Singer songwriter Happie Hoffman’s debut EP Heartbreak Season combines her soulful voice and open lyrics. Happie answers five questions about this release and her music.
Are there any particular themes that thread through the lyrics of your new EP?
The themes are all about what it feels like to be navigating love at this particular moment in my life. The EP is called Heartbreak Season, which acknowledges pain but also doesn’t represent sadness to me, but rather the bravery, growth, truth, and excitement of knowing that the kind of love I’m looking for is possible and around the corner. The songs are about what it looks like to move on from a relationship, the thrills and feelings of being independent and single, and what it looks like to continue to learn about myself in this process of opening and reopening to love.
What was the writing and recording process for it?
I co-wrote the EP with a dear friend iRO Music, aka Ori Rakib– a talented songwriter who has worked with Macklemore, Shane McAnally, and won NBC’s Songland songwriting television competition. We wrote the album in the winter, months after I had gone through a break-up and while navigating opening back up to dating. As we wrote, our talented producer Gene Evaro Jr. built out the songs in real-time. We wrote many songs and chose these to paint a picture of what this moment represents and what my music sounds like. Gene and Ori played most of the instruments on the EP, and my dear friend and extremely talented violinist Coleen Dieker played violin on one track.
Ori pushed me to be more honest than I have ever been in my songwriting, which meant really diving into my feelings about some of these past relationships. It was a beautiful process, and the team is like family. This track was remixed by David Block of the Human Experience who I met in Antarctica last March. He fell in love with the song and wanted to do his own version of it that I then also fell in love with. We are calling this version the Summertime Mix.
Can you outline your background in music and what you have done previously?
I have been singing and playing music since my parents put me in piano lessons at four years old. I have always been a performer, and when I was 16, I started teaching music at my Temple in Memphis. I studied classical voice in college and was in a cover band called Happie and the Illinoise in Bloomington, Indiana which taught me a lot about how to lead and work with a band. I was also in a band for six years with my former boyfriend and incredible musician and songwriter Eric Hunker — our band was Eric & Happie, and we released two albums, one that debuted at #11 on the iTunes singer-songwriter charts. For the past 10 years I traveled the world playing music predominantly in spiritual and religious spaces, and this EP represents a new sound and new chapter for me as an artist.
What artists do you admire and why?
I admire John Legend for having one of my favorite voices of all time– what I love about his sound is that it comes from a deeply soulful and honest place. You can feel the emotion in his voice and expression. Though our voices are quite different, the way he emotes musically has definitely had an impact on my style throughout the years.
I also admire The Avett Brothers. They became my favorite band after I saw them perform when I was 16. Their songwriting moves me, and their performances are gritty, honest, and fun.
What are your future plans?
My future plans are to continue writing music that I would want to move to and listen to that is in deep service of helping people feel connected and access emotion. My band is playing the Austin City Limits Music Festival in October right before the release of the rest of the EP, and our plan is to be on a support tour with other musicians we love in early 2023.
