Interview with Hannah Marks
Words by Jillian McHugh & Photos by Lexi Brown
Earlier this month, I had the chance to sit down and talk to Hannah Marks; an alternative rock bassist and composer who recently performed at her album release show at NYC’s Jazz Gallery celebrating her empowering debut album, Outsider, Outlier. Marks began by discussing how she came into her music. The musician grew up exploring different creative aspects from being a designer to an illustrator but hearing Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue going into ninth grade changed her life.”I think as a kid I was creative first. The music aspect came a little later. I wanted to be a fashion designer. I wanted to be a comic book illustrator. So it’s all kind of over the place for a couple of years.” Marks credits Davis’ body of work as the main inspiration from playing the cello and bassist to transitioning into playing jazz music. Marks’ creative passion for music has led her into creating this album which is a mix of all her favorite genres.
This album is predominantly played by various jazz musicians but ultimately is an eclectic fuse of grunge, noise rock, sonic youth and jazz. Marks explained how rare it is for her to get to write these different genres, which is how it was chosen for her latest body of work. “ It is rare for me to get to play that, which is kind of why I’ve enjoyed writing that for my band so much.” The making of the project was a slow process which allowed the work to unveil itself to her over the course of four years. It was at Indiana University that Marks started this project during her senior year of college for a classical composition class.
The album’s title track is a heavy, noisy track song that fundamentally shaped the album. The music that followed its creation emerged during the height of the pandemic, when Marks, like many, had lots of quiet, extra time on her hands. While making the album, she took a writing class with singer-songwriter Becca Stevens. The class and fellow musicians made a sizable impact on the project, as Marks says, Stevens “showed me the turning point for the album, and told me it was more of a rock album than a jazz album.”
This allowed her to go in the direction that felt the best. Marks’ favorite memory making the album was in post-production, when she began working with Lee Meadvin. Meadvin, who produced the project and plays guitar in her live band, took the album “to a whole new level sonically,” and allowed Marks to be involved in production like never before.
The conversation closed with Marks’ dream musicians to play with, dead or alive. Marks shares, “I’d love to open for Deerhoof and play bass with Pat Metheny, Becca Stevens, or Kenny Garrett. The list of jazz musicians I’d love to play with could go on and on.”
Outsider, Outlier, Marks’ debut album, is out everywhere now.
All photos below are credited to Jillian McHugh
