Why play by rules when you can make your own? Hannah Fairlight knows. Classically trained on piano as a youth, and a staunch Tori Amos fan and band camp attendee, Fairlight quickly swapped out classical piano and small town Midwest for the Big Apple and electric guitars, debuting at the infamous rock club CBGB at 18 years old. A regular at haunts like NYC’s The Bitter End and Arlene’s Grocery, Fairlight went on to grace stages across Europe, the UK, and Australia before settling in Music City, USA when landing a starring role in A&E’s TV show ‘Crazy Hearts: Nashville.’
If backpacking and busking all over the world wasn’t enough rule-making and breaking, Fairlight then landed a starring role in Universal’s ‘Pitch Perfect 3,’ embodying the character “Veracity,” a Joan Jett-style rabble-rouser going to bat alongside big hitters Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow and Ruby Rose.
Veracity is at the heart of everything she does, both figuratively and literally. Over the course of four dynamic releases, her core followers know one thing about Hannah: Expect the unexpected. From her raw Southern rock influenced debut EP, Creatures of Habit to the shimmering, Bright Future, produced by legendary rock monster Michael Wagener (Metallica, Skid Row, Mötley Crüe, Dokken), Fairlight has always done just that, lit the musical world ablaze with beams of emotional strength illuminating a path for a more fair and just world.
Fair and just is an apt wrap for her upcoming cataclysm. On Lone Wolf, her second full-length recording, Fairlight shimmies away from the introspective ballads of 2020’s Muscle & Skin and reignites her love of guitar-driven rule-bending riot grrrl rock and roll. With nods to Jack White, Lucinda Williams, and Ben Folds Five echoing some of Fairlight’s prime influences and 90s comeuppance, the Lone Wolf recordings – live to tape – come as close to the blood, sweat and tears of a live Fairlight show as one can come. No production gimmicks – just an incendiary, rule-breaking rock mama preaching anthems of societal, moral, and global change with great clarity and reverberating intensity, none moreso than on lead single, “Emotional Men,” which she says offers, “commentary on societal acceptance of sensitive men, the minuteness of humanity in the scheme of the universe, and global warming.” With the requisite amount of volume, you can feel the tension seething, its cylinders are peaking.
With the full album slated for May 24, 2024 via CEN/The Orchard, the Wolf’s second-born cub unfurls in the guise of surf-boogie ripcord, “Apologetic Me,” which sounds like the Dead Weather trading molotov cocktails with LA’s The Darts. Funk-driven flamethrowers also ignite the holy moly riffage of “Sum Ppl R Jerx,” the spicy Veruca Salt-flavored “Fever” and the garage rock bump n grind of “Take Too Much,” a rallying cry for humanity to stop living aimlessly and destroying our planet.
Elsewhere, Fairlight slows things down on the wistful title cut, the sprawling piano-fueled inquisition, “How Many Times” and the rueful mixed emotions of “If Only You Could See Me Now,” an ode to a lost lover. On “Naked,” Fairlight showcases her range with breathy vocals while baring her vulnerability. In a visual ode to this, she appears naked on the album cover with the song titles scrawled across her. Wearing her emotions on her sleeve, she’s embodying it fully.
Wolf closer, “Where,” is a raw examination of the world at large, told thru the lens of a girl named Janie, who’s trying to find her way amongst the bloated patriarchy where every newsreel sucks and the bureaucracy is filled with pus. Much like the apostle of Aerosmith’s 1989 anthem, the protagonist and the proletariat are fighting back.
Throughout every timeline and multiple dimensions, Lone Wolf is one that reckons. Neil Young, hang onto your butt. Pat Benatar – Thank you for having the guts. Chrissie, Lucinda, and Jenny Lewis, she sees you too.
While Fairlight continues to be a triple threat as rock star, multi-media provocateur and actor, recently appearing in the official music video for Ace Frehley’s latest single “Cherry Medicine,” her true passion is songwriting and performing live, where primordial gestation and animal magnetism are poetry in motion. As one Charles Bukowski, an infamous lone wolf himself, once quipped, “the free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.”
On Sunday, June 2nd, Hannah will celebrate the eternal release of Lone Wolf with hometown friends and family at The Underdog, a favorite haunt in the heart of East Nashville. Downbeat at twilight, the wolfpack will come alive, a Flower Moon on high. Come one, come all, come together, right now.
LONE WOLF – Track Breakdown
1. Fever – A rock-girl anthem about the people in our lives who amp us up the most.
2. Sum Ppl R Jerx – An ode to practicing empathy and compassion, even when some people are jerks.
3. Take Too Much – A rallying cry for this generation and those to follow to stop living aimless lives and destroying our planet.
4. Jaded – A Ben Folds-style rock anthem for rekindling lost loving feelings.
5. Loser – A generous “fuck you” song to an ill-matched sociopathic ex.
6. Just Feel Better – A song about depression.
7. If Only You Could See Me Now – Ode to a long lost lover boasting “how do you like me now?” But still yearning for the past.
8. Emotional Men – Commentary on societal acceptance of sensitive men, the minuteness of humanity in the scheme of the universe, and global warming.
9. Naked – A love song about feeling able to completely bare one’s heart to another. First love. Second song I EVER wrote on the guitar.
10. How Many Times – How many times will I try to mend this fucked up relationship?
11. Apologetic Me – You’re right, I’m wrong. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.
12. Lone Wolf – They all say I’m this so maybe I am.
13. Where – Story bout a girl trying to find her way. For Janie.
LP pre-order: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CT2PMWMM
Connect With Hannah Fairlight
https://linktr.ee/hannahfairlight
https://www.instagram.com/hannahfairlight
