radionotes podcast episodes

Hannah Cameron

by | Sep 24, 2023 | episodes | 0 comments

Hannah Cameron

Holding Pattern is the wonderful third album from Hannah Cameron.

The new set of tracks, traces a flight path over recent life. With the latest Single ‘The Wrong Way’ musings on unspoken conversations.

Freshly back from the skies having travelled back to Australia, Hannah joined radionotes for this chat…

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IMAGE CREDIT: Nick Mckk 

SHOW NOTES: Hannah Cameron

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Feature Guest: Hannah Cameron

Next Feature Guest for 150th episode: ZOE

  • Chat with ZOE recorded at the Adelaide Fringe 2023, ahead of their debut EP release.

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CREDITS

Theme/Music: Martin Kennedy and All India Radio   

Web-design/tech: Steve Davis

Voice: Tammy Weller  

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TRANSCRIPT

First version provided by a human  REV team member – check to audio before quoting wider

John Murch:
Hannah Cameron, welcome to radionotes.

Hannah Cameron:
Thanks so much for having me.

John Murch:
You’ve just come back from Glasgow as a special guest of Greying, who have their EP out called Greenhouse.

Hannah Cameron:
So it’s actually Grayling, and she is actually just someone that I met through a friend of a friend. That show was kind of just a one-off. I was in Europe and the UK for a holiday more than anything else, and this show just came up, and it was so nice. I went to Glasgow and played this show, but also got to meet all these beautiful people, and went and climbed up the hill next to Loch Lomond and swam in the lake. That was a nice spontaneous thing that happened.

John Murch:
Normally when you travel to Europe, would that be part of this multi-month tour that you might be doing away from home?

Hannah Cameron:
I’ve done two of those with The Paper Kites. This was the longest holiday that I’ve ever done in Europe. More recently my time in Europe has been mostly one day in a city and then moving on. It was really nice to be able to spend a bit more time in each place and just settle in a bit.

John Murch:
Are you attracted to summer, to the heat?

Hannah Cameron:
I would say 23 degrees to 29 degrees would be my happy place temperature-wise. Once it gets above 30 I get a little bit uncomfortable, and then I was there for the heat wave in Italy which was like 35 to 40, that’s a bit hot. So that’s a bit too much for me, because I’m also a person who’s got a lot of moles and so I have to be very sun smart, so yeah. I do like summer, but not beyond 35 degrees.

John Murch:
That seven weeks is also in the lead up to this release, so was it a chance for you to distance yourself from the recording and get maybe fresh ears and fresh eyes around what you were trying to tell the world?

Hannah Cameron:
Yeah, when I booked it originally it was mainly, like my sister moved over to the UK, so it was mainly just a chance to see her, and then I thought it would be nice to get some space from things, because I think things are about to get quite busy. In retrospect, maybe not the best idea to go on holidays just before your album’s going to come out, because there’s a lot of emails coming through every day, I didn’t feel like I totally disengaged from it, but I do feel like I came back ready to do some work, so that’s always a nice feeling. I feel excited to be able to get stuck back in.

John Murch:
The travel, or particularly the flying from A to B across Europe, which can be quite long distances, it brings up that idea of a holding pattern that an aircraft would have, and my understanding from the release and the listen of the full record is maybe that holding pattern you have for your emotions before landing to an idea of where you feel about something.

Hannah Cameron:
The title came from, I’m very bad at naming albums, I find it really difficult, and I just happened to be going through a notebook and I just had written down somewhere holding pattern, I’m not sure why. And I had been pouring over the songs trying to figure out what the common thread was, and I think that sort of title resonated, because it did feel like all of those songs were written during a time when I felt caught in patterns or cycles of behaviour. I don’t know that I was conscious of it, but I think I was trying to move through those patterns and break out of those patterns. The writing became, I guess, a way of trying to identify the patterns and maybe move beyond them. The holding pattern, the actual literal holding pattern, it felt like a very direct metaphor for that feeling.

John Murch:
And then when you reach the ground, you look at the artwork and it’s not telling too much, but it is, in that it gives that idea that you’re weaving a narrative or unpicking a narrative, unclear of which of the two it is, but at the same time making sure it’s darn right colourful in its approach. Is it rivers, is it roads, is it bridges on the covers? Who knows, only Hannah knows.

Hannah Cameron:
Yeah, only me and Morgana Celeste, who’s the artist, who just did such an amazing job. I gave her this idea of an aerial from an aeroplane, that was my one idea that I had. I’m not a very visual person. And we were pouring through, she happened to have this book of artwork of photographs, I’ve forgotten who the photographer was, but it was just literally a book of aerial shots, which were really amazing. So that was a starting point. And then she did one based loosely off one of those, and then it was amazing, that one was amazing, and then she came back and was like, “Actually, I think I just want to give it another go,” and so she said she listened to the album and painted as she listened to the album and that was what came out. As soon as I saw it I was like, it’s perfect.

John Murch:
And so again, it is based upon, as much as you may not have known at the time by what you’d written down, it is very much about that above the land eagle eye view of what’s happening.

Hannah Cameron:
Yeah, that’s true. I don’t even know that I was, yeah, I feel like some of these things happened by accident, almost like it’s the subconscious at work, or something. This album definitely does feel like there’s, I don’t know, a perspective or an awareness to it that you can only have from that vantage point. I guess that that is a visual representation of that feeling.

John Murch:
Before we go any further we should pick up on the latest single from the album, which is called The Wrong Way.

Hannah Cameron:
This song is about having difficult conversations with difficult people. I’m not very good at confrontation, and I also am someone who always feels like I want to make a situation feel right or resolved, and I think there are certain situations just that are never going to feel that way, and there are certain conversations that are never going to go the way that I hope that they’re going to go, and I think that this song was me trying to have the conversation without having the conversation because I felt like I knew how it was going to go.

John Murch:
Talk to us about the importance of the baritone guitar throughout this record, because it’s a new voice for you, isn’t it? Or maybe it’s more of a, I want to say a duet, because it’s not even your voice, but it’s how your voice communicates with the baritone.

Hannah Cameron:
That’s a really nice observation. I started playing it almost in desperation because I was just feeling quite bored with everything else that I was playing on normal guitar. And I picked it up one day, I played a little bit of baritone in On Diamond, but I never really even thought to write with it, because I think the types of chords that I played on a regular guitar didn’t translate as well on baritone.

John Murch:
Can you talk us through that story of how Lisa from On Diamond wanted you to play some baritone, you had to go and figure it all out.

Hannah Cameron:
Yeah, I think that there’s a song called Light from the album, the On Diamond album, there’s a baseline in that that maybe she tuned down her guitar. Oh, you’ve got the vinyl there.

John Murch:
So it is called Light, “It’s too loud outside, I can’t get any rest,” is that the song you’re thinking of?

Hannah Cameron:
That’s the one. So I had the baritone lying around, but I feel like in On Diamond I got to do all of these things and try things that I never would have if I hadn’t have been in that band. It was definitely the thing that got me playing electric guitar and playing with a bit more crunch and a bit more drive, and I think that it’s really how I found a bit of a voice on guitar. I had a really minimal setup, both with the baritone and with my regular electric, where it was just an overdrive pedal and my amp, it was nothing fancy, but trying to find a sound, and Scott, who plays in that band, so amazing with sounds, and yeah, there was a really nice synergy and it was a really great learning experience, I think.

John Murch:
In relation to working with other musicians and that education that you get from that experience being part of a group of musicians.

Hannah Cameron:
Yeah, I think I definitely learn the most about music and playing from playing with other people in other bands. I’ve been playing keys in certain bands, and in this latest Paper Kites record that I was really lucky to be invited to play on, I was playing Hammond, which I’ve never played really before. It pushes me outside of my comfort zone in a way that is fun, but it’s much easier to do those things when you’re playing with other people.

John Murch:
Dare I ask, when did you pick up the tambourine?

Hannah Cameron:
Oh, really quite recently for how much I’ve been playing with it. The tambourine is so hard, and nobody is talking about how hard the tambourine is. I could not play the tambourine to save myself. Two years ago I remember playing it, I can’t remember who I was playing a gig with, but they asked me if I could play some tambourine, and I was like, “Yeah, I’ll play some tambourine, I’ll just pick it up on the gig.” And I was like, no, time moves horizontally when you’re playing the tambourine and there’s no other, like when you’re playing piano, the motion is up and down, and the same with guitar, the motion is up and down. Tambourine is just so confusing when you first start, and it’s very hard. But I’ve honestly played more tambourine than probably any other instrument other than maybe guitar in the last two years.

John Murch:
I saw some footage recently of you as part of Missy Higgins’ live band, and there’s Sarah Belkner looking across, giving you a huge affirmation that you had hit it, hit the tambourine in the right way.

Hannah Cameron:
Thank God. It’s very obvious when you hit it in the wrong way. It’s a really amazing band, I’ve been filling in for Elana Stone, she was on maternity leave. A lot of the session work that I get has been maternity leave fill in work, which is amazing, and it’s so nice to feel like you can support people while they’re having babies.

John Murch:
I wouldn’t be surprised if Missy has listened to some of the songs on this new record. Has she?

Hannah Cameron:
Yeah, she came to my gig at the Brunswick Ballroom, which was so nice.

John Murch:
When you got that guitar at 21, is it still with you? Does it still serve you well?

Hannah Cameron:
I got my first nylon string guitar, that was my 21st birthday present. Before that I think I had a Maton before that that was a steel string, but this was the first nice, not that the Maton wasn’t nice, but this felt like my sound a bit more, getting really into Joan Baez, fingerpicking stuff around that time, listening to a lot of Laura Marling. I still have that guitar, I was playing that guitar today in fact.

John Murch:
Is it still inspiring some tunes?

Hannah Cameron:
Yeah, I haven’t been writing on it as much, but I still really like playing it and learning songs on it. I’m doing this show, Songs from the Canyon, playing mostly acoustic guitar, or entirely acoustic guitar on that show, so I’ve been practising some Joni Mitchell and some Crosby, Stills & Nash on that one.

John Murch:
And that also gets you to work with other musicians, I think guests of the podcast Charm of Finches are on board for this one as well.

Hannah Cameron:
Yes, we’re doing a show at the Palais in April next year that’s just been announced. But yeah, there’s Charm of Finches, Husky, Dan Kelly, Dan Challis, and Steve Grady, and everyone is just super amazing and I feel very deeply connected to that world of music. Singing those songs is a total dream, to be able to do it in these venues that we’re starting to play at is really amazing as well.

John Murch:
What is bringing you back to doing these songs over and over?

Hannah Cameron:
I mean, they never get old, that’s for sure. That was definitely the music that was in my ears growing up, my parents listened to a lot of that stuff. There was a lot of Carole King and Joni Mitchell, Neil Young. That’s definitely, I didn’t necessarily appreciate it at the time, but it was in the house. And there’s that, but people like Joni Mitchell are just, Joni is my probably biggest musical influence. Those songs, even today I was learning how to play Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? And I know that song, but learning to play it just gives you a whole new appreciation, lets you just go deep, I guess, on the writing and the playing in a way that you don’t necessarily when you’re just listening.

John Murch:
Lyrically I’ve always appreciated the poetic elements of your songwriting. Is Joni tapping into that, or are there other artists that have influenced that poetic side that you have, and maybe they’re just poets that I’ve never heard of.

Hannah Cameron:
I think Joni lyrically is just so amazing, but I feel like she is so far in the distance in terms of what I would aspire to. I definitely listened to a lot of Leonard Cohen growing up, and people like Nick Drake and Simon & Garfunkel, they were the earlier, more formative influences, I guess. But Laura Marling, Feist, in terms of more current people, Adrianne Lenker, Adrianne Lenker, Weyes Blood, Anaïs Mitchell I really love. I feel like I’m so inspired by people in my community, there’s so many amazing songwriters and lyricists in Melbourne and Australia.

John Murch:
When you’re going to see those artists, how do you feel inside about their work and what they’re able to achieve in Australia?

Hannah Cameron:
I feel both inspired and proud, because I feel very lucky that a lot of them I can call my friends. Yeah, there’s just so much incredible music coming out at the moment. When I was overseas I would wake up every morning and it would feel like another amazing song had come out. Yeah, it just makes me feel so grateful to be a part of this community, and when I go away, London is amazing, overseas, it’s all amazing, but honestly, I don’t think there’s anywhere that I would rather be making music in the world.

John Murch:
Matt Redlich, the producer of this record.

Hannah Cameron:
Matt has a really nice approach in that it’s very focused on capturing the band and the live energy of the band, and I am really lucky that I work with two of the best. I mean, maybe I’m biassed, but I’m also not biassed because they’re very in demand, but I’d say two of the best rhythm section players in the country, Leigh Fisher on drums and Luke Hodgson on bass, I definitely enjoyed this way of tracking. I’m a perfectionist and I can get a bit too micro when I’m recording, and doing it in this way makes you take a bit of a step back and be like, oh no, that’s the take. Even if there’s a few notes that maybe I wouldn’t have chosen to have played in that way, the greater good of the take is the main thing.

John Murch:
With Smells Like Leaving, again this idea of planes and travel and waiting and thinking, and it makes me think that there’s a lot of thinking time between maybe tour dates that you’ve done. As we’ve mentioned previously, you go away for months on end, but it’s those, not downtime, but travel times when you get to think.

Hannah Cameron:
Yeah, well that one, I actually wrote it during one of the many lockdowns here, but it was almost like, I was doing this songwriting exercise that was word association, and the words that came up just made me think of that experience of being away on tour, and so that became the imagery, I guess, from that song. Yeah, it’s sort of about being on tour, it’s sort of about I really hate leaving places. Every time that I have to leave, regardless of whether I’m leaving and going somewhere new or leaving and coming home, there’s always a certain anxiety or fear or something that is stirred up, that ended up being what it was about, even though I wasn’t fully cognizant of that as I was writing it.

John Murch:
Is that a need for predictability in your surroundings?

Hannah Cameron:
Maybe, yeah, I’m not sure. I should probably talk to a therapist about it. I think I do definitely enjoy routine and structure. I’ve always felt that way about leaving a place. And I know what it is now, and I can rationalise it, but it’s still the same feeling every time.

John Murch:
Our very special guest today is Hannah Cameron, the album that’s just been launched is called Holding Pattern. My question to you, Hannah, is what art have you been enjoying lately?

Hannah Cameron:
Oh, okay, so I went to see in Paris this really amazing collection, it was Andy Warhol and Jean … okay, hold on, let me look up the guy’s name now, because now I’ve of course blanked on it.

John Murch:
Jean-Michel Basquiat?

Hannah Cameron:
Yes, yes, yes, yes.

John Murch:
How do I know that?

Hannah Cameron:
I don’t know, I’m so bad at remembering names. Jean-Michel Basquiat. So I went to see this exhibition that was Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris. That was a really incredible exhibition because it was so collaborative, their process. And I never knew anything about Jean-Michel Basquiat, I’m not an art expert, but yeah, I really loved that exhibition and felt quite moved by the art and the working relationship that they had.

John Murch:
So many artists, I guess, were working with Warhol out of the Factory during those times, but to actually have that one insight, one insight of a duet, so to speak.

Hannah Cameron:
Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, they were also just really nice artefacts from their friendship and their working relationship. There was a really hilarious letter from Anna Wintour, sort of like a rejection letter to both of them saying basically, “Hey, really loved this stuff and would love to include it in an addition down the track, but we think it’s a bit too depressing, some of the themes are too dark for Vogue,” or something, and it was nice to be reminded that even Andy Warhol got injection letters from Anna Wintour.

John Murch:
Considering you’ve just come off seven weeks of, quote unquote, “holidays,” what is some of your favourite places to go to and why? Particularly from the holiday aspect.

Hannah Cameron:
Okay, well, Italy was definitely a highlight. I went to Puglia, which was so beautiful. One of my favourite places in Puglia was Monopoli, which is just a really beautiful seaside town, just incredible swimming, but then you also get the spectacle of Italians lying on the beach like lizards. Everyone’s out in their kit, it just feels very authentic as far as an Italian holiday experience. And then I went to this island off the coast of Sicily called Favignana. I’m sure I’m butchering all of these pronunciations. But I’ve never seen water as blue as the water in these beaches. You get back from the beach and you have the most amazing focaccia of your life, and they’re serving you cannoli the size of your hand for breakfast. Probably the size of my head, to be honest. Italy and those two places were highlights for sure.

John Murch:
You mentioned swimming, is that something that’s very much part of your daily routine or only for holidays?

Hannah Cameron:
I love swimming. I’ve just come back to actually doing laps this year. I grew up in Queensland, so I grew up going to the beach quite a lot, and it was just something that we did at school, like you do swimming in PE. I didn’t consider myself to be very good at it, I was never competitive with it. But I did get into it, when I started uni I did a little bit of swimming as exercise. But during COVID I just couldn’t, because I was not in a 5K radius of a beach, and there were no pools open. But yeah, the start of this year I’ve just been doing laps at least once a week, and my friend, I don’t know if you’d know Hannah Crofts from All Our Exes Live in Texas, she started a swim club called Never Regret a Swim Club, that has kept going. I went for a swim this morning actually.

John Murch:
What is the thought process when you’re doing the laps, or is there no thought process at all?

Hannah Cameron:
I’m honestly just usually trying to remember which lap I’m up to. I think that almost is the meditation, is just what number lap am I up to, and the breathing, trying to focus on the breathing and the form a bit. Yeah, I don’t do very much deep thinking when I’m swimming, I don’t think. There’s too much going on, the breathing, the counting the laps.

John Murch:
Stupid question, what’s your favourite stroke?

Hannah Cameron:
Freestyle. Yeah, freestyle for sure. Not a stupid question.

John Murch:
I don’t know.

Hannah Cameron:
Great question.

John Murch:
I know nothing about swimming.

Hannah Cameron:
I mean, I feel like freestyle and breaststroke to me feel like the only sensible strokes. Backstroke maybe, but you hit your head on things when you do backstroke, and butterfly, whoever thought that butterfly was a good idea was just a total masochist. It’s just a ridiculous stroke.

John Murch:
What’s your favourite karaoke song? Because you might’ve done a bit whilst you were touring.

Hannah Cameron:
I’m really bad at karaoke. It’s a great question. I actually don’t know. My thing with karaoke is that I think that to be good at karaoke you’ve got to be either just really good, amazing, a singer with chops, a singer who can do crazy melisma and belt out an incredible high note, or you’ve got to be really funny, and I feel like I’m neither of those things in the context of karaoke. And so it always ends up just being a bit awkward, and I’m trying to be funny, but actually I can’t help but be a bit sincere, and everyone just feels a bit uncomfortable.

John Murch:
Let’s talk about other observations of the world, do you live on top of a shop or have over the time?

Hannah Cameron:
Yeah, well, I’ve lived here for 10 years, I’m actually looking out, there’s not that much going on on this street. People refer to it as Bermuda Triangle of Melbourne, it’s a weird one where it’s a main road, but there’s not very much going on, even though there’s lots going on in neighbouring suburbs. There’s cars going past, and during lockdown, I wake up really early, I wake up at 5:30 AM, because I really like the mornings, and I would sit here and write in the morning and look out while the sun was coming up.

John Murch:
Is that part of a broader meditation programme, or is that just thought process?

Hannah Cameron:
The writing or the early mornings?

John Murch:
Early morning.

Hannah Cameron:
I just got really into it in lockdown, and I do do a bit of meditation. I’m definitely, I’ve got a long way to go with meditating. I have a morning routine that’s very much set in stone now that I feel strange if I don’t start my day with the, I meditate, and then I do some writing. It’s usually just me brain draining onto a piece of paper. I’ll make myself a coffee and write, and then do some sort of exercise and start the day. But I love the feeling of having done all of those things by 7:00 AM. Makes me feel quite smug.

John Murch:
What are you reading at the moment?

Hannah Cameron:
What am I reading at the moment? Promising Young Women is what I’m reading at the moment, I’ve literally just started it. Caroline O’Donoghue, who has a podcast that I like. Sort of a holiday read. I get in certain moods with reading, and I think my mood on holiday is just that I want something light and maybe have a few laughs, not have to get too down in the dumps about life. So yeah, that seemed like, I mean, I’m literally 20 pages in, but so far that seems to be the vibe.

John Murch:
What is it about this podcast, and what other podcasts have you been listening to?

Hannah Cameron:
I love podcasts. Her podcast, actually the one that I really like, which is my guilty pleasure, is Sentimental in the City, where she and Dolly Alderton went through individual episodes of Sex in the City and discussed, which really got me through some tough times in lockdown, listening to them and watching Sex in the City. It’s my comfort food equivalent of TV and podcasting.

John Murch:
We mentioned about the artwork of this album. Can you tell us a little bit more about when you first met the artist of the artwork?

Hannah Cameron:
So Morgana is a really good friend of mine, which made the whole process way more fun. I don’t think very visually, so it’s really helpful to have people in my life who do think visually, and I have several pieces of her art in my house, because she really is probably my favourite artist in Melbourne. Yeah, I just was talking to her and I was like, “Would you maybe consider doing the art?” And yeah, she was very enthusiastic and helpful and supportive. That was it, and the process that I talked about before of showing her some of those reference pics, but then she eventually went and did her own thing with it, which I was so grateful for.

John Murch:
Talking about the visual element then, what is that process like for getting what needs to be done these days for records, the music video clips, and also those things that get used on Spotify, whatever they call those things.

Hannah Cameron:
Canvases.

John Murch:
Is that what they’re called?

Hannah Cameron:
Yeah, a canvas, yeah.

John Murch:
Right. They’re very annoying. I just want to see the album artwork.

Hannah Cameron:
It should be an optional experience.

John Murch:
Yeah, because it’s just something on loop, on loop. For the visual elements of this album, in terms of the canvases and the video clips.

Hannah Cameron:
I just seem to have landed myself very talented friends. So Nick McKinley did the Take the Blame video and all of the accompanying visuals for that, which was awesome. And for The Wrong Way, that was shot by my friend Andy Johnson. He came to the studio while we were recording the first five songs from the album and just shot studio footage. And then my friend Bridgette Winten edited that together and it was graded by my friend Mike Ridley. So yeah, it’s just been a nice collaborative effort, and if I didn’t have those people I would be absolutely screwed because, if I had to do that by myself. Although, Smells Like Leaving, I did that one by myself, which was a nice experiment. But that was a rare idea that I had, and I also was in bed with COVID at the time, so I had lots of time to play around and edit it.

John Murch:
That was the footage that you already had?

Hannah Cameron:
Yeah, so I was looking through my camera roll when I made that and there was all of this, I just had shot all of these videos from the tour bus when I was on tour with The Paper Kites in America and Europe, and it felt like what the song was about. And so yeah, I just played around with editing that together, and it’s nothing fancy, but I like it.

John Murch:
You mentioned Bridgette Winten, is that the musician Winten that I discovered through your playlist?

Hannah Cameron:
Yes.

John Murch:
Thank you.

Hannah Cameron:
She does all of the visuals as well for Maple Glider and is an incredible visual artist, and also an incredible singer-songwriter, and it’s just not fair that someone should be that good at so many things.

John Murch:
In 2023 you are heading to BIGSOUND.

Hannah Cameron:
I’m taking my band, Leigh and Luke, my drum and bass player, up. Yeah, I’m really excited. I haven’t played any of the songs from this album in Brisbane, and I’m from Brisbane originally, so I think it’s going to feel really nice to play that music up there. I do feel like BIGSOUND is a fairly, it’s a daunting place, and I definitely feel nervous, but I’m excited and I feel, I think for the first time this year I just feel really, I don’t know, secure. I think playing with my band so much, and having gone through the process of playing all of these songs live as we were recording them, the process of playing them live for an audience just feels really natural and really easy in terms of trying to make the music translate, because we did all of that work before we recorded it. So yeah, I’m hoping that I just get to play some nice shows with my band and that hopefully people come.

John Murch:
Hannah, before you do leave us today I want to talk about album track, if you don’t mind, and get some insights. Off the album Holding Pattern is a tune called Repeat.

Hannah Cameron:
So I wrote Repeat, actually, it was another songwriting exercise was the starting point. Organisation called School of Song, who get really amazing guest lecturers, instructors in. So this particular course was Luke Temple, I took a bunch of them during lockdown to get a bit inspired, and the one with Luke Temple was really interesting. I found a lot of the exercises really outside of my comfort zone, like this song, I think that the limitation was to use two chords, I think I cheated a bit, you don’t actually have to stick to the rules, they’re just the starting point, and to use one word in the chorus. And I was so annoyed by that exercise, and so this was my rebellion. I was like, well, I’m going to write a song that uses one word and the word is going to be repeat.
But it also totally mirrored the experience that I was having of just feeling very frustrated by the experience of lockdown and just the general existential dredge that I was experiencing around that time. I really like that about songwriting exercises, I wouldn’t have written that song without those limitations, I think they force you to push the boundaries a little bit and move beyond your usual writing habits and move beyond your comfort zone musically.

John Murch:
The limitations or just having an idea to then work with, and what I like about Repeat also, I guess in the broader picture, is it punctuates the B side and say, hey, still got a bit more to go. Sitting there at number seven, we’ve got three more to go, we’re going to get you through it.

Hannah Cameron:
Thank you, that means a lot. Yeah, I really laboured over the track order as well.

John Murch:
Can you talk to us about that process, that labouring that you went through, because you’ve nailed it on the head.

Hannah Cameron:
Oh, thank you so much, that really means a lot. Well actually, I have to credit my friend Angie McMahon with, I’m pretty sure that this was her suggested track order. I had given a few different versions, and I’d sent it to a few friends to get feedback, and I’m pretty sure that Angie was the one who suggested whatever the tweaks were that made it end up in this order. And then I showed it to Matt, my producer, and he agreed. But before that I had, honestly, I had sent myself a bit mad before that, and Angie and I had been living together and I was like, “Can you help me?” Yeah, I think she nailed it.

John Murch:
Since you mentioned that, Angie McMahon has a new record. In less than 10 words can you give us your feelings about Angie’s new record?

Hannah Cameron:
Okay, I’m really bad at doing things in five words, but I just think it is the record that we all need in our life. Even just the first few singles that have been coming out, I feel like they’re mantras or something, it feels so powerful, so I don’t know. Angie’s music is always moving, but I feel like this new stuff is powerful and moving in a different way, in a really uplifting way, and feels so true to who she is as a person. And yeah, I’m really excited for the album.

John Murch:
A lot of those words could be said about Holding Pattern, which has just been released from Hannah Cameron. Thanks very much for joining radionotes.

Hannah Cameron:
Thank you so much.

AI summary generated by Rev: Hannah Cameron recently appeared as a special guest of the band Grayling in Glasgow. She described the show as a one-off event that came up while she was on holiday in Europe. Cameron also discussed her love for summer temperatures between 23 and 29 degrees Celsius and her discomfort with temperatures above 30 degrees. She talked about her recent seven-week holiday and how it provided a chance to distance herself from her album recording and gain fresh perspective. Cameron explained that the title of her album, “Holding Pattern,” came from a notebook entry and reflected the themes of patterns and cycles in her songwriting. She also discussed the importance of the baritone guitar in her music and her recent experiences playing the tambourine. Cameron mentioned her admiration for artists like Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen and discussed her upcoming performance at Big Sound in 2023. She also talked about her visual artist friend Morgana Celeste, who created the artwork for her album. Cameron mentioned her love for swimming and her morning routine, which includes meditation and writing. She discussed her recent reading of “Promising Young Women” by Caroline O’Donoghue and her enjoyment of podcasts, including “Sentimental in the City.” Cameron also mentioned her excitement for Angie McMahon’s new album and described it as powerful and uplifting.

 

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