Next Wave #1189: Hohnen Ford

When Hohnen Ford’s emotive new EP ‘I Wish I Had A God’ landed on streaming services last week, she took herself on a run and listened to it from start to finish. It felt good for her to revisit the EP since she recorded it. “I felt really proud of the EP. So much has happened in the last eight months since we finished recording, I’ve written a lot of other songs and there are all these other prospects and ideas and avenues to go down and it was really lovely to just go back and listen to it and be like, ‘You know what…Sure, I want to always be growing and challenge myself and writing new things, but I am really proud of this project and it feels like a milestone in so many ways, especially in terms of production and how it came together’. It was refreshing to hear it again in a different context…”

In the deeply personal five-track EP, Hohnen Ford likens herself to being “as weak as a sparrow caught up in a tornado” (on ‘Only Way Out’), which signals to her prowess as a singer-songwriter. She really does have it all. Lyrics which will break your heart combined with the most stunning, skilled vocals. ‘I Wish I Had A God’ finds its strength in not shying away from the pain of the topic of the songs on it, which is grief. These songs are raw to the point where writing them left Hohnen Ford feeling emotionally drained.“ Writing and recording songs can be cathartic. To be honest, more often than not, it’s quite painful… Often when I have written a song I am really proud of and it is really honest, I am just exhausted and, in the long run, there is that catharsis, but in the process of writing it, it can be quite confronting. And challenging, when you’re asking yourself these questions. The process can really help work out how I do feel about things. There is a feeling of a lyric or a melodic line, and it’s like uncovering what that feeling is or what it is you’re trying to say. And, if you want to do that, honestly, it does take some tough questions.”

Hohnen Ford wrote ‘I Wish I Had a God’ in “tribute” to “dear friend, Imogen.” Imogen sadly passed away last year. “That song’s really accompanied me through a lot of my grief and losing her and coming to terms with that. She was a very special person and its been quite a strange thing making art dedicated to someone that you’ve lost and I think there is a lot of power and beauty in it, but also a lot of pain.” Hohnen-Ford describes the feeling as “strange” because grief is a “private thing” but sharing the stories has meant other people can find solace in her songs. “Putting that song out was one of the biggest reliefs and beautiful moments to this EP, because it meant that that song could be more than just the song to me. It could be something to someone else and that was a very heartwarming thing for me.”

Alongside releasing ‘I Wish I Had A God’, Hohnen Ford has been working on Dan Smith (Bastille) on his project, Bastille…Presents ‘&’ (Ampersand’) and has recorded some tracks with him, including ‘Seasons and Narcissus’. On working with Dan, Hohnen Ford says she and her friends have had a very positive experience and sings his praises. “Dan is really amazing. He is a very inspiring guy. For a few reasons. One of them being: he is so genuine and humble and down to Earth and those words can be sort of thrown around, especially around successful people but I can’t stress it enough… He’s just incredibly attentive and curious and thoughtful. Throughout the whole process, he’s treated me and my friends – who have been involved in that project – with such respect which is really inspiring. His new music is beautiful. It was a privilege to be a part of that and be involved as a creative voice as well as just singing backing vocals, it felt that he really held the space for us to bring our own identities which was really cool. Dan is wicked!”

As with most of us, Hohnen Ford’s musical tastes have evolved and expanded throughout her life and she references everyone from Shirley Horn and Nina Simone to Fiona Apple to Dirty Projectors as influences. “I really love this kind of balance between the gritty and the clean. And an artist like Adrianne Lenker also has that where her accompaniment and her guitar playing in her solo stuff is so beautiful and atmospheric, there’s a real softness to it. And there is a grit in her voice that comes through. In the imperfections of her voice. I think that’s magic. Although a lot of those music are different, I think that a thread that goes through them is this kind of bravery in the songwriting and a balance between the grittiness and the jankiness, and then also the beauty. That’s what I really love in music.”

In September, Hohnen Ford will be playing shows in Europe – in Paris, in Hamburg, Amsterdam and Antwerp and Berlin. “It is the first time I will be going and doing some headline shows just on my own, around Europe. Playing live is so important to me. I can’t wait.”

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‘I Wish I Had A God’ EP is out now.

Catch Hohnen Ford supporting Wasia Project at the following shows:

November
10 Leeds Stylus
12 London O2 Forum Kentish Town
13 Manchester Academy 2
14 Glasgow SWG3 (TV Studio)
17 Cardiff Tramshed
18 Bristol SWX
19 Birmingham O2 Academy 2

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Words: Narzra Ahmed
Photo Credit: Caity Krone

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