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Hannah Georgas began creating the album All That Emotion about a year after the release of her celebrated 2016 album For Evelyn —starting with an intensive process of writing and demoing songs in her Toronto apartment, and finishing with a month long retreat in Los Angeles. She began the record making process in the middle of 2018 when she traveled to Long Pond, the upstate New York studio & home of producer Aaron Dessner of The National, who she had the opportunity to join on the road singing back-ups and as an opener in a few cities in Europe and North America.
“We recorded All That Emotion in concentrated periods of time with breaks in between,” says Georgas. “I had never made an album this way before. It was also the first time making an album outside of Canada which was a really unique experience. Before each session, I would make the long drive from Toronto to Hudson Valley in Upstate New York. It was really special getting the opportunity to work in such a remote space with Aaron and Jon and I was always itching to get back whenever we had breaks. At the same time, I appreciated the space in between and coming back with fresh ears.”
The writing process for All That Emotion found Hannah creating her most personal album to date. “The album cover is an old family photo. I love the image because it captures this calm confidence. It looks like people are watching a performance and it seems like he’s diving in without a second thought. Similarly, I find that it parallels the approach needed within art. The calm confidence of expressing yourself without the thought of consequence, regardless of anyone watching.”
Plotting the boundaries of where to place the music, it’s emotionally fraught, yet still warm and fuzzy. On the album, you’ll hear about bad habits and prayerful families—right and wrong love—mistakes and moving on—casual cruelty and most of all, change. Says Georgas, “Music becomes the forum where I work out these feelings, embrace and express pain and love, joy and anger, frustration and fear and hope. It’s where I can be uncensored, not hold back, and say what I want to say. In that way, making music is a cathartic and cleansing process. It’s always the best feeling when someone tells me my music has helped them out in some way. That keeps me going.”
