5 Questions For Jennifer Hall [Interview]

The next artist to partake in our 5 Questions For… interview series is one of Chicago singer Jennifer Hall.  Her music brings together songwriting that is as sincere as it as strong with a sound as incredible live as it is on record.  We’d continue to sing to her praise, but we wouldn’t sound nearly as good as she does so without further ado…

We’d imagine a lot of people see the name “Jennifer Hall” and tend to think you’re just a one women show, which we do know you’re capable of , but there’s a pretty awesome cast of guys in the band. What can you tell us about them?
For sure, they are pretty incredible. I am a very lucky lady! I think we may have to go with an “and the” name extension really soon.. we have been trying to come up with one these last few months!! Lets see, they are intelligent, hard working and unbelievably creative. They are multi-faceted and talented at so many things.. Here is a quick list of some great facts/things to know about each member:

• Noam is a phenomenal recording engineer at Rax Trax Studios in Chicago, recording everything from rap to gospel to rock. He also produces.
• Alex is an immensely talented graphic designer that does all of our posters including the Metro poster! He is also left handed.
• Mat can play any genre of music, from metal to jazz to indie rock making him the superman of drums for any project. He just played a Jazz festival in Italy a month ago.
• Ben plays with Ezra Furman and other great Chicago acts in addition to our group. He is also one of the smartest people I know; really, ask him anything.
• Peter plays percussion in various African drum circles. He is a super source for creative and unique beats and always has a joke waiting when you need one.
• James once learned a set of music a show in just three rehearsals. He also has a beautiful voice that sounds like Paul Simon

Most importantly we all get along really well and we all contribute to making the music you hear on stage. They are the best.

You just got the opportunity to do a Daytrotter Session. We’re huge fans of what they’re doing there, can you explain Daytrotter for our fans who may not be familiar and also fill us in on what that experience was like?
Of course, Daytrotter is a great blog that features band recordings done at the Daytrotter Studio in Rock Island IL. After they record your tunes, they release the session along with a few paragraphs about you, your music or whatever they want to write. The guys there really support the music and art they love, despite whether the band they feature has 1,000,000 FB fans or 500 FB fans. Their goal is to simply share the music they enjoy and that is easy to love. Daytrotter is the real deal.

You’re headlining the Metro on August 31st – that’s huge. What’s it like to prepare for a show like that?
Its a lot of promoting, lots of hours on facebook and twitter, putting up 100 posters across Chicago, sending out invitations, rehearsing our butts off, finishing new songs in time for the show and hoping we do justice to the amazing room! It’ll be a fun night, we are looking forward to it!

One of the things that has always impressed us about you was how you could go from singing so delicate and beautifully to hitting these incredible, powerful notes. Now, that’s one of the more common praises of your music, but we’re wondering if there’s a single compliment you’ve received that really has stuck with you?
I think it is when people have said that they like how much passion there is in the performances; That word and what it means have always been incredibly important to me, not only to feel but to also effectively convey to and share with others. I guess when people say they feel the passion behind the songs I get a sense of validation, like people can see and understand me and the band and how much we all want this and how hard we work. It makes me feel like we are making a meaningful emotional impact on people which I suppose is the whole point of all this right?

While we love In This, we have to ask… can we expect a new Jennifer Hall album before 2012 comes to a close?
I sure hope so. We are working on new material constantly. Whether new recordings will come out by 2012 or not is up for grabs but I think it is pretty likely; we have certainly been working non-stop to solidify these new tunes and to get them ready to release as soon as possible. We are all really excited to share them with everybody.