Caledon Living, Spring 2012 ed.
For a girl of nineteen, the mature voice of Hannah Chapplain, Alton resident and singer/songwriter, is striking, made more impressive in person by her six foot stature. Born in Adelaide, Australia, Hannah became a Caledon resident as an infant, with her family living in Bolton and Nobleton before settling down in Alton. She was a shy child, taking longer than usual to even start talking, and singing became a creative outlet from the beginning, so Hannah began taking vocal lessons that would determine the course of her young life.
Performing gave her more confidence, and the positive feedback she received from her music reinforced this. After taking five years off to pursue figure skating, Hannah has returned and devoted herself to music for the past five years. Her emerging vocal talents were combined with guitar lessons and a proclivity towards songwriting, skills no doubt inherited from her musician father.
Homeschooled in an artistic family, Hannah and her siblings experienced a unique education that combined creative elements such as music and “artistic chaos” in their home in the idyllic Caledon setting, an environment that broadened her originality and directly influenced her music. “Alton is such a peaceful place. I used to take walks to visit the Mill where my mother, an artist, owns a studio, or hikes around the Millcroft Inn.”
The creative influences in Hannah’s life allowed her to step out of the box with her music, with lyrics described as being beyond her years. Rather than dealing solely with a teenager’s torment over first loves and heartaches, Hannah’s songs reflect other issues often overlooked in pop music, inspired by the people in her life. “There are emotions other than love. There’s so much more. I want people to take what they can out of my music. My lyrics are relatable and, I hope, put things in perspective.”
Hannah’s music especially speaks to youth, with whom she works regularly in classroom and charity settings. “Kids feel they can open up to me. They just seem to like the sound of my music.” Recently she performed for the Boost for Kids charity, where she opened for Blue Rodeo, as well as for HABI, the Headwaters Acquired Brain Injury Group. Hannah is happy to promote these organizations. She takes the opportunity to perform wherever she can, which for her is the highlight of her career and a lot of fun besides.
Recently Hannah’s career has taken off with the production of her first album, self-titled Hannah Chapplain. Suddenly receiving an email from an American producer one day, Hannah was invited down to New York to spend ten days in the studio where she ate, slept and recorded her music. “Literally, we put a mattress on the floor. I had such an amazing experience!” Working intensely with her producer, Hannah modified her sound to the pop/rock genre, coming back to Caledon with an album that was not what she expected, but in a good way. It boasts ten original songs, nine of which were exclusively written by Hannah, plus “Letter to the Rain” which was co-written with her father.
Her music has a crisp, original quality to its sound and contains an emotional depth beyond anyone’s expectations of a nineteen-year-old. Speaking specifically about the lyrics of “Hello, My Name is Time” Hannah says, “I wanted to explore that if time could write a letter, what would it say?” The fact that people confuse her lyrics with her personal life is a compliment to her abilities as a songwriter and the all-inclusive nature of her work.
Lately Hannah has been working on the production of two music videos. The first, “10,000 Years” (the seventh track on her album), was shot in an old airport hangar, while the second, “Have We Met Before?”, was being shot hours after our interview in Toronto. In the near future, after the release of her videos, Hannah hopes to tour with the material from her new album, available on iTunes, Amazon and through her website, hannahchapplain.com
Additional information about upcoming performances and career-related news can be found on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and MySpace, where samples of her music are also available. Benefitting, not so much from age, but from years of passion, practice and experience, Hannah Chapplain will be a household name in the near future, as her unique voice and talent are sure to lead to recognition in a big way.