Not everyone is like Rebecca Black with parents able to fund their superstar dreams. Hannah Chapplain is a talented emerging artist whose parents have encouraged her to work hard to contribute and take ownership of her own dreams. 2 years after picking up the guitar at the age of 14, Hannah had already written over 200 songs. Reading Hannah’s reflections on her recent album and upcoming music videos, one gets the impression that she is focused, hard-working, and not under the illusion that success happens overnight. Her story is a reminder of the importance of dedication and rallying the people around you to become a part of your team.
In Her Words…
It all began this time last year, March 2011. I had gotten a Myspace message from a producer named Anthony Santonocito who is a producer at Killingsworth Recording Studio in New York. He asked if I was interested in recording an album and told me that he liked my voice. I, being an 18 year old free spirited musician, wanted to jump on the opportunity. So, with the help and support of my family and close friends, my Dad, fellow guitarist Chris Johnson and myself took a trip that summer down to New York to record my first self-titled album, Hannah Chapplain. We spent 10 days in the studio and came out with an album even better than what I had imagined. The album is all my own original material and was released December 10th, 2011.
There were many obstacles when trying to release this album. Like almost every other musician, finances were tight. I split the cost of the recording with my parents, but they had wanted me to feel as if I had full ownership of the album so they told me I had to raise the rest of the money to actually release it myself. I had been working at a local cafe in Orangeville, Ont. at the time, so I took as many shifts as possible and played every paying gig I could get. I ended up releasing the album using my own money, which was a huge accomplishment for me.
The entire experience of writing, recording, and releasing an album was very humbling. I hadn’t realized exactly how much work people put into such a production. There were many people around my hometown that helped me release the album and start to get my career rolling, who I often refer to as my “Team”. After we released the album, we all took a look into our connections to see where we could move from there. My photographer Paul George knew a film maker, Taylor Boehm, who had a crew put together with director, Cameron Tisi, two other camera men, Emmanuel Lachapelle, and Adam Kubiw, and actor Alex Wilson. They were all willing to film the two music videos with me. So we set a date and started the planning. We chose the songs Have We Met Before and 10,000 Years to be turned into music videos.
The preparation was exciting and totally new to me. I had a group of people taking a song I had written and using their imagination to turn it into an image. And they did just that. As we began filming I found it a challenge to go from performing to acting. I had to be in constant awareness of my body and angles. Although this was a challenge, it was incredibly fun and pushed me out of my comfort zone. In fact, it has encouraged me to look into taking acting lessons just so that I can be more experienced and fine tuned for the next music video.
We are hoping to release the first music video in the next few months. The two videos look incredible and the quality is top of the line. I am eager for everyone to see them as I’m proud of the work these guys have done. I love a good challenge and am excited to see where my career takes me from here.
Songwriters Association of Canada 