The Festival Voice Presents: Häana Interview
Häana Interviewed, Written, and Edited by Xander Beaumont
At the start of a long and exciting weekend at Cascade Equinox, attendees were welcomed to the festival grounds with an opening ceremony at the mainstage. Quickly following was an act that melded visual, string instruments, electronic beats, singing, and live dancers, brought to us by an artist named Häana. As golden hour began to set in, attendees watched a performance that truly set the tone for the weekend. The Festival Voice sat down with Häana after the festival and got to know her a little better.
Photo credit: Xander Beaumont (IG: @photo__beau).
Q1
Xander: Your set at Cascade Equinox was a great way to start off the festival. How was your experience from the performance side of things and did you get to explore the festival at all after your set?
Häana: It was so great being at Cascade. I was blown away by the intentional programming, the overall kind of ethos of the festival. Also, even though I knew what the main stage was going to be like—I had the specs my team had advanced all of my specifications with my rider and requests—it’s something different when you step up on stage for soundcheck, and then of course the performance.
They really went above and beyond with the quality of the festival programming—the visual aspect of the stage, the lighting design, immersive thoughtful experiences the whole festival—everything was just top notch. I felt like I was at Lightning in a Bottle Festival or Coachella.
I didn’t get a chance to check out much at the festival. My focus was predominantly on the main stage because of being an artist there. I liked that there was half an hour in between each act and I really loved that there was a very strong female presence bookending both the beginning and the end of the main stage on Friday with myself opening and CloZee closing.
Q2
Xander: From the basic electronic beats, the live string instrumentals, your expansive visuals and the live flow artists dancing, you touched on virtually all the territories that kind of encapsulate an act. How does incorporating all of those aspects into one really build out a Häana set?
Häana: I really think a lot about the senses when I’m creating music, when I’m designing a set, when I’m basically thinking of the audience being immersed in my world—how do I want to bring them into my world?
The music I write in general is just very cinematically driven. I use a lot of foley sounds, lots of nature influences. I take myself on music writing retreats—typically in very beautiful, gorgeous places in nature where I can just listen to my own inspiration and creativity.
When I’m on stage, I want my music to tell both a visual and an auditory story. When using my voice as an instrument, I’m not necessarily focused on the words. I’m focused more on the emotions using my voice as a texture.
I tap more into building my own connection to the story that’s in the song. One of the pieces that was really powerful that I did at Cascade during my set was the song called Salt, the lyrics are in Icelandic, I started my solo project in Iceland.
I was on this trip and able to take excursions—one was walking between the tectonic plates of two continents. I sang songs into my phone because that’s all I had with me for recording any bits of information that came to me or inspiration. I ended up creating Salt, which ties both English and Icelandic together because it’s the same word.
It’s also the most important element that we need. If you have too much [salt], you could die. If you have too little, you could die. I love that.
Häana: There is one more story I’d love to share related to the Icelandic influence on my music. I was traveling in Iceland for the first time and I happened to go on this boat ride around the Westman Islands (Vestmannaeyjar) with a tour guide. We were on these speed boats with jet ski-like seats.. I brought my violin and we go to this cave, which has amazing acoustics and dripping water, and it’s all Icelanders on this boat ride except for me. I get out my violin and perform this piece. With the reverberations of the cave, the echoes off the walls, and the water dripping around us, I proceeded to mesmerize this very private group of ~40 Icelanders and gave them a concert they’ll never forget.
Regarding working with dancers for my sets, I grew up dancing, painting, art, all of the aspects that are very visual and auditory. I started with piano and violin at age three. And so the classical versions of the artistic forms of dance and music have been ingrained in me. Fast forward to when I was starting my solo project, I had the pleasure to collaborate with dancers and they tended to be ballerinas. Usually at my live performances, I work with ballerinas and I was supposed to have a ballerina with me for this show but she sustained an injury and was not able to make it.
With that being the case, I spoke with the Cascade performance coordinator Rachel Winkler and we discussed some parameters for guest dancers for my show because I like to feel very intentional. I’m also willing to take risks. And so I took a risk allowing two very talented flow artists [Megg @megg.wiggles and Lindsay – High Desert Fire Artists (@tindsaay / @highdesertfireartists)] up on stage and I feel like they added a lot of visual excitement to what was happening during my set [at Cascade].
Photo credit: Xander Beaumont (IG: @photo__beau).
Q3
Xander: I was looking into your work with other other artists, other festivals, I see that you’ve worked with some high profile names, as well as performed at many yoga and meditation related festivals. And then also more classic festivals like Coachella, Lightning in a Bottle, and just now Cascade Equinox.
When you’re preparing for a show, how do you vary and alter your set depending on the setting?
Häana: I get so much thrill and excitement out of living on the edge. And that’s precisely why I perform as a live hybrid artist. Because what is most thrilling and satisfying to me is to really connect with the audience in a way that I am giving them exactly what they want to hear. In my experience of experiencing other artists’ music, It’s not necessarily the pieces that I know and love. It’s more that visceral connection in the moment that I’m really drawn to. So if an artist feels very polished and everything is exactly like the records I’ve heard before—a perfect rendition of what I’ve already heard, it’s not as exciting to me.
My approach is having some plan. I do write up setlists. I know how I want to start and finish, but then everything that happens in between, there are always very gracious envelopes of improvisation that I build into my music. I embed viola and cello in a lot of my music, so it feels more like an orchestra that’s performing with me.
I have some background vocals or textures in the mix as well, but I really get a lot out of having each set feel very unique in the moment never to be repeated again. There’s just something very visceral, effervescent, and magical when I perform that way.
So for something like Coachella, I did have two ballerinas performing with me and it was mid-afternoon at The Do Lab stage. It was extremely hot, so there were all these curve balls thrown at me right before the set. I was doing an Instagram Stories takeover for The Do Lab, and did my ballerinas’ hair right before the set, as well as styling/getting myself ready. Moments before going on stage, my laptop was overheating. We grabbed frozen water bottles, a fan, and eventually everything worked.
When I perform with ballerinas. I usually stick to a script because they have costume changes, they have the songs that they know that they’re going to perform to, and then you know the changeovers or the prep time that they need. So when I perform with very intentional movement artists then those sets are a little bit more organized than when I perform, let’s say at Burning Man on Burn Night in this fire dome called Incendia.
If I focus on my set being more of a dance party, there’s a different energy that goes into it rather than a visual performance. It’s more “what do people want to dance to right now?” And then I choose in the moment what I’m going to play based on that energy.
If it’s more, I want to bring this performance and just bring this like sense of magic. That’s a different intention, and same with the kind of meditative, immersive, cinematic I do this other project called Deepsønøs, which is more like a downtempo immersive full-spectrum audio experience. For those sets, it’s less about me as a performer/artist. It’s more about creating this super immersive mix of audio to take people on a really deep journey. I have a lot of pre-arranged samples I’ve created in advance with synth sounds, arp textures or frequencies. I arrange everything by key and then I’m performing it using Ableton and bringing in different elements as I’m feeling them. It’s very intuitive. I go into a different head space when I’m doing that, because it’s less about the dance and more about the immersion of taking people into outer space.
Q4
Xander: So related to the venues, I saw there’s a lot of different areas where you have performed in general, not just at festivals, but stadiums, Michael B. Jordan’s wedding, Obama’s inauguration And then also a lot of festivals and even museum showcases. All that being said, your art has seen a lot of different sets and settings. What was the most unique venue that you were asked to play in your career so far?
Häana: I would say the New Year’s Eve performance I did in Abu Dhabi.
I didn’t know what to wear for that show because it’s strict. Fortunately, there was a stylist for the festival and somehow she was able to find me the perfect clothing. I just decided to cover most everything [shoulders, legs], but still feel like myself. The important thing is the music and also me being myself not being too infringed upon with my creative expression, while still respecting cultural norms in a new place. The festival was run by the government in Abu Dhabi. And there were many things in this that were wonderfully bizarre. I was the only US artist booked for this festival. And they had my image, which is this gorgeous photo, shot by Sequoia Emmanuelle. The only edgy thing about me in that picture is that I have a septum piercing but the image feels evocative and tasteful.
Att the entrance to this festival, there are all of the major headlining artists on these huge murals as we’re entering,and as we’re scoping everything out when I had arrived, I stand by this photo of me, and these women I had never met before approached us excited like “It’s you!” and they took photos with me.
I was also part of the countdown show separately, so I had my solo live performance and then I had to jump on a golf cart, be taken to the other side of the festival and get ready to perform in the countdown performance. When we were rehearsing for the countdown show, it was probably 4:00 or 5:00 AM. I was ok with that due to jet lag, it was feeling like 4p for me instead. There were some issues with operations for this festival. Including extreme humidity and condensation collecting on the stage that was in the middle of the river so they had to come in with contractors and lay down carpet because it was so slippery with the condensation, it wasn’t safe conditions for dancing.
Then the very next day, I went out to the desert, full moon on New Year’s Day, and sang songs to a couple of friends where Star Wars was filmed in the Liwa Desert, having this very beautiful, peaceful, enveloping, meditative experience in the middle of the desert.
Xander: Wow, so you really touched on both ends of the spectrum there. The giant, huge celebration, and then very peaceful, meditative, and just intimate. Out in nature with less eyes on you, but still kind of the connectivity.
Q5
Xander: In addition to live performances, I see you’re also a film score composer who scored an entire 90 minute documentary produced by Time called This Cold Life.
I’m curious, how does composing a 90 minute documentary compare to creating a 90 minute live set with visuals? Is one more intricate than the other? How does composing each one compare?
Häana: I’ll start by telling you how I got composing for a film score with This Cold Life. It was based on place called Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean north of mainland Europe. And the DP, I’d met him in Costa Rica at Envision Festival backstage. I mentioned to him that I really want to get into film scoring and he said he would keep his eyes open. He was contracted for this documentary based on Svalbard. And he had me send me some notes requesting music drafts that sound “icy, spacious, and beautiful with some eerie violin moments and some harmonics and textures.”
I asked to see some of the footage and he declined and said to just keep to what he described. I created two pieces that were just sketches and sent them over to him. He gave them to the editor, who cut them into a draft and the director Darren Mann was impressed, asking “Ooh, what is this music?” Up to that point, they were just using placeholder music and were going to figure it out later. The DP connected us, and I was hired to write the whole score.
It’s a very different process (than making a live set). Very different. It involved a lot of conversations, a lot of discussion regarding what seems to fit. It involved a lot of trust too. Ultimately, the director and I had a lot of really nice dialogue and trust that happened where we would meet/discuss and I would come back with some things that I was suggesting for the soundtrack.
There’s something that’s a bit easier to create music for a documentary where there’s dialogue, beautiful scenery and stunning cinematography.
My process would be, I would bring the clip that I was writing for into Logic and then I would basically turn off my brain and watch the clip and just see what would come to me and usually I’d get some kind of real clear spark of “Ooh, I feel this rhythm” or “I feel this kind of palette of instrument/textures”
Häana: I use a lot of VSTs (virtual instruments) in my writing as well and a lot of violin. I use my voice as a texture as well. I write/compose based on intuition. And then I would show that to the director or I would create different versions and he might use the more rhythmic version for a certain scene and then use the more stripped down version for a different part of the scene. The importance of the process of being a film composer is to be really open and trust the journey.
When I’m composing or orchestrating what I’m going to do for a 90 minute live set, I’m thinking about the impact I want to have, the BPM or the journey, etc. I also really love having spacious moments, where it’s not just like 200 percent coming at you the whole time. Where there’s dips and swells in the journey I’m taking people on. And then I also am considering “I did a vocal piece. Now I would like to do more of a string forward piece. Now I’d like to do more of a synth forward piece” so that there’s not too much “chocolate cake” happening at any one point. When I first started doing my solo sets, I performed a lot of violin because that was my main instrument. And I started to realize that it’s like a lot of chocolate cake, too much of a certain frequency can be a bit overwhelming instead of having it be more of like a special moment interspersed throughout.
Xander: I like that too-much-chocolate-cake metaphor. ’cause yeah, there, there’s definitely been times where I’ve been at a, I’ve been at an artistic set and I’m like, okay my brain feels a little full or a little hit with it’s the same, it’s been the same melody and then you hear something that changes it up and it’s almost like a respite. A little bit of a break. Keeps you on your toes. So I definitely agree with that.
Häana: I also have a Massive Attack piece in my set. It’s a cover of Teardrop. I initially created a rendition of that piece because it’s my absolute favorite song in the world and I want people to associate me with that artistI performed at Envision Festival in 2015 and people didn’t know who I was, but they knew I was that artist who did the cover of Massive Attack so there was that brain connection, that association with that signature piece that people can anchor to.
Photo credit: Samuel Benson (IG: @amartiansgarden).
Q6
Xander: You have performed with some pretty, pretty high powered artists and at some pretty high powered festivals over time but I see you also coach and teach as well. How does the juxtaposition of performing with musical experts compare to how you feel in the classroom when you’re teaching newcomers or evolving artists?
Häana: My personal pursuit to an artist’s career is ever ongoing. I feel like there’s always something more to learn, explore, and grow and that’s the joy of being an artist. I certainly sought out mentors and coaches along the way, and I continue to do that. I like to turn around, give back and lift up other artists who are maybe earlier in their career or just starting out. I really love coaching artists in their creativity and helping them bring the versions of their sound, storytelling, and the visual aspects to life, and bring that all together. I used to do more coaching on the technical side like Ableton or Logic coaching, but I’m way more excited about the creative journey of an artist. Ultimately who the artist is not determined or defined by their skills.
The technical skills are more or less easy to acquire, and you can get help with that. But the most important thing is their sonic stamp, who they are as an artist, and how they’re transmitting their very individual identity. There’s only one of each of us in the world, and the more clear that we can get on who we are and what we are doing that is unique to us, then the more success we will have, and the more fulfillment we’ll get out of our personal/artistic journey. It’s definitely not easy—the life and path of being an artist but making genuine connections, inspiring others, (even people who aren’t in the creative industry), is important. I think the more that we can be fully who we are here to be, the more impact/power that we have.
I’ve had really incredible support along the way. One of my favorite collaborators is Random Rab. We met at a show in New York City when I lived there and I mentioned that I’m a violinist, so he brought me in to record on a couple of tracks, and then we performed at a festival in I believe it was Colorado or California and we hadn’t even rehearsed. We only did a remote recording session and the performance we did together was so magical. Afterwards he enlisted me to go on tour with him in the fall and also to perform with him at Burning Man. I hadn’t been to Burning Man in maybe five years but I went and improvised with him on a bunch of his sets out at Burning Man and ended up bringing that magic on the road. I really feel that when you approach connections from a human perspective and always focus on “how can I give back?” or “How can I enrich or make this other person’s experience better?”, I think that’s a better way to approach collaboration rather than “I want something from you”.
Q7
Xander: What is something artistic that you would like to include in your music that you have not yet used? A new instrument, new collaborator, music style, or an alternative form of dance maybe? Is there anything on the horizon for you?
Häana: I am studying guitar right now—it’s something my mother studied. She was going to become a classical guitarist/French interpreter for the U. N. but ended up becoming a teacher. When I was younger, I would play her classical guitar. And when I’d go to my violin lessons, I’d confuse the guitar fingerings with the violin fingerings so I set the guitar aside to focus on violin. In the past year or so, I’ve been so drawn to the guitar and found a few different methods and basically just been studying over YouTube and a few books, and applying my unique approach to music on a new instrument.
It’s a different expression of myself. When I was out in Santa Fe, I wrote a beautiful piece inspired by the place where Georgia O’Keefe lived called Ghost Ranch, and that piece is predominantly acoustic guitar. There’s only one other song in my repertoire [Sand] that features an acoustic guitar. A future body of work will probably feature a little more acoustic guitar that I will be playing, which feels really exciting. Maybe even a full-on singer/songwriter album. I think that piano and guitar are fundamentals to any songwriter’s toolkit. When you explore different instruments, you can touch in on harmonies and melodies in new ways. They [piano and guitar] are much more chordal instruments than violin.I feel like it opens up a lot more doors with melody, harmony, and the creative process.
Q8
Xander: If readers could take away one thing from this interview about yourself, about Häana, what would you like them to know about you?
Häana: I will be releasing a lot more new music late this year and into next year. I think the most important takeaway is that the creative process is very nuanced and the creative path of an artist is also very nuanced. Get really clear on who you are and how you want to convey that energy and do your best to stay true to that path. I think if you’re chasing trends or hype, that is not as impactful as really connecting to what makes you uniquely you.
That’s something I’ve really tried to do. And I’m very honored that I’ve been able to be an original artist in so many capacities, including for big corporations, corporate festivals and entities, etc. and part of that is my commitment to sound, my commitment to being an audiophile, and always striving for the best quality of anything that I put out or anything that I perform. If I don’t know the answer, then I seek those people who can help me with it, and I’m always striving for a very iconic imagery that is unique.
If I look at artists like Björk—she has a very iconic visual identity. When I think of cover art, I think of “what would make this memorable?” or “What would be something that is very visually impactful?” I feel like to some extent, the art of an impactful cover has been a bit lost, with the fast-paced nature of social media and feeling like you have to keep up with everything. I like to think about gilded encyclopedias or gilded Bibles. Those artists took the time to create these masterpieces, these works of art, that are visually encapsulating. When I work with my artistic clients, one of the paths is a six month immersion called MASTERPIECE. That’s precisely the kind of ethos I mean, when you’re creating something that will live forever. No pressure, but you’re leaving this behind and this art will live forever—hopefully. With that in mind, how do you want it to be? Do you want it to be something that was kind of dashed off or something that you put so much time and effort and energy into every aspect of the creation of it?
Xander: I agree with you wholeheartedly on that with, with the kind of don’t dip a toe in if you’re going to be doing the creation of it, make it yours and make it as concrete and whole as possible. I also agree that the cover art, art aspect has really taken a dip in a lot of the music industry, not even counting AI. A lot of people are just on the mentality of like, well, I made the song. I need to get it out and do my marketing for it and the cover art doesn’t get an appropriate amount of consideration. As a photographer, I definitely wish there was more focus on that aspect.
Häana: Yes, absolutely. I have a background in visual art as well. I grew up doing photography almost equally as music. For a time, the photography world was my main career while I was doing music by night. I’m fortunate to have a visual side of my skill set and I think it’s really important to also understand that side of it. So when you’re collaborating with visual artists to help bring your vision to life, whether it’s on the screen, whether it’s your music videos, your cover art, your press photos, that you have a really clear idea of who you are and what you are and how you want to be portrayed. That goes a long way.
Photo credit: Xander Beaumont (IG: @photo__beau).
Editor Note: As we were wrapping up the interview, Häana realized that there were a few things that we missed as we were talking and I wanted to make sure that we included that part of the conversation even though there were no tailored questions to tie them to.
Häana: One of my big dreams that I’m speaking into reality right now is to perform at Red Rocks next year. You will see me at the Caverns in Tennessee, and a few other beautiful natural outdoor venues like the Gorge would be amazing. As I mentioned earlier, there are some beautiful places in Iceland I’d love to perform at as well too. Specifically, there is this crater that I’ve been to,and it’s called Kerið. I heard that Björk performed on a boat in the middle of the lake in this crater, and the audience were on the sides of the crater and hearing this multipoint surround sound audio of her performance on a boat in the center.
I’m very inspired by nature, incorporating foley sounds, incorporating these moods and feels that I get when I’m in nature, and then kind of incorporating that in a very subtle, esoteric way into my music. But also to be able to perform at big outdoor venues that are much more nature oriented. I love performing at festivals because, for example, at Cascade Equinox, there was a wind tunnel on main stage. During my soundcheck and during the first half of my performance, it was this extreme wind tunnel. I was joking about telling the sound guy to “ turn down the wind on set, I didn’t ask for this. This isn’t in my rider.” Haha. Wind is one of those unpredictable elements but it’s actually very magical to feel the wind coming in. Of course you don’t want the wind in your mic when you’re singing, and you don’t want your things flying away, so there was that kind of element of unpredictability.
I like to say when I’m performing, “everything could go terribly wrong, but it usually goes so much better than I ever could have imagined.” And it’s that magic of being in the moment that can make or break a performance.
Editors Note: Häana will be performing at All Hallows’ Bounce in Lafayette, Colorado on 10/30, for Intel at AWS re:invent in Las Vegas Dec 2-4, and you can learn more about her, her upcoming performances, and her coaching/mentoring at her website. Also, follow Häana on IG: @thisishaana.
Finally, she was nice enough to create a guest mix for The Festival Voice to accompany this article.
https://soundcloud.com/haana/cascade-equinox-exclusive-mix-for-the-festival-voice