HANNAH VAN LOON OF TANUKICHAN

From her earliest ventures with Toro y Moi to opening for personal idols Alex G, Oakland, California native Hannah van Loon has been steadily releasing material under the moniker of Tanukichan for close to a decade. Her latest EP Circles continues her sonic shoegaze adventure but this time round with a few differences. A change in producer and a new approach to recording meant that her signature style continues to evolve and develop as she embraces the new and the old.

Hi Hannah and thanks for taking the time out to speak with us at Musicology. Your musical background stems from a classical base but you have also experimented in blues and jazz. How have those roots served you in terms of how you have previously approached your work and how those origins continue to inform your style and methodology?

I think they give me a really good base for understanding and continuing to learn music. Listening to new songs, and being able to pick out elements I like, or analyze the chords or melody. Sometimes though I feel myself trying to forget what I know and just trust my instinct or my ear. On the flip side I wish sometimes I was much more proficient at guitar or keyboard haha.

From 2016’s EP Radiolove, to 2024’s Circles EP, there have been multiple albums and an awful lot of touring in between. Do these two EP’s in a way bookend your work to date in so much as your style and collaborative endeavors with Chaz Bear of Toro y Moi make way for your new creative directions and explorations with producer Franco Reid?

Hmm, I haven’t really thought of it in that way, but maybe so? I’m not sure exactly what will come next but it has been great working with Franco recently. I have also really loved working with Chaz. It does feel like it could be a next phase of music working with a producer other than Chaz, since I have worked with him for most of Tanukichan. He influenced my sound in a big way, and it’s cool to me to be able to see a continuity of identity and sound in-between albums and between different producers.

What experiences, insights, and technical evolutions have you chain-linked from each of your previous works that have gone into the next body of work?

This is a big question. I think I’m working on letting it flow, trusting myself more and also trusting the people around me. Trusting myself is probably the main thing that looking back, it’s in those moments I’m able to make something I’m proud of that feels unique and meaningful.

Native to the Bay Area, in what ways has the local scene and its influences contributed to your work and the imprint it has imparted on your music?

Bay Area indie pop scene a long time ago got me into song writing and playing in a band. I would say I’m really motivated and inspired by the authenticity I feel and see in Bay Area musicians. I think also there is a willingness to mix genres since the Bay is so small, so you end up mashing styles just trying to jam or hang out with other musicians.

Lyrically, what were you trying to capture on Circles and where do you think it best shines through?

I didn’t have a lyrical goal going into writing the EP, but I think it’s cool that a theme kind of took shape when the songs were all starting to be finished. The lyrics for 'Circles' puts it best, especially the last line of the second verse “never learning my lesson, circles make you mine.” This line captures the cyclical idea to me the best because it has a feeling of helplessness, but also an element of hope or perseverance. It reflects how I feel about life sometimes, where I don’t know exactly what’s going on, so much is just a result of the world around you, but somehow through the constant repetition of habits, desires, or effort you make in your life it starts to take shape.

In what ways did you try and push yourself on this EP, both personally and sonically?

I wanted to be a little looser, try to let the songs flow and not necessarily have them feel like a huge endeavor. I had fun adding more vocal harmonies than normal, and I think that took things in a new direction. I was glad to work with Franco on vocals, he encouraged me to add more harmonies. I usually record vocals by myself, but ended up recording them with him which was a challenge for me, and I had to get over myself a little.

Soon to hit the road for several shows on the back of the new EP, can you share with us one of your all-time favorite shows that you have performed and the reasons why it was so memorable?

Salt Lake City, Kilby Block Party 2023. One of my fav albums that year was God Save the Animals, I had been really wanting to see Alex G live, but hadn’t made it yet. We ended up playing as they were setting up across the way, so they heard our set. They were down with our sound, and we ended up opening for them on a little tour which was so awesome, so that show felt like a really special moment.

Eight years is a long time in anyone’s language and in terms of performing your earlier material, how does it make you feel now that you are a little further down the road compared to when you first put pen to paper and the newness of your current material?

It’s always great to play new songs, just being able to do something that feels current and that no one has seen yet is exciting. I am still proud of a lot of the songs that I wrote earlier though, and it feels cool to have enough material to pick and choose from, to play a set with what I’m feeling at the time. I remember making the first EP and feeling like 4 songs was so much.

As we ask everyone who joins us at Musicology, what does music give you that nothing else does?

It gives me direction and purpose. I don’t know exactly what I would be doing if I didn’t have music. It helps keep me motivated and working. I think I’ve always felt some kind of direction because I had this desire to keep getting a little better and better at music. That has shaped my life in unexpected ways, and led me to a lot of fun places.