creepy creepy creep”. Striking this balance isn’t easy, and finding the courage to be vulnerable whilst remaining lively and explorative is something Hänlyn grapples with: “It doesn’t need to be too poetic, or be overly silly, or strive to be cool”. She observes that “especially in the post-punk scene, you’re toeing the line of being funny without trying too hard to be subversive. It’s about putting your ego and need for validation away and just creating good music”.
Evoking fairy tales in her songwriting, Hänlyn’s stage name has equally folkloric roots. Looking to give a title to the project she was creating and the person she becomes while performing, she looked to familial history. Having discovered a picture of her great, great aunt Gretel - who aged 11 looked exactly like her - the artist’s mind was made up: “We just thought ‘it’s written in the stars, it’s got to be done’”. With connotations of Grimm’s dark fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel, the name was perfect. “It conjures the right images”, Hänlyn explains. “I didn’t want to create a persona, and I felt this gave a name to who I feel I already am; it made this whole world make sense to me”.
This ethereal world she’s created is clearly attracting the right attention, and Cocteau Twins’ bassist and keyboard player even praised the young artist. Describing her reaction to receiving a message from Simon Raymonde himself, Hänlyn laughs: “I nearly peed myself, I thought ‘there’s no way this is really him’. What the hell do you say to someone so influential? It was humiliating, but I loved it. That’s something I’m going to carry with me until the day I die”.
Since the release of her first EP, Hänlyn has taken live shows in her stride, and now counts this as one of her favourite aspects of her career. From supporting Mura Masa onstage at festival giants like Glastonbury and Primavera, to playing intimate gigs filled with a handful of fans, Hänlyn finds that her headline shows always feel the most special. “I really enjoy live shows and creating a vibe, capturing people and showing them a bit of my little world”, she explains. “Maybe they’ll like it or maybe they won’t, but it’s fun either way”. And a Gretel Hänlyn show is certainly filled with the promise of an atmosphere worth basking in. Music and performance have been curated with the intention of giving audiences a memorable and liberating experience, an art perfected over a long string of shows this past year.
Next stop for Hänlyn is Pitchfork Music Festival in London and Paris, and the artist is excited to be able to stick the festival on her performance CV: “I think Pitchfork is one of those festivals that’s for music which is doing something new, and I’m really honoured to be part of the lineup because it means that I’m doing the right thing!”. If her releases so far are anything to go by, we’d say that Hänlyn is doing exactly the right thing.
Listen to Gretel Hänlyn’s latest single ‘Drive’ here.
You can also catch her set at Pitchfork Festival in London at the Roundhouse on Sunday 13th November, tickets here.
