Indie Music Women’s Featured Artist is…
Girl Hazel (@girlhazelband)
Held a careful distance from the chest, Girl Hazel’s single Ohio lives in a series of poems written from a mother to her child abroad. She writes supportively, but full of regret: of the constant cycle of hurt and heal in the summer sun, the wither and fall of autumn time leaves, and the warm but distant crackle of New Year’s fireworks. In every nostalgic plea to her child, Ohio speaks as much through longing as it does solemn acceptance. There’s a refreshing amount of care given to each line in Ohio, an amount of care to be expected of Girl Hazel as they continue to release more music throughout fall and winter 2020.
Girl Hazel shared with me what means personally to her to be an indie music woman artist:
“It means that whether I like it or not, my gender presentation is always going to be a part of the way people experience my music. I cannot change that but I can challenge it. For me, Girl Hazel is an exploration of my femininity in a world where I often feel misunderstood. If I write something delicate, or heavy, or any kind of song at all someone out there will listen to it and think “oh she’s that kind of girl musician” and assign a context to me that I may not agree with. The experience of being a woman is so complex, varied, and interesting to me. It’s not something that I want to erase, but it’s also something that I do not want to be defined by. All I am trying to do with my music is to be myself. Being a woman means that I have to work harder to make myself understood, but I think that just forces me to be a better artist and storyteller. To be so effective in my craft that someone can listen to my music and understand exactly who I am.”
You can hear Girl Hazel’s single, “Ohio” on the Indie Music Women Spotify playlist.
