Known for injecting a dark aesthetic into her alternative rock music, Hana Piranha reaches new heights with her latest album, 'Wingspan'. The thematic intensity and sonic grit of this album, makes it a formidable addition to her discography. Hana teams up with bandmates Jim Beck on guitar, Andrew Lane on drums, and Mishkin Fitzgerald on bass, masterfully fusing electronica, rock, and dark wave elements to craft a visceral musical experience.
It's as skillful as walking a tight rope, oscillating between dark, haunting vibes and empowering, cathartic tones—an art Hana Piranha does with grace. Drawing influences from Nine Inch Nails and My Chemical Romance, the album boasts powerful riffs, gritty tunes, emphatic vocals, dark piano chords, resonant basslines, and pounding drums.
Find out more about 'Wingspan' and the band's creative processes in this interview with Hana Piranha.
"Wingspan" delivers a sonic experience that is as haunting as it is empowering. Is there a song where you felt this duality was challenging or rewarding to capture?
Musically, Black Horse is probably the song that has the most contrast and was the most challenging song to write - I wrote the whole thing on piano and I knew that I wanted all the sections to blend into one song but it was a difficult thing to piece together and required an equal input from all of the band members and our producer Evan to achieve this.
What inspired the tone of the album, both in terms of sound and lyrics? Can you share the main narrative and intention behind the album?
I was in a very stable (and, dare I say it, the sworn enemy of the musician: contented) place when I was working on Wingspan. Joking aside, I had always thought that I would have to write from a place of angst or my songs wouldn’t be inspired or impactful. However I found myself drawing into myself on a deeper level without this immediate need to feel and process emotion as I had during other albums. As a result, I feel like Wingspan is a more mature, creative and sophisticated offering than our previous albums. I was playing a lot of piano at the time I was writing this album, so I wrote a lot of it on piano, which really provided a wider musical scope than previous albums. Wingspan is about claiming your space and filling your potential and came from a real place of personal and musical empowerment.
The themes in your music often delve into dark aspects of the human psyche—nightmares, loneliness, and self-destruction. Can you walk us through your creative process when composing sounds that translate these complex emotions into your songs?
I’m speaking for myself personally here, as each member of the band has different musical influences to offer, but I only really work with dark, minor chord progressions (Only Love Remains on this album being a notable exception). One of my major influences is Nine Inch Nails - when I listen to many of their songs, it feels like the musical equivalent of punching a wall to release emotion and it’s my intention to achieve the same kind of feeling with our darker and angrier songs. I try to keep my writing as simple as possible with vocal hooks and clean melodies that don’t try too hard. I want the message to be as clear and accessible to the listener as possible.
Tell us about the musical influences that shaped the distinct sound of "Wingspan.”
As I mentioned, Nine Inch Nails is always a big influence for me. Jim and Mish are both massive My Chemical Romance fans so they brought a bit more of the melodic elements of that to the album, which is probably a good thing because if it was up to me the whole thing would probably be a 3-chord wonder! Andy brought influences like Kyuss and Led Zeppelin into his drum parts. Jim and I also have a high tolerance for a lot of pop music that other rockers would probably disregard, which influences our use of simple melodies and chord progressions and hooks.
Reuniting with guitarist Jim Beck and collaborating with drummer Andrew Lane for the first time, how did the collaborative process unfold during the creation of "Wingspan," and what unique contributions did each member bring to the album's overall sound?
Our last album Waiting to Burn really brought Jim and I together as co-writers and this album was a continuation of that, with Jim having a massive input in the songwriting. He wrote Azure outright and brought I Wanna Leave, Lorelei, Elixir of Life, Another Life and Wingspan to the table for me to add lyrics and melodies to. I think you can really hear the difference between the songs that were written on piano and those that were written on guitar, with the latter being a lot riffier. I am always quite apprehensive with new collaborative inputs but the moment Andy sent us a video of his drum part for I Wanna Leave, I knew that the rhythm was in good hands. Jim and I had some strong ideas for the beats, particularly for the more electronic tracks, but we also gave Andy a lot of space to leave his mark on the album. My favourite song that he plays live is Lorelei - even though he plays over an electronic beat, the drums really stand out in a big way. Mishkin Fitzgerald, who recently joined on bass, was also involved in the writing - she wrote Left Me Here to Die and had a valuable input with many other songs on the album. Hurt the Ones You Love was written by my brother Aaron, who is a past band member and a long-time collaborator of mine. Laying it all out like this shows how truly collaborative this album was, which is perfect for me as I really want to get past people’s idea of this being a solo project. I also prefer to write lyrics than music so I’m delighted when people bring me a song idea that’s to my taste.
During the three years it took to develop the album, what challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them?
The writing of Wingspan all came quite naturally but the album was stalling towards the end due to lack of finances. We set up a rather ambitious Kickstarter campaign to fund the remainder of the mixing and other costs and this was a really difficult but rewarding process - it was scary to reach out to fans and ask them for money. As well as raising the funds to finish it, the campaign gave the album a bit of traction and allowed fans to be invested and involved with it. It also held us accountable to finish it as soon as possible which really lit a fire under me. The other challenge I would mention was the fact that our producer Evan Rodaniche, previously based in LA, now lives in an RV and travels around America, often with very little internet. The already difficult back-and-forth of mix notes was even more impeded due to this—in an ideal circumstance we would be mixing together in the studio, so this slowed the process down considerably. However, there is no-one else I would have trusted to produce our record so the delays were worth it.
The album cover art for "Wingspan" seems to carry a visual connection to your previous work. Can you elaborate on the symbolism within the artwork and how it aligns with the overall message of the new album?
Wingspan is a nod to the artwork of our first album Cold Comfort. The photo on the cover of Cold Comfort is based on The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli which portrays a woman (me) lying despondent on a bed with an incubus over her and a horse (representing my nightmares) in the background. In Cold Comfort I was both the victim and the architect of all the darkness I experienced. Wingspan is an evolution of this - we return to the bed with the horse and incubus but this time it is my younger self on the bed and I am awake and holding a sword, defending her against the dark forces.
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