What inspired you to create Last Disguise?
The inspiration behind creating “Last Disguise” was a strong passion to follow up our first EP, “Charm
Offensive” – which was released in the summer of 2019. We had quite a bit of momentum and some big plans after that release but the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 halted that, as it did the entire entertainment industry. While we’re pretty proud of “Charm Offensive”, we knew that there was another level that we needed to get to. As the pandemic wore on, we not only lost momentum in terms of promoting the “Charm Offensive” EP, we also both guitar players that played on that record. To put it simply, the band nearly split up. We got lucky that we found the right guys (guitarists Dave Muscott and Kris Kerr) who both had lots of great ideas and that was the tonic HANNAN needed to write this album. As much as the need to follow up “Charm Offensive” was motivation, so was writing new songs with 2 new members.
Can you tell us more about your musical influences and how you created your unique sound?
All bands have influences – but what’s interesting is just how different each band member’s influences
are. From ZZ Top, Van Halen, Tool, Stone Temple Pilots, Foo Fighters, Iron Maiden, The Black Crowes,
Def Leppard to name a few – on “Last Disguise”, you’ll hear a lot of these influences.
I think one of many things we really like about the songs on “Last Disguise” is that the musical influences
were so different it helped us create 11 unique songs. Even beyond that, the willingness of all band
members to try different styles and introduce new things really opened things up.
Do you have a track that shines out as a favourite to play live?
Probably everyone in the band is going to have their own favourites to play live but if I were to take
guess, it’s probably “Drive”. We’re currently playing all the songs on the album live but we close the set
with “Drive” – it’s such a fun song to play.
Does the songwriting process happen between you all?
Every member of HANNAN writes something for every song or contributes to it. Whether it’s their own
parts, lyrics or just song ideas – everyone in HANNAN has a hand in every song. Doesn’t always make the songwriting process easy but for us, it’s the best way to do it. There’s not a song on this album that didn’t include contributions from each of the five band members. Some of the songs came together quickly, some songs were definitely a struggle and some were rewritten once we got in the studio and started working with Chet Roberts (Producer) and Marshall Bastin (Engineer). As I just mentioned, it’s not easy and there’s a lot of disagreements along the way. However, when we listen to what we accomplished, it’s more than worth it to go through this process. It’s all about writing the best songs you can.
What really was interesting about writing the songs for “Last Disguise” is that we recorded these songs
in two sessions. In June of 2022, we recorded the first 5 songs which we spent months writing. The second session was in October of 2022 where we recorded the final 6 songs. After the June session, none of final 6 songs were written, only a few rough ideas for songs even existed. Under intense pressure in the summer of 2022, we picked the best ideas and focused on writing the best songs to compliment what we put down in the first session. We probably had 2 or 3 albums worth of ideas but we narrowed it down to what we felt needed to be on this album. We wrote 6 amazing songs in just over a couple months. Somehow, someway, it all came together perfectly and that’s when we knew we had something special.
How would you describe your music to a potential fan?
I guess in general you could describe HANNAN as a melodic rock band. At times, perhaps we’re a heavy
melodic rock band but at the same time I think we pretty much touched all bases on “Last Disguise”. If
you’re a fan of any of the bands I mentioned earlier as influences, you’ll like HANNAN. If you’re a rock
fan that prefers a more melodic side to it, you’ll like HANNAN.
Who would you love to collaborate on a project with?
Good question – I’m sure every member in the band would give a different answer but we’re fortunate
to collaborate with Chet Roberts from 3 Doors Down as our producer. He played and collaborated on
the “Charm Offensive” and he plays and collaborated on “Last Disguise” as well. It’s worked out pretty
well for us.
What does the future hold for Hannan?
Tour, tour and then tour some more. We’re all about playing live so once “Last Disguise” is released,
that’s when the fun starts.