Hannah Wicklund releases enchanting 'Witness' video

‘Witness’ is about claiming heartbreak, embracing it, and using that to heal through some of the toughest times in life. The powerful song exhibits her signature and unique use of the talkbox, while the video also puts the multi-instrumentalist’s piano playing on display for the first time. Although Hannah’s guitar skills have led the focus of her career thus far, piano was her first instrument and with this song she honours and explores that side of her youth.

Hannah bears her soul in the video, navigating between playing the piano and entrancing the viewer. Paint becomes smeared on her face by allusive hands, serving as a metaphor for the mark one can leave on your mind, body, and soul. The paint also being the perfect medium to depict the intersection between her music and her art, both being an integral part of her. The video carries out the fairytale-esque imagery Hannah has meticulously crafted between her artwork and the music surrounding this album.

Directed by Casey Pierce, the video was filmed on the grounds of a castle like the one Hannah has painted for The Prize album artwork. It has been captured at Castle Recording Studios in Nashville, a true mythical castle tucked into the rolling hills of Tennessee built by Al Capone’s attorney that once served as home to many illegal mobster poker games.

One of the most satisfying songs she’s ever written, ‘Witness’ is a song Hannah says truly helped heal her. “Getting into your first relationship as a strong, driven, and young woman, it’s very difficult to experience someone dim your light, but even harder to recognise it,” she confesses. “Insecurities within young people play out in terrifying ways, and it’s very hard to not absorb other people’s darkness. ‘Witness’ was the awareness I found in myself that it is not my responsibility to save anyone.”

The Prize — produced by Sam Kiszka of Greta Van Fleet— finds Hannah coming into her own following the debut Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin Stones LP she released in 2018. This new project showcases personal development translated through intentional musicianship all pointing to the thesis of the record: passing the baton from girlhood to womanhood. “I hope this record lyrically, musically, and artistically paints a picture of what raw feminine power and determination look, feel and sound like,” Hannah says.

The empowering album features Sam Kiszka on bass, keys and organ, while fellow Greta Van Fleet member, Daniel Wagner, holds it down on drums. The 10 songs on The Prize serve as a rock ‘n' roll roadmap to a crossroads that Hannah has been unknowingly gravitating towards for over a decade.

X marks the spot where the weary girl, speeding towards the woman she will become, meets in a fiery head-on collision. On this album, we hear from the woman rising from that wreckage. The woman who’s scarred but smarter, holds compassion for the girl who carried her here, and with wide-open eyes, unflinchingly stares down the future.

The Prize sonically parallels the experiences behind each lyric, working together to create an entire world within the record and highlighting the musical diversity Hannah brings to her music. Ethereal texturing, smoky falsetto vocals, string section surprises and guitar solos that carry equal parts pain and joy are woven tastefully into what Hannah says is, “A record that just sounds like ME.”

“Musically, I’ve always had a very strong sense of self, especially with a guitar in my hands, and I have never had to reach very far to express what I’m feeling,” she admits. “Lyrically, however, this record encapsulates something new, or at least more evolved within myself. The life I have lived has not been easy, or stagnant, but it has offered me ample opportunity to learn and grow, even if it’s been the hard way.”

Much like the paintings Hannah Wicklund has become known for — she’s also an accomplished artist with a brush and palette, and all the artwork surrounding The Prize for the album and singles are her own original paintings — each song on her second album is intricately entrancing and honoured with two things seemingly lost in today’s world… patience and time.

This record is rooted in embracing the femininity once shied away from, and exploring what becoming a woman has entailed. “Romantic relationships, business relationships, but most importantly the relationship I have with myself, all played their role in building this new world of mine,” Hannah declares. “A world in which I get to celebrate this beautiful peace I’ve finally found within myself; indeed, The Prize.”

THE PRIZE TRACK LISTING

1. ‘Hell In The Hallway’
2. ‘Witness’
3. ‘Hide and Seek’
4. ‘Lost Love’
5. ‘Song Bird Sing’
6. ‘The Prize’
7. ‘Can’t Get Enough’
8. ‘Intervention’
9. ‘Dark Passenger’
10. ‘Sun To Sun’

Hannah Wicklund has been traveling fast and far, performing in big cities and small towns her whole life. She recently did a run of shows with fellow guitar slinger Markus King and she’ll continue this summer and autumn with a mix of headlining shows and opening slots for Devon Gilfillian and Rival Sons in the US, as well as arenas with Greta Van Fleet across Europe. She will also be performing two UK headline shows including Camden Assembly in London on November 21^st and Manchester’s Deaf Institute the following day. Tickets for all shows are available here.

HANNAH WICKLUND UK & EUROPEAN TOUR DATES

(*) = Headline show
(^) = Supporting Greta Van Fleet