HANNAH CROFTS
HAILS FROM MELBOURNE, VIC PLAYS SOLO (AS BABY VELVET) AND IN ALL OUR EXES LIVE IN TEXAS SOUNDS LIKE SMOKY AND EVOCATIVE PSEUDO-FOLK LATEST DROP “CALL ME” (SINGLE OUT NOW VIA ABC • LP DUE 2022)
What’s your current go-to guitar?
I own two guitars and I bloody love both of them. One is named Lily Tomlin, and the other is named Anjelica Huston. For the past ten years I have toured, traveled and moved between states and houses constantly, and I’ve found that I have to have just one electric and one acoustic for everything. My electric was kindly gifted to me by Fender – it’s a Fender Player Tele, and I love it because it feels like an all-rounder for all occasions. She’s my old faithful. My acoustic is a very temperamental hybrid beast that a producer in LA lent to me three years ago. It’s got a baseball bat-sized neck and a parlour-sized body. I’m in love with it, as I am obsessed with Shovels & Rope and the gritty rock ‘n’ roll acoustic sound they make. This guitar is that sound. So even though its quite hard to get in tune, it doesn’t stay in tune, barre chords are painful and the pickup is temperamental, I still love it!
How did you initially fall in love with the instrument?
My dad always fancied himself to be a guitar player – he regularly played us Alice’s Restaurant and Puff The Magic Dragon when we were growing up – but he lost his little finger when he was young, so believed it would never be possible to be the musician he dreamed of. He gave me my first acoustic – which was an eight-string – but I always dreamed of playing in a Grinspoon- or Jebediah-type band, so I just got a really shitty $50 setup to practice on.
What inspires you as a player?
I love that Julia Jacklin didn’t pick up the guitar until later in her life, and I am the same – I’ve played ukulele in All Our Exes Live In Texas for years, so my strumming and comping is under my belt, but playing lead guitar is something I’ve only been working on since the launch of my solo project. The Wild Reeds from LA are big influences – the guitar is predominantly led by the vocals and songwriting, but they have a distinctive tone and texture for their albums. Same goes for Laura Marling/Jenny O.
Are you much of a gear nerd?
When I play live ( rememberplayinglive!?) I play on a Fender Blues Junior amp and use a Hall Of Fame 2 reverb pedal. For my home setup I have a whole bunch of different pedals that I muck around with – I feel like I’m more just learning how to experiment!
Do you have any ‘white whales’?
I am collector of things – my tiny room is full of items from around the world, each a story; vintage clothing, jewellery, paintings... My dream would be to walk into a shop somewhere in the world, look through piles of junk and find a beautiful acoustic, scratched-up and marked, once loved and played on by someone I love – a find that I can take into my life, love and play, and then pass on to another player one day.
What would your signature model look like?
Hot pink and lime green, absolutely covered in rhinestones, with the thinnest, smoothest neck, on a Tele body…
If you could jam with any guitarist, dead or alive...
Gillian Welch. I imagine going to her house, sitting in a living room with lots of natural light, having a cup of tea and a glass of whiskey, admiring how calm and kind she would be, and then getting to jam with her. Her timing, her taste level, her skill... Can you even imagine getting to sing and play with her even just for a minute!? Dolly Parton would be a close second.