Today we’d like to introduce you to Hannah Zale and Carly Gibson.
Hannah and Carly, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The Pussywillows met for the first time when we each got booked to play solo at a songwriters in the round show at Steve’s Live Music in 2014. We started harmonizing organically on stage with each other during that very first show, discovering how easy it is to make music with someone who your soul already knows. We met up in Hannah’s room the following week and wrote their first duet song together, sitting on the floor and sharing vulnerability that usually takes years to build.
Things really took off for us as partners after that initial meeting. We knew we wanted to be a band together. It felt so right, so we started putting our heads together to figure out what our message needed to be for the band – we didn’t want to be lost in the crowd of the music industry. After a lot of discussions and soul searching, we decided on our sound and feel, describing it as a self-proclaimed “Tarantino-feminism.” This means our music is bold, cinematic, narrative, quirky, and unapologetic.
We wrote a catalogue of tunes that we believe in, learned a bunch of fun cover songs and began playing out in Atlanta as new duo “The Pussywillows.” We toured the Southeast as a duo, making so many friends and fans along the way. We recorded an EP or two and during that couple year journey, we began to get more offers to play late-night gigs and festivals that felt weird playing with just the two of us. We decided to add players to our band to make it a four-piece alternative band.
Enter our drummer, David Williams, and our bassist, Jackson Reed. These guys helped us take our sound to the next dimension and helped open up the world of opportunities for The Pussywillows to play any stage. Now, the four of us write collaboratively and record together as a group. We chose these players not only for their expert skills and killer talent but because David and Jack respect working with strong females and are excellent communicators.
The year 2020 has been extremely difficult and challenging for everyone on earth and no exception for us here at The Pussywillows. We are trying to keep writing and stay strong through this period. We are trying to innovate and push each other to new heights. We are a chosen family of weirdos who just wants to play music for people together. We cannot wait to see our people soon. Please be on the lookout for 2021 dates, streaming shows, and new recorded material!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
“Nothing worth having is ever easy,” said Teddy Roosevelt – and he was 100%. Creating something out of nothing always comes with challenges. Things like self-doubt and insecurity creep in all the time. We have to hold each other up in these moments. Things like online haters and mean bar patrons happen all the time. We have to hold each other above in these moments. Things like bad sets, bad recordings, and bad business decisions happen all the time. We have to hold each other through these moments.
Struggles often help individuals see what they didn’t want to before. Struggles make healthy bands stronger and hungrier. Struggles allow healthy bands to make tough and necessary choices quickly. If you want a career with a smooth road, go do something else professionally. Play music for your own joy just for you. There is no road map for the music industry – the eternal struggle. There are very few traditional gatekeepers left, making success even more of a crapshoot in the pitch black, noisy dark.
Can you give our readers some background on your music?
The Pussywillows brings boss bitch power to every stage. We specialize in harmony work – weaving our voices in and out of one another’s seamlessly – sometimes, it’s even hard to tell which woman is singing what part! We unleash emotional bravery that we want every audience member to feel with us, coming as they are and expressing themselves symbiotically. What makes us unique is not that we are a “girl band,” but rather, we are a sisterhood who chooses to not look at one another as a means to an end for making a dream come true. What makes us stand out is how much we truly love each other for all that we are and will be. You can see and feel that when we play together. Come see for yourself sometime.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck is a big factor in all entertainment careers – right place, right time kinda thing. I think luck has been kind to us, although we are waiting for her to show up in her vibrant green dress and sweep us away to a major label record contract. TPW believes work ethic has more to do with success in Atlanta than luck. If you make a plan, stick to it, and don’t give up, then we think luck is way more likely to show up in that room for you.
Pricing:
- You can purchase music ($14,) shirts ($30) and other merch off our site – thepussywillowsmusic.com
Contact Info:
- Website: http://thepussywillowsmusic.com
- Phone: 478-396-9796
- Email: hzalet@gmail.com
Image Credit:
TPW in ears – Kara Hammond
TPW on stage – Ed Lee
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