Interview with Tia Imani Hanna


Q: Please tell me more about your musical background. What was it like to grow up in a family with renowned musicians?

Tia Imani Hanna: Truth be told, it was a lot of fun and hard work. We were all musical. Music was always in my environment. The nature/nurture argument rears its' head here because, yes, I have in my genes the seeds of musical greatness, but I think it was more important to be constantly exposed to music in many different genres and work helleva hard on technique on a daily basis. My parents sang and played music and my brother and sisters and I all took music lessons. I was a very lucky child because my parents loved music and wanted us all to be exposed to it. The stereo or the radio or practicing was always heard in our house. I remember my brother and I breaking a piano bench because we both wanted to practice at the same time. I remember our next door neighbors had a baby grand piano that I could see from my living room window and whenever I went over to see the neighbor kids I would ask to practice on their piano. I remember my siblings and I being taken to Saturday music lessons at Wayne State University community music school. We would be there all day long. My dad would drop us off and go grocery shopping and in between lessons we would hang out at the Detroit Institute of Arts or the Main branch of the Detroit Public Library. Culture was coming out of our ears. I wouldn't have traded it for the world. Well done Mom and Dad.

Q: Why did you pick the violin as instrument? What makes it so special for you that you decided you wanted to learn this particular instrument?

Tia Imani Hanna: As I mentioned earlier I played the piano as well as the violin and I sang. I owe my playing the violin to the Detroit Public School system music program in the 1970s. The string ensemble in my elementary school was recruiting new members so they went from classroom to classroom playing a few selections and passing out permission slips to study music. They played a particular piece of music that used the plucking of the strings called pizzicato and I was hooked. I just thought it was one of the coolest sounds I had ever heard. It took me a long time to learn to love the thing though. Piano was definitely my first love because I could play all of the sounds of a symphony with two hands unlike the violin with its single one-dimensional tones. I was 32 years old before I understood how to make that violin and my voice mesh into it's own unique sound and appreciate how single lines can have just as much depth as chordal sound. Maybe even more because it was a way to speak my truth on my terms with my voice.

Q: The violin isn't the most popular instrument judging from the number of people who play this Instrument. What do you think? Why isn't the violin as popular as, for example, the trumpet or the saxophone?

Tia Imani Hanna: I guess you mean it isn't as popular in Jazz. I think that goes back to lack of music in the Public schools in this country. Most people just don't have much exposure to music of any kind except what is played on commercial radio. Have you listened to commercial radio lately? There is very little authentic instrumentation used anymore it is all samples and synthesized. I think because people have no exposure to actually playing instruments there tends to be less of a demand to hear live or recorded instrumentalists play. If you don't grow up around musicians or you don't see violinist in your community or on the TV or in movies you won't pick it up and learn how to play it. There is also the fact that most people who don't have exposure to live music don't see the importance of it and in turn don't value the contributions of musicians to world culture, or their daily lives.

Q: How much did it help you to get recognized in the music business having famous musicians in the family like your uncle or aunt?

Tia Imani Hanna: I think it taught me to set a higher standard for the quality of my music and work very hard to develop and maintain my skills.

Q: The music on The Book of Tia was recorded in 2000 and 2002. What does the Tia Imani Hanna of 2005 sound like? Where do you see your progress as musician since 2002?

Tia Imani Hanna: Now I have added more dimensions of my voice - I compose for strings and vocal choirs now. I sing and play simultaneously now. I have varied interests in many different genres of music and I call on more of my musical experiences in my composing. I have become more attentive to my inner voice. I recently composed music for my second CD, Everything I Hear. I produced it as a concert at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music in May of 2005. It was a fantastic evening. I tell you we went from songs about my cat with a six-voice choir and jazz quartet to a rock song with electric guitar solos. I am working on recording this album later this year and hope to have it available for sale in summer 2006.

Q: What do you like about singing that you can't find in playing the violin and vice-versa?

Tia Imani Hanna: I like to sing because it is my first instrument and I can get exactly the correct phrasing and timber I like on the first try. On the violin there is a translation process that has to occur. First you have to sing the sound and then hear the sounds in your head then translate them into exact physical manipulations of your fingers and bow arm to get all of those sounds out of the instrument. That just seems effortless on the voice...the violin, on the other hand, can hold notes and phrases longer and cleaner and the intervalic range is tremendous. Heights that would be impossible for me to reach as a vocalist.

Q: I really like your singing on Timeless. Will we hear more of your voice on future recordings and maybe a song that combines your singing and your violin playing?

Tia Imani Hanna: I will definitely give you more on the new CD, Everything I Hear.

Q: While music in itself is an art form, songs like Waltz For Andrea or Walking With My Soul, which were written for a film project, sounds artier to me than, for example, Timeless or Brazil The First Time, which I think are easier to understand for the average listener (including myself). Do you see a difference between the songs yourself? And which way would you like to pursue in the future?

Tia Imani Hanna: I write music as it comes to me. It is a gift and I develop the sounds that are in my ear into something I like. Some music is easy to understand at first listen. Then there are the pieces that if you give it a chance and listen to it more than once you start to notice nuances and really appreciate the mood and the feeling the music was meant to create. My goal is to create music that makes you want to listen to more than once because I hope my inspiration will inspire someone else to follow their own inner voices and create something that they find beautiful.

Q: You've released your record independently. Where do you see the advantages and maybe disadvantages of being responsible for everything on your own? And would it be an option for you to go with a major label?

Tia Imani Hanna: So far I haven't had a line of A&R guys banging on my door. In any case I have enjoyed having sole control over my product because I get to do it my way. I am not over-produced and I like that my recording is a record of music being created in a room minus the smoothness. The quality of the music is high. I can hire the musicians I want and I can experiment because I don't have to meet anyone else's idea of what kind of music I should perform or write and I get to keep the energy of live takes with the edge of human foibles still apparent. The hard part about being on my own is the business side takes a lot of energy and fund raising is always an adventure, but there is also not a huge market for improvising violinists, at least not yet. I am still working on that.

Q: In your comments to Fiona's Cousin you mentioned that you're one-sixteenth Scottish. What about the other fifteenth?

Tia Imani Hanna: My name is Tia Imani Hanna and I am a woman of power!

For more infos visit tiaimanihanna.com, cdbaby.com and read my review of The Book Of Tia Chapter One.