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Hannah Peel

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Hannah Peel
Background information
Birth nameHannah Mary Peel
Born27 August 1984
OriginCraigavon, Northern Ireland
GenresAlternative / indie pop / electronic / folk
Occupation(s)Singer-songwriter, composer, arranger
Instrument(s)Vocals, piano, violin, trombone, music box, Synthesiser
Years active2005–present
LabelsMy Own Pleasure, Beggars Group, Static Caravan, Full Time Hobby
Websitehannahpeel.com

Hannah Mary Peel (born Craigavon, Northern Ireland), is an Irish singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger based in London, England. Active since 2005, she performs both as a solo artist and as a member of the indie rock group The Magnetic North and the electronic group John Foxx and the Maths. She is known for fabricating music boxes and composing, recording, and performing with them.

Following a career as a composer/arranger and musical director for theatre, as well as a session musician for many artists, she launched her solo career in 2010. Her first album, The Broken Wave, met with positive reviews. Her most recent EP, Fabricstate, came out in 2014 on her own label My Own Pleasure.

Her music box compositions have been featured on numerous adverts, artist remixes and the 2012 film Anna Karenina featuring Keira Knightley. Peel has won a number of awards, including a 2013 Royal Television Society award for best original title music for the show Dates.

Early life, education

Hannah Mary Peel was born in Craigavon, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.[1] She attended Drumgor Primary School, where her mother was a teacher. At the age of eight, Peel moved with her family to Barnsley, South Yorkshire.[citation needed] Between travelling to and from Ireland and Northern Ireland during her school life, her family's musical influence inspired her to play the piano, violin, cornet and the trombone, performing competitively with brass bands and school orchestras.[2] It was here she also started to compose songs, instrumental music[citation needed] and play with her father[1] and friends in various folk and rock bands.[2]

Her school holidays as a child and teenager were spent in Tramore, Rosbeg, County Donegal.[citation needed] Peel graduated with a first-class honours degree in music and performance from the Paul McCartney Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.[1]

Music career

Early years

Following graduation, Peel continued to teach on several arts degrees. Based in Liverpool, Peel performed live and recorded for numerous local bands, both singing and playing a wide range of instruments. She worked as a composer, musical director and vocal coach for various shows at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool Playhouse, Liverpool Empire Theatre and The Lowry in Manchester.[citation needed]

Peel curated and produced Liverpool's first AudioVisual festival, featuring installations, unique collaborations and live music performances from artists in New York, London and Liverpool. The main hub of the festival was a week-long, large scale projected installation onto the facade of the art deco Mersey Tunnel Air vent Queensway Tunnel.[2]

She was the youngest awardee of the European Capital of Culture Artists commissions for the 2008 Liverpool celebrations,[3] and was also the first female recipient of the Momentum Music Fund grant from the Arts Council of England.[4]

Solo material

Rebox EP (2010)

Following a successful career as a composer/arranger and musical director for theatre and also as a session musician for several other artists, she launched her solo recording career in 2010 with a sold out, limited edition vinyl release called Rebox through independent record label Static Caravan Recordings. The release featured her unique music box compositions, including covers of Tainted Love made famous by Soft Cell, New Order's Blue Monday, OMD's Electricity and Cocteau Twins Sugar Hiccup. A limited edition of 300 were pressed onto 7-inch vinyl and promptly sold out. Her version of "Tainted Love" was used on an advert promoting summer storylines for ITV soaps Emmerdale and Coronation Street.

The Broken Wave (2011)
Main article: The Broken Wave
Hannah Peel in 2012

The success of Rebox led to the production of Peel's debut album The Broken Wave with producer Mike Lindsay (Tunng). The Broken Wave was released on Static Caravan Recordings in 2011 and Full Time Hobby.[1] Varying in mood and tone, The Broken Wave covers themes of "joy and hope of falling in love through to the pain and loss of betrayal".[5] In addition to eight original songs, the album features covers of "Cailin Deas Crúite na mBó" and "The Parting Glass", two traditional Irish folk songs.[6]

The album was largely well-received,[1] with musicOMH giving it a perfect rating of 4/4.[7] The Fly gave it 3.5/4.[8] Matt Conner of The Line of Best Fit commended the album, stating that "the release is best described as a house of cards, maintaining a certain grace and fragility throughout the ten songs present" and lauding its "authenticity and vulnerability few singers can approach".[9]

Fabricstate EP (2014)

In February 2014, Peel released the EP Fabricstate, which features the song "Chloe", as featured in the British television series Dates.[10] The artwork for the album was created by Karborn and designed by Jonathan Barnbrook.[11] While she is still signed exclusively to Beggars Group, Fabricstate was through her new label My Own Pleasure. In 2013 she won a Royal Television Society award for best title music for the show Dates.

Collaborations

Hannah Peel has performed and collaborated with the following artists: John Foxx, Blue Roses, Erland and the Carnival, Tunng, Nitin Sawhney, The Unthanks, David Ford, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Duke Special, Blood Red Shoes, Diagrams, and Sandi Thom.

She has played keyboards, violin, and contributed vocals to John Foxx and the Maths. When the band toured the UK in July 2011, the group was augmented by Peel on keyboards and violin.[12] In January 2013, it was announced that John Foxx and the Maths would once more be playing live as support to Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. It was further confirmed that Peel would be joining them for the live performances.[13]

The Magnetic North

Main article: The Magnetic North
Peel performing live at the Village Underground, London 2014.

Whilst on tour promoting The Broken Wave by supporting another Full Time hobby act Erland and the Carnival, Peel became good friends with the band and a collaboration between herself, Gawain Erland Cooper and Simon Tong (The Verve, Blur, Gorillaz, The Good, the Bad & the Queen) resulted in a new band The Magnetic North.[14]

They signed to the label Full Time Hobby and released Orkney: Symphony of the Magnetic North in May 2012 to critical acclaim in both the UK and Europe.[14] The album was inspired by visitation in a dream from a young woman called Betty Corrigal who committed suicide and a 1930s travelogue book which led the trio to visit, write and record an album inspired by the Orkney Islands.[15]

Scores, dance

Working primarily with Music box, Peel created several hand-punched pieces of music for the musical score to TeZukA about the life of manga artist Osamu Tezuka by the choreographer and dancer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.[16]

In 2012, Peel co-composed the music for the Sadlers Wells Theatre production Compass working alongside film maker and visual artist Tal Rosner and collaborating with choreographers from the Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui company, The Pina Bausch company, Jasmin Vardimon.[17]

Her music box compositions have now been featured on numerous adverts, artist remixes and the 2012 Anna Karenina featuring Keira Knightley and Jude Law directed by Joe Wright.[4]

Discography

Groups

With The Magnetic North
  • 2012: "Rackwick" (Full Time Hobby)
  • 2012: Orkney: Symphony of The Magnetic North (Full Time Hobby)[14]
With John Foxx and the Maths

Solo material

List of studio LPs by Hannah Peel
Year Album title Release details
2011 The Broken Wave
List of EPs by Hannah Peel
Year Album title Release details
2010 Rebox
  • Released: 8 February 2010
  • Label: Static Caravan
  • Format: CD, digital, vinyl
2013 Nailhouse
  • Released: 22 April 2013
  • Label: Mitcham Submarine
  • Format: digital, white 7" vinyl
2014 Fabricstate
  • Released: 24 February 2014
  • Label: My Own Pleasure
  • Format: digital, red 10" vinyl
2015 Rebox 2
  • Released: 20 July 2015
  • Label: My Own Pleasure
  • Format: digital, CD
Incomplete list of singles by Hannah Peel
Year Title Album Details
2010 "Hey Santa!" (with Tunng) Single only Released Dec. 2010, Static Caravan
2011 "Tainted Love" Single only Used in American Horror Story
"Bay of Skaill" (by The Magnetic North) Orkney: Symphony of the Magnetic North Featured in Ringer TV show and film The Great Hip Hop Hoax
2012 "You Call This Your Home?" The Broken Wave Static Caravan
2013 "Can You Help Me" (with Erland Cooper) unreleased Used in Bones ep. "The Shot in the Dark," used in Reign S1.Ep.10, on 30 January 2014
2014 "Chloe" Fabricstate Featured in show Dates, winner of the 2013 Royal Television Society award for best original title music
2014 "Find Peace" single only Recorded with Benge b/w I Believe in Father Christmas (REBOX)

Scores

  • 2011: TeZukA by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui – several tracks using hand-punched music
  • 2012: Compass (Sadlers Wells Theatre) – co-composed with Tal Rosner[17]
  • 2012: Anna Karenina Soundtrack – several tracks

Performance credits

Incomplete list of production credits for Hannah Peel
Yr Release title Artist(s) Notes, role
2004 The Fake Death Experience 28 Costumes Brass
2006 Smile... It Confuses People Sandi Thom Trombone, violin
2010 Let the Hard Times Roll David Ford Trombone, Violin
2010 History of Modern Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Organ, vocals (background)
2010 Fire Like This Blood Red Shoes Violin
2011 Last Days of Meaning Nitin Sawhney Vocals and the remix (rebox)
2013 Charge David Ford Violin

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Eyles, John (2011). "The Broken Wave Review". BBC. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  2. ^ a b c Lai, Chi Ming (1 December 2011). "Hannah Peel Interview". The Electricity. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  3. ^ "Performers 2014". Shakespeare in the Streets. 2014. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  4. ^ a b "Hannah Peel". Allmusic. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  5. ^ Eyles, John. "Music: Review of Hannah Peel – The Broken Wave". BBC.
  6. ^ "Hannah Peel – The Broken Wave". Discogs.
  7. ^ Hogwood, Ben (31 January 2011). "Hannah Peel – The Broken Wave". musicOMH.
  8. ^ Fitzpatrick, Will (27 January 2011). "Hannah Peel: The Broken Wave". The Fly.
  9. ^ Conner, Matt (1 February 2011). "Hannah Peel – The Broken Wave". The Line of Best Fit.
  10. ^ Day, Laurence (17 February 2014). "EP Review: Hannah Peel – Fabricstate". The Line of Best Fit.
  11. ^ "Hannah Peel – Fabric State EP". KARBORN.
  12. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20140413131033/http://blog.johnfoxxandthemaths.com/?p=851. Archived from the original on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 9 May 2014. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ "Special Guests on Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark UK Tour | John Foxx and the Maths". Blog.johnfoxxandthemaths.com. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
  14. ^ a b c Tyler, Kieron (6 March 2012). "Interview & Video Exclusive: The Magnetic North". The Arts Desk. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  15. ^ Liptrot, Amy (2 May 2012). "The Magnetic North: Review". The Quietus. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  16. ^ Brown, Ismene (8 September 2011). "TeZukA". The Arts Desk. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  17. ^ a b "Compass". Tal Rosner. 2012. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
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