SPOTLIGHT: HANNAH STOKES

Meet Hannah Stokes and tune into her newest album “Right Where I Belong”

Right Where I Belong beautifully merges elements of jazz, soul, and R&B. What was your guiding vision for the sound and emotional tone of the album?

The ultimate guiding vision my producer, Jordan Morales, and I took for this record was based around seamlessly blending the various musical personas I’ve grown into over the past 10 years. I fell in love with indie-folk and indie-rock songwriting when I was a teenager, then became obsessed with straight ahead Jazz when I began studying it in college, which ultimately led me to the ’70s soul that totally changed the way I view arranging for a band. We wanted to take the best parts of my background and highlight my strengths in each of them while keeping strong, emotive songwriting at the core of it all. 

You’ve been compared to artists like Olivia Dean and Laufey. How do you balance those modern influences with the timeless warmth of retro soul?

There’s a phenomenon that has occurred throughout music history where artists from completely different places tend to arrive to similar artistic aesthetics and ideas around the same time and emerge together unrelated to one another. This is how I feel about artists like Laufey and Olivia Dean. I didn’t discover them until after I had written and started recording this project, but seeing their success gave me permission, in a way, to continue confidently pursuing my unconventional musical voice. The balance comes from loving and respecting these classic aesthetics while unapologetically maintaining my personal point of view.

The album title, Right Where I Belong, feels like a statement of self-assurance. What does that phrase mean to you personally and creatively?

I think everyone struggles with Belonging at some point in their lives. When I was young my family moved back and forth between states multiples times, I was homeschooled, I have always been a sensitive creative type, and grew up very religious and since left that lifestyle. I struggled with Belonging a lot. The stories of the songs are a look at thoughts and feelings that I felt isolated by in the hopes that I could find connection. Releasing this album is definitely a personal statement that belonging can be created through music and a creative statement that this hodgepodge cross-roads of styles is where I feel most comfortable artistically, regardless of how others feel it should or should not be categorized.

How did you approach songwriting on this record? Were most tracks drawn from personal experience or imagined stories that fit the mood of the music?

All of the original songs are extremely personal to me and my experience. There was only one song that was written “for the album” (What I’ll Do), and even that one is a deeply personal expression. The rest were written over the last decade and curated into this set of songs. Even the covers have special meanings to me respectively. The most meaningful aspect of songwriting to me is being able to transmute my emotions, struggles, and victories into a format that is easily digestible to others and I really leaned into that for all the songs on this project. 

Many listeners have noted how the arrangements feel both classic and contemporary. Can you walk us through your creative process in the studio to achieve that balance?

The coolest thing to me about realizing this record is that all of these songs started with just me and my guitar. The parts for each of the instruments all started there. Most of the arranging was felt out through my musical intuition. Jordan, my producer, primarily took the reins in mining out and translating my guitar compositions into parts for the other instruments in a way that honored all the juicy goodness in each song and sonically painted a picture of the stories I wrote. It was exciting to see everything blossom around what I originally wrote and it totally changed the way I approach extrapolating band arrangements from my ideas. I think that’s what makes it sound classic. All the instruments communicate with each other to create a groove and mood together instead of just layering idea on top of idea on top of idea. 

Jazz often emphasizes emotion through subtlety and space. How do you use your voice as an instrument to convey feeling beyond the lyrics?

So much of my vocal approach invokes a technique that was primarily developed throughout 16th century music called “text painting,” which is a compositional technique that uses musical choices to depict a songs literal meaning or text. I love making melodic and textural choices with my voice that capture the emotional meaning in the lyrics. The voice is the most expressive instrument, so taking full advantage of tension, grit, ease, airiness, or power to add another layer of dimension to the music was important to me. Sarah Vaughn is one of my favorite Jazz vocalists that executes this idea so well.

Collaboration can shape an album’s identity. Who were some of your key collaborators on this project, and how did their contributions help bring Right Where I Belong to life?

Jordan was my primary co-creator throughout this entire process. From producing and recording to mixing and mastering, he helped me maintain a consistent through line in this project that I’m so grateful for! Then of course the band and other musicians that played on the record were imperative to its creation. They worked hard to get it right, no matter how many takes it took, and each brought a unique energy to the music that wouldn’t be the same without them. 

Modern jazz and soul artists often face the challenge of making these genres resonate with younger audiences. How do you see your music bridging that gap?

I see my music bridging this gap by keeping authentic and shameless songwriting at the core of the music. I want people to resonate with the stories regardless of how familiar they are with the idiosyncrasies of the genre. Additionally, artists like Laufey are making jazz-pop relevant again, so it’s more likely than ever that younger audiences will be drawn to it.

Looking back on the process of creating Right Where I Belong, was there a defining moment when you realized the album had found its soul?

The album is a culmination of moments over so many years, so looking back I don’t think of any particular moment. It emerged from a synthesis of knowing glances, excited giggles, relieved sobbing sessions, and triumphant happy dances. We didn’t know where we were aiming when we started (our goals changed so many times throughout the process), but we found our target by the time it was released. 

If you could imagine listeners in a specific setting when hearing this record for the first time, where would you want them to be, and what do you hope they feel?

I would want them to be in a place they wouldn’t expect to hear it. I love the idea of this music catching its listener by surprise and finding them in a candid moment in their lives. In a friend’s car, from the local record store overhead speakers, drifting from the entrance of the bar im playing live at. I hope they feel seen, held and inspired to let themselves feel as deeply as I have felt these songs.

Listen to “Right Where I Belong” here.