Hannah Diamond: "I really upped the stakes"

It’s been a long time coming, but PC Music’s shiniest gem has a debut album on the books. Watch out, Planet Pop!

As shiny as Hannah Diamond's world is, she's not as tough as her namesake. On her debut album, 'Reflections', Hannah is human and heartbroken, perhaps unexpectedly as a member of the hyperreal, alternative-reality PC Music collective.

Starting out as a visual artist, Hannah joined AG Cook as part of PC Music in 2013, where, with the release of her debut 'Pink and Blue', she transformed into one of the most innovative voices in pop. Still, six years later, there's no one quite like her.

Even with producers AG Cook, SOPHIE, EasyFun, Danny L Harle and more imposing their industrial, metallic, slamming-pots-and-pans-in-the-studio sound on the mainstream, Hannah's steely vocals paired with heartfelt lyrics stood out against the pure party bangers the rest of the PC Music crew were creating with Charli XCX, Madonna, Rita Ora and Carly Rae Jepsen (that's quite the name drop).

While Hannah became just as well known for the glossy, retouched imagery that accompanied her music, she doesn't let it alter anyone's perception of her music or artistry. If anything, creating those hyperreal photos is a particularly personal process for her.

"The whole package of the music relates to the visual side of things, although the lyrical content is sometimes quite emotional and quite sad, which seems like the polar opposite of this hyperreal imagery, something that I guess some people think looks like commercial imagery, which is you know, normally not seen as being something quite personal for them.

"For me, the correlation between the two isn't so far apart because making those kinds of hyperreal images is quite personal, because it's something that I started being interested in when I was a lot younger. I started out as mostly an illustrator, I guess. When I was really young, I was into jewellery. I used to do hyperreal pencil illustration.

It was those images she created while at university that caught the attention of AG Cook, who helped shift the same shiny, over-edited concept into song.

"It was only going to have four tracks on it, and then I was still writing and recording all the time, and it kept growing. Once I got to six tracks I was like, I might as well make an album because all the music that I'm making feels like it's in the same sort of world.

Upping the stakes obviously turned out to be a good thing, as it helped Hannah through some really rough patches, particularly the title track. Although most of the record details – in a super blunt and often simple way – Hannah falling in and out of love, the song 'Reflections' quite literally reflects on her personal struggles and ponders how others in her life feel about her own depression.

"Then I guess the day after that is when I wrote 'Reflections', because I remember trying to think of myself from my mum's perspective and how I would feel if I was her kid. Like, if one of my friends felt the way that I felt, it kind of helped me to have like some like self-compassion, so that song to me is kind of like bit of a self-help song, just like the reminder to look after myself. Some of the lyrics are about like seeing yourself as new and stuff, and its sort of a reminder to myself to love myself and not take myself for granted.

With all the years behind her perfecting the 'HD sound', 'Reflections' is as pristine and glossy as the imagery that vitally accompanies it. But be aware, there's nothing commercial or run-of-the-mill about this album; it's 100% Hannah Diamond in every way.

"One of the reasons it was so great to work with Alex on this whole album is, because I started making music with him, I feel like we've been developing what the HD sound is. By making this album just purely with Alex, we've really solidified that and made this sound that's just me, and I'm really proud of it.

"With my music and my lyrics and my artwork, I always want it to come from me. Whenever I've written songs where I've tried to tell a story or get into an idea just because it's fun. I never end up wanting to use them because I'm like, I don't know, it just doesn't feel so real, and I feel like it's easier for me to go up on stage and perform if I know that it's all true." P Hannah Diamond's album 'Reflections' is out now.

Taken from the December 2019 / January 2020 issue of Dork. Hannah Diamond's album 'Reflections' is out now.

Words: Abigail Firth

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Hannah Diamond: "I really upped the stakes"

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