Hana Pestle

Hana Gabrielle Pestle (born July 11, 1989), known by her stage name HANA, is an American singer, songwriter and record producer from Billings, Montana.

Biography

Hana Pestle was born July 11, 1989, in Atlanta, Georgia. Her family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah when she was 6 years old, and to Billings, Montana, when she was 8. Pestle received her first guitar when she was in 6th grade as a Christmas present, and approximately a year later, she took up lessons. Sporadically throughout both middle and high school, Pestle also took voice lessons.

Career

Hana Pestle started performing live in Montana at the age of 14. In August 2005, video of one of Pestle's performances reached producers and writers Michael "Fish" Herring and Ben Moody. After watching the tape, the pair decided to work with Pestle. She and her family traveled to Los Angeles, California to meet with the producers in December 2005, and started working on her album in April 2006.^[1]

In May 2008, Pestle released her first recording effort, the four track Hana Pestle EP. This album features three original songs, "These Two Hands", "Just a Phase", "Together Forever"; and a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". In late September 2008, Pestle debuted her video for "These Two Hands" through her MySpace and YouTube page. Hana's untitled album, which is slated for release in September 2009, will feature tracks co-written and produced by Moody and Herring.^[1][2][3] Strings for the album will be arranged and conducted by David Campbell. After shopping for labels in early 2007, Pestle decided to release her full length album via Ben Moody's label, FNR Records.^[4][5] Pestle also lends her vocals to all four tracks on Ben Moody's solo EP, the Mutiny Bootleg E.P., which was released at a show that the pair played together on December 16, 2008 in Little Rock, Arkansas. She also lent vocals to Moody's full-length album, All for This. Her Live in the Studio EP was released on June 2, 2009 and features six original songs and one cover song. The tracks include "These Two Hands", "Just a Phase", "Rain", "Make You Hurt", "This Way", "Creep", and "What Makes Things". In June 2008, Pestle landed a slot as an opening act for Collective Soul, Live and Blues Traveler.

More recently Pestle has toured with Joshua Radin, Jon McLaughlin, Ingram Hill, and in 2009, Sister Hazel, Pat McGee, Ari Hest, and Boyce Avenue. On June 4, 2009, Pestle played at the annual Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival. The weekend of March 21, 2009, Pestle recorded a video for her original song "Need". The video was directed by Norwood Cheek, and was released on June 24, 2009. Pestle's debut solo album, This Way, was released on her merchandising site on September 22, 2009.

On 2011, American Rock Band Incubus has revealed one of the singles off their new Album: If Not Now, When? entitled Promises, Promises through a music sheet in which a contest was held for fans to make their own rendition for a chance to perform the single with the band. Hana Pestle won the said contest and got to perform the song with Incubus on July 2011.

In 2013, Pestle met Kansas^[6] producer BloodPop,^[7] and after talking to him about how her music career was progressing, she decided to take a break from touring to learn music production and change the direction of her music.

In May 2015, now recording under just her first name, stylized as "HANA", Pestle released "Clay" on Soundcloud^[8] receiving acclaim from fellow female singer-songwriters Grimes^[9] and Lorde.^[10] Around this time Pestle accompanied Grimes as part of the opening act for Lana Del Rey's Endless Summer Tour. On the final two dates of the tour, Pestle played "Clay" during Grimes' set, a video of which was filmed by Grimes along with artist Michael Brooks and used on YouTube to promote the song.^[11] On July 7, 2015, Nylon premiered Pestle's second release as HANA, "Avalanche".^[7]

Pestle performed as support for Grimes on her European AC!D Reign Tour into 2016.^[12] On March 8, 2016, The Fader premiered her third single, "Underwater", alongside a video shot in Leeds, United Kingdom.^[13] Her self-titled debut EP, HANA, was released on March 25, 2016.^[14] In May 2016, Pestle provided an official remix of Chairlift's 2015 single, entitled "Romeo". It was later revealed that she provided backing vocals for the remix of the song within the chorus.

Personal life

Hana Pestle is in a relationship with BloodPop (Michael Tucker).^[15]

Discography

As Hana Pestle

Studio albums

• This Way (2009)

EPs

• Hana Pestle EP (2008)
• Live in the Studio EP (2009)
• For the Sky EP (2011)

Singles

• "These Two Hands" (2008)
• "Need" (2009)

Other appearances

• Mutiny Bootleg E.P. (Ben Moody EP) - contributes backing vocals to all tracks, guest vocals on "Everything Burns"
• All for This (Ben Moody album) - contributes backing vocals to all tracks

As HANA

EPs

• HANA (2016)

Singles

• "Clay" (2016)
• "Underwater" (2016)
• "Avalanche" (2016)
• "Chimera" (2016)

Remixes

• Chairlift - "Romeo" (2016)
• Grimes - "California" (2016)

References