On the crest of a wave: Musician Hannah Peel reflects on the success of her album and her future hopes

Hannah Peel has no regrets about moving to North Down from Liverpool

Hannah Peel has no regrets about moving to North Down from Liverpool

Hannah Peel, Fir Wave

Hannah Peel has no regrets about moving to North Down from Liverpool

Stuart Bailie Twitter Email

April 24 2021 08:14 AM

In a rare, still moment, Hannah Peel sits in the garden by the Bangor seafront and reflects on an ever-productive life. Her album, Fir Wave is completely sold out and an eBay copy will cost you upwards of £50. She's set to feature on another Paul Weller record as the string arranger of choice and her work also graces the new Declan O'Rourke record that sits sweetly at number two in the Irish album chart.

Hannah is the cover story of the latest Electronic Music magazine while Night Tracks, her show on BBC Radio 3 finds equal delight in Bach, Debussy and Skullcrusher. Her soundtrack work has resulted in an Emmy nomination for Game of Thrones: the Last Watch and she also achieved a weird excellence on her score to the TV series The Deceived.

At a time when many artists are feeling under-valued and constrained, Hannah is doing her best work. Only now is she getting a chance to appreciate the pansies and tulips that a neighbour has thoughtfully transplanted. The builders have made their improvements indoors, the April sunshine is briefly out and the artist allows for a note of congratulation. So many people admire the music of Fir Wave. It's a tonic after difficult times.

"Isn't it funny? I had no idea it was gonna happen like that. You put out a record - the one record that doesn't have an orchestra or a colliery brass band. It's just me and a bass player. And that's it. And it's the one record that has probably done the best out of everything. The irony!"

Previous Hannah records have been created on music boxes and vintage synthesisers. She has worked with poets and made strange, evocative pieces that have dealt with landscape and the human condition. She has also made important statements about Alzheimer's and dementia, drawing on the loss of her grandmother, Joyce Peel, who had lived in Lurgan until she was 98. On the album Awake but Always Dreaming, Hannah sang on behalf of Joyce's troubled soul. With the follow-up album, Mary Casio: Journey To Cassiopeia, she scored a 29 piece colliery brass band and sent her grandmother's spirit into outer space. It was a stunning idea and she brought an excerpt to the Ulster Hall during the Northern Ireland Music Prize in 2019.

The music of Fir Wave has an unusual history but it is partly based on the work of electronic pioneer Delia Derbyshire, who famously co-authored the Doctor Who theme. It also relates the moment last year when the pandemic seemed to be lessening. The record may be instrumental, but tracks like Emergence in Nature let us know that there's vitality and hope after the darkest times.

"We were all so aware of spring last year," she explains. "Everybody was recording the birds and you could hear everything. You were very aware of growth around you. I wanted it to be that place where hopefully we are - stepping outside again. Emerging. That was definitely on my mind."

When Hannah was eight, her dad took a food industry job in South Yorkshire and so they left Craigavon. Family holidays were spent in Donegal but a recession after the Miner's Strike meant that their Barnsley home wasn't likely to sell. Hannah's accent reflects this well-travelled story, later adding a spell in Liverpool when she graduated from LIPA, the music academy co-founded by Paul McCartney.

When I spoke to Hannah last year she talked about her sense of displacement. "When we left here and moved to Yorkshire, I felt like an outsider. And I still have that feeling of being an outsider. Even though I live here now and I'm near family, I don't have the accent any more. And if I did put the accent on I'd be lying to myself. But I guess that meeting more musicians and more people and wanting to make a change and making things happen here does make me feel a bit more like I belong."

She's a believer in the power of music community and joined the board of the Ivors Academy last year, helping composers and songwriters with their rights and their mental health. She's written a piece for the Paraorchestra in their 10th year, a project for professional disabled and non-disabled musicians and there will be a live performance in 2022. Now Hannah is looking forward to the redevelopment of the Court House in Bangor, a new arts centre that she believes will be transformative for the town. "You know what? When that gets ready, it's just gonna change so many things here. It's well needed."

Clearly, she is part of that change. So no regrets after three years of life in North Down?

"I'm 100% convinced that it was the right move to make. I feel very lucky to be here. You know, I lived in Liverpool for a long time and being here does remind me of there. There's an essence and an energy to the city and Northern Ireland that is irreplaceable, regardless of all the politics. We've not had as many opportunities as people elsewhere. It's harder, so if I can me part of a movement to encourage more things and help more people, then I'll be happy."

On the crest of a wave: Musician Hannah Peel reflects on the success of her album and her future hopes

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