Hannah Connolly is a singer-songwriter originally from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, now living in Los Angeles, California. Her debut album From Where You Are was released in 2020, soon to be followed by her forthcoming second record, Shadowboxing.
Connolly writes the kind of thoughtful, image-rich music that evokes a moment in time, capturing vivid snapshots, many from her own life, with such precision they feel — perhaps paradoxically — universal. From Where You Are draws heavily from the loss of Connolly’s younger brother Cullen, who was killed by a drunk driver in 2015.
A prolific writer, Connolly regularly journals, writes poetry and, of course, writes songs, ever honing her already crystalline view of the world around her. Pieces of From Where You Are come from some of those writing exercises, and the record grew to become an immersive, deeply moving meditation on how profound loss and its ensuing grief irrevocably change who we are and who we will become.
Connolly began work on Shadowboxing in late 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic forced Connolly and her collaborators to work and write remotely, and zoom sessions became the norm. While that new method of songwriting took some getting used to, Connolly found that the quiet and solitude afforded by being home during the pandemic gave her a place of spaciousness from which to write. She wrote many of the songs with Jordan Ruiz, who produced From Where You Are.
“I had a lot of lyrics piling up. In order to have some more time to write, I took off work for three days,” she says. “I literally pretended like I was going into the studio, but it was actually the extra bedroom where my boyfriend and I had recording equipment set up. We wrote almost three songs a day for a few days straight over zoom. which was really fun. All of a sudden it was like, ‘Whoa, there’s so much coming out here.’”
Glide is premiering the video for sonically rich “Bags Are Packed” which harkens to the sweet idealism of 70s and modern singer-songwriters like Brandi Carlile and Joni Mitchell. Connolly offers a delicately rich voice that sounds instantly familiar and profoundly insightful.
“The song “Bags are Packed” captures the feeling I had every time we loaded up our gear to go work on the album in Idyllwild, CA — lightness, excitement and joy. The music video came together very naturally. After we finished tracking the album, a group of us went back up to Jon O’Brien’s studio, The Music Box, to film some live performances of the songs,” says Connolly.
“While we were up there we played several songs, including Bags Are Packed, in a few different locations around the mountain. The director, Ryan Neal Cordwell, also caught a lot of sweet moments between takes. It felt like a music video for this song was the perfect place to let those shine because they fit perfectly with what this song is about which is getting out into nature, spending time with friends, and following the things that make you feel alive.
Watching this video back is really fun for me because it feels like a mini documentary of that weekend and also captures the spirit of what recording was like. When I think about the process of making this album, one of the first things that comes to mind is how fun the experience was creating it with friends. The days we spent recording and filming up at The Music Box were some of the highlights of my year. I’m grateful we were able to capture some of those memories in this way.”
