Hanorah and the risk of honesty

After the success of a first album and a few shake-ups, Montreal singer-songwriter Hanorah launches Perennialan intimate work full of soul in which she takes the reins of her career and her art.

Josee Lapointe
The Press

It’s because a lot has happened since the release of For the Good Guys and the Bad Guys at the beginning of 2019: 2 million plays on the platforms and a lot of shows here, in Canada and in the United States, but also a burnout, a change of team… and a pandemic.

“I took a step back to look at my life and decide what I want to say,” says the singer in her charming blend of typically Montreal French and English. The pandemic came at just the right time, giving him plenty of time to reflect and work.

“I wrote new songs, gave time to existing ones, revisited my demos. I had no choice, I was alone in my apartment! »

The music industry summer 2020 #metoo has been quite an upheaval for Hanorah. When her record company, Dare to Care, found itself in the middle of the storm, it was immediately clear that she had to leave.

“It was really ironic,” says the singer, who was sexually assaulted as a child. “At the time, I was writing songs about healing from sexual assault. How did these people think it was okay to invite me into their world knowing that I wasn’t safe with them ? It’s ridiculous. almost funny. »

Dare to Care is now called Bravo Musique and Hanorah has remained on good terms with the people who work there. “They did a lot for me, for my career. But it was “time to change direction and team,” she says. She therefore left to join her friend Dominique Fils-Aimé at Ensoul, where she feels particularly good. ” It is good fit for me. »

Respect

Hanorah also wanted to change her way of seeing and telling things. If, in her first album, she revealed her wounds, the time had come to talk about it differently. The singer, who no longer wants to “sing songs about rape for clicks and likes above all found that talking about it so often and crudely makes the trauma last.

“Do I want to do five or six more albums on this? No. Especially since it does not solve anything in the long term in relation to the social change that is needed to combat sexual assault. »

She realized that art can be a balm and not just a confessional where you reveal your open wounds. And she now knows she can practice it without sacrificing her sanity, and move on.

In short, Hanorah doesn’t want to “look in the mirror for 10 songs”, and she has used her stories as much as those of the people around her to talk about love, relationships and life. ‘privacy. “The songs were written at different periods of my life and it’s nice to revisit them today with a new perspective. That’s why the album is called Perennial. »

Through their authenticity and truth, soul, R&B, gospel, which she has always cherished, are the ideal vehicle for these themes. With director Jacques Roy (Dominique Fils-Aimé), Hanorah spent two weeks in a studio in L’Assomption with her musicians, materializing the ideas she had had all alone in her apartment. The result captures every inflection of her rich, warm voice.

“Everything is too, too clear, you can even hear the sputters when I sing! For me it adds vulnerability and risk to be honest. It says: this is what I am at the moment, and how I sound. »

Hanorah wants to continue while respecting her body, her voice which is her tool, her mental health. ” I do not want to be famous or viral, I want to be good. And when this career takes me away from that, it’s no. »

Like after the intensive tour that followed the release of his first album, which ended in exhaustion. “I was 23 years old. I didn’t know it could be any different. It’s part of the control she now has over her career: no longer about being “obsessed with the culture of productivity” and using her energy for something other than “making great music.”

“It’s okay to back up and slow down. Me, I just want to make an album that I’ll still be proud of in 40 years. That’s all. »

Drunk

Perennial

Hanorah

Ensoul