Hannah McKittrick: The Sounds, Words and Objects That Inspire Me

On her new album, The day has again bruised me, Melbourne/Naarm-based songwriter Hannah McKittrick binds together raw and intimate folk songs with ambient atmospheres. The album is steeped in feelings of love and loss, shaded with nostalgia and driven forward by a commitment to healing.

When not writing and performing music, McKittrick hosts PBS FM’s ambient music show Soak, which airs every Sunday evening at 7pm. McKittrick has added her voice to recordings by friends and contemporaries Angie McMahon, Ruby Gill and Don Glori, and sang backing vocals for Maple Glider’s NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert.

In March, McKittrick will appear at The Retreat Hotel for Brunswick Music Festival, supporting Sarah Mary Chadwick and Rin McArdle. Here, Hannah McKittrick mindfully recollects the sounds, words, objects, places, sights and smells that informed the creation of The day has again bruised me.

Hannah McKittrick – ‘Big Plan’

Sounds

Hannah: Neo-classical piano composers who work with muted, felty texture palettes, like Jordan Ireland’s album Spirit Walking.

Ambient folk artists with spoken word woven throughout their songs, who focus on incidental sounds as much as the melodic content. Everything on this French record label, Shelter Press, is deeply inspiring to me in its humanness and wide perspective.

Cassandra Jenkins’ An Overview on Phenomenal Nature.

Words

Hannah: Ocean Vuong, Night Sky with Exit Wounds. Ocean Vuong equates time to intimacy in a way that is so powerful to me. I carry this book with me most days just in case I need it – which I often do.

“Art-making is pouring spirit into form” – Sheila Heti, Pure Colour.

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, for her house metaphors.

Objects

Hannah: The practice of viewing my piano as a sacred object. I cover it in pillar candles and place my favourite books and angel cards on it so it looks like the altar that it is.

Gabi Abrao’s practice of identifying and recognising symbols in the world as a way to feel more connected to things and yourself. (See: Abrao/sighswoon’s How To Write and Perform Your Own Spells and Rituals).

Paloma Wool for teaching me that things can look beautiful and cursed.

Hannah McKittrick – ‘Perfect Struggler’

Places

Hannah: CIBI in Collingwood, Naarm. The line in ‘Perfect Struggler’, “Ollie picked up a glass on Keele St / He said everything here is the perfect weight,” is about my friend’s favourite cafe in Naarm called CIBI. His way of convincing me to go there with him one time was by describing the desirable dimensions of all their cups. I wanted a lyrical reprieve slotted into this heavy song, so mentioning my angel friend here feels so good. Ollie played all the drums and percussion on the album.

My therapist’s office, where I would perch on a large cow print armchair and, per the song ‘Sibling’, “Take down my hair and sink into her time.”

Sights and Smells

Hannah: My friend Bridgette Winten, who took all the photos for this album. My brief for the album cover was, “Small figure in a big landscape,” and she nailed it. She waded out into the incoming tide with mosquitos nipping at her hands while she got these rock photos and I love her.

Hwyl Eau de Parfum by Aesop, which was the perfume my boyfriend wore when I first met him and now my senses equate this smell with feeling vulnerable and spiritual about connection. I wrote ‘Shells’ about him, and how love can sometimes be a portal to a feeling of ease.