INTERVIEW: Carlie Hanson

By Grace Lauson

Carlie Hanson is about to kick off her tour where she will be opening up for the Bad Suns. She is playing on Saturday, April 20th at the Royale in Boston, MA. WTBU journalist. Grace Lauson chatted with Carlie about her daily life, the upcoming tour, and much more.

Grace Lauson: I know you must be pretty busy, can you walk me through your day? What’s a normal day for you?

Carlie Hanson: Okay on a normal day, I wake up in a hotel room and take a quick shower. Then my tour manager and I have a time that we meet down in the lobby and then we just drive for a s**t ton of hours if we’re on the US tour. Right now, I’m in the car doing this interview. We’re going to Houston right now. Anyways, we will drive, get to the venue, load all our instruments and stuff in (well they do, I usually just go to the green room and do my own thing), then we sound check, and play the show. After, I go meet fans, go find a cool place to eat and then do this whole process all over again. When we don’t have a show, we are either driving or chilling out in whatever city we’re in.

GL: Have you been working with the same team of people since the beginning?

CH: At the beginning, I was working with a lot of different people trying to find my main group of producers and writers that I connected it best with. It’s very hard to go into a writing session and open up to strangers every time. You have to be so open to people and now its been the same people that I’ve been working with just because it’s so fun and so easy to talk to them.

GL:  Do you enjoy the process of constantly being busy or does it get overwhelming?

CH: Honestly, this has been my dream since I was very young so I find nothing about it hard. Everything that I’m doing is exactly what I wanted, so I’m never stressed out or anything. After every tour I’ve been on, I’ll go home to my apartment in LA and after about two days I’ll be eager to go on the road again. This is just what I’ve wanted my whole life so I’m not complaining at all.

GL: I know this is such a dream come true for you but did you ever thought about doing anything other than music?

CH: I’ve always been singing around my house to the point where my sister and my mom were like, “Shut up!” Every Christmas I asked for a new guitar and a new instrument. I was in the school band and played the clarinet when I was little. I always wanted a drum set but I never got that so that’s still a goal of mine. I’ve just always had the drive to do anything music related. Then once I discovered Justin Bieber, I knew that this is exactly what I wanted to do.

GL: Do you get anxious or nervous before playing shows or is it just excitement at this point?

CH: At the beginning, I definitely got really anxious and felt like I was going to throw up every time I went on stage. Now, it’s just so much fun. I’m way more outgoing and super confident on stage. I could go out on stage naked and be completely fine. It is way easier for me now.

GL: I also know you got put on Taylor Swift’s favorite songs playlist. How has your life changed since that point and did it happen quickly or still take time to get recognition for that song?

CH: Her putting that song on her playlist really gave “Only One” so much buzz. It has about 55 million streams right now so she really gave me a lot of help. It definitely helped out a lot and now that’s the one song everyone seemed to gravitate towards.

GL: I know you have opened up for Troye Sivan before and will be opening up for the Bad Suns coming up, I was wondering how you met these people and how this tour came about?

CH: My manager also manages Troye and she introduced me to him and his boyfriend, Jacob, really early on. They ended up shooting artwork for my song “Why Did You Lie” and “Only One”. They were involved really early on and when the tour came around it was a great opportunity for me. The Bad Suns were a little different because I had been fans of them since early on in high school. One day my manager messaged me and asked if I wanted to tour with them. I asked if she knew I was a huge fan of them. She didn’t.  I had never met them or anything before that. She just threw the opportunity at me and I was like, hell yeah!

GL: Who are your favorite artists currently?

CH: Currently, I have been listening to the band Hole and Khaild’s new album. This new artist named Dominic Fike is super dope, you should check him out if you can. Oh and obviously Nirvana is always in my playlist.

GL: Do you have any hobbies that aren’t musically oriented?

CH: There are definitely times where I don’t want to do anything musical because that’s all I am normally doing.  I got into the hobby of painting. I got a bunch of paint off Amazon and a little easel. When I’m bored I’ll sit and paint. That’s something I’ve been doing a bit lately but there has just been no time.

GL: Can you notice a distinct difference between the various crowds you play or does it all blur together?

CH: I just played in Europe with Yungblud and those crowds were much different than American crowds. I don’t know how to explain it but they are more engaged. On American tours, I feel like I have to win the crowd over to get them involved. In Europe, they were automatically putting their hands up or their phone lights in the air. That seems to be the main difference that I’ve noticed performing.

GL: Do you prefer playing shows or making music more?

CH: Recently, I like touring the best but I really miss being in the studio and creating new music. I’ve been doing the same songs for a while and I want to get back to creating new stuff.  

GL: Do you have any bad habits?

CH: I keep saying I’m gonna stop smoking weed and then smoke weed the next day. I have to stop doing that. Sometimes it’s good for me because I just want to chill out and be in my one head but it definitely leaves me with this out of it feeling the next day. It’s a win-lose situation. So, that’s a bad habit of mine that I’ve been trying to deal with. Another one is trying to stay in touch with people at home. It’s so hard to balance everything out so I’m just doing my best.

GL: I know you have the tour coming up, but what’s next for you? What do we have to look forward to?

CH: Yes, there is so much happening! I am putting out a new song that I think may be the song. It will be coming out at the end of this month and maybe another song after that. For sure an EP will be coming out soon, hopefully around June. I am very excited.

Carlie Hanson will be playing on Saturday, April 20th at the Royale in Boston, MA. Tickets can be purchased here.