On the titular track of her debut album, Dollface, indie singer-songwriter Hana Bryanne declares, “There's a joke I’ve been dying to tell you.” The recent release is all about finding humour in the absurdity of adolescence. Bryanne thematizes topics such as illness, forgiveness, and hope with the deliberate accompaniment of a punchline. Any subject is fair game on this record, especially ones that promote introspection from her listeners.

Bryanne’s 2020 EP, Holy Ground, chronicled formative experiences that her teenage self had yet to live. Returning three years later with her first full-length record, she offers reflective insights into the root of the emotions she wrote about then. Dollface explores womanhood under patriarchy, with the album’s title deriving from the pseudo-endearing names men inappropriately attribute to young women. Prevailing through her youth as a child of the internet, she has adopted a spiteful yet ultimately optimistic attitude. Her tongue-in-cheek quips point towards an acute self-awareness which makes her writing even more poignant. I had the honour of speaking to Bryanne about Dollface and its examination of the capacity of youthful nerve.

MT: Thank you for taking the time to talk about your music with Demo. Our readers would love to know more about you. When did you begin songwriting and how did you reach the decision to start releasing your music?

‍HB: Music has always been a part of my life; I was a ballet dancer up through college, and I grew up with a lot of music in my house, Bruce Springsteen and classic country and Joni Mitchell especially. I made my first EP Holy Ground when I was still in high school, and I realized the moment I started working on it that it was all I wanted to do for the rest of my life. 

‍MT: How would you describe your music using a lyric from one of your songs?

HB: Probably “I’ve got a good thing going/I've got a body, I’ve got a song.” Those are two things nobody can ever take away from me: my physical body, and my work. That, or “Come on baby try me/I can show you what dramatic is” from “Lake Michigan.” Like Flaubert said, being bourgeois in my daily life so I can be violent and original in my work, etcetera.

MT: What albums/artists were you listening to during the making of Dollface?

HB: Springsteen, always. Patty Griffin’s 1000 Kisses, which came out the year I was born. Ghosts of the Great Highway by Sun Kil Moon. Pinegrove and MUNA and Cassandra Jenkins. 

MT: On TikTok you’ve mentioned that you are a nanny in addition to being a self-proclaimed popstar. Has that experience ever manifested within your writing process?

HB: All the time. I think everybody should have toddlers in their life at all times. They make me curious and attentive in ways I might not be naturally. I think a lot about my mom and about being a woman at my day job, too, which are things I write about a lot. 

‍MT: Your poem “Suzanne at the Wedding” is, of course, the precursor to the track “Susannah at the Wedding,” though an excerpt from it is spoken at the beginning of “Cool Girl Song.” Was there an overlap in writing these two tracks?

HB: That’s cool that you picked up on that; definitely. Both songs are sort of about masking intense pain and frustration with humor and deflection. They’re both about finding your footing: in Susannah, among your family, and among your peers in CGS. The “Suzanne” character is sort of the ultimate cool girl to me: a disaffected Didion type, like an Eve Babitz heroine. 

MT: You’ve shared that Margaret Atwood’s “male fantasies” quote was an inspiration for the title of your album, Dollface. Were there any other literary influences while writing and/or conceptualizing the album? 

HB: Babitz and Didion, as mentioned above. Some Richard Siken in there too I think, mainly because he’s sort of the Tumblr poet laureate and really impacted the way I thought about love when I was a teenager. I love the Beats, and Rilke, and Jenny Slate. I was reading Bluets by Maggie Nelson when I wrote some of the album. That’s in there, too. 

‍MT: You sing the line, “​​I've got a good thing going” in both your 2021 single, “Klepto”, and in “Dollface (Reprise)” on your recent album. Has the significance of this affirmation changed between these years?

HB: In “Klepto,” it felt sarcastic and disdainful. That voice is very “me against the world.” In “Dollface Reprise" I really mean it. I do have a good thing going. I’m very lucky in my work and in my friendships. When you’re young, it’s easy and sometimes crucial to narrativize your life in order to survive the terrible things that are happening to you. It serves as a defense mechanism to be like, “well my life is hard and this person doesn’t care about me and I have this illness and this problem and that’s never gonna go away and that’s that. This is the way it is.” Growing up is about dropping that, I think. [It’s] about being willing to see things as they are, which, yes, sometimes is scary and ugly and sad. But sometimes it’s not. You don’t always have to be bracing for the other shoe to drop. Nobody’s keeping track of shoes. 

MT: Demo is based in Toronto. Can our readers hope to see you perform in the city in the upcoming future?

HB: I would love to play in Toronto! No plans as of now, but I’ll keep you posted. 

Having explored these themes on Dollface through the lens of her past, Bryanne prepares to look to the present on her latest single “Jesus or Harrison Ford,” continuing to explore gender dynamics in her current romantic endeavours. This single is the first on her upcoming country-inspired project and a glimpse at what listeners can look forward to.