A young Angus singer-songwriter, who only wrote her first “proper” song during lockdown last year, has released her debut EP.
Hannah Geoghegan, 19, who writes and performs under the name of Hnna, is hoping to forge a career in music with her old-school soulful yet poppy songs.
Inspired by such deep-soul luminaries as Jorja Smith and Amy Winehouse, Hannah also cities Sam Smith as another favourite and conjures up traces of Coldplay in her ballad, Far Away From Here.
The song is sandwiched by title track Cry With Me and Messing About – think Norah Jones and/or Adele.
Dad’s support
The teenager co-wrote the songs along with guitarist/songwriter Steve Gaughan and her dad, Kevin, who used to be in Dundee band Hotter Than Peru with Steve.
The former Carnoustie High School pupil, who lives in Monikie with her parents, Kevin and Jane, has been singing right through her schooldays, under the professional eye of vocal coach Heather Finnie.
However she only wrote her first “proper” song, “I Got Love In Me,” just over a year ago.
“I found I was waking up at 3am with maybe a line or a melody in my head so I would have to record it right away, or I would be singing something in the shower,” Hannah said.
“It might just be one line, but I would show my dad it and he would come up with some chords and then we would try to figure out the song.
“I have the last word on the songs though.
“I might tell him I don’t like that chord or something like that, but it works well and we usually end up with the basics of the songs.”
Studio time
With Hannah coming up with the melodies and the chords worked out by her dad, Steve then took over and worked with Hannah on the songs in his home studio, choosing and playing the various instruments and crafting the songs, “with maybe a few tweaks of chords here and there,” into workable demos which they then took to the Seagate Studio in Dundee.
There they were engineered and produced to album quality by Graeme Watt.
“Hannah also came along to the Sunday Song Club at Clark’s a few times and performed with us,” Steve added.
The EP has now been released online and Hannah hopes it will attract a wider audience and record label interest.
“I just want people to hear them and also maybe get the chance to play them live as soon as we can,” Hannah said.
“I’m going to build a YouTube Channel and try to promote myself through that too.”
Steve added: “There are a couple of things that but because of Covid only Hannah could be in at the moment.
“But we’ve got a backing band in place of talented young working musicians in Dundee.
“They’ve been given the material to listen to and rehearse and they’re ready to go as soon as gigs are allowed again.
“We are just looking for some suitable venues to get her out playing live and showcase the songs.”
Meanwhile Hannah is still writing new material and has put any thoughts of furthering her education aside, despite gaining excellent grades at school.
“I’m not going to uni, there’s plenty of time for that in the future,” she said.
“I’m just going to concentrate on music for the time being and see what happens.”