Jim Hanft is really a singer worth looking out for. He took some time to answer a few prompts and you should take the time to give him a listen. One of his best, 'Television', can be found on YouTube.
Other folks may compare me to... Iron & Wine, David Gray, Roxette and Brangelina but my biggest musical influences are Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Ryan Adams and Jake Hill. Springsteen because of his ability to tell a story, his vision and hard work. Pearl Jam because in High School they were the band that showed me how music can become your community and help to shape your identity. Ryan Adams because he has this burning need to create and in my mind has allowed the title singer/songwriter to mean a lot more then just a dude with a surf board and cargo shorts. Also when I heard the way the male/female voices on "Oh My Sweet Carolina" sounded I remember thinking...I need to find a girl with a voice and make music with her. And so I found Samantha Yonack about five years ago and she helped me to fill out the sound and songs and we've been working together ever since. Jake Hill because he is one of my closest songwriter friends and we have been sending our songs back and forth for years now and I think it's the camaraderie and competitiveness that we share that has influenced the need to keep working on the next song.
You're bound to like my music if you....get sad sometimes.
I'm happiest with the lyrics on... "Weddings Or Funerals" because they are the most honest of all the songs. All the cities I mention and the details I am referring to are memories I have from saying goodbye to my Aunt in North Carolina. I remember writing this song and the lyrics just sort of flying out of me. With songs you have creative license to bend the truth, exaggerate and all that but for some reason this song didn't need to be exaggerated. Honesty was the strongest poetic device. I wish I could tap into that zone all the time, but I guess that would lead me to write a lot of songs about the effects of drinking too much coffee and walking my dog and how annoying it is when you're waiting for him to use the bathroom when it's cold outside.
I'm most proud of the recording of... "Lazy Love" because it was just a live take in the studio. And I think it captures myself and Samantha Yonack in a very pure and honest state. Samantha and I wrote the song in LA but had the song buried deep in the notebook. Then at midnight on one of the last nights of the session we thought it would be a cool idea to lay it down. We showed the guys the chords, Lasse (the producer) set up some microphones and we captured in mind a take that is extremely representative of what we do live.
The new album is different than my older stuff because... we got to work with Producer, Lasse Marten - which led us to working with a team of amazing Swedish musicians. It was working with Lasse and the band of Swedes (Anders Pettersson, Richard Lidhamn, Magnus Olsson, Surjo Benigh) that the songs took a humungous leap both sonically and musically. Anders Pettersson who played a lot of the lead stuff that you hear (i.e. pedal steel, banjo, squeaky organ, etc) helped to pull melodies and ideas out of the songs that took the arrangements to a whole new level.
I make music because... writing songs and performing live is ridiculously fun. Also, when I first tried to play a guitar and sing it was so hard but all my idols made it look so easy. I think it was the struggle and trial and error of singing, playing and writing that sort of sucked me into the world of music. It's the feeling that you can always be better, and the idea that I still haven't written my best song is what makes music horribly addictive.
If I wasn't singing for you, guitar in hand, you'd find me...drinking coffee, re-designing our website, playing basketball or trying to figure out some strange place to make a guerrilla video for a song like inside a nail salon or at a dog park.
