Canadian Musician - September/October 2020 | Page 34

COINCIDENTALLY
COMFORTING
Hannah Georgas’ All That Emotion Is an Album for the Times
PHOTO: VANESSA HEINS
By Adam Kovac
Hannah Georgas is doing okay today.
That’s not really a given for anybody. As I write this,
COVID-19 is still a problem. Kids are heading back to
classes, but they are expected to stay distant and their
parents are trying not to panic. Too many Canadians are
mourning lost loved ones and friends.
And that’s on top of everything else going on in the
world. The protests that brought renewed attention to
Canada’s troubled relationship with Indigenous peoples
seem like they were a decade ago; they were actually at
the beginning of this year, and it’s not like reconciliation
has miraculously happened. Climate change is still out
there, Black people are still fighting to make sure their
lives matter, demagogues have taken power over an
alarming amount of Europe, Australia is healing from
wildfires, the Middle East is… the Middle East, and the
Narcissist in Chief down south may or may not close
enough postal offices to ensure his reign continues come
November.
But all that being said, Hannah Georgas is doing
okay – at least as okay as any of us can be doing.
“I have days where I’m like ‘Holy crap!’ Like there’s
just so much that’s going on and it’s very overwhelming
and I do notice that I have this underlying stress and
things sometimes that I’m not even aware of. There’s a
lot of good that’s going on in the world [but] it’s just a
very heavy time and it’s a lot to take in. So some days are
easier than others, but overall, I feel like I’m okay.”
The world is coming to a near-end at a particularly
inopportune time for Georgas. The Vancouver native’s
fourth full-length album of original music, All That Emotion,
dropped in early September after being delayed
several months. The pandemic means that, as with most
musicians, touring is out of the question for the moment.
That sucks, because even for someone as accomplished
as Georgas, who has been nominated for Junos and
longlisted for the Polaris Prize and won her share of other
awards, All That Emotion is a career highlight.
It’s been four years since the world has heard new
original music from Georgas, but while her latest songs
are largely about making sense of pain, her fans will have
to enjoy them from the same place where Georgas is now
that she’s not on the road: home.
It may have been four years since Georgas’ last album,
but it’s been anything but a quiet time. Over that span,
Georgas has released the digital-only collection Imprints,
featuring an array of covers of other female artists. She’s
also hit the road on her own and then again as a touring
member of The National.
Georgas’ close relationship with the indie mopekings
is obvious on the new album. As with The National,
much of the focus of All That Emotion is on atmosphere
and mood. Songs go by dreamily, carried on waves of
mid-tempo, no-frills drums and layers of sounds: a guitar
line here, a wash of keyboards there, all adding up to form
a pop symphony.
The aesthetic similarities are no surprise, given that
All That Emotion was produced by The National multiinstrumentalist
Aaron Dessner – a collaboration that was
a long time coming.
“I reached out to Aaron back in 2015 about the idea
of trying to work together in some capacity on music,”
recalls Georgas. “I kind of drew to him randomly because I
love what he’s worked on and I’m a big fan of the band. He
responded and just asked for me to send him some music.
“There’s this emotional connection that I have with
everything that he makes,” she elaborates. “I’m just
really drawn to his choices for production and I really,
really wanted to just try stuff with him – especially with
the music I was writing and making. I thought he would
add a really cool element to the songs. I listened to The
National for years and years and years and I’m always
blown away by it and how beautiful and simple the production
is, but it’s still so lush and sounds so good.”
The pair’s creative relationship blossomed over
email, as Georgas sent over demos for songs that
wound up on her 2016 collection, For Evelyn. While they
discussed entering the studio together, Dessner’s busy
schedule made that a temporary impossibility. But as the
touring cycle for her album came to an end and Georgas
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